After weeks of running campaigns increasingly marked by personal attacks and negative advertisements, Democrats Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and incumbent Peg Lautenschlager will square off on Tuesday for their parties' nomination for attorney general. Republicans Paul Bucher and JB Van Hollen will also vie for the Republican ticket.
Jay Heck, executive director for non-partisan reform group Common Cause, said though voter turnout decreases in primaries, the scandals in the attorney general race, especially Peg Lautenschlager's 2001 drunk driving arrest, have raised voter interest in this mid-term election, particularly in the Madison area.
""It's not like the DUI was a secret,"" said Lautenschlager's Campaign Manager Greg Leifer.
Voters will not focus on the personal attacks in campaign, Leifer said, but instead on Lautenschlager's record and experience, which critics say Falk lacks.
Falk recently ran ads in Wisconsin directly addressing Lautenschlager's DUI, an ad her communication director, Adam Collins, said was a response to negative ads launched by Lautenschlager.
Collins said the dirty climate surrounding this primary is not a typical strategy for an incumbent to run. Lautenschlager is weak, according to Collins, and has needed to run increasingly negative ads.
While these types of negative ads typically drive down voter turnout, Heck said some candidates, like Falk, have chosen to only show their ads in certain areas in Wisconsin. Falk did not air her recent attack ad on Lautenschlager in the Madison area. Heck said this was a calculated strategy because Falk did not want to upset Democrat activists in the largely liberal Dane county area.
""Obviously there has been a lot of negativity with regard to the attorney general race and the attacks on both sides,"" Heck said. ""But I think that's motivated the base of both Lautenschlager and Falk. I think there is going to be a real determined effort for each of those folks to get their voters to the polls.""
Kyle Richmond, state elections board spokesperson, said he expects the primary to generate about half as many voters as the Nov. 7 election. However, Richmond said the dirty climate in this attorney general race might disenfranchise and confuse voters.
Students, according to Richmond, traditionally do not participate in the primary as much as the rest of the population. Richmond said students who have just arrived in Madison may not be aware of the issues and also tend not pay attention more attention to national and international news.
