Janesville, Wis (October 21, 2026) –
JANESVILLE — For the last few weeks, Janesville residents have been bombarded with expensive campaign advertising from Grow Janesville Responsibly urging residents to vote no on the GM/JATCO development referendum.
The referendum asks residents to vote yes or no on an ordinance that would require a community vote on any development at the former GM/JATCO site exceeding $450 million.
The wording of the referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot is:
Should approval of proposed development agreements, development projects, sales, and leases of the GM/JATCO sites for projects exceeding $450 million in project costs be decided by a majority vote of the electors?
Janesville for Responsible Development (JVL4RD), the pro-referendum group, said today it had filed a formal complaint with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission requesting an investigation into what it calls Grow Janesville Responsibly’s apparent failure to register as a referendum committee and disclose its campaign finances. The investigation is ongoing.
According to a news release, the complaint followed an inquiry to the Janesville City Clerk’s office regarding campaign registration and financial reporting requirements for groups engaged in referendum advocacy. The most recent reporting deadline was September 30, 2026.
In recent weeks, the small-but-well-funded group of people opposed to public participation through referendum has featured prominently in local discourse, JVL4RD said in its news release.
Yet, as of October 1, Grow Janesville Responsibly had not registered as a referendum committee with the City Clerk or filed campaign finance reports that would allow the public to identify who is writing the checks, the group said.
A follow-up inquiry with the City Clerk on October 7, 2026, further confirmed that the Clerk’s office had no record of referendum committee registrations or campaign finance reports for any group.
JVL4RD says that it recognizes that campaign finance reporting requirements vary based on a committee’s circumstances and applicable statutory thresholds. The organization is running a people-powered campaign, having received $5,568 in donations to date. This amount remains below the statutory $10,000 reporting threshold for referendum committees. JVL4RD saidcit believes the public should be able to distinguish between organizations subject to reporting requirements and those that are not.
“Residents deserve transparency about who is spending money to influence decisions that affect our community,” said Alyssa Capozziello of JVL4RD. “When campaign messages are appearing everywhere, the public should have a way to understand whose interests are being represented. Campaign finance laws exist to help make that information accessible.”