Democrat Mary Burke’s gubernatorial campaign released a rather aggressive attack ad against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and campaign worker Gary Ellerman, which highlights swastikas superimposed over the Obama presidential campaign logo posted on Ellerman’s Facebook page. The aggressive ad accuses Walker of engaging in “sleaze politics.”
The ad, to run on TV and the web, is meant as a response to attacks by Walker’s campaign that Burke was fired from her family’s business, Trek Bicycle Corp., in 1993.
Ellerman first made the accusation that Burke was fired. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel noted that Ellerman serves as chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party and ran as a fake Democrat two years ago in order to fight a recall of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R).
The ad also said that Ellerman was fired “by Trek for incompetence.”
“And now, Scott Walker’s using his lies to attack Mary Burke,” the narrator in the ad said, before pivoting to the John Doe investigations of Walker. “But that’s what you’d expect from a politician under investigation for illegal campaign activities with six Walker associates already convicted of crimes.”
Over the past few days Walker’s campaign has been repeatedly hitting Burke over claims from former Trek executives with Republican associations who have said Burke was effectively fired from Trek.
In response to the new ad, Wisconsin Republicans called the ad “desperate.”
“Mary Burke is desperate to cover up the fact that she has failed every job she has ever held —first getting fired from her family company before being called a ‘disaster’ at the Department of Commerce. What a sad and pathetic ending to Burke’s floundering campaign, which is sinking faster than her $5 million investment.”
Watch the ad below:
The TPM Polltracker average finds Walker with a 3.1 point lead over Burke.