JANESVILLE A grassroots group wants the Wisconsin Ethics Commission to investigate if Grow Janesville Responsibly has followed state campaign finance rules in its advertising campaign that urges Janesville voters to reject the GM/JATCO referendum on the Nov. 3 election ballot.
Janesville for Responsible Development, which advocates for a yes vote on the referendum, announced Wednesday it filed an ethics complaint with the WEC on Oct. 1, after organizers said they couldnt find any local filings showing who has financed Grow Janesvilles advocacy campaign.
Grow Janesville has run billboards and radio ads, and has produced mailed flyers alongside online commercials on YouTube plus other outreach.
The city of Janesville told The 69蹤獲 that as of Wednesday afternoon, it had seen no records filed for campaign advocacy or campaign-finance filings tied to any ballot referendums.
The Nov. 3 ballot referendum at the center of the issue asks Janesville residents if they want authority for voters to anpprove any developments at the GM/JATCO site in excess of $450 million.
One of Janesville for Responsible Developments organizers, Cathy Erdman, said her group does not allege Grow Janesville violated the law.
State law qualifies a group as a referendum committee if it states its major purpose is to oppose or support a referendum or if it spends more than half its money in a yearlong period supporting or opposing a referendum.
Referendum committees are required to register with the state if they receive or spend more than $10,000 in a year opposing or supporting a referendum.
Grow Janesville filed earlier this year with the state as a nonprofit group.
Erdman said the city seems saturated with an unprecedented amount of messaging by Grow Janesville opposing the passage of a local ballot referendum.
She said alongside TV and radio spots Grow Janesville has appeared to pay for, residents are receiving mailers from Grow Janesville. Erdman said she got two such flyers in the mail within a 48-hour period.
We said, Well, lets see if we can figure out where the money is coming from. And it turns out, we cant figure it out, because nobodys reporting it, Erdman said. This is why we asked for an investigation through the Wisconsin Ethics Commission, because we dont know state election finance law like the experts do.
Erdman leads a handful of local advocacy groups that support the GM/JATCO referendums passage.
Janesville for Responsible Development said in a statement Wednesday it has collected $5,568 in contributions, but if it collects or spends more than $10,000, the group said, it would file documentation and financial disclosures at Janesvilles city clerks office.
The WEC has responded to Janesville for Responsible Developments complaint with a note that acknowledges it has put the groups complaint under a preliminary review, and that the complaint was properly filed under law.
WEC has made no determination on the complaint, and its receipt of a complaint and acknowledgement of it do not indicate the commission has determined any wrongdoing.
The Janesville City Clerks Office said it does not have referendum committee filings by any group or individual.
Under law, groups who are considered referendum committees are obligated to disclose their legal name and mailing address, the address and name of the person considered the groups treasurer, and an explanation of the referendum the group supports of opposes.
Law requires rolling filing deadlines of Sept. 30, and Oct. 26 prior to the November election for certain spending, collections of donations and payments made out of funds the groups maintain.
In a statement to The 69蹤獲 on Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for Grow Janesville Responsibly wrote:
Grow Janesville Responsibly regularly sponsors educational and advocacy communications, with the advocacy communications opposing the GM/JATCO referendum, but since GJR does not spend a majority of its funds on advocating for or against any single referendum, it is not required to register or report with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission or any local clerk.
The statement went on to question why Janesville for Responsible Development took until mid-September to publicly file organization papers, when they have been actively working since 2025.
Erdman said Janesville for Responsible Development thinks Grow Janesville Responsibly could disclose its spending and even identify its donors, even if Grow Janesville is not legally obligated to file as a referendum committee.
She said Janesville for Responsible Developments complaint is focused not on how organizations spend money, but instead, on transparency.
People can use their money the way they want, but currently, its being used to convince the voters of Janesville to vote No (on the GM/JATCO referendum, she said. The problem is voters are going to the polls inside of two weeks, and they still dont know who is influencing the (Grow Janesville Responsibly) media that they are consuming.