Overall, it may look like Schimel and his conservative allies aired more crime-related TV ads than did Crawford, said University of Wisconsin political science professor Barry Burden. But Burden noted that most of the spending on the left went through Crawford’s campaign. On the right, many conservative groups spent their own cash instead of funneling it through the state Republican Party to Schimel.
“Campaigns who spend directly are guaranteed by law to get lower ad rates, so even equal spending by the two sides means that Schimel was able to purchase less because more of his support came from outside groups,” Burden said.