Get ready to be bombarded with political ads.
There are just four weeks until the Republican primary in the U.S. Senate race, but Wisconsinites are just starting to pay attention the four GOP candidates. That’s partly due to a lack of advertising by most Senate candidates in the month following the recall election.
Overall, voters had a reprieve from the political ads that had saturated the recall campaigns, and that surprised Marquette University Law School Poll Director Charles Franklin. “I thought we’d see the U.S. Senate race hit the ground running the day after the recall election because these guys wouldn’t want to waste any time.”
Franklin says, for the most part, it was a pretty quiet June but “expect some heavy rock ’em sock ’em action between now and August.”
Businessman and political newcomer Eric Hovde is the one candidate who advertised fairly heavily in June — dominating the TV advertising in the campaign so far. Franklin notes, former Governor Tommy Thompson had a few ads, former Congressman Mark Neuman recently launched a new spot, and Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald has been pretty quiet.
Franklin says as all four candidates make a “mad dash” to Election Day on August 14th the full force of the advertising campaigns will start to play a bigger role in the race.
The winner of the primary will go against Democrat Tammy Baldwin in November.
AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report 1:42