Right-Wing Special Interests Drop Big Bucks on TV to Prop Up Gov. Walker, Again

MADISON, Wis. — With a statewide public opinion poll released last week showing Gov. Walker tied with his Democratic opponent in the lead up to the November elections, Walker’s right-wing allies are again taking to the airwaves to boost his sagging electoral fortunes. Media reports quote a spokesperson for the notorious right-wing Koch brothers subsidized Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF), a tax deductible non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, saying the group will spend at least $866,000 on media, including television and radio ads in the coming weeks.

“Poll after poll shows that Wisconsin voters are fed up with Gov. Walker’s record of corruption, cronyism and incompetence,” said One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross. “Gov. Walker’s Tea Party and corporate allies are hitting the panic button because their great hope for the White House is looking more like he’ll be the first one-term governor in Wisconsin in 30 years.”

According to media reports, the ads do not specifically mention Gov. Walker by name, but praise his budget policies by declaring they are “working.” The ads appear to be written as praising Walker’s policies but not mentioning his name so the Koch brothers and other funders of AFPF can get a tax deduction for their contributions to support the media buy. Among the other supporters of AFPF is the Milwaukee based Bradley Foundation, headed by Gov. Walker’s campaign co-chair Michael Grebe.

In recent months the state big business lobby, the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, spent $1 million on media, including television, in late 2013. The Republican Governors Association has spent $2 million thus far in 2014. Despite the early media ad blitz for Walker, statewide polling has consistently found less than 50 percent of those surveyed support his re-election.

Ross concluded, “It’s tough to decide what’s more outrageous — that Gov. Walker’s corporate and Tea Party cronies are telling us that the policies that have put Wisconsin nearly dead last in the Midwest on jobs are working, or that they’re getting a tax deduction for doing it.”