Under the microscope are multiple small donations from voters who say they didn’t make such donations to Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz.
In the most expensive state judicial race in U.S. history, Janet C. Protasiewicz, a liberal, defeated conservative attorney Dan Kelly in April for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The record $23 million raised by or on behalf of the Janet for Justice campaign prompted a group of citizen investigators in Wisconsin to look into where all of the money had come from.
Election Watch, an election integrity watchdog group, has now asked the Wisconsin Ethics Commission to investigate campaign contributions made to Ms. Protasiewicz.
The complaint is based on a computer analysis of state and federal databases conducted by Election Watch.
The filing against Justice Protasiewicz is part of a broader nationwide investigation into how both Democrats and Republicans benefit from lax campaign finance rules that may result in violations of contribution limits.
Peter Bernegger, a data analyst with Election Watch, which filed the complaint, told The Epoch Times that the group’s research found that the Protasiewicz campaign has received a myriad of repetitive small contributions purportedly from the same individuals totaling at least $6 million.
According to the complaint, the official reports from the Wisconsin Campaign Finance Information System reveal that 234 of Justice Protasiewicz’s 38,169 contributors donated more than 10 times.
Election Watch has dubbed the observed repetition of thousands of small donations being made under the same name as “smurfing.” It’s occurring nationwide and has been detected down to the municipal election level.
Justice Protasiewicz didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Red Flags
A spreadsheet accompanying the Election Watch complaint details a number of questionable contribution patterns. To ensure the privacy of the contributors mentioned in this article, their names have been changed.
By Steven Kovac
