Scarcely more than a week has passed since votes were cast in the primary elections, but there have already been a slew of accusations over issue ads paid for by unions and state parties.
Under scrutiny is the Wisconsin Education Association, the teachers’ union and the state’s largest union, which put out the latest ad bashing Gov. Scott McCallum.
The ad claims McCallum is attacking the record of Democratic candidate attorney general Jim Doyle to take attention off of his own record.
The ad seems to be in response to TV ads that were aired by the Republican Party of Wisconsin, slamming Doyle for missing important court deadlines while acting as attorney general.
This is the second time ads paid for by the teachers’ union have come under attack. Sept. 3, U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett criticized radio ads taken out by the union. Barrett said the ads, which highlighted health care, prescription drugs and schools, looked more like campaign and less like issue ads.
The union responded, claiming it had a right to air the ads.
“WEAC is exercising its First Amendment right to speak to the public about key issues. This ad is legal and appropriate,” a spokesman said in a statement. “WEAC has exceeded any legal requirements for issue ads. WEAC filed an IRS 527 form, publicly disclosed who is paying for the ad and even went the extra disclosure step of stating the amount spent on the ad, which was $222,000.”
Earlier this week, there were reports that $10.4 million had been spent by the five candidates that ran for governor in the primary elections.
McCallum’s campaign said the ads advocate a repeal of revenue caps on school property that have brought roughly three-billion dollars to the state since 1993 and that Doyle will be making up for lost revenue by increasing property taxes to 13 percent or more.
Darrin Schmitz, campaign manager for McCallum, said this would be the largest property-tax increase in the state.
“The voters now have a clear understanding WEAC and Jim Doyle will do and say anything to win the governor’s race and remove the spending caps that have saved taxpayers three-billion dollars,” he said. “The WEAC two-faced television ad shatters any credibility the organization may have had and will backfire on Doyle in November.”
At a Milwaukee news conference Tuesday, Doyle said the negative ads taken out against him were “dirty political tricks.”
“I have some news for him,” he said. “On Nov. 5, the people of Wisconsin are going to vote him out of office, because he’s the ‘weakest link.'”
According to Campaign Media Analysis Group, a private firm that tracks political ads on TV, candidates and PACs have spent more than four-million dollars on political ads thus far in 2002.
The study also showed there have been more than 12,000 ads released in three major markets in the state: Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay.
Spokesmen for political-watchdog groups and advocates of campaign-finance reform have repeatedly said the extensive spending is evidence that changes need to be made in campaign-finance laws.
