Thread by @itstruenorth

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) is targeting the Wisconsin Supreme Court through attack ads branded “WMC IMC,” which stands for “Issue Mobilization Council” but whose voice is it really throwing? truenorthresearch.org/2023/02/the-se… #wipolitics #SCOWIS

🧵

What is WMC IMC?

It’s the political/issue ad arm of WMC. It’s spending at least $250K so far to influence who gets a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court by attacking Judge Janet Protasiewicz, who’s been on the Milwaukee Circuit Court since 2014.

jsonline.com/story/news/pol…

But what is WMC IMC really? Well, it’s definitely not funded by the pooled resources representing the voices of many thousands of service workers, teachers, and others in Wisconsin. WMC IMC is a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) that keeps its corporate funders secret.

In prior elections, WMC IMC or what we call WMC/hydra has accepted big money from secret donor conduits based in Washington, DC, such as:

👉The “Judicial Crisis Network”/JCN
👉The Wellspring Committee
👉Both of which are tied to right-wing court packer Leonard Leo.

JCN is core to Leonard Leo’s court capture network that has helped install a right-wing faction on the U.S. Supreme Court, including Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, & Amy Coney Barrett, who voted last year to overturn Roe + limit the EPA’s power to mitigate climate change.

In 2019, the Washington Post tallied Leonard Leo’s network to capture the U.S. Supreme Court, other courts, and changes in law and policy at more than $250 million. We updated that to nearly $600 million through 2020, but now we know it’s even bigger.

washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/…

Last year, news broke that in 2020 a secretive Chicago billionaire in Chicago, named Barre Seid who had long ties to Leonard Leo, gave Leo control of a trust with more than one billion dollars in assets to spend to reshape American courts and law toward the right-wing.

Did Barre Seid fund JCN, Wellspring, WI Club for Growth, WMC/hydra or any number of right-wing dark money efforts to influence Wisconsin elections or policies over the years? It’s secret, but Leo’s dark influence machine is huge.

Notably, a WMC/hydra funder, the Wellspring Committee, folded in 2019 after getting attention for being the biggest single donor to JCN with its court packing role. Its leaders included Ann & Neil Corkery, long-time anti-gay + anti-choice money movers.
opensecrets.org/news/2013/11/w…

Now what? The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign tallied that WMC has spent at least $27 million from secret sources to influence Wisconsin’s Supreme Court elections and more since 2010, that helped secure and maintain a 4-3 right-wing dominated court.

wisdc.org/interest-group…

The results of that 4-3 right-wing domination? Rulings that require the “least change” from WI's grossly disproportionate legislative districts micro-targeted by the GOP to secure their minority rule even though Democrats can win statewide races.

legis.wisconsin.gov/assembly/78/su…

Right-wing domination of the Court resulted in absentee ballot boxes being declared illegal, as urged by the Leo-tied "Honest Elections Project,” approval of Walker’s Act 10 assault on public employee unions, & other rulings that hurt Wisconsinites.

democracydocket.com/analysis/debun…

Under the Court’s WMC/hydra-written rule that campaign spending by a party did not itself require recusal, the Court killed a bipartisan criminal probe into dark money groups whose spending had helped Gableman and Prosser win.

prwatch.org/news/2016/06/1…

O’Keefe helped orchestrate opposition to that criminal probe & now WMC/hydra is running an attack ad in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race that duplicates the attack ad of the O’Keefe-tied dark money group called “WAR” that was created after that ruling.

urbanmilwaukee.com/2014/02/13/mur…

To be clear, no matter the Court’s much criticized ruling in John Doe to change the long-standing rules in Wisconsin, the ties between O’Keefe and WMC/hydra go back years in their efforts to influence Wisconsin’s elections with the help of big secret funders.

But wait, there’s one more thing you should know about WMC & who it really represents. When its leader Kurt Bauer was told by Luntz polling that most CEOs support paid sick leave & raising the min. wage, which WMC has opposed, he did not change positions.

prwatch.org/news/2016/03/1…

So whose voice(s) is WMC/hydra really throwing to influence the Wisconsin Supreme Court race? Is it right-wing billionaires like Barre Seid or Diane Hendricks? Is it a divide and conquer strategy with Dick Uihlein? Learn more about WMC in our new report:
truenorthresearch.org/2023/02/the-se…

unroll @threadreaderapp