Another sad record of campaign spending

The short list of life’s certainties looks to be growing a bit. Death, taxes, and record spending on nasty political ads. Lots of money was thrown at Wisconsin’s last election. It was, predictably, a new record for campaign spending in Wisconsin’s statewide races. Outside interest groups poured $93 million into Wisconsin’s statewide races in advance of the November election. Not only is it a new record for campaign spending, it wasn’t even close. That is a fifty percent increase from the 2018 midterm elections. Spending by outside interest groups has increased five-fold just from 2010. Noticing a trend? Every time we have an election, more and more money is thrown at trying to persuade you how to vote. These figures don’t include what was spent by the candidates themselves, which in the race for Governor totaled nearly $70 million. The figures don’t include what was spent by dark money groups, typically the biggest mudslingers, because they don’t tell you specifically who to vote for and don’t have to report their spending. It just seems like such a waste. All that money, and how many minds did it really change? But all along the way we were subjected to one nasty ad after another. It seems there are no limits, and spending totals keep going up. How high can it go? If history is any guide, we’ll find out in the next election.