After accusations of false advertisement, Democratic Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager changed her controversial campaign ad Wednesday in response to a complaint filed by one of the companies mentioned.
The revised ad began running statewide Wednesday.
The television ad, titled "Only Peg," originally implied American Transmission Company donated to Democratic challenger Kathleen Falk, prompting critical outrage, as corporate donations are not allowed. ATC responded by sending a letter to Lautenschlager's campaign, requesting the ad stop airing in current form and threatening legal action.
"At no time has ATC made any contribution to Falk's campaign committee or engaged in the illegal activity suggested in the advertisement," ATC's attorney, Lauren L. Azar, said. "While several employees of ATC have contributed to Falk's campaign, they made individual and personal contributions."
Lautenschlager's campaign responded to a letter from Azar Tuesday, saying it would alter the ad to make clear that Mark Williamson, an executive with ATC, made the donation personally.
"We altered the ad, but it still has the same facts, the same message," Lautenschlager campaign manager Greg Leifer said. "We kept the facts that Falk is taking money from special interests."
Leifer added that the ordeal verifies Falk's friends are helping her hide the fact that she is funding her campaign with thousands of dollars in special interest money.
But Adam Collins, campaign manager for Falk, said the campaign is not involved in the controversy and added that Lautenschlager is instead the one who should be held accountable for her special interest money.
"In the campaign finance report for the first half of the year, Lautenschlager took nearly half of her money from out-of-state interest groups," he said. "That is an unprecedented number. For her to suggest anything like what is in her ad is laughable."
According to the campaign finance report filed in July, 47 percent of Lautenschlager's campaign money came from out-of-state, including from Texas, New York and Illinois. In contrast, out-of-state funding for Falk's campaign amounted to 12 percent at that point.
And with the barrage of mudslinging from all candidates, including Republican hopefuls Paul Bucher and J.B. Van Hollen, some are calling for reform.
"It almost appears that campaigns are willing to say anything in hopes that some of the mud will stick," said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin. "The way to solve it is to try to get candidates to sign clean campaign pledges to not engage in personal attacks or unduly negative ads and also limit the amount of money spent in races."
Heck added that negative ads perpetuate a cycle of negativity, as each candidate responds to an attack with yet another attack. Still, some candidates have taken the initiative to try to keep races clean.
In November 2005, Lautenshlager approached Falk to sign on to her "Clean Campaign Challenge." The pledge included a number of ethical restrictions, including a $1 million primary limit and a promise to denounce any outside organizations spending money to influence the outcome of the primary election. Falk declined to sign on.
The attorney general primary election, after which either Falk or Lautenschlager will move on to face the Republican primary winner, will be held Sept. 12.
