Even as his friend and Democratic counterpart in Wisconsin has blasted supposed efforts by Republicans to "buy" an open Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, Illinois' Democratic billionaire governor has again shoveled more big money to support a liberal Democrat in the contentious race for partisan control of the state Supreme Court in Illinois' northern neighbor.
According to Wisconsin state campaign finance records, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker donated $1 million to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin on March 14.
It marks the second - and largest - donation from the Illinois governor with potential aspirations to national political office, potentially including the White House.
In all, Pritzker has now personally donated $1.5 million to aid the campaign of Democratic Dane County Judge Susan Crawford in the race to replace retiring liberal State Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley.
Crawford is facing conservative Republican Waukesha County Judge and former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel in the contest.
Election Day for the contest is Tuesday, April 1.
On campaign donation records, Pritzker is again listed as "Governor." And he again is using a Chicago address associated with The Pritzker Group, a venture capital firm.
According to Forbes, Pritzker formerly helped to run The Pritzker Group until he became governor of Illinois. Forbes reported Gov. Pritzker's brother, Anthony Pritzker, currently runs the firm.
The firm's website prominently includes a photo featuring both Anthony and JB Pritzker.
The donation comes as part of a national onslaught of money pouring into the race from throughout the country, with Crawford enjoying a lopsided fundraising advantage.
According to differing tallies, political parties, campaigns and other groups have raised and spent from $80 million to more than $100 million, combined, on the race.
According to an analysis conducted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, more than 100,000 people from throughout the U.S. have donated to Crawford and Schimel individually, or through political parties or other avenues.
To this point, the analysis shows Crawford has raised more than $26 million, compared to about $14 million for Schimel.
The Journal-Sentinel further reported that more than three-fourths of Crawford's donors have come from outside the state of Wisconsin, compared to only about 13% of Schimel's donors.
Nonetheless, Wisconsin's Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and other Democrats have criticized Republicans for donating to support Schimel.
Evers and others particularly have criticized billionaire Elon Musk for wading into the race in support of Schimel, helping to fund ad buys and rallies, among other campaign activities.
Evers posted on is official page on the social media platform X, using the handle @GovEvers: "Wisconsinites will not be bought. Our votes are not for sale."
Evers, however, has not similarly criticized other wealthy indiviuals, incuding noted left-wing political promoter George Soros and Evers' friend and Democratic gubernatorial colleague, Pritzker, for also donating millions to support Crawford.
According to the same recent campaign finance records, Soros notably donated an additional $500,000 to the Wisconsin Democratic Party in February and again in March, bringing his personal campaign contributions in the race to $2 million.
Under campaign finance law, donations to judicial candidates, like Crawford and Schimel, are capped at $20,000.
However, those limits can easily be evaded by wealthy donors who give to the political party or spend in other ways.
According to campaign finance records, the Wisconsin Democratic Party has transferred many of those big money contributions to Crawford's campaign.
Observers say the race has already become the most expensive state Supreme Court contest in American history, exceeding the massive spending on Wisconsin's last state Supreme Court contest in 2023, won by Democrat Janet Protasiewicz over Republican Daniel Kelly.
Stakes in the race are high, as both Republicans and Democrats have particularly noted the importance of controlling the court to help determine the fate of Wisconsin's congressional district maps.
The parties have declared they believe electing their candidate of choice could determine the fate of two of Wisconsin's congressional districts. Currently, Republicans hold the slimmest of majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives, so two seats could help to decide who controls the House, and along with it, the ability to determine the fate of much of President Donald Trump's agenda.
Within the closely politically divided state itself, the state Supreme Court has vacillated along with its ideological composition in its holdings on key political and social issues, notably including abortion, voting rights, ballot collection and counting rules, and labor laws.
Most recently, for instance, the court's liberal majority overturned a state appellate court's decision that a conservative group could have access to certain state voting records, as the group sought to verify that voters were legally casting ballots and state voter rolls were being properly maintained.
Currently, the state is awaiting a decision from the state high court over the constitutionality of its abortion ban law.
And last summer, the Wisconsin Supreme Court's liberal majority declared election authorities could again use ballot drop boxes to collect ballots in the 2024 election.
Republicans had sought to end the practice, asserting it facilitated vote fraud and could allow Democrats to steal close elections.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde had particularly criticized their use during the run-up to the 2024 fall general election. Hovde narrowly lost to incumbent U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who used late arriving ballots to eke out a win, even as Trump carried the state in the race for President.