Same accusation, competing campaigns. Three words. Soft on crime.
Brad Schimel, the Republican attorney general candidate, and his Democratic challenger, Susan Happ, have dug deep into each other’s prosecutorial history to convince Wisconsin voters the other is ill-suited for the job.
“[Schimel] failed to protect our kids as a prosecutor,” a television ad paid for by the pro-Happ Committee for Justice and Fairness says. “How can we ever trust Schimel as attorney general?”
“[Happ] defended a child molester, asking a judge to go easy because the perpetrator assaulted children in his own home,” a newly released ad from Schimel contends. “Brad Schimel prosecutes predators. Susan Happ profits from them.”
Back and forth Schimel, Waukesha County’s district attorney and Happ, Jefferson County’s district attorney, have gone. The problem for both of them is a lot of voters have not gotten any clear or distinctive message from either one.
“One thing that is clear in this race,” Jason Stein, political reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, said, “is that most voters don’t know either candidate well.”
Lack of recognition, Stein said, may give outside factors – especially the race for governor – an outsized influence on the outcome of the attorney general race.
Still, the Schimel campaign intends to pound Happ for “putting politics ahead of public safety.” Expect the Happ campaign to do more of the same
“Brad’s grassroots organization and his hard work throughout the campaign will prove to be a difference maker,” Johnny Koremenos, Schimel’s campaign manager told me in an email. “He puts public safety ahead of politics and voters are coming around to the same conclusion as 89 sheriffs and district attorneys as well as the largest law-enforcement organizations: Schimel’s the best choice for the state’s top cop.”
The Happ campaign has not returned a call for comment.