A letter to the editor written last week in an Eau Claire newspaper has spurred a possible agreement between gubernatorial candidates Jim Doyle and the incumbent Scott McCallum to sign a clean-campaign pledge.

At a gubernatorial debate featuring all candidates in the governor’s race held Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a question was asked about negative advertisements running on television.

Doyle made an offer to McCallum to stop the negative ads for the next two weeks of the elections.

Doyle noted that during the primaries, the three Democratic candidates signed a clean-campaign pledge. No negative advertisements were run on television from those campaigns during that time.

He also added the first negative ad to appear after the primary was on run by McCallum on Sept. 12.

“Let’s stop the negative ads. Let’s change the tone,” Doyle said.

Debbie Monterrey-Millett, communications director for McCallum campaign, said the ad which ran on Sept. 12 contrasted the issues between Doyle and McCallum and was factual.

Monterrey-Millett said a negative ad is one that is not factual or brings issues such as a candidate’s family into the ad. Television ads that contrast different positions of the candidates are not considered to be negative.

“It’s very important to show the contrast between the candidate’s issues,” Monterrey-Millett said.

Monterrey-Millett said all ads ran by McCallum have been factual. She also noted McCallum began running contrasting ads in response to Doyle’s negative ads about him.

“If somebody is attacking you, you have to support yourself,” Monterrey-Millett said.

Monterrey-Millett noted the television ads McCallum has run the past two weeks have focused on the positive aspects of McCallum’s campaign.

McCallum agreed to Doyle’s offer on keeping the television ads clean.

“I do accept the challenge,” McCallum said.

Monterrey-Millett said after the debate McCallum confronted Doyle on the offer and said he would pull his negative ads. However, Doyle denied.

“We’re waiting to see what the Doyle campaign means by a clean campaign,” Monterrey-Millett said.

McCallum complimented Green Party candidate Jim Young and Libertarian candidate Ed Thompson for not running negative ads; however, neither candidate has run an ad on television.

Thompson responded to the question of negative television ads by thanking McCallum and Doyle.

“I’m personally really thankful because the negative ads saved me a lot of money,” Thompson said. “Keep it up, guys.”

Young said there should be more focus on the issues rather than attacking each candidate.

Susan Young, scheduler for the Young campaign, said the campaign does not have enough money to purchase television ads and even if it did, it would likely not air an ad. Young believes the issues should be the focus, not attacking other candidates.

Other issues that arose at the debate included the budget and how the next governor will deal with an even larger deficit.

Doyle criticized McCallum about the use of the tobacco fund money for a “one-time fix.” Doyle said the next governor would have to do the hard work.

“This is the worst waste of our chance to do something for the health care of this state,” Doyle said.

Gov. McCallum said the proposal had to be signed by the attorney general — Doyle himself — in order to be passed, which it did.

“Be honest with the people,” McCallum said. “They needed the signature of the attorney general to sign that to get it through.”

Doyle responded that as attorney general, he only looks at if the bill is legal. Doyle did mention that he wrote a letter to the governor stating his disapproval of the bill.

“I have a rules as attorney general to be honest, and I told them yes, you can pass the stupid law and you did pass the stupid law wasting all the tobacco money,” Doyle said.

Doyle also criticized McCallum for his spending since becoming governor.

“Gov. McCallum cut $8 million from a program that allows senior citizens to stay in their homes last year when he spent $9 million on three airplanes,” Doyle said.

McCallum claimed that the $2.7 million Doyle has made in campaign promises would make a tax increase unavoidable.

McCallum said he would not raise taxes because they are directly linked to jobs. If taxes increase, he said, more people will look for out-of-state jobs.

Doyle said he would not increase taxes because it is not the citizen’s fault, therefore, they should not have to pay for the mistake.

Thompson said there is room for government cuts. An example he gave was prisons. Thompson said prison spending could be cut in half if there is an alternative way to house non-violent criminals.

Thompson also criticized McCallum for an increase in taxes on products likes cigarettes, gas and court costs.

Young said there needs to be tax fairness in Wisconsin.

“Let’s tie those rewards to family-supporting jobs,” Young said. “We have to create a state of balance fiscally, socially and ecologically.”