Who is spending what?

Opinion: September 2, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Horse patooie. That’s mostly what got shoveled during this summer’s recall elections. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Craig Gilbert reports those nine state Senate races might have been the most negative ever.

Based on statistics obtained from the ad-tracking firm Kantor Media CMAG, about 95 percent of television ad dollars were spent on negative ads and only 5 percent on positive ads in the state’s major TV markets. Longtime political advertising expert Ken Goldstein summed it up this way:

“People are always wanting to say, ’This campaign is the most negative!’ I’ll say it. I’ve never seen a campaign more negative.”

Neither have we.

Gilbert goes on to report that the reasons may have to do with the perceived higher-than-usual stakes, that the outcomes were in doubt or that lots of outside money came flying into the state (overall, almost $40 million was spent by the candidates or other groups).

Two points.

First, although many voters complain about negative ads — and they are annoying — negative ads probably work.

Second, the state needs strong disclosure rules that will compel outside groups to say who is funding them.

That question now faces the state Supreme Court, which is hearing a First Amendment case involving state Government Accountability Board rules.

If negative campaigning is the rule of the campaign trail, don’t the citizens of the state have a right to know who is shoveling all that horse patooie? Of course they do.