Governor Walker and Mary Burke launch attack ads
Posted: Jul 1, 2014 6:37 PM CDT | Updated: Nov 5, 2014 2:56 PM CDT
MILWAUKEE -- As we get ready to celebrate our nation's independence from England, our democracy and freedom of speech is on full display and some would argue overload with a flurry of political ads in Wisconsin’s race for governor.
The mudslinging has begun between Governor Walker and his democratic challenger Mary Burke.
“We can interpret what's going on with public opinion, the favorable and unfavorables, based on what the campaigns are talking about on air.” said UW-Milwaukee political science professor Mordecai Lee.
With a poker theme, The Friends of Scott Walker align Burke with former governor Jim Doyle. \"They gambled taxpayer money on dreadful policies.” the ad says. It also points to job loss and tax hikes.
While the Burke campaign goes after Walker through the John Doe investigation, and economic news in the state.
None of the topics are picked by accident.
“They do polling, they do focus groups, they decide what would affect public opinion and what would be a waste of money.” Lee said.
Walker's camp released a statement about Burke’s ad saying in part:
\"Mary Burke's ad is slanderous at best and it should pulled from the airwaves immediately, failure to remove this ad would be dishonest and misleading to Wisconsin voters by furthering baseless allegations and inaccurate reporting.\"
While Burke’s campaign says,
“Our ad simply points out the truth, which is that in the midst of bad news on two fronts, Scott Walker's immediate reaction, the very next day, was to launch a false, negative attack against Mary Burke.”
Whether the ads are too early or not, now that they're on the air you can bet they'll stay up according to Lee.
He says he expects the ads to try and sway the handful of undecided voters out there before Election Day.
He says these ads are mostly targeted at undecided voters because each candidate already has strong partisan support.