Frederica Freyberg:

Fundraising is key to any campaign. Before the August 14th primary, there will be one more round of financial disclosure statements from each of the candidates. Tracking that money trail gives you insights into where the money is coming from: individual donors, corporations, outside interests or all of the above. Let’s take a look at the numbers on the republican side between January of 2018 and June 30, Scott Walker has raised about $5.4 million. The number in parenthesis, $5.9 million, is the cash he has on hand. Robert Meyer raised $270 and has $10 cash on hand.

On the democratic side of the ticket, between January and June 30, Kelda Roys brought in the most money, raising about $677,000. Next is Mahlon Mitchell with more than $523,000. Tony Evers raised just over $493,000 and Matt Flynn raised $337,000. Now there’s a big gap in funding between the top four and bottom four with Mike McCabe at close to $156,000, followed by Paul Soglin, Kathleen Vinehout and Josh Pade. Again, these numbers do not reflect the last financial reports due out just before the primary.

Shawn Johnson:

Wisconsin Public Radio’s Laurel White has been following each candidate and joins us again to talk about the funding for these campaigns.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the bottom line, right, is that Scott Walker’s campaign cash dwarfs everybody else.

Shawn Johnson:

It really does. Even if you look at the democratic primary as a group, and you add up all the money they raised from January to June 30, Scott Walker raised more. He had a lot to work with. He spent a lot more than they have. He’s been on the air pretty consistently running ads. That is the benefit to him of having this big, crowded democratic primary. The money for democrats has been spread thin.

Laurel White:

There’s been a lot of discussion about the effect of such a big democratic field. Fundraising is a big thing that’s a part of that. A lot of people have been talking about donors. They’re sitting out. Right now democratic donors that are waiting until after August 14th. So we might see a big change in the coming weeks.

Frederica Freyberg:

One of the other things to look at, kind of a proviso to these numbers, is that some of these candidates loaned themselves a fair amount of money.

Shawn Johnson:

They did. Part of the reason is they’re on a tight timeframe. They can’t wait in some cases for their campaign to catch fire and for money to start pouring in. It’s kind of now or never. The other thing is, these fundraising numbers in such a crowded democratic field, are looked at as a sign of a campaign’s strength. So what’s one way to juice that strength? You give your own campaign some money so quite a few of the candidates did. Kelda Roys, Tony Evers, Matt Flynn are some of the bigger donations, but Kelda Roys gave herself the most and it is that reason that she was the leading fundraiser from January to June.

Frederica Freyberg:

And those very leading fundraisers are the ones, again, that the state GOP is now targeting these radio ads against.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah and so you’ve seen the rest of the field seize on what’s working for them in this race. For example, Mahlon Mitchell has pointed out that if you take out that self-funding, Mahlon Mitchell is the top fundraiser in this last period. Now the caveat there is that Mahlon Mitchell’s donations have come pretty heavily from unions. That’s not like an accident. He is the union-supported candidate. He’s worked hard to get those endorsements. His campaign would say unions are people, you know. It’s good that they’re supporting Mahlon Mitchell but those are big committee donations that have floated into Mitchell as opposed to a lot of smaller individual donations from around the state.

Laurel White:

Right. The other campaigns that are talking about smaller donations or what they call a broader base right, are like Tony Evers and Mike McCabe. Now Tony Evers is one of those top fundraisers so he’s in the top four there and Mike McCabe has less money. But they’re saying because we have a larger swath of individual donors that says more about the support we have.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scott Walker talks a lot about how he warns supporters that people like Eric Holder, Barack Obama’s former attorney general and billionaires Tom Steyer and George Soros will pour money into this race. How real is that?

Shawn Johnson:

Oh, it’s very real. I mean we know that these outside groups are going to be a big factor come general election time over that few months until election day. Scott Walker has his own allies in that fight though. I mean the Republican Governors Association is going to spend heavily in Wisconsin. Other conservative groups are going to spend heavily here. It’s going to be a pretty big campaign arm’s race once this primary’s over.

Frederica Freyberg:

Lots and lots of money. Laurel White, thank you very much.

Laurel White:

Thank you.

Shawn Johnson:

There’s a lot a stake in the upcoming primary election and the general election in November. You can find all the information about the races, the candidates and the election results at WisconsinVote.org.