Spending

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New Senate Campaign

Spending Record Set

Alex Paul (D-Wisconsin Rapids) spent a record $421,382 - in the primary alone - on his bid for the vacant 24th District seat in the State Senate, including $405,000 from his own pocket. Paul didn't make it to the general election, losing the Democratic primary by a 2-to-1 margin to State Representative Julie Lassa.

Paul's spending spree in the special spring primary election broke the previous record for a Senate campaign set in 2000 by Republican Senator Sheila Harsdorf, who spent $409,279 to capture the 10th Senate District seat.

In addition to the record amount Paul spent on his own failed campaign, he acknowledged after the April 1 primary election that his personal fortune was one of the sources of money political hit man Todd Rongstad tapped to run a smear campaign against Lassa last fall when she was running for reelection to the Assembly.

Alex Paul is now caught up in a defamation lawsuit Lassa filed against Rongstad, and there are calls for a broader investigation because of Paul's ties to Governor Jim Doyle and former 24th District Senator Kevin Shibilski, who recently stepped down from his cabinet post in the Doyle administration.

The special election for the 24th District seat, won by Lassa in a landslide in the April 29th general election, was needed when Shibilski left the Senate to become Doyle's tourism secretary - only to abruptly resign two weeks before the special election to replace him in the Senate.

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