To the editor,

Of late it is hard to watch TV or listen to the radio without a political ad. It amounts to a constant flow claiming, counter claiming, and a whole lot of defaming. It is hard to separate fact from fiction but with a little research some interesting facts do emerge.  

For instance, based on ad count the GOPs have way more to spend than the Dems. According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and the Wisconsin State Journal, the GOPs are out running the Dems in ad counts at a rate of 5 to 1 and have spent $38.8 million to the Dems $7.6 million. One has to wonder where all of this money comes from? To date, the Dems have relied on more small individual donations though they have received some outside PAC money. 

However, the big money, and largely dark money, is coming into the state from conservative billionaire mega donors. Elon Musk's America PAC is spending heavily across the country and especially for Van Orden in Wisconsin. A little darker money (as in hard to get a clear identity of the donor) comes from PACs like Cleveland Cliffs Inc (CCI), a fund opposing corporate regulatory issues, who in turn funnel it to American Action Fund (AAN) and then to the GOP Congressional Leadership Fund or (CFL) to the tune of $44 million so far, and Wisconsin GOPs, Van Orden and Tom Tiffany have received a sizable share of it. Dark money indeed.

An irony here is that the CCI is currently funding an ad attacking Rebecca Cooke, on Van Orden's behalf, claiming she works for "radicals" and made "hundreds of thousands of dollars," some from dark money supplier George Soros. According to the Federal Election Campaign Commission, she actually made about $43,000 in political consulting fees since 2016, and her consulting firm Cooke Strategy is no longer active. So much for Van Orden's "straight shooter" claim.

When you hear the woman on "Moose Country" drone on about how bad David Crawley is or see Van Orden's slick TV ads, plaid shirt and all, (after all he was in Hollywood for six years making movies and costuming matters) telling us how "phony" Cooke is, take it for what it is worth. America PAC paid for it and it is an out of state, dark money, attempt to influence our voting. An old political axiom is, "If you don't have a record to run on, run down the opponent. Impune on them all the blame and do it loud and first." That certainly seems to be in play in GOP-land this time around.

Ron Ginsbach

Elmwood