Leah Vukmir can count on support from medical, business donors
By Diana Dombrowski
Health care and business interests have been there for Republican Leah Vukmir in her past political campaigns.
They’re with her again as she seeks a promotion from the Wisconsin Senate to the US Senate.
That’s one takeaway from a comparison of Federal Election Commission campaign data analyzed by the Center for Responsive Politics, and Wisconsin campaign donation figures crunched by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
The top-10 occupations of donors to her US Senate race included six categories familiar from her career as a state legislator: health professionals, lawyers and law firms, manufacturing and distribution, insurance, finance, and retirees, data from spring 2018 showed.
In the current US Senate race, donors from the oil and gas industry were the most generous non-retired givers to Vukmir’s campaign among all sectors.
With 37 years of experience as a nurse and 20 years of experience as a certified pediatric nurse practitioner, Vukmir has a long history of donations from the medical field, both from political action committees and individuals.
The suburban Milwaukee lawmaker has a strong pro-business voting record. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), an association lobbying for business in Wisconsin, has routinely given her a 100% rating or close.
Scott Manley, the WMC’s vice president of government relations, had this to say in 2014 when recognizing Vukmir and another legislator for their support:
“They stood up for mining reform so our state can have high-wage jobs. They cut over $1 billion in taxes, cut red tape, and clamped down on frivolous lawsuits,” he wrote.
Medical Money
Two thirds of the political action committees (PACs) that have donated to Vukmir at the state level are healthcare related.
Loyal PACs giving to her state legislative runs have included the WI Medical PAC and the Eli Lilly and Company PAC. Eli Lilly is a global pharmaceutical company sells products such as Trulicity and Cialis.
At the federal level, The Eli Lilly and Company PAC has directed 37% of its funds to Democrats and 63% to Republicans as of May in the 2018 election cycle.
The WI Medical PAC last donated to Vukmir’s State Senate run in 2010, her most recent competitive state race, according to campaign records checked in April. The PAC is associated with the Wisconsin Medical Society, a membership organization of doctors that advocates for physicians’ health care efforts.
Three of the five PACs that have donated the most money to Vukmir since 2002 are also all related to healthcare: Wisconsin Ophthalmologists for Better Government PAC, Wisconsin Emergency Medicine PAC and WI Society of Anesthesiologists PAC.
When it comes to individuals, not PACs, people associated with the Medical College of Wisconsin have given 38 times to her state campaigns.
Gary and Sally Sprenger of ANEW Health Care in Wauwatosa ranked second on Vukmir’s top donor list. They gave $6,200 between 2001 and 2014.
They are listed as health analyst and owner of the company, respectively, in federal campaign records. Vukmir has worked at ANEW.
Givers affiliated with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield also made her list of top five individual donors from 2001–2014.
Business and Wisconsin Next PAC
In the current US Senate race, Vukmir has the support of two big Wisconsin business players through Wisconsin Next PAC.
The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce gave $600,000 to the PAC as of April.
Hendricks Holding Co., which was co-founded by billionaire Diane Hendricks, donated $500,000 to Wisconsin Next PAC. Hendricks is Chairman of ABC Supply and is worth $5.6 billion, according to Forbes.
The PAC has spent just over $935,000 in support of Vukmir as of the end of April. Some of the money went toward a TV ad featuring her with Scott Walker.
Looking back at Vukmir’s fundraising for state legislative campaigns since 2002, the banking and finance, insurance and business interest groups are second to healthcare interests in donations from political action committees.
But it’s a distant second.
Walmart Stores Inc. PAC for Responsible Government made the largest single PAC donation to Vukmir at the state level, giving $2,000 last year.
Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin also received $1,000 from Walmart in the 2018 election cycle, as well as three other members of the House, including Speaker Paul Ryan, who received $5,000.
Some of Vukmir’s biggest individual donors during her state legislative years were members of the Krause family of Krause Funeral Homes. Collectively, they gave $7,550. Mark Krause was the most frequent donor from the Krause family.
Thomas and Therese Nichols of Elm Grove were also some of her biggest donors. During those same years the Nichols gave $5,675 to Vukmir. Thomas Nichols is listed as a lawyer at the Milwaukee law firm Meissner Tierney Fisher & Nichols, according to Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
Education and Choice
Vukmir, who is on the Senate Committee on Education, entered politics partly because of her own frustrations with the education system.
She has advocated passionately for private school choice throughout her political career and has received donations from Betsy DeVos, now Secretary of Education, and DeVos’s husband Dick, big supporters of choice. The donations date back to 2005, the most recent being in August 2016.
The Wisconsin Association of School Boards gave Vukmir ratings of 50% and 33% in 2003–2004 and 2005–2006 respectively, according to Vote Smart, a nonprofit dedicated to tracking the performance of elected officials.
The School Administrators Alliance, a Wisconsin PAC, gave to her three times at the state level, but Vukmir hasn’t received a donation from an education related PAC since 2008, according to figures from Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
George and Susan Mitchell from School Choice Wisconsin are among her loyal group. George Mitchell gave $1,000 in September 2017 to Vukmir’s senate run.
Labor Unions and Law Enforcement
Vukmir’s donations from labor union PACs come mostly from the Milwaukee Police Association PAC. The union donated nine times to her since 2002.
For Vukmir, labor union support looks a lot different than it does for Democrats nearby.
Take the case of Tim Carpenter. He is a Democrat representing the 3rd Senate district in southern Milwaukee County, southeast of Vukmir. Vukmir’s state senate district includes Brookfield, New Berlin, Elm Grove, West Allis and Wauwatosa. Vukmir lives in Brookfield in Waukesha County.
While Carpenter has also received donations from the Milwaukee Police Association PAC, he has a much larger and more diverse set of labor union donors encompassing public sector workers, trade workers, service workers, nurses and teachers.
In a recent debate hosted by Americans for Prosperity, where Vukmir faced her Republican primary opponent Kevin Nicholson, she talked about her support for right-to-work laws, which prohibit requiring all workers to pay fees to unions that represent them.
“I voted for it here in Wisconsin and I feel very strongly about it. This is a decision that states should be making,” she said.
