Attorney General race intensifies with unusual amount of negativity and personal attacks

With the Sept. 12 primary less than two weeks away, the state attorney general's race has seen unprecedented nastiness and negative tactics. Bursting campaign coffers and regular personal attacks, two hallmarks of the race, may both be indications of a changing political climate in Wisconsin, according to campaign experts. ""Generally the higher the amount of money that's spent on any campaign, the more negative it is, because so much of that money finds its way into negative advertisement,"" said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, the state's largest non-partisan citizen reform group. The candidates' campaign finances are public record and are documented by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a non-profit organization dedicated to campaign finance reform. As of June 30, Democratic primary candidate Kathleen Falk raised $642,903, Democrat and incumbent Peg Lautenschlager collected $645,526, and Republican primary candidates Paul Bucher and J.B. Van Hollen netted $368,708 and $677, 777 respectively, according to the campaign's website. Swelling war chests, unlike any in past attorney general elections, have led to ""earlier and nastier"" emergence of ads. Republican candidates Paul Bucher and J.B. Van Hollen have unveiled radio ads that criticize Lautenschlager's handling of a DNA testing backlog at the Department of Justice's crime lab. Heck said the race to become the state's top cop has become more about political ideology than law enforcement and this change points to a shift in state politics. Bill Kraus, who has worked on several statewide campaigns in the past, including that of former Republican Gov. Lee Dreyfus in the early '80s, said this mix of copious cash and abandoned political ideals has changed the face of the typical campaign consultant. Today's political strategists specialize in no-holds-barred attack politics and feel no obligation to focus on the issues. ""What money does is it turns politics into marketing—it becomes less person-to-person—more media,"" he said. ""It creates an industry of campaign management people—pollsters, researchers, hired guns—and they run the campaigns very cold-bloodedly."" Heck said because there are no ideological differences between Falk and Lautenschlager, the primary race has included a series of personal jabs. He said Bucher and Falk have supported a law criminalizing first-time DUI offenses because Lautenschlager was convicted of a DUI in 2004. During a live debate on WTMJ-AM radio Aug. 10, the Republican primary candidates stooped to name-calling. Van Hollen reportedly told Bucher, ""you suck,"" during a commercial break, to which Bucher replied, ""I don't suck."" Both Kraus and Heck agreed this level of sparring was unprecedented but had become characteristic of the Attorney General's race. Kraus said, ""Suddenly it isn't adequate to be adversaries, you've got to be enemies and I think that's just a horrifying development because what it does is it cuts out any hope of compromise."" Falk and Bucher have publicly endorsed a law that would criminalize first-time drunk driving offenses.