The 2012 presidential and congressional elections, said Lisa Graves, was “the most expensive election in U.S. history. In fact, it was the most expensive election in the history of the world.”

Then a gunman with an assault rifle murdered 26 people, mostly little children, at an elementary school in Connecticut. This atrocity, on top of other recent carnage, including two mass shootings in Wisconsin, is seen as opening the door to new gun laws.

Many voters insisted these ads had no impact on them. And some avowed that, when it came to them, the ads backfired. But Mike McCabe suspects these airwave-borne toxins are infecting the body politic “more than people realize or are willing to acknowledge.”

Wisconsin’s status as a battleground state was reaffirmed in thousands of 30-second increments. The money flowed fast and furious. Yet all this spending brought little change.

President Barack Obama returned to Madison today to rally his supporters to cast their votes tomorrow to help “finish what we started” with his election four years ago.

Wisconsin has 1.8 percent of the nation’s population, but accounts for just .8 percent of the nearly $1.2 billion that has flowed to presidential contenders.

Modern information technology is transforming society so fast that what was cutting-edge yesterday seems quaint today. Increasingly sophisticated communication methods are being used in all spheres, including politics.

In the battleground state of Wisconsin, Suzanne and Keevin Allen do what much of the political establishment cannot — disagree without being disagreeable.