With the Wisconsin state attorney general race fast approaching, political experts are wondering if aggressive advertising may further divide an already-fractured Democratic Party.
Political advertising is part of every campaign and can serve as a source of entertainment for the general public, especially during a contested election season. Oftentimes, mudslinging will occur between opposing parties; however, this year's race for state attorney general includes two Democratic candidates.
A clean campaign is a very noble ideal; in most cases it's never going to happen and audiences don't really want to see it—they sometimes like the mudslinging,\ said UW-Madison journalism professor Dietram Scheufele.
In order to defeat Republican candidates, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk said she was urged by Democratic leaders across the state to run against fellow Democrat and current state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager. As a response to this, the Lautenschlager campaign challenged Falk to run a clean campaign.
""The process is focused on getting information to voters instead of using personal attacks,"" said Dan Bachhuber, spokesperson for the Lautenschlager campaign.
The Falk campaign denied this challenge.
""Kathleen Falk has always run clean, issue-oriented campaigns,"" said Melissa Mulliken, Falk's campaign spokesperson. ""We pledged on the day we announced to run a clean, issue-oriented campaign.""
According to Mulliken, Lautenschlager actually broke her own monetary pledge for the campaign.
""In a race like this where we are going to compete against well-financed Republicans, we cannot and will not deny Democrats the ability to finance our campaign,"" she said.
A campaign issue that may work its way into political advertising is Lautenschlager's drunken driving incident in February 2004. Mulliken did not comment regarding this issue; however, according to Bachhuber, Falk said she wanted to focus on the issues of the campaign rather than dirty personal attacks.
""Right after the actual DUI happened, Kathleen Falk issued a statement in March that she strongly supported Lautenschlager and wanted to move on,"" Bachhuber said.
In terms of using Lautenschlager's past legal issues in a campaign, Scheufele thinks it would be wise for the Democratic Party to avoid these types of personal attacks.
""I think in a Democratic primary that's a very dangerous strategy,"" Scheufele said. ""I think it would be wise for both candidates to stay away from issues like that in terms of political strategy.""
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