What an odd story to be on the front page of JSOnline.

The Greater Wisconsin Committee, the liberal group backing Kloppenburg, spent less than half of what it did on her behalf in her unsuccessful 2011 bid for a court seat, with opponents spending several times more in this race. Greater Wisconsin put up its TV ads only eight days before the election won by Justice Rebecca Bradley, while an independent group started running ads on Bradley’s behalf just over two months before the election.

Is that a sign that the left in Wisconsin is losing its financial resources? For years, Democrats have been predicting that Gov. Scott Walker’s repeal of most collective bargaining for public sector workers would dry up some labor funding for liberal candidates.

The answer is maybe, maybe not, say players on both sides of the state’s polarized political divide.

The story goes on to say… nothing. Essentially, they are private groups that seem to have plenty of money to spend on political races but chose not to spend as much on Kloppenburg. It never really says why, but I suspect it is because Kloppenburg already lost once and is a bad candidate. But the story doesn’t say. So what was the point of the story?

The most interesting part of it comes at the end.

Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, also said this election isn’t as simple as groups on the left not having resources. Partly, his side now thinks that pouring money into such races may never have been the best answer, he said.

The union leader pointed to other races Tuesday such as Racine School Board seats where union-backed candidates did well by putting in time at the local level. That local organizing could eventually yield fruit in state races by providing candidates, voter lists and volunteers for those campaigns, he said.

Remember that in Racine we saw the teachers union circulating candidate lists and propaganda on school grounds. If this is the new model for liberal activists, the conservative activists need to match it.