Gov. Scott Walker Edges Tom Barrett in Fundraising in Wauwatosa
Incumbent Republican governor takes in $54,000 in campaign contributions from city residents, while his Democratic opponent nets about $48,000.
Whether Gov. Scott Walker or Democrat Tom Barrett will win the gubernatorial recall election — or carry Wauwatosa, for that matter — won't be known for sure until all the ballots are counted Tuesday night.
What is known, however, is that when it comes to campaign contributions, the incumbent Republican governor has narrowly outraised the Milwaukee mayor in Wauwatosa.
A Patch analysis of campaign finance reports filed last week with the state Government Accountability Board shows that Walker has raised $54,023 in Wauwatosa since January.
By comparison, Barrett took in $48,334 from Tosans since he launched his candidacy in March, campaign finance reports show.
See who is donating to Barrett and Walker with Patch's interactive database of campaign contributions
The Patch analysis looked at more than 196,000 individual contributions reported to the state — more than 152,000 records for Walker and more than 44,000 for Barrett. Those contributions totaled $16.9 million for the governor and $3.4 million for his challenger.
The biggest Walker donor from Wauwatosa is retiree Robert A. Schaefer, who gave $10,000 to the governor's campaign. Other big contibutors to Walker are: Patrick J. English, $5,000; Bart Adams, $2,500; Arthur W. Gaulke, $2,000; Edward A. Probst, $1,500; Robert Miller, $1,000; Rose Campise Luther, $1,000; and Anne W. Fee, $1,000.
In Wauwotosa, attorney Donald W. Layden is Barrett's biggest contributor — donating $9,500 to the Milwaukee mayor. Other major donors from Wauwatosa include: Paul and Christina Scoptur, $5,000; David R. Price, $2,700; John H. Kissinger, $1,100; Daniel Gilman, $1,000; Michael Gifford, $1,000; Pam J. Meyer, $1,000; Glenn Grunewald, $1,000; and Lawrence Fehring, $1,000.
The Patch analysis looked at individual contributions only. Money the two candidates received from political action committees and other outside groups were not included in the tally.
In addition, some Wauwatosa residents may have used Milwaukee mailing address when making contributions. If that's the case, the numbers are not included here.
Walker's edge over Barrett in contributions can be found in the rest of the Milwaukee-area suburbs, according to the Patch analysis.
In all, Walker raised more than $822,000 in the 18 communities in the Patch coverage area, while Barrett took in about $259,000 in those places.
The community where residents gave the most to Walker was Waukesha, where there were more than $319,000 in donations. Barrett fared the best in Shorewood, where he took in about $60,000.
The only communities where Barrett raised more cash than Walker were Shorewood and Whitefish Bay.
Overall, 75 percent of the individual contributions to Barrett came from Wisconsin — about $2.55 million. After Wisconsin, Barrett took in about $152,000 from California and $134,000 from Illinois — each making up 4 percent of his total donations.
About 31 percent of Walker's total individual contributions were from Wisconsin — roughly $5.26 million. The governor received $1.36 million from Florida (8 percent of his total donations) and $1.23 million from California.
The $20 million or so raised by Walker and Barrett this year is just part of the estimated $62 million that has been spent so far in Wisconsin's heated recall election, according to the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
According to the watchdog group, total spending is nearly double the record for a statewide race: $37.4 million set during the 2010 gubernatorial race, which was also between Walker and Barrett.
Nick Schweitzer
9:18 am on Monday, June 4, 2012
Golly Gee Jim, where is the Map of Wauwatosa with push pins at every address that has donated, along with color coding so that neighbors can quickly see which side people are for?
I am a big fan of people being allowed to speak and contribute anonymously, because it prevents others from unfairly taking it out on people. I understand many people's desire's for accountability though... but writing up an article where you specifically name the people who are giving out money just for the sake of writing the article is not good form.
If those people were receiving political favors in exchange for their donations, then fine, write it up. But writing up who gave money to who... just for the sake of it simply adds more fuel to the political divisiveness in this state.
Nick Schweitzer
9:19 am on Monday, June 4, 2012
Sorry... thought this was one of Jim's articles since he writes most of these things on Wauwatosa Patch. I now see it was Mark Maley. My apologies to Jim, but my comment still stands for Mark. This is a bad thing to be writing about.
Alfred
9:29 am on Monday, June 4, 2012
Mark Maley is a partisan hack and water boy for Barrett, what do you expect? Unbiased reporting?
linda w
9:47 am on Monday, June 4, 2012
so what we all know that walker has from day one raised more money then anyone. and we all know that this state and the vote on tuesday will tell if people want our governor bought and paid for by the rich and wealthy or if the people will say no more. we will no longer stand by and let our elections be bought by people who do not live here and don't care about wisconsin. so do we vote for the people or vote for the rich to control our state
Random Blog Commenter
10:15 am on Monday, June 4, 2012
This article does strike me as the type designed to spark a comment fight (and the resulting eyeballs on the page) rather than truly inform people on a relevant issue.
Let the partisan bickering and advertiser eyeball count begin!!!!!
Keith Best
2:49 pm on Saturday, July 7, 2012
This is money that should never have been spent on the nonsense recall in the first place. It was a power grab by Democrats, a do-over, and they lost again.
We must never forget the perpetual campaigns and elections and waste of time and money the liberal Democrats and unions put us through.