Here & Now

thanks so much.

My pleasure.

Outside of the friendly corn roasts, the candidates for governor take swipes at one another in political attack ads.

Our colleagues at Inside Wisconsin politics break down the most pointed ads from each campaign.

So what about these ads, Zac?

How important are they to who wins and who loses?

Well, if they didn't matter, they wouldn't be spending hundreds of millions of dollars every single cycle.

With this being the most important barometer out there.

They are important.

They do matter.

And as much as the people that watch this podcast probably hate them and want them to be done.

And we hear that a lot as well.

They work.

How does what you see in these 32nd ads differ from kind of the slow wheels of government that that you spend so much time covering?

Well, I would say the difference is kind of like the difference between an orange and a glass of sunny delight.

You know, there's some juice in there, but not a whole lot.

A lot of times what it is, is there's a speck of truth in an ad, but it's usually exaggerated or just taken way out of context.

Let's play recent ads from both candidates for governor.

We're going to start with David Crowley's ad called pledge.

I pledge.

Tom Tiffany swore his loyalty to Donald Trump voted with Trump 100% of the time, driving up the cost of gas, groceries, everything, and cut health care so billionaires could get a massive tax cut.

Now, those same billionaire Maga donors are bankrolling Tiffany, giving him $24 million.

cut their income tax to zero.

It's true.

Wisconsin's not for sale.

But Tom Tiffany is.

And it'll cost you.

Zac, what stands out to you from that ad in terms of themes?

Well, 100%.

It's connecting Tiffany to Trump.

Trump has the lowest ratings of any president in the modern era.

They're as low as they've ever been right now.

It is a weight around Tiffany when it comes to independents and even moderate Republicans.

So any connection to Trump is what they're trying to bring up in the voters minds to get them to think that way.

And then emphasizing that we've been talking about on the podcast.

He's been getting more than 90% of his money from just three billionaires with connections to the state and trying to make sure getting through that idea, even if it looks like he's got plenty of campaign cash, it's not because he's widely supported by a lot of people.

It's only a handful of people.

Those are the things they're trying to bring across and tax.

The rich always plays well in elections.

We're going to look now at the Tom Tiffany ad.

This is called David Crowley.

I'm an accomplice.

And when it comes down to the immigrants, I'm not an ally.

I'm an accomplice.

I'm going to be with you no matter what.

drunk driver and illegal immigrant killed two teenagers.

I'm an accomplice.

In fond du Lac.

An illegal tied up and blindfolded a 12 year old girl to rape her.

I'm an accomplice.

In Milwaukee.

A drunk, illegal immigrant killed a special Olympian on his way to church.

I'm an accomplice.

David Crowley stands with illegal immigrants.

Not you.

No matter what.

I just wonder what actual link they have to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

I mean, in what way was he involved or not at all?

Yeah.

Not at all.

I saw some conservatives who really loved that ad, and some national people said, well, this is the most effective way to get that message across that they've seen.

But people were sharing the definition of accomplice, which is like, you know, knowingly, voluntarily helping someone commit a crime that doesn't fit in this situation.

You know, their argument has been that if you're soft on the border or, you know, on soft on illegal immigration, that you're essentially enabling people to come here and commit crimes.

But to say that that you tried to help them commit the crimes is a whole different ball of wax.

You know, the video in this ad, Rich?

I know we both looked it up.

It came from a Crowley appearance when he was a primary candidate for governor.

And his credentials as a liberal were being questioned.

But, you know, one of those where now that he doesn't have that primary campaign to worry about, that one in particular is kind of coming back to haunt him a bit.

In a tragic metric.

There were 101 fatalities There were 101 fatalities