A couple of days ago, I wrote that Oshkosh businessman Ron Johnson had started hiring campaign staff for his presumed run in the Republican U.S. Senate primary, and among the first two individuals hired by Johnson for his U.S. Senate campaign is Darrin Schmitz, the Republican political operative who produced what has been labeled the most “highly offensive and deliberately misleading” political ad in Wisconsin history, an ad that was run on behalf of Mike Gableman’s 2008 campaign for Wisconsin Supreme Court. What’s more, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called that same ad “purposeful distortion” and said it was “unworthy of any campaign.”
If Darrin Schmitz’s track record is any indication, Ron Johnson plans on running a nasty campaign chock full of mudslinging and negativity, and with Terrence Wall and Dick Leinenkugel already having started slinging mud, Wisconsin’s Republican Senate primary could promise to be one of the nastiest and most negative voters have ever seen.
We came to the same conclusion. I also await Walker and Neumann having a mudfight of the first degree. That would allow both Barrett and Feingold to take the high road and win votes.
Is there a history other than the Gableman ad? Looking at the list of his other clients, I don’t really recall any of them having ads that stood out the way the Gableman one did. Obviously that’s probably the most controversial ad that’s run in the state in some time – so by comparison everything else pales in comparison. But when you say track record I assume there’s a history beyond a single ad.