Group puts targets on Walker, Vukmir
Image of pair behind bull’s-eye criticized in light of death threats
MADISON – Two of the Democrats’ top targets in the fall elections are under a literal bull’s-eye in a photo appearing on a liberal group’s website — a graphic being criticized by some Republicans because of past death threats against Gov. Scott Walker.
In a graphic promoting Citizen Action Wisconsin’s latest episode of their podcast titled “Open Political Season,” Walker and Sen. Leah Vukmir (R-Brookfield) appear to be standing behind a bull’s-eye target.
The episode featured Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) and discussed Walker’s bid for a third term against more than 10 Democrats seeking to unseat him, and Vukmir’s challenge of U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
“We would have thought that extreme liberal organizations would have learned from the overreach and death threats Republicans faced in the past,” Walker campaign spokesman Brian Reisinger said about the graphic.
Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action
Wisconsin, said the group is simply “using humor to make an analogy between the opening of campaign season in Wisconsin and hunting.”
“I am frankly surprised that anyone would think that this cartoonish image of an arrow hitting a target would be interpreted as promoting violence,” Kraig said.
“Of course, in any analogy the comparison is not supposed to be literal or exact, that’s the whole point.”
But Alec Zimmerman, spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, also drew comparisons to past death threats Walker received during a tumultuous period of 2011, after the governor proposed and ultimately passed Act 10, legislation that all but eliminated collective bargaining abilities for most public employees.
“Liberal groups are always ready to blame violence on conservatives, and it’s outrageous that this far-left group would turn around and do this when Governor Walker and Wisconsin Republicans have repeatedly faced death threats for standing on principle,” he said.
Kraig said the graphic is similar to using the phrase “war on poverty” but not meaning a literal war.
Even so, Vukmir campaign manager Jess Ward said the graphic is evidence of an “unhinged left” that “loves to be outraged.”
Vukmir herself drew heat last month from liberals and some Republicans for issuing a news release ahead of the confirmation of CIA Director Gina Haspel that included a graphic that paired Baldwin with the chief architect of the Sept. 11, 2011, terrorist attacks.
The graphic depicted Baldwin and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as “Team Terrorists” and Vukmir and Haspel as members of “Team America.”