National ‘Dark Money’ is Flooding into Green Bay Elections–Whether the Candidates Like it or Not | WTAQ News Talk | 97.5 FM · 1360 AM | Green Bay, WI
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — They’ve become ubiquitous on Social Media in recent weeks: political advertisements from a group calling themselves “Open Democracy PAC”, endorsing a number of Green Bay Common Council Candidates.
There’s one issue: none of the candidates have signed off on running these ads. Nor have any of them even spoken to anyone from “Open Democracy PAC”.
“When you’re putting in a lot of effort into running a campaign, being careful of how I’m presenting myself, being careful about who I’m working with, you don’t want any of these distractions,” said Michael Porodek, a candidate for the 11th district who has been supported by the ads. “It pulls you away from what you really want to focus on.”
…It begs the question: why here? Why Green Bay? Why Wisconsin?
UW-Green Bay Associate Political Science Professor David Helpap has a theory.
“Green Bay has been in the news related to election issues, right? It’s really reflective of national issues going on,” Helpap said. “There’s a famous phrase that ‘there is no Democratic or Republican way to collect the garbage, but it appears that some people think there is.”