In 2017, Hansher granted a motion filed by Earle to dismiss the case with the option of re-filing it at a later time. Earle said he cannot discuss the reasons for the dismissal.
'Darkest of dark money states'
Wisconsin and Florida are the only two states in the nation that have legalized coordination between candidates and outside special interest groups that engage in "issue advocacy," according to Daniel Weiner, senior counsel at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, which aims to reform, revitalize and defend democracy and justice.
Contributions to "issue ads," which often support or oppose candidates without using words including "vote for" or "vote against," are not required to be reported to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.
David Buerger, staff counsel at the ethics commission, said the state now bans coordination only involving "express advocacy" — communication that specifically calls for the election or defeat of a candidate.
In a 2015 move that further obscures the influence of money on politics, Wisconsin's Legislature on a party-line vote eliminated the requirement that candidates list the employers of their donors, removing a key detail behind publicly reported campaign contributions.
In the same bill, lawmakers legalized unlimited contributions to political parties and legislative campaign committees, except for corporations and groups such as labor unions, which can contribute up to $12,000 a year.
Mike Wittenwyler, a Madison attorney who specializes in campaign finance issues and who has represented outside political groups, said the law changes were "long overdue." The last major rewrite was in the 1970s, he said, prior to several key court decisions that clarified the limits and rights of donors and candidates.
A Marquette Law School poll found that most citizens of Wisconsin disagreed with the Legislature's 2015 decision to remove contribution limits on state political parties. In a poll, 61% of respondents said they opposed unlimited contributions, while 13% supported them. Another 25% said they had not heard enough on the issue.
Taken together, these changes have made Wisconsin the "darkest of dark money states," said Jay Heck, executive director of the Common Cause in Wisconsin, which promotes clean, open and responsive state government.
Matt Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, another good government group, offers a similar assessment. "Wisconsin," he said, "is open for bribery."
Weiner said secret campaign contributions can come from interests on the left or the right, especially in state elections.
"On the state level, we see a lot more 'Company X wants a mining concession,' or something like that," Weiner said. "And they put a lot of dark money in to basically influence legislative officials to get what they want."
That is not just an idle example. Documents briefly unsealed during the John Doe investigation show that Gogebic Taconite secretly donated $700,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth during the recalls in 2011 and 2012. The next year, in 2013, Walker signed the bill loosening mining restrictions — a bill that Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald acknowledged in a video was written by the company seeking to build a controversial mine in northern Wisconsin. After several years, the company abandoned the project as not feasible.
People vs. Citizens United
Some advocates for stricter campaign finance laws feel that the only way to blunt such corporate influence over the political system is with a constitutional amendment to override the Citizens United decision.
Wisconsin United to Amend is mobilizing people to sign a petition and to convince city councils and town and village boards to vote on resolutions calling for this constitutional amendment.
The campaign's messages are: "Money is not speech" and "Corporations are not people." Currently, more than 130 local governments in Wisconsin and 19 state legislatures have passed the resolution.
"More and more people are understanding … these politicians cannot fix it, because they are bought by those who don't want to fix it," said George Penn, a representative from South Central Wisconsin United to Amend.
Many on the left see the Citizens United decision as a stab at the heart of democracy. Wittenwyler takes the opposite view. He believes the decision expands free speech rights.
"Everyone should be able to speak and you shouldn't make arbitrary decisions based on how an entity may or may not be established," Wittenwyler said. "I want to live in a society where everyone is allowed to speak without any government oppression of what you're going to hear."
Voter John Tyler, speaking outside his Lake Mills polling station during the Aug. 14 primary election, said corporations have too much influence in our democracy.
"How is the regular person supposed to stand up and be counted compared to corporations that give millions of dollars and influence policy and have the legislatures just do what they wanted?" Tyler asked.
Eric Blumreich, a Green Bay resident who participated in Wisconsin Public Radio's Beyond the Ballot series, agreed. But he believes voters still have some leverage.
"The 2016 presidential election was decided by razor-thin victories for (President) Trump in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania," Blumreich said in an email. "In my opinion, this indicates that your vote counts in Wisconsin and that vote is perhaps the best indicator … when it comes to political power and having a voice."
Dee J. Hall contributed to this story, which was produced as part of an investigative reporting class in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication under the direction Hall, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism's managing editor.