Left-Wing Influence is on the Rampage

Minnesotans have just emerged from an unprecedented state government shutdown. We're so preoccupied with the battle we've endured that we may not be paying much attention to the knock-down-drag-out next door in Wisconsin.

That's a mistake. What's happening in the Badger State is unprecedented, too. It springs from some of the same forces at work in the shutdown, and provides a glimpse of the political dynamics we may see—here and elsewhere—in the 2012 elections.

Wisconsin is in the throes of eight state Senate recall campaigns, with elections scheduled for Aug. 9 and 16. (In the one election already held, the Democratic incumbent retained his seat.)

The recalls stem from events in March, when the Republican-controlled legislature passed a law limiting collective bargaining for government employees and requiring them to increase contributions to their health and pension funds.

Fourteen Democratic senators fled to Illinois to prevent a vote, but Republicans passed the legislation anyway. Recall petitions against six Republicans and three Democrats were certified.

In the past, statehouse-level elections in places like Baraboo and Oshkosh have been relatively genteel, low-key contests, free from large expenditures by outside interests.

But today, a phalanx of left-wing influence groups—heavily dependent on government union power and money is transforming Wisconsin politics. With lavish funding, hardball tactics and national connections, they are ratcheting up statehouse politics to a level of intensity seen before only in high-profile, targeted congressional races.

In the process, these organizations are drowning out authentic grass-roots issues and voices, and are increasingly assuming functions traditionally performed by political parties.

"One Wisconsin Now," founded in 2006, is at the center of this. It's part of the 16-member ProgressNow network, whose affiliate here is Alliance for a Better Minnesota.

One Wisconsin Now serves as a 24/7 communications hub for left-wing issues and organizations in Wisconsin. It coordinates messaging and strategy so the state's hundreds of progressive groups are on the same page.

But the network doesn't confine its efforts to election years, the traditional focus of outside influence groups. It uses the same aggressive, campaign-style strategy to pressure public officials on issues on a daily basis.

Even before Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took office in January 2011, the state's left-wing forces were working in coordinated fashion to stir up opposition to his transit and tax reform plans. In February, when the union legislation was introduced, they mobilized on a massive scale-rallying protestors and grabbing headlines across the nation.

In recent weeks, national left-wing organizations—from Howard Dean's Democracy for America to the Progressive Change Campaign Committee—have flooded into Wisconsin to build on the groundwork laid by the state-based network. Their goal in the recall elections is to "flip" control of the State Senate by achieving a three-seat gain for Democrats.

You know we're in a new world when Nancy Pelosi headlines a Washington, D.C., fundraiser to take down Republican state senators representing places like De Pere and River Falls. In Hudson, out-of-district donors have provided 90 percent of Democratic candidate Shelly Moore's funding, according to Nathan Duerkop, spokesman for Republican incumbent Sheila Harsdorf.

The command center for the left's mammoth recall effort is a new PAC called "We Are Wisconsin." The PAC has raised $7.4 million, with 90 percent coming from AFSCME, the AFL-CIO and other national labor unions, according to Wisconsin-based Media Trackers.

We Are Wisconsin acts, in essence, like a parallel political party. It has field operations in every recall district, runs TV and radio ads, and oversees direct mail and phone banks. Kelly Steele, its spokesman, is a longtime national Democratic operative who is widely credited with turning around Sen. Harry Reid's campaign in Nevada in 2010, using tactics that allies have described as "cutthroat."

The dynamic taking shape in Wisconsin should be familiar to Minnesotans. Alliance for a Better Minnesota and its union allies used a similar strategy to paralyze our state's government during the recent budget debacle.

In 2008, Rob Stein of the George Soros-funded Democracy Alliance declared that "progressive infrastructure" is most advanced in three states: Wisconsin, Minnesota and Colorado. By 2012, the left plans to have similar operations in 25 states.

The consequences for representative government will be profound. As deep-pocket outside groups come to dominate statehouse-level politics, elected officials will increasingly find themselves playing a secondary role in government and policymaking. They will become bit players to mighty special interests.

Katherine Kersten is a senior fellow at the Center of the American Experiment.