There Will Be Picketing at the Office of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC)

There will be an informational picket at WMC headquarters, 501 E. Washington Avenue, Wednesday morning from 8:00am until 10:30am to coincide with their hosting a meeting designed to raise money to influence the Supreme Court race.

WMC is certainly the most influential lobbying organization in our state. It claims over 4,000 member businesses—and they make the biggest contributions, indirectly, to politicians’ campaigns through their issue ads they purchase at election time.

WMC, through its Issues Committee, has played a prominent role in a number of state-wide elections including the last campaigns for Governor, Attorney General, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court.  It does this by soliciting funds and then purchasing issues ads which do not support a specific candidate but which attack the candidate WMC opposes.

While WMC does not have to reveal its contributors, television stations are required to make public ad purchases. Last July the Democracy Campaign estimated that WMC spent $2.2 million on television and other advertising in an effort to defeat Annette Ziegler’s opponent in the Supreme Court race. (The Capital Times, July 24, 2007). Ziegler was subsequently found to have ruled in cases where she had a conflict of interest and now faces discipline from her colleagues on the Supreme Court.

Today WMC is hosting a seminar designed to enlist opposition to the candidacy of Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler.  It is estimated that WMC will attempt to raise between $2 and $4 million in an effort to defeat the distinguished jurist, Justice Butler. Those picketing today are making it clear that the people’s Wisconsin Supreme Court is not for sale.

Members of labor and professional organizations are opposed to these efforts. We do not have the legal means to find out which WMC members fund these attack ads. But we do have access to the WMC board of directors and can identify the people who are responsible for the decisions to raise the money and to buy the advertising.

We cannot name the individuals and corporations that contribute to the WMC Issues fund; that information is not available to the public. Only WMC can tell you who contributes to their political advertising. But today we identify just a handful of the companies that are represented on the WMC board.  They include Ariens Company, The Greenheck Fan Corporation, Marshall & Ilsley Corporation, InSinkErator Division, and The Manitowoc Company, Inc.

The board members from these companies have the power to either stop the ads or at least reveal who pays for them. If you want to see who makes up the entire WMC board simply look at their website.

The specific companies named were selected for one reason. They either refused or ignored my request to meet for the purpose of discussing these issues. Some of the companies will deflect their participation by saying they do not contribute money to the WMC Issues Committee and they do not pay for the ads. That may be true but it misses the point. 

Portions of the money may come from out of state corporate giants, or not. But WMC controls the issue ads.

Comments

[Mary Jones]

It looks like the Gabelman campaign is running a deliberate strategy of just letting WMC run all their ads this time around. Gabelman is not raising enough money to be on tv at the end of this race. He doesn't even have enough for a week of Milwaukee television. These campaigns have gotten so bad that Gabelman can just turn over the entire media operation to outside special interests. If WMC really won't run any ads in support of Gabelman, then will the entire ad barrage just be a negative attack on Louis Butler?

[Laura C]

You got excellent coverage on Lee Rayburn this morning. Thanks to all who showed up for this and I am glad to know who is on the Board.

[Alex Saloutos]

If you can provide the mailing addresses and emails for WMC's board members it would be helpful. While I'm not a major customer, I do business with a couple of these companies. I think what WMC did in the last supreme court race is disgusting. I will write them and share my feelings. It will be a factor in future business decisions I make.

Alex

[goofticket]

Laura C and Alex,
This is all the information that the WMC provides for it's Directors.
I suppose that is to avoid actual contact with the public.

I can only suggest that you "Google" the company and get contact info, directly from the company's website.

A nice campaign, of 'outing' these people; and how WMC conflicts with thier own corporate policies might provide attention to such conflicts.

Consumers and suppliers do have a great deal of power, over these 'titan's who think nobody knows what they are doing.

Welcome to the internet, Misters Ziemer, Jadin, Airens, Bemis and Boldt and the rest of you scoundrels.

[Paul]

My apologies to those of you who sent in comments that identified the board members of WMC. What we are doing is a staged escalation 'outing' them. There are three categories. Those who met with us, those who refused or ignored the meeting request, and those we have not yet contacted.

At this point we are only focusing on those we contaced but would not meet. The other shoe will drop eventually. The WMC board membera are available on the WMC wesbsite as goofticket demonstrated. And I do hope people contact them to tell them the displeasure with thier company's complicity in the issue ads.

I have saved the comments you sent in and wlil probably republish them at a later time. But I know that at leat two of the names singled out in one of the posts have reservations about what WMC is doing and I think it best to give them some room to manuever and try to change the minds of thier colleagues.