Want to win a statewide election? Maaaaaybe throw some millions into NIL?

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

Back on April 1, Wisconsin voters went to the polls to vote in a State Supreme Court election that was projected to be highly competitive. Normally, that wouldn’t be a story that would attract much interest outside the state. But since the Wisconsin Supreme Court establishes the congressional district maps, and since Republican control of the US House is so narrow, a state Supreme Court election could potentially help swing control of two or three House seats.

That meant that a ton of donor money from outside the state poured into the campaign. Elon Musk, you may have heard, contributed more than $19 million dollars. But he wasn’t alone. Other billionaires, like Diane Hendricks, the Uihleins and the Schustermans, tossed in millions of their own.

In the end…the election didn’t turn out to be that close. The Democratic-aligned candidate, Susan Crawford, beat the Republican-aligned candidate, Brad Schimel, by 10%, or over 200,000 votes. That meant that a lot of rich people burned a lot of money.

After the election, I joked that if Elon really wanted to win, he would have spent that money on donations to Wisconsin’s NIL efforts, not TV commercials that everybody hates.

But then I got to thinking…was that even a joke? If an outside group wanted to purchase some statewide electoral goodwill or name recognition, why not make a contribution to the ol’ State U athletic department or major collective? If you want people to like you, wouldn’t a CFP bid go further than mailing boatloads of campaign fliers that immediately get thrown out?

Shoot, is that even legal?

I didn’t know. So I called an expert. And the more I think about it, the more I think that idea is worth considering.

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