Who's funding the anti-Doyle campaign?

A new anti-Doyle television commercial begins today, hoping to make people who hunt and fish think their license fees will go to pay for benefits for gay partners of state workers.

The tone of the ad, featuring two fishermen, is light. But the message is not subtle: Doyle wants to raise your taxes and fees to give money to GAYS!

More of what we are coming to expect from the Coalition for American Families, which first ran a racially-charged TV spot making it sound like Doyle wanted to spend hundreds of millions to give tuition breaks to illegal immigrants, then followed up with a radio commercial bashing both immigrants and gays.

The new spot has almost nothing to do with reality.

Hunting and fish license money goes into a segregated fund at the DNR to pay for -- guess what? -- costs related to hunting and fishing, not some health insurance plan like GayCare.

The domestic partner benefits proposed by Doyle already have been eliminated from the state budget by Joint Finance.

But why let the facts get in the way when you can play gays off against hunters and fishermen? Patrick Marley's Journal Sentinel story has more.

The story doesn't tell you who's funding this new group, headed by former Republican State Chairman Steve King. The organization, which had been inactive since the 2004 election cycle, when it ran negative commercials against two Democratic state senators, came back with a splash a few weeks ago.

When the first ad began running, King said the group was spending "tens of thousands" of dollars on it. Actually, the four-week television buy in the state's three biggest media markets (Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay), is costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The ads are clearly not intended to influence the state budget. If you take their advice and call Jim Doyle to tell him "no new taxes," it's not going to have any impact on the budget. These ads are all about beginning to try to weaken Doyle in advance of his reelection campaign next year.

So who's footing the bill? The group doesn't have to disclose its donors, although there is nothing to prevent King from doing so.

One of the first names to come to mind when Democrats hear about this kind of activity is Terry Kohler, the wealthy right-winger who, with his wife, Mary, have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to conservative causes. It would be surprising if the Kohlers were not donors to King's group.

But who else? Persistent Capitol rumors last week pointed to bankers, Realtors, and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), although all of them will deny it if you ask.

In a release titled, "Watergate Lesson #1: Follow the Money," the Wisconsin Democratic Party says: "It is time for groups like the Wisconsin Realtors Association, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, and the Wisconsin Bankers Association -- who commonly fund these types of ads -- to condemn this racist and despicable ad campaign. Their notable silence about these ads to date is rather revealing."

King's Coalition for American Families can provide cover to such groups, whose members might not support such a divisive advertising campaign, and shield the groups from having to take any responsibility -- or any heat -- for what they're doing.

Given WISN radio talker Mark Belling's ongoing problems with the Hispanic community after using a racial slur on his program, with threats to boycott the station and Belling's advertisers, imagine the wrath that might be directed by Latinos against businesses who would pay for the anti-immigrant commercial. Or consider the pressure the gay community could bring.

So the well-funded, anonymous campaign merrily rolls along, with few questions asked and none answered.

Even Mike McCabe, the head of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, who's usually quick to come to a full boil of outrage, seemed muted in his quote in the JS story. "The public should be suspicious and skeptical when they're bombarded with ads from groups with motherhood-and-apple-pie-sounding names telling them what they should think about the state budget," he said.

You don't think the Democracy Campaign is paying for the ads, do you?

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