With one week remaining in the race for the governor's seat, both campaigns have released another round of ads meant to shore up support for their political bases while appealing to undecided voters as well.
The campaign of U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, released an advertisement on Milwaukee radio featuring former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani touting Green's ability to curb gang violence and drugs in Milwaukee.
""I know what it takes to clean up a city and take the streets back from criminals,"" Giuliani says in the advertisement. ""[Green] has exactly the right approach to fight crime and clean up Milwaukee's neighborhoods.""
Gov. Jim Doyle's ad features a rape victim named Linda, sexually assaulted at the age of 18, who attacks Green for failing to support abortion for women in the case of rape or incest.
""Congressman Green, after what I went through, it should be my choice, not your's,"" Linda says in the television spot.
Green's campaign countered with a strongly worded press release labeling Doyle ""the most extreme politician Wisconsin has ever seen.""
""He supports partial birth abortion and even opposes requiring parental notification for a minor to have an abortion,"" the release from Green spokesperson Mike Prentiss said.
UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin said the content of the ads serve a strategic purpose one week before the election.
""They're both pretty inflammatory ads in the sense that they're really going after highly emotional subjects. To that extent, doing them late in the game may be more effective than doing them early in the game, where their impact might wear off,"" Franklin said.
Franklin said ads released so close to the election are not necessarily more effective than other ads, but require a different strategy to appeal to voters.
""Both of the ads seem to be aimed at the other side's base and trying to splinter that base,"" Franklin said. ""Talking about Milwaukee crime with Giuliani could be aimed at getting even Democratic voters in Milwaukee to think that Doyle hasn't done enough to help the city out in that way.""
Franklin added that female voters may be more apt to view Green as extreme in light of Doyle's ad.
