La Crosse GOP makes unprecedented moves ahead of the April local elections.
Buoyed by frustrations with mask mandates, continued lies about the presence of Critical Race Theory in schools, and false conspiracies about the outcome of the 2020 election, the La Crosse County Republican Party is making an all out propaganda blitz hoping to influence the County Board, municipal and school board elections in La Crosse.
By donating huge amounts of money to their hand-picked candidates, funding smear campaigns against their rivals and paying for local media advertisements, the local GOP is making a huge financial investment in what they see as their best shot in years at overtaking local bodies of government.
Between November 11, 2021 and December 08, 2021 the GOP issued the following disbursements to local candidates, adding up to $6300. It is important to note that this is ONLY funds issued in 2021. We will not know how much they spent in 2022 until the next filing deadline. This information comes from the Wisconsin Campaign Finance Information System (https://cfis.wi.gov/)
County Board:
District 5: Megan Pauley: $300
District 7: Ellie McLoone: $500 (Lost her primary on February 15)
District 10: Richard Korish: $500
District 18: Mike Baroni: $500 (No other candidate on ballot)
District 19: Hubert Hoffman: $500
District 20: Jordan Briskey: $500
District 21: Rob Abraham: $500
District 25: Dennis Jacobsen: $500
District 28: Guy Valiquette: $500
La Crosse School Board:
Kim Krejchik: $500
Mary LaMouthe: $500
Kent Stein: $500
In addition to large amounts of money issued directly to candidates months before the primary election, The La Crosse GOP has been sending mailings and fliers out, both in support of their candidates and in attempts to smear progressive candidates with lies and mischaracterizations of their voting records. In one such flier, the GOP revives a controversy from two years ago whereby local conservatives and the La Crosse Police Union harassed a member of the La Crosse County Criminal Justice Management Council so much that she was doxed and had to resign the council for her safety.
In a more recent incident, local conservatives tried to falsely link a horrendously racist fake ad about some Holmen School Board candidates to the local and state wide Democrats, despite no evidence the flier even existed outside of a photoshopped image on reddit, much less was the responsibility of La Crosse moderates and progressives.
The local GOP has also been paying for ad time on local media, especially WIZM News, in order to get conservatives out to vote in the local elections.
Adding to the money, fliers and advertisement is the local GOP’s continued propaganda about the big lie that former President Trump won the 2020 election, both in Wisconsin and nationally. The local and statewide GOP continue to use this false narrative to drum up conservative rage and motivate them to the polls. Even as La Crosse GOP chair Bill Feehan moves closer and closer to an indictment for his involvement in the fake Wisconsin elector scheme, which helped fuel the January 6 insurrection, the GOP refuses to come clean about the 2020 election because telling the truth does not get out their vote.
What can we do about all of this? Several things:
- Vote! This is the only real way we can stop this GOP encroachment.
- Get Out The Vote! Talk to your family, friends and neighbors about this important election, make sure they are registered, and encourage them to get to the polls.
- Support the La Crosse County Democrats in their work to support local progressive candidates. More information at laxdems.com