"The facts have been clearly laid out there," Walker said. "In the spring of 2011, there were a lot of groups spending a lot of money, many of them were from outside Wisconsin. … We thought it was appropriate to get the message out about the facts, not talking about advocating for or against, expressly advocating for or against candidates, but getting the message out that the (Act 10) reforms would work and indeed they have."

Legal questions raised



Chisholm wasn't the first to question the legality of how Wisconsin Club for Growth operated.

The same day Walker declared he would run for governor in April 2009, the national Club for Growth wrote Johnson about "potential legal issues" with the state Club running ads featuring Walker.

Johnson responded that the group would "continue to criticize and praise the behavior of elected officials" because Wisconsin is not under the same speech restrictions as federal groups.

The idea that the Club could engage in so-called "issue advocacy" while operating behind-the-scenes like a "soup to nuts campaign," as Johnson described it, was baked into the plan to have the group serve as Walker's shadow statewide political operation.