Maybe you should head back over to the Free Republic? Jesus, dude.
Back on planet earth, Walker’s margin is down to 9, I guess the 16% was just a early returns thing.
Exit polls. Really interesting that the split on the collective bargaining was only 51%-48% Walker, yet Walker won by a significant percentage more.
Not particularly. Total spending was ~$63 million, union spending was something like 2-3 million. For comparision Koch personally shelled out 1 million.
When Citizens United came down, it didn’t just nullify Wisconsin’s 1905 ban on corporate campaign cash, it also plunged much of the state’s campaign finance reporting into darkness.
“Because corporate and labor expenditures were previously illegal, there were no disclosure laws to regulate their spending,” said McCabe. “There’s been a precipitous drop off in transparency.”
Since Citizens United, Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board requires independent expenditure groups to register as so-called “1.91 groups,” named for the state rule that created them. Of the more than $63 million spent in the race, $22 million has come from these groups — $16.3 million of it from Walker supporters — according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
Similar to federal super PACs, 1.91 groups can raise and spend unlimited corporate or union dollars and urge voters to support or oppose a candidate. Also, like federal super PACs, they must report their donors — except when they can avoid it.
The Republican Governors Association has spent roughly $4 million on campaign ads through its Right Direction Wisconsin PAC since April 23. But because the RGA’s PAC is based out-of-state, it only has to disclose to state regulators its donations coming from inside Wisconsin, a glaring loophole.
Of its most recent $4 million outlay, the RGA raised only a little over $7,000 from inside the state.
In general the Democrats and Republicans overall stay about at parity on fundraising, but in this specific case it looks like the Democrats got buried.
