The gloves finally came off in the state attorney general race last week.

Admittedly, in a contest highlighted by the infamous radio debate between J.B. "You Suck" Van Hollen and Paul "I Don't Suck" Bucher, they might never have been on. But this is different.

The first blow came courtesy of Kathleen Falk, who delivered a sharp left hook to Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager in an ad mentioning the incumbent's 2004 arrest and conviction for drunk driving. Mr. Bucher, sensing weakness, followed up with a right uppercut in a radio ad mentioning the same incident.

For Ms. Falk, the move was not surprising. Her entire campaign was borne out of Ms. Lautenschlager's DUI and the accompanying concern that it made the incumbent unelectable. Ms. Falk, after all, is a near replica of Ms. Lautenschlager, except she A) lacks experience in the courtroom and B) lacks experience in a Highway 151 ditch.

Whether the conviction is the liability for Ms. Lautenschlager that many Democratic Party operatives feared is a matter to be determined in the general election. Sensing that Ms. Lautenschlager would indeed get to test that theory after a primary victory, Ms. Falk — in semi-desperation mode — finally reminded voters of the most glaring difference between the two candidates.

Nor was it a surprising move for Mr. Bucher to mention Ms. Lautenschlager's DUI. Once Ms. Falk ran her ad, there was no longer anything to lose by bringing it up. Any stigma attached with "souring the election's dialogue with personal attacks" will be tagged to Ms. Falk, not Mr. Bucher.

Whether Mr. Van Hollen jumps into the ring to deliver one more jab is unknown at this point. If he advances to the general election and Ms. Lautenschlager is his opponent, he almost certainly will.

Ms. Lautenschlager, meanwhile, has to grin and bear it as the current assault comes. It is hard to feel sorry for her. Mistakes happen, but Ms. Lautenschlager is suffering now not because of the conviction itself, but because of the way she reacted to it. To milk the boxing analogy to its last drop, she is Mike Tyson in the wake of a shocking Buster Douglas beating — crumbling instead of regrouping.

Let's recap the entire aftermath of the DUI saga. First came the post-arrest press conference. A lowly reporter for the Herald at the time, I witnessed Ms. Lautenschlager deliver a pre-written statement filled with repentant words in a speaking fashion that indicated considerably lesser amounts of remorse. She then blew the joint, leaving her attorney to answer questions — or, more accurately, to explain why he would basically not be answering them.

Things didn't get better from there. It was revealed that Ms. Lautenschlager was driving a state car at the time of her arrest and that she had used it for personal travel in the past as well. A state Ethics Board inquiry resulted in a $250 fine and an order to reimburse the state for personal miles driven.

She promised to work hard with Mothers Against Drunk Driving. That didn't happen.

Then, in recent weeks, the attorney general race heated up as the candidates quarreled over whether to criminalize first-time drunk driving offenders and whether roadside sobriety checkpoints are an effective tool in combating drunk drivers. Ms. Falk and Messrs. Bucher and Van Hollen weighed in with their thoughts, arriving at different conclusions as to what the best policies would be.

My two cents: yes to criminalization and no to roadside checks — their effectiveness is highly debatable.

Ms. Lautenschlager was absent from the discussion. Her credibility on the subject is sorely compromised, to be sure, but that is not an excuse for her silence. The public needs to know her stance on what has turned out to be one of the bigger policy issues of the campaign thus far.

Wisconsin is the only state in the nation that treats first-time drunk driving arrests as municipal ordinance violations instead of criminal offenses. In a sense, Ms. Lautenschlager got off easy. While ex post facto criminal sanctions don't pass muster, delayed political judgments know no such restrictions. That will soon be a job for Wisconsin voters, and they're the ones who may deliver the knockout blow to Ms. Lautenschlager's re-election aspirations.

Ryan Masse ([email protected]) is chairman of The Badger Herald Editorial Board.