Research Cited

The Center for Media and Democracy examined Bradley Foundation documents that were released in 2016 via Twitter accounts connected to the Russian hackers tied to the breach of the Democratic National Committee. The documents reveal that Bradley “has a new stream of funding to build this ‘conservative infrastructure’ and is using a metric to assess the strength and depth of that infrastructure in individual states—including ‘receptive’ politicians, right-wing ‘think tanks,’ symbiotic ‘grassroots’ groups, friendly media, litigation centers, and opposition research—to guide Bradley’s strategic funding initiatives.”

Jane Mayer, author of the book “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right” (2016), told the Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy that the cache of Bradley Foundation documents “appears to be more evidence that a few powerful private foundations are weaponizing philanthropy for their own private political purposes.” CMD, a watchdog group that played a pivotal role in exposing the machinations of the billionaire Koch brothers, examined the Bradley Foundation documents and concluded that they reveal a concerted effort to “expand right-wing ‘infrastructure’ to influence policies and politicians in statehouses nationwide.”

New investigations by Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Mary Bottari of the Center for Media and Democracy analyze hacked internal documents, which reveal that much like the Koch network, the Bradley Foundation has launched a national strategy to help conservatives control the branches of state governments and alter state policy to lower taxes, shrink government and attack labor unions.

“This has been a long-term investment for the Bradley Foundation, but it paid off when Walker succeeded in dismantling public sector unions in 2011,” said Mary Bottari of the liberal Center for Media and Democracy, which appears on the Bradley Foundation’s enemies list. “Once you have gutted out the opposition, you can continue to win on issue after issue because you have made yourself the only game in town.”

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An internal Bradley document compiles a list of 17 liberal organizations that “attack groups and people helping the Foundation further its mission” — an enemies list, of sorts. Making the list were two Wisconsin groups, One Wisconsin Now and the Center for Media and Democracy, and a host of national ones, including Media Matters for America, Democracy Alliance and Open Society.

In August 2014, the board of the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation asked for a list of “organizations that attack groups and people helping the Foundation further its mission” so it could determine ways “to mitigate the damage they do.” In response, a veteran staffer compiled a list of 17 liberal organizations, including two in Wisconsin — the Center for Media and Democracy and One Wisconsin Now.