Lautenschlager. Sounds.. er... looks a beer brand.
Posted on 09/01/2006 5:24:17 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
MADISON, WI (AP) -- A challenger to Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager mentioned the incumbent's drunken driving arrest in a television ad unveiled Friday.
An announcer in fellow Democrat Kathleen Falk's ad refers to Lautenschlager as: "Our state's top cop convicted of drunken driving in a state car, fined for misuse of the car by the Ethics Board."
This marks the first time that any candidate in the race has used mention of Lautenschlager's arrest in a campaign advertisement. While Falk's ad mentions the arrest, it does not show any video of the incident taken from a police car.
"Voters didn't need the visual aid," said Falk's campaign spokesman Adam Collins when asked why the police video wasn't used.
He said the ad began airing Friday in Milwaukee, Green Bay, Wausau, La Crosse, Eau Claire, Rhinelander.
Lautenschlager's campaign spokesman Greg Leifer said the arrest is not a secret and Lautenschlager has never tried to hide it.
"Peg has always said this is an issue for the voters to decide," Leifer said.
He said Falk's ad was an attempt to distract from other issues in the campaign, including the difference in experience of the two candidates and Lautenschlager's record as a prosecutor.
Lautenschlager was cited for drunken driving in 2004 after she drove her state car into a Dodge County ditch. Following that arrest, some Democrats expressed fear that Lautenschlager wouldn't be able to win in the general election prompting Falk's entrance into the race.
Lautenschlager paid $784 in fines and gave up $3,250 in pay. In a settlement with the state Ethics Board, she paid a $250 fine and reimbursed the state for $672 worth of personal travel she hadn't reported to the state.
Collins said the latest Falk ad was in response to one Lautenschlager released earlier this week that took issue with Falk's experience, noting that she has never prosecuted a criminal and accused her of accepting campaign donations from special interests.
"We have said from the beginning we reserve the right to respond to negative attacks," Collins said.
Leifer described Lautenschlager's ad as one that compared the two records of the candidates, while Falk's was "purely negative."
Falk's ad also accuses Lautenschlager of mismanagement of the state crime lab, leading to a backlog of DNA cases. Lautenschlager has blamed the DNA backlog on an explosion of samples being submitted for testing, up 57 percent last year alone. To address it, Lautenschlager said she will request the hiring of additional DNA analysts.
The ad also takes issue with her accepting $25,000 in campaign donations from a company the state investigated for questionable marketing practices. Lautenschlager later returned the money received from International Profit Associates, but the ad does not mention that.
"She returned the money only after it was brought to light by reporters," Collins said. "It wasn't something she did voluntarily on her own."
Falk spent 14 years as an assistant attorney general in Wisconsin before becoming Dane County executive in 1997. She finished third in a three-way Democratic primary for governor in 2002. Lautenschlager, of Fond du Lac, is a former member of the state Assembly who served as U.S. attorney for the state's western district under President Clinton.
Falk released another ad on Friday, showing only in Madison, in which Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and three Democratic state representatives throw their support to Falk. That ad makes no mention of the DUI arrest.
Cieslewicz says in the ad that "No one is more qualified to shake things up as Attorney General than Kathleen Falk." Also appearing in Falk's new ad lending their support are Dane County Board Supervisor Sheila Stubbs, and state Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, Sondy Pope-Roberts, D-Verona, and Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse.
In Falk's first ad of the campaign she was shown alongside Gov. Jim Doyle.
The winner of the Democratic primary will take on either Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher or former U.S. attorney J.B. Van Hollen.
"Hide The Good Stuff on the Holiday Weekend" Ping!
Don't know about you, but on September 12th I plan on voting for Peg. She'll be sooooo much easier to defeat by my pick, J.B. Van Holen, than will Kathleen Falk...who has little baggage to exploit. ;)
Lautenschlager. Sounds.. er... looks a beer brand.
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