The Greater Wisconsin Committee

Something that's becoming more common in the Wisconsin media: Ads smearing Mark Green.

The Greater Wisconsin Committee is very busy doing Jim Doyle's dirty work.

Smear campaigns smack of desperation. They show a lack confidence in the candidate.

Obviously, Dems aren't displaying much confidence in Doyle's ability to run on his record or his vision.

So what is the Greater Wisconsin Committee?
According to Wisconsin Democracy Campaign:

The Greater Wisconsin Committee is a Milwaukee-based issue ad group formed in mid-2004 that uses negative radio, television and newspaper advertising and mailings to support Democratic candidates and oppose Republican candidates. Like other issue ad groups, the committee has refused to disclose its contributors, fundraising and spending. The group draws its cash from labor, lawyer, tribal and business interests.

Some of the committee’s key personnel include its president, Jane Gellman, and Michelle McGrorty, the committee’s director who was granted immunity from prosecution to testify about illegal political fundraising activities in the State Capitol caucus scandal investigation. She was a fundraiser for former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, who was convicted of a felony in the scandal and sentenced to nine months in jail. Bill Christofferson, Democratic Governor Jim Doyle’s 2002 campaign manager, produces radio ads for the group.

...In February and March 2006, the Greater Wisconsin Committee plunged into the governor’s race by slapping around Republican candidates Mark Green and Scott Walker in radio and newspaper ads for saying they were not aware of rampant illegal campaign activity by state workers on state time while they served in the state Assembly in the 1990s. The ads featured comments from Republican colleagues and other insiders who implied Green, Walker and others are lying if they claim they did not know illegal campaign activity was going on.

At the same time the committee spent undisclosed amounts on a statewide issue ad criticizing a proposed constitutional amendment by GOP legislators to control spending by local governments known as the "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" or the "Taxpayer Protection Amendment."

I've heard these cheesy ads, too many.

They sound almost like parodies of sleazy campaign ads because they are so extreme.

The Mark Green as Dick Cheney big oil puppet ad is laughable.

The problem is it's not funny if voters buy the messages/lies of the Greater Wisconsin Committee.

There is no better illustration of what a complete crock the McCain-Feingold Act is.

Campaign reform?

I don't think so.

Thanks for absolutely nothing, Russ. Your shining achievement has accomplished NOTHING, other than to put up easily circumvented roadblocks to free speech.