Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson's office has confirmed that the city is partnering with a Democratic strategy firm on a citywide get-out-the-vote drive ahead of the midterm elections.
A spokesman for the mayor told The Daily Signal that GPS Impact is "one of several" partners with the city on "Milwaukee Votes 2022," a voting push that Johnson announced last week. GPS Impact boasts on the front page of its website that it has "helped Democrats, progressive organizations and initiatives, and elected officials win in red states."
Last week, Melissa Baldauff, a GPS Impact employee and the coordinator of "Milwaukee Votes 2022," told "The Dan O'Donnell Show" that she was working on the initiative in her personal and not professional capacity.
"Neither I nor GPS Impact are working for the City of Milwaukee, receiving taxpayer dollars from the City of Milwaukee, or running a canvass in Milwaukee," she said in an email.
According to the Mayor's office, this isn't true: Milwaukee is indeed partnered with GPS Impact on the "Milwaukee Votes 2022" initiative, which Mayor Johnson said last week includes door-to-door voter contact efforts.
"'Milwaukee Votes 2022' will also have door-to-door canvassers that will be underway, funded by the private sector," he said at a press conference. "Dozens of canvassers will be face to face with eligible voters, encouraging them to exercise their right to vote for the November election."
Republican leaders in the Wisconsin Legislature have demanded that Milwaukee immediately cease its partnership with GPS Impact, calling it an obviously a partisan effort to increase Democrat turnout in the state's largest Democratic city.
Representative Janel Brandtjen, chair of the State Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections, has launched an investigation and has issued Freedom of Information Act requests for all communication between Milwaukee officials and GPS Impact.