As the 2010 gubernatorial race heats up, the three frontrunners are using traditional, innovative and even recycled tactics to get their messages out to the voters.
The focus of Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's campaign is the "Brown Bag" strategy, which includes handing out brown paper bags with materials detailing his economic plans for Wisconsin.
Although the strategy differs substantially from the more traditional campaign routes taken by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann, it has been used before, specifically by U.S. Senator George Voinovich, R-Ohio, in 1998.
Both Voinovich and Walker used the services of SCM Associates, Inc., a Republican fundraising firm based in New Hampshire. Both campaigns sent out letters from the candidates' wives in brown paper bags, and SCM lists the brown bag campaign under its "Hall of Fame" of strategies on its website.
Walker's spokesperson Jill Bader said their campaign team was fully responsible for the idea of behind Walker as the "brown bag candidate."
"The ‘brown bag' idea and the brown bag campaign came completely from Scott, from who he is and from our campaign team from Wisconsin," Bader said. "It just happened to fit into something that our fundraising team had already produced for another campaign."
Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Graeme Zielinski said the campaign is both artificial and a misrepresentation of Walker's true practices.
"It's a fabrication, a fraud, a sham, and people in Wisconsin are going to see that," Zielinski said.
The other campaigns are taking more traditional approaches.
Barrett's spokesperson Phil Walzak said Barrett has been traveling around the state to reach out to Wisconsinites, and that ""the energy and excitement for Tom's candidacy is very strong."
Neumann released a new radio ad Monday called "Principled," one of several advertisements that Neumann's spokesperson, Chris Lato, said keeps them on the offensive. Neumann released the first television ad and Walker released a TV ad earlier this month.
