Freedom loving Wisconsin voters know we have an election integrity problem. This widespread awareness is a huge development since our last general election and is setting the stage for the massive, disruptive overhaul of our political system that will be required to break the stranglehold both political parties, the corrupt media, and the pollsters have on the political process. The will of the people of Wisconsin is being thwarted by cheating and manipulation. We will not go quietly into the night this time around.
All across Wisconsin, citizens are on the offense. They have responded to learning of election system flaws with determination and persistence. Legislators are being inundated by constituents demanding they purge the millions of ineligible voter names maintained on the registered voter lists by the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC). Wisconsin elections are not verifiable as long as there is a vast pool of ineligible names available to sophisticated hackers. To date, they have ignored the people they work for. Responsibility for inaction rests squarely at the feet of Robin Vos and Devin LeMahieu, leaders of the legislative chambers. Arrogance and unresponsiveness will soon collide with accountability.
Formal citizen action has been initiated against WEC for ignoring their legal obligations to ensure that non-citizens who have been issued driver’s licenses or state IDs by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) do not make it onto the registered voter lists. Many citizens have heeded the call to become poll workers and poll watchers and are attending training throughout the state. Many voters are newly aware that the voting machine testing that is required in every municipality within weeks of any election must be open to the public and attendance is growing.
Cheaters are already hard at work. The August 13 Republican primary has been corrupted by dark money. Dark money is funding used to influence elections. It’s called dark because the donor is not required by law to be identified. Not-for-profit organizations and shell companies are often conduits for dark money. “Dark” is an apt name, not only for donor anonymity, but also for the lies that are often spread through this method.
On August 5, a press conference was held in Green Bay to inform the public of this dirty scheme to rob voters of real, honest choice in the election. County level Republican Party leaders and candidates who are challenging incumbents in their districts spoke. The candidates are motivated to fight the corruption in the system and are eager to act with the character and conviction that are lacking. This has made them a target of those who will stop at nothing to maintain the status quo.
The group laid out how Robin Vos wields power within the state Republican party to keep legislators in line. He uses money from the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee (RACC) to hand pick candidates who will march in lock step and to destroy those who buck the system to do what their constituents elected them to do. “Unity,” according to the speakers, means get behind what we tell you or else. The Republican Party of Wisconsin says it doesn’t involve itself in primary elections but the dark money links to the Republican Party of Wisconsin and Robin Vos expose that lie.
All of the candidates who spoke on August 5 are targets of smear campaigns. A group that calls itself The Stronger Wisconsin Fund has spent more than $400,000 sending mailers that spread lies and slander candidates who are independent thinkers to confuse the voters. Sincerity, integrity, and respect for different ideas have been replaced by character assassination within the Republican Party.
Dark money funds are hard to track. The Stronger Wisconsin Fund lists a business address in Eau Claire but when traced it has no account or mailbox at that address. Further digging leads to a Limited Liability Corporation in Kentucky. The website strongerwisconsin.org., which is identified as the domain of this group, could not be accessed when I tried. The exposure of their dirty tactics in Wisconsin may have sent them underground.
We do know this. The mailers that are going out in support of Vos’s hand-picked candidates and slandering those who have challenged them are being mailed using the bulk mail permit of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. If the Party did not involve itself in picking winners and losers, it would allow all candidates the same access to Party resources.
One County official at the press conference had it exactly right when he said the Party’s greatest enemy is within its ranks. Robin Vos. Vos hides behind the label of Republican and uses the RACC fund to hand pick candidates who he will be able to manipulate. The Republicans have a super majority in the senate and are one vote shy in the Assembly, yet the will of the people is routinely ignored.
I first learned about dark money when I ran as an Independent candidate for governor in 2022. I dropped out of the race in September and threw all of my support behind Tim Michels, the Republican candidate. Immediately, the dark money flowed into our state. More than $1 million was spent on flyers and other advertising trying to deceive conservative voters into voting for me as the true conservative. Calling themselves names like “Wisconsin RINO Hunters” or “Life and Liberty,” these groups were working to get Tony Evers, the Democrat, reelected. Dark money is rotten to the core. Using it to destroy candidates within the same party and deprive the voters of free and fair elections takes it to a new low.
It’s no surprise that the media in attendance at the press conference had no questions and their coverage of the dark money hit job has been almost nonexistent. Their persistent shunning of their responsibility to chase the truth and their own corruption make them our greatest threat to freedom.
Robin Vos and Devin LeMahieu have to go. Brian Schimming and Andrew Iverson, leaders of the state Republican Party have to go. The many legislators who have neither the character nor the courage to represent the will of the people have to go.
James Tesauro, Vice Chair of the Sheboygan County Republican Party, could not have said it better when he closed the press conference. “Get in the faces of your representatives and tell them to do their damn jobs or we’ll replace them.”
