Days before Oneida County's April 1, 2014, county board elections, voters in Wisconsin's Northwoods opened their mailboxes to an alarming warning: "Some County Supervisors have a Dam Plan which is much more than Water Over the Dam. Their plan would ELIMINATE DAMS!"
There was no such plan. The man who helped write those words is now the Republican nominee for governor: Tom Tiffany.
What the flyers said
Bill Lueders, who first investigated the flyers in 2015 for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (now Wisconsin Watch), laid the story out again on October 6 in a Wisconsin Examiner column, with new records from the state Justice Department.
In the Northwoods, dams aren't a side issue. They hold up the lakes that lakefront homes, resorts, boating and fishing depend on. Telling voters that someone wants to "ELIMINATE DAMS" is about the most damaging thing you can say about a local candidate there.
Under the headline, in tiny type, the flyers gave their only evidence: "During the amendment process to the county master plan, Supervisor Martini proposed the removal of dams in Oneida County. The proposal did not advance." Each flyer carried the name and photo of one of four county board candidates who would "Stop Their Dam Plan!"
Everyone targeted said it was false
Bob Martini, the supervisor the flyers singled out, had worked as a rivers protection coordinator for the state Department of Natural Resources. He told Wisconsin Watch in 2015 he had "never made an amendment or proposal to remove dams in Oneida County." Fellow supervisor Candy Sorensen said there had "never been any discussion or plan on removing Oneida County dams," Wisconsin Watch reported.
Lueders reports that all four of the candidates the flyers targeted said they were false. The other two, Bob Mott and Alan VanRaalte, denied knowing of any dam-removal plan. "I live on a lake that's created by a dam!" VanRaalte said.
It worked anyway. Martini lost 213 to 128. Sorensen lost by a handful of votes. Both blamed the flyers.
Martini told Lueders recently: "The flyer said there was a plan to remove all the dams in Oneida County. There was no such plan. Even if there was a plan I would have opposed it on several grounds." Back in 2015, he put it more simply: "It's just wrong to lie to try to get elected."
Tiffany admitted his role — and defended it
In 2015, Tiffany, then a Republican state senator, admitted to Wisconsin Watch that he helped craft the flyers' language. He said he did it as a resident, not a senator: "I care about my county. It's important to be engaged."
Lueders writes that Tiffany never backed down on the substance. Tiffany argued Martini had played a role in past DNR dam removals, and that Martini sat on the board of a river conservation group Tiffany said was "associated with" a national group with "a bias toward removing dams." The Wisconsin group said there were no formal ties. Tiffany also claimed Martini had offered "some wording that was favorable to dam removal when possible" during talks on a county land-use plan. Jensen, the challenger who beat Martini, pointed to the line in question — "Support dam/drainage way repair and removal where appropriate" — which Martini said he had nothing to do with, and which was taken out when towns objected.
A line in a draft plan about removing dams "where appropriate" is not a plan to eliminate every dam in the county. That's the gap between what Tiffany and his candidates had and what the flyers said.
The investigation
A citizens' group formed in response and filed a complaint alleging more than 70 violations of state election law. It went to the state Justice Department, then run by Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel.
Lueders recently obtained the department's 91-page file through an open records request. It shows an investigator interviewed at least six people, including all four candidates. One of them, Robb Jensen — the man who beat Martini — "explained that Tom Tiffany approached him and suggested a mailing" and "assisted in designing the flyer." Tiffany himself doesn't appear to have been interviewed.
In July 2015, the department closed the case. A prosecutor found "technical violations" of election law — the flyers' tiny disclosure line, misspelled as "Authoized and pad for by candidate," didn't name who paid for them — and sent the four candidates warning letters. On whether the flyers were true, he wrote: "Whether false statements have been made in campaign fliers is a subject of debate."
It wasn't much of a debate. All four candidates the flyers targeted said there was no dam plan.
The same habit, today
Tiffany's campaign for governor didn't respond to Lueders' requests for comment.
The flyers are 12 years old, but the habit isn't. This year Tiffany has said it's time to wrap up the Iran war — after voting five times against ending it. He also tried to overturn Wisconsin's 2020 presidential result, which Lueders notes is a bigger concern than a county board race. But the dam flyers show something simpler: when Tiffany wanted to beat people, he was willing to tell voters they planned something they never planned.
What the record shows
In 2014, Tom Tiffany, then a state senator, helped write flyers telling Oneida County voters that county board members had a plan to "ELIMINATE DAMS." All four candidates the flyers targeted said they were false, and the supervisor the flyers singled out says he never proposed it. Two targeted incumbents lost. Tiffany admitted his role in 2015 and defended the claim rather than retract it; a state Justice Department investigation found technical election-law violations and sent warning letters to the four candidates.
Source
Tom Tiffany's dam lies — Bill Lueders, Wisconsin Examiner (commentary), October 6, 2026
