While much of the state hardly knows the state’s candidates for attorney general, their campaigns have turned into one of the more brutal political races this midterm election season.
Although he is eligible for a third term reelection, incumbent Republican J.B. Van Hollen did not file for this election. The leading nominees, who will run in the Nov. 4 election on the same ballot as the gubernatorial candidates, are Republican Brad Schimel and Democrat Susan Happ.
Professor Barry Burden, in the Department of Political Science, said while advertising in the race for governor is unusually negative, it is perhaps even more so in the race for attorney general.
“Voters don’t know much about this race,” Burden said. “Candidates have to do everything they can to get their names out and distinguish themselves from the other races.”
The Wesleyan Media Project, a group that tracks advertising in political campaigns, reported that Wisconsin has had the highest proportion of negative gubernatorial advertisements in the country preceding the 2014 midterm elections, with only 3.7 percent of all commercials considered positive. Burden said the attorney general race is even more extreme due to low information in the public.
A recent Marquette poll found that around 70 percent of likely Wisconsin voters did not know who their state’s attorney general candidates are. However, the same poll found that, like governor’s race, this race is remarkably close. This combination of low information and uncertainty about the outcome has fueled a particularly nasty competition, UW journalism professor Mike Wagner said.
“In a state like Wisconsin, where there is low information [about the attorney general candidates], negative advertising could be the only thing voters know about each nominee,” Wagner said.
Wagner said candidates are faced with a real challenge in a low information race that is also competitive. He said getting recognized in a race like this is hard, and that is where negative advertising comes into play.
Both candidates’ campaigns have come out with negative commercials that their opponent have said were inaccurate. The Committee for Justice and Fairness came out with an ad this month claiming Schimel has a record of letting child predators go free and repeatedly cutting deals in child pornography cases. However, Wispolitics reported Schimel’s campaign asked stations to cut the commercial, claiming inaccuracy.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin claimed in a news advertisement that Happ took money from a man charged with multiple felony counts of sexual assault before offering him a deferred prosecution. Happ’s campaign claimed that this statement was untrue.
Most voters are going to go right down the ticket in this election, meaning political party is going to be the most important factor for both candidates, Burden said. Most likely, voters who vote for Democrat Mary Burke will also vote for Happ, whereas those who check Walker’s name will also check Schimel’s.
“For voters who are more centrist, a negative ad in a race like this could have an effect,” Wagner said. “Negative ads have a much larger effect when information is low, like it is in this race.”
