Democratic US Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin is firing back against an attack ad from her Republican opponent, which criticizes the Congresswoman for voting against a resolution in the US House honoring the victims of the September 11th attacks.
The ad from Republican US Senate nominee Tommy Thompson began airing this week across Wisconsin and discusses a 2006 no vote in the House by Baldwin on a commemorative resolution marking the anniversary of 9-11. During a campaign event in Madison Thursday, Baldwin called the ad an “act of desperation.”
The Congresswoman defended the vote, saying she joined fellow House members in opposing the resolution after Republicans slipped in a number of provisions designed to show support for controversial policies being pushed by then President George W. Bush’s administration. Baldwin says Republicans broke with tradition on the eve of a contested mid-term election, and she voted no because she felt 9-11 was being politicized.
Baldwin voted for similar measures nine other times in the years since the 2001 terrorist attacks that killed over 3,000 Americans.
Baldwin fired back at Thompson this week with her own ad critical of the former governor’s actions after 9-11. It accuses Thompson of blocking requests for health assistance for workers at Ground Zero while he was US Health and Human Services secretary, and then profiting off of his ties to a company that secured an $11 million federal contract to provide care.
Thompson’s campaign says the GOP nominee has always honored 9-11 first responders and he fought to make sure they received the care they deserved.
AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:04)