11/12/2026

N. WISCONSIN - Campaign finance experts say the midterms have exposed how little current laws do to regulate the flow of money into American elections, despite efforts to strengthen campaign-finance rules. OpenSecrets, a nonprofit group that tracks money in politics, projects a nearly 12-billion-dollar national spend on election campaigns, including almost 3-point-9 billion from groups operating outside individual candidate campaigns. In Wisconsin, these outside groups, including Super PACs, spent nearly 90-million dollars on local races. Northwestern law professor Michael Kang says the unprecedented amount of money poured into this election cycle underscores what he describes as the practical collapse of campaign-finance regulations – and the need for reform.

                0:10  "If you looked at what we've tried to accomplish through campaign finance regulation over the last half-century, we would want better disclosure of what's going on and where the money's coming from, even if you don't have a problem with the amounts of money spent."

But he says this election cycle also demonstrates that money doesn't always guarantee victory. Kang points to deep political sentiment that outweighed even enormous campaign war chests.