We're now a little over a month away from the Wisconsin spring election, and one of the big races is a seat on the state Supreme Court.
Currently, the court has a liberal majority, which puts many conservative gains made in the 2010s at risk, including concealed carry, school choice, and Act 10. Act 10 was Scott Walker's public sector union-busting legislation that saved the state from bankruptcy. In December, a Dane County judge ruled Act 10 was unconstitutional (14 years after it passed).
Conservatives have a chance to flip the balance of the court again, but not if the Left engages in their usual shenanigans. And it seems they are.
Milwaukee area radio host Dan O'Donnell reports a Left-wing group is potentially engaging in election bribery by offering voters money to bring family and friends to the polls to vote for the Left-wing progressive justice.
EXCLUSIVE: A left-wing advocacy group is potentially committing election bribery by paying liberals for each friend and family they get to vote for George Soros-backed candidate Susan Crawford in this April's Wisconsin Supreme Court election. pic.twitter.com/pV6uqYP6vN
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 23, 2025
What is the 'Wisconsin Neighbor Network Action Fund'? Well:
The “Wisconsin Neighbor Network Action Fund” was created February 14 and is actually a subsidiary of the Empower Project, a far-left dark money group funded by a huge number of liberal groups and labor unions. https://t.co/CgOpLqT1dd pic.twitter.com/EGSjiAAa0V
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 23, 2025
Ah, unions.
On its website, Empower says it helps “progressive organizations…boost voter turnout, especially for BIPOC communities, through our approach of tapping into personal networks of friends and family.” https://t.co/G29qxFlTjG
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 23, 2025
By paying people to go vote.
It works this way: People who respond to the text from the “Wisconsin Neighbor Network Action Fund” must download the Empower app and then load it with names and contact information of 75 of their contacts (which Empower then apparently keeps and uses for future contacts).
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 23, 2025
Seems more than shady.
Once the names are loaded, Empower users are paid each time they contact a person in their list and tell them to vote for Crawford—first ahead of the mail-in voting period, then before in-person early voting, then the day before Election Day on April 1, then on Election Day.
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 23, 2025
This is so wrong.
Empower users are paid $1 per voter contact in gift cards from various online retailers that are emailed to them after the election. Empower then uses Wisconsin's public voter database to check the people the users contacted to determine whether they voted.
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 23, 2025
Absolutely Orwellian.
This potentially violates Wisconsin law, which makes it illegal for “any elector or…any other person” to give “anything of value…to, or for, any elector, or to or for any other person, in order to induce [them] to…vote or refrain from voting."https://t.co/zL4NiQlqs6 pic.twitter.com/mT96VcukEB
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 23, 2025
If Republicans were doing this, Democrats would be in court suing them, and some prosecutors would be filing charges.
Empower is attempting to skirt this law by claiming that it is merely paying its users to remind their friends and family members to vote, but it is obvious from the way its system is set up that Empower is really paying users per person they induce to vote for Susan Crawford.
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 23, 2025
It's as plain as day what the goal is here.
This is the second straight Wisconsin Supreme Court election that Empower has run this potential election bribery operation. In 2023, it used the identical scheme to get left-wing judge Janet Protasiewicz elected. https://t.co/4jVE4rkHiz
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 23, 2025
Yes, it is.
The only difference is that then Empower called its organizing group “Wisconsin Takes Action,” not “Wisconsin Neighbor Network Action Fund.” Other than that, it's the exact same scheme.
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 23, 2025
Totally not shady. Not at all.
I reported exclusively on this in February 2023 and obtained audio of one of the Empower Project’s training calls in which organizers confirmed that the goal of their effort was not merely to “talk to friends and family about voting,” but to get a liberal candidate elected. pic.twitter.com/A3IOYRqDK1
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 23, 2025
There it is, in their own words.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin filed an ethics complaint against the organization in 2023, but now it is back running an identical effort that again seems to violate the state’s election bribery statute.
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 23, 2025
An ethics complaint is not enough. They must be stopped.
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