The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC) is an advocacy group largely focused on campaign finance, redistricting, lobbying, and other election-related systems in Wisconsin. ^{1 2} Created and originally operated as a nonpartisan watchdog group, the WDC has shifted leftward over time, becoming notably left-of-center after the 2010 elections gave the Republican Party control of Wisconsin state government. ^{3 4 1}

History and Leadership

The WDC was founded in 1995 as a nonpartisan entity by Gail Shea, a former administrator of the Wisconsin State Election Board who “was disgusted by the collusion of both political parties in thwarting the enforcement of the campaign finance law.” ¹ Under Shea’s executive directorship, the WDC was active in exposing corruption by elected officials of both major parties and advocating for transparency and accountability measures that would impact both parties equally. ⁴

The group’s leftward shift began under Shea’s successor Mike McCabe, who had held roles with Democratic Party-aligned organizations and served as a legislative aide for Republican state legislators. ⁵ While the WDC continued to promote broad transparency and accountability measures after McCabe took over in 2001, it began consistently focusing its attacks on Republicans after the 2010 elections, which saw the election of former Governor Scott Walker (R) and the seating of Republican majorities in both houses of the state legislature. ³

Support for John Doe Investigations

Under McCabe, the WDC defended the 2014 investigations by then-Milwaukee County district attorney John Chisholm (D) that used “John Doe” warrants to attempt to uncover evidence of coordination between Walker’s campaign and independent right-of-center advocacy organizations. ⁴ The investigation included early-morning SWAT-style raids of individuals’ homes, along with gag orders that prohibited the targets of the investigation from publicly speaking about the raids or the investigation, even to their attorneys. ⁶

In 2015, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ended the investigations, finding both that the state’s prohibition against unofficial coordination between campaigns and advocacy organizations was “unconstitutionally overbroad and vague under the First Amendment” and that the prosecutor’s actions were “unsupported in either reason or law.” ⁷

The WDC’s reaction to the Court’s decisions shutting down the “John Doe” investigations was so extreme that in a 2017 law school lecture, then-Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack publicly criticized the WDC’s statement calling the court “corrupt, rigged and renegade” as an example of rhetoric that harmed the “institutional legitimacy” of the state’s courts. ⁸

Acceleration of Leftward Shift

In 2015, McCabe left the WDC to focus on a political career that would culminate in an unsuccessful run for Wisconsin Governor as a Democrat in 2018. ⁵ To replace him, the WDC’s board selected Matthew Rothschild, a longtime left-wing journalist and commentator who had spent the previous two decades as the editor and publisher of the left-wing magazine The Progressive. ⁹  

Under Rothschild, the WDC became an even more constant and vocal critic of then-Governor Scott Walker and the Republican leaders of the state legislature, claiming “Not since the days of the Robber Barons in the 19th century has one party in Wisconsin done so much damage to the common good while serving special private interests.” ^{10 4}

In 2016, the WDC filed complaints with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), alleging that the Wisconsin chapter of the right-of-center group Club for Growth had violated its nonprofit status by engaging in electioneering on Walker’s behalf. The WDC describes this complaint as “siccing the IRS on Wisconsin Club for Growth.” ⁴ The Wisconsin Club for Growth, in turn, alleged that the complaint was connected to what it contended were illegal coordination efforts between Democratic Party prosecutors in Wisconsin and IRS official Lois Lerner, whose tenure as director off the Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS was marked by what an IRS Inspector General’s report characterized as “inappropriate targeting” of right-of-center nonprofit organizations. ^{11 12}

“Walker’s Worst 100” list

In 2016, WDC published a list of what it identified as the worst 100 laws signed by Walker titled, “Walker’s Worst 100: A Chronicle of the Assault on Democracy in Wisconsin.” ¹⁰

The list demonstrated WDC’s shift from being a broadly nonpartisan, pro-transparency organization to one that would take more explicit left-of-center positions on issues unrelated to its traditional mission. In assembling its “worst laws” list, the WDC took left-of-center positions on issues including consumer protection, the environment, disability rights, immigrant rights, justice and the courts, labor, local control, public education, safety net programs, taxes, firearms rights, and abortion. ¹⁰

First Trump Administration

In 2017, the Wisconsin Democracy Project launched a project to portray President Donald Trump as “fascist.” ¹³ As part of this, WDC executive director Matthew Rothschild published a series of columns between 2017 and 2019 with titles such as, “The fascist overtones in Trump’s inaugural address,” “Trump and the road to fascism,” “Trump, the fascist?” and “Trump’s in touch with his inner fascist.” ¹³

Transparency Failures

In 2023, Rothschild was replaced as WDC’s executive director by Democratic operative Nick Ramos, who had been the voter ID coalition manager at left-of-center voter participation group VoteRiders and an election activist for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. ¹⁴

The WDC’s own long-time commitment to transparency in its operations and funding suffered under Ramos. Since 2005, it had posted its annual reports on its website, but as of June 2025 the 2023 and 2024 annual reports were not available. ² Additionally, the “Who We Are” and “Staff Biographies” pages on its website were nonfunctional, and it had not updated its “Our Donors” and “Our Funders” pages since 2022. ²

Board Members

As of 2023, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign’s board president was Abby Swetz, the executive director of left-of-center LGBT advocacy group Fair Wisconsin. ^{15 16} Other board members include Erin Grunze, the project manager for the Wisconsin affiliate of the left-of-center advocacy group Common Cause, ¹⁷ and Beauregard Patterson, counsel for the left-of-center litigation and election policy group Fair Elections Center. ¹⁸

Policy Positions

Democratic Advocacy

The Wisconsin Democracy Project’s primary focus is on Wisconsin’s elections, where it broadly promotes left-of-center and generally pro-Democratic Party policies. ⁴ It has been involved in efforts to redraw state legislative district maps to be more advantageous to the Democratic Party, weaken election integrity systems to increase voter participation, limit the size and scope of campaign donations, prohibit third-party advocacy for or against candidates, and promote public funding of elections. ^{19 4}

Campaign Finance

Even with its leftward shift, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign does still criticize Democratic Party-aligned organizations that it identifies as having violated election laws. In 2021, the WDC accused four political groups of accepting donations that exceeded the state’s cap on campaign donations. ²⁰ The Wisconsin Democratic Party, Assembly Campaign Committee, Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, and Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee all disputed the WDC’s accusations. ²⁰

Since 1996, WDC has operated an independent database of political donations in Wisconsin. ²¹

Opposition to Citizens United

One of WDC’s most important policy priorities is the overturning of the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which overturned federal election laws that banned for-profit and not-for-profit corporations and unions from paying for ads or other broadcasts mentioning candidates in the run-up to elections. ²² The decision clarified that individuals retain their First Amendment rights to free speech even when acting together in a corporate form, with Justice Anthony Kennedy explaining, “If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” ²²

The WDC echoes the broad left-of-center rhetoric that the Citizens United decision said that “corporations are people” and opened the floodgates for corporations to “buy elections.” ²³ It supports a constitutional amendment to overturn the ruling. ²³

Elon Musk Lawsuit

In June 2025, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign sued Elon Musk and his affiliated political action committees America PAC and United States of America, Inc. for what they described as “a brazen scheme to bribe Wisconsin citizens to vote” related to Musk’s unsuccessful attempts to influence the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court election. ²⁴

The suit alleged that Musk’s efforts to increase voter turnout by paying $100 to voters who signed a petition against “activist judges” and offering $1 million checks to randomly selected attendees at an event limited to individuals who had voted in the Supreme Court election violated Wisconsin’s election laws. ²⁴

Funding

On its website, WDC discloses that it has received funding from Astor Street Foundation Inc. (Brico Fund), Brookby Foundation, Brown Family Foundation, Center for Artistic Activism, Evjue Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Hopewell Fund, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin (LWV-WI), Movement Voter Project (MVP), Proteus Fund, SEIU Wisconsin State Council, and State Voices. ²⁵

WDC has also received funding in the past from the Foundation to Promote Open Society associated with billionaire George Soros, which contributed $75,000 to WDC in 2009. ²⁶ Then-WDC executive director Mike McCabe publicly defended accepting the grants from Soros’s group in an appearance before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2009. ²⁷

The largest individual donors disclosed by WDC include Richard Mazess, a former University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who parlayed his research patents into a successful medical device manufacturer that was purchased by General Electric in 2020, and major Democratic donors Sage Weil and Elise Lawson. ^{28 29 30}

1. “History.” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://www.wisdc.org/about-us/history.
2. “Home.” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://www.wisdc.org/.
3. Wisconsin State Legislature – Ballotpedia. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_State_Legislature.
4. “Major Accomplishments.” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://www.wisdc.org/about-us/major-accomplishments.
5. “Meet Mike.” Mike McCabe for Governor (accessed via Wayback Machine), 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180802144012/http://www.governorbluejeans.com/about_mike_mccabe_for_governor.
6. Will, George  F. “The Nastiest Political Tactic This Year.” The Washington Post, October 24, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-in-wisconsin-done-in-by-john-doe/2014/10/24/b30ee2ec-5ad8-11e4-b812-38518ae74c67_story.html
7. “Case No. 2013AP296-OA & 2014AP417-W through 2014AP421-W & 2013AP2504-W through 2013AP2508-W.” Wisconsin Supreme Court, July 16, 2015. https://www.wicourts.gov/sc/opinion/DisplayDocument.html?content=html&seqNo=144526.
8. Glauber, Bill. “Roggensack Hits Peers’ ‘tough Talk’ with Her Own.” Journal Sentinel, March 8, 2017. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/08/roggensack-hits-peers-tough-talk-her-own/98881058/.
9. Opoien, Jessie. “Former ‘progressive’ Editor Matt Rothschild to Head Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.” The Cap Times, December 11, 2014. https://captimes.com/news/local/writers/jessie-opoien/former-progressive-editor-matt-rothschild-to-head-wisconsin-democracy-campaign/article_237836bc-65f4-5d99-b395-04a966fb863f.html.
10. “Walker’s Worst 100.” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, April 26, 2016. https://www.wisdc.org/news/13-special-reports/5365-walker-s-worst-100.
11. “Report: Inappropriate Criteria Were Used to Identify Tax-Exempt Applications for Review.” Report Number 2013-10-053. Treasury Inspector General For Tax Administration. May 14, 2013. Accessed September 26, 2018. https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/auditreports/2013reports/201310053fr.pdf
12. Marley, Patrick, and Jason Stein. “Club for Growth Renews Complaints of GAB-IRS Ties.” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, November 20, 2015. http://archive.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/club-for-growth-renews-complaints-of-gab-irs-ties-b99620205z1-352246121.html/.
13. “Fascism.” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, February 27, 2017. https://www.wisdc.org/news/trump-and-fascism.
14. “Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Announces Nick Ramos as Executive Director.” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, August 3, 2023. https://www.wisdc.org/news/press-releases/139-press-release-2023/7393-wisconsin-democracy-campaign-announces-nick-ramos-as-executive-director.
15. “Staff.” Fair Wisconsin. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://fairwisconsin.com/about-fair-wisconsin/fair-wisconsin-staff/.
16. “Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Inc.” ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/391911104.
17. “About Us.” Common Cause Wisconsin. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://www.commoncausewisconsin.org/p/about-us.html.
18. “Beauregard Patterson.” Fair Elections Center. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://fairelectionscenter.org/staff/beauregard-patterson/.
19. “Reforms.” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://www.wisdc.org/reforms/118-redistricting/3624-redistricting-resources.
20. Vetterkind, Riley. “Republican, Democratic Groups Dispute Claims They Violated Campaign Finance Limits.” Wisconsin State Journal, March 3, 2021. https://madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/republican-democratic-groups-dispute-claims-they-violated-campaign-finance-limits/article_5527eee8-b2d0-5085-9036-d67e697d8662.html.
21. “Follow the Money.” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://www.wisdc.org/follow-the-money.
22. “Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.” Ballotpedia. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://ballotpedia.org/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission.
23. “Overturn Citizens United.” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://www.wisdc.org/help-overturn-citizens-united.
24. Kremer, Rich. “Campaign Finance Watchdog Sues Elon Musk, Accuses Him of Election Bribery Ahead of April Supreme Court Election.” WPR, June 11, 2025. https://www.wpr.org/news/wisconsin-democracy-campaign-sues-elon-musk-election-bribery-supreme-court.
25. “Our Funders.” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, December 5, 2022. https://www.wisdc.org/about-us/our-funders.
26. Foundation to Promote Open Society, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2009, Part XV, Attachment 13.
27. Bice, Daniel. “Liberal billionaire helping fund media groups in Wisconsin.” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, August 14, 2011. http://archive.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/127706658.html/
28. “GE Cuts Deal to Acquire Lunar.” Diagnostic Imaging, November 13, 2020. https://www.diagnosticimaging.com/view/ge-cuts-deal-acquire-lunar.
29. Bice, Daniel. “Wisconsin Democrats Ride Anti-Trump Fervor to Record Fundraising.” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, October 28, 2020. https://eu.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/daniel-bice/2020/10/28/wisconsin-democrats-ride-anti-trump-fervor-record-fundraising/3745454001/.
30. “Our Donors.” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Accessed June 23, 2025. https://www.wisdc.org/about-us/our-donors.