If you didn’t like the television ads during the state Senate recalls – you ain’t seen nothing yet. Mike McCabe with the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign notes big money flooded into the state earlier this year, for the recall races targeting members of the state Senate. And, says McCabe, those Senate recalls are really the only thing to compare the prospective recall against Governor Scott Walker with. “We saw about $44 million spent in those recall elections, and millions of it were not spent by the candidates but rather by outside interest groups that sponsored their own advertising,” said McCabe.
AUDIO: Bob Hague reports (1:05)
That money meant residents in those state Senate districts were bombarded by television ads. If the effort to collect signatures is successful in forcing a recall vote against Walker, it’s going to much the same story, but this time it will be statewide. “It’s going to be wall-to-wall political ads, and I think a lot of people are just about going to go out of their minds,” McCabe predicts. That $44 million was spent on just nine state Senate races, so McCabe says it’s anybody’s guess how much will get spent on a statewide recall effort. “When you’ve got a recall election involving the governor, that’s a statewide race, and that means those who are trying to sway voters are going to have to target all of the voters in Wisconsin,” he notes. “That’s just going to make it that much more expensive. It’s going to more than $44 million, I just don’t have a good enough crystal ball to say how much more.”