Gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker stressed his commitment to lowering government spending in his first television campaign advertisement released Thursday.
In the ad, the front-running Republican contender said he has returned roughly a third of his salary over the last eight years to taxpayers in Milwaukee, where he is currently the county executive. He began giving back the $370 thousand after learning he earned more than the governor.
""We believe that government spends too much, and that included my salary,"" Walker said in the ad.
Campaign spokesperson Jill Bader said Walker's campaign strategy is to make sure ""the people of Wisconsin know the person that Scott is.""
""Scott is a very frugal guy,"" Bader said. ""He packs his own brown-bag lunch every day… he drives his 1988 Saturn with 100,000-plus miles on it, and he and his wife Tonette really believe that government should function the same way: cutting costs when they can and trying to find ways to do more with less.""
Walker's GOP opponent Mark Neumann has already been running TV ads since mid-February, releasing his third Thursday. Chris Lato, a campaign spokesperson for Neumann, said that ""Mark Neumann is playing offense right now and Scott Walker is playing defense.""
With the election more than seven months away, Lato said the fact that Walker released the ad this early in the race shows he feels threatened by his competitor.
""We have gotten a tremendous response from the television ads that we have been running… and Scott Walker's campaign obviously felt the pressure to get out there in some way,"" Lato said.
However, Bader said the ad is part of Walker's overall strategy and was not in response to Neumann's campaign.
""If anything, Neumann is responding to our overwhelming momentum,"" Bader said.
The 30-second spot will run everywhere in the state except Milwaukee, where Bader said Walker is already well known, until the middle of next week.
