One of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce’s most notable tactics is the use of issue advertisements to advance a conservative agenda, including identifying progressive legislators and candidates with policies it believes are unpopular with voters.

In the past dozen years, WMC has spent an estimated $10.million in issue ads and communications. Some of its most notable expenditures were attack ads of the opponents of now-Supreme Court Justices Mike Gableman and Annette Ziegler helping create a conservative Supreme Court, as well as attacks against Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and Democrats vying for seats in the state Senate and Assembly. Attacking fair taxation, health care reform, supporting the nonsensical “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” and opposing the needed Employee Free Choice Act are additional targets of its issue campaigns.

For more detailed analysis of WMC's issue ad campaigns by year, visit the Campaigns section.