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The race to be the state’s top education official has been overshadowed — some would say drowned out — by the record-shattering Wisconsin Supreme Court contest.

Spending in the DPI race, though, has been remarkable by historical standards. As of Thursday afternoon, overall spending favored Underly, $2.7 million to almost $1.8 million backing Kinser. Add in the $125,388 that Jeff Wright spent on his campaign as he finished third in the primary, and overall spending has eclipsed $4.6 million. That easily tops the previous record of $3 million set in 2021.

The bulk of the money that has been backing Underly is the $1.4 million dropped by A Better Wisconsin Together Political Fund, which filed a finance report this week that showed $500,000 donations each from WEAC PAC, which is part of the state’s largest teachers union, and the American Federation of Teachers. The education establishment’s pick has long cruised in DPI races.

But conservatives are hoping the almost $2.5 million in financial support Kinser’s campaign has received directly could help change that tide. That haul — well ahead of the nearly $1.4 million that Underly has pulled in — has allowed Kinser to put $1.6 million on TV for the campaign, according to AdImpact. Insiders note the state Dem Party has accounted for nearly $1.1 million of what Underly has raised for her campaign, which some see as a sign of her weakness as an incumbent.

Yes, the state Supreme Court has been sucking up a lot of donor dollars, but that hasn’t stopped Kinser from finding ways to raise cash. The state GOP has accounted for $1.9 million of her haul. But she’s still found a way to connect with donors — particularly conservatives and those associated with the school choice movement — to pull in the money. But it still might not be enough to break through. Kinser has taken a much more high- profile approach to the campaign, regularly appearing at public forums. It has sometimes exposed her own weaknesses when she doesn’t have a deep grasp of policies or funding issues impacting the Department of Public Instruction.

To some, she’s just the vessel for conservatives to put their hopes — and money — into because they can’t stand Underly and the direction of education in Wisconsin. But at least she’s showing up, some say.

Underly has appeared at just one joint public forum and has regularly turned down invitations from various media outlets to field questions on camera. To some, it’s a sign that her campaign is trying to avoid mistakes and do its best to avoid making the race a referendum on her. Because if it’s all about the incumbent, she’d be in real danger of losing.

Underly’s decision to revamp benchmarks for standardized tests has been panned. So has her agency’s failure to disclose Milwaukee Public Schools’ failure to file required financial reports — putting state aid in jeopardy — before a $252 million referendum in spring 2024 that barely passed.

But will anybody remember those issues with all the noise in the state Supreme Court race? With today’s technology, campaigns can target voters on the microlevel, ferreting out those who have a deep interest in the superintendent’s race. But that can’t compete with the tens of millions of dollars on the airwaves and for GOTV efforts in the Supreme Court contest.

Many insiders continue to see the race as tied at the hip to the Supreme Court contest. Liberal Susan Crawford wins the court race, Underly gets a second term as superintendent. Conservative Brad Schimel flips control of the state Supreme Court, Kinser will ride his coattails to become the state’s top education official.

There are those who believe there are other routes to victory. Maybe Kinser could pull off the win, for example, if Milwaukee voters are fed up with Underly after the referendum revelation and the latest round of poor test scores coming out of the state’s largest district. Others don’t put much stock in that theory. Incumbency is a significant advantage most of the time, and the education establishment typically gets its way in these races. If that streak ends next week, it’d be an upset.