A Wisconsin Principles Inc. attack advertisement earlier this month accused 14th Senate District candidate Sarah Keyeski of misconduct while serving on a local school board, despite Keyeski never holding public office.
The ad, produced by conservative Oconomowoc-based political action committee Wisconsin Principles Inc., falsely claimed Keyeski gave herself a 16% pay raise while on the Lodi School District Board of Education — a position she has never held because she never previously ran for or held elected office.
"Lies like this are the worst part of politics, and from what I hear out knocking doors, people are sick of it,” Keyeski told The Daily Cardinal in a statement Sept. 23. “Politicians and organizations should be spending less time spreading these lies and more time working to uplift middle class families, protecting our freedoms and making sure our economy works for everyone, not just the wealthy few."
The ad — which violated Wisconsin law which prohibits the dissemination of false or misleading information about individuals with the intent to affect public opinion — was pulled shortly after Keyeski, through the Lawton Cates Law Office, requested that Spectrum Communications immediately remove the ad from the air and for the company to issue a public statement correcting the error.
Her opponent, incumbent Sen. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, told the Cardinal she was unaware of the ad before reading about it in a local newspaper.
“My team and I are committed to running on the issues and being truthful in all of our communication,” Ballweg said in a statement Sept. 23. “The advertisement in question was produced and put on the air by a third-party expenditure group. State law prohibits collaboration between candidates and third-party groups.”
Andrew Whitley, the executive director of the Wisconsin State Senate Democratic Committee, told the Cardinal on Sept. 23 that while some campaign ads are misleading and stretch the truth, it's an “anomaly” to get an ad with “outright lies.”
“It's kind of just perplexing,” Whitley said. “We heard it through the grapevine that [Wisconsin Principles] was saying this, and then we finally found the ad and I was like ‘nope, she's never voted for any of anything, because she's never been in public office.’”
Whitley said his team hopes to highlight the “truths about the election” by sharing Keyeski’s story with voters through their own ads.
“At the end of the day [voters will] take something like that, and take the hard facts of what we're trying to tell them, and make the best decision,” Whitley said. “The biggest impact is it just has a negative impact on our discourse and it leads to more mistrust in politics and campaigns, which is unfortunate.”
Wisconsin Principles Inc. did not respond to a request for comment.
Anna Kleiber is the state news editor for The Daily Cardinal. She previously served as the arts editor. Anna has written in-depth on elections, legislative maps and campus news. She has interned with WisPolitics and Madison Magazine. Follow her on Twitter at @annakleiber03.
