Walker, Evers and Mitchell release new TV ads.
MADISON - Gov. Scott Walker seeks to change public perception of a $4 billion taxpayer-funded package for Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn in four new ads tailored for the areas of Wisconsin where they are airing.
The ads began airing Tuesday, the same day two of Walker’s top Democratic opponents — state schools Superintendent Tony Evers and firefighters union President Mahlon Mitchell — unveiled spots of their own as they head into a primary election two weeks away.
Walker’s campaign produced ads for western Wisconsin, southeastern Wisconsin, northern and central Wisconsin and the Green Bay area — with each featuring businesses or projects in those areas. Walker’s ads seek to convince voters of two things: That the $10 billion Foxconn Technology Group plant planned for Racine County will benefit other areas of the state; and that state taxpayers haven’t paid more for the plant than it’s worth.
“Foxconn will earn tax credits based on actual investment in job creation. No jobs and investment? No credits,” Walker says in each ad, filmed on the grounds of the planned Foxconn site in Mount Pleasant.
Voters are wary of the Foxconn project — especially the farther away they live from the main facility in Mount Pleasant. In July, a Marquette University Law School poll showed nearly half of voters surveyed think the state is paying more than the Foxconn plant will be worth to the state. Meanwhile, 58% of those polled said their local businesses won’t benefit from the project.
The Foxconn project has been hailed by Walker and President Donald Trump as an economic boon for the state and especially its southeastern corner, where Racine has seen 12,000 jobs leave in the past 25 years as manufacturers move production overseas. But public opinion on Foxconn remains mixed nearly a year after details were released.
T.J. Helmstetter, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said the ads show Walker “knows he’s in trouble on Foxconn.”
“The public is deeply skeptical of Walker’s $4.5 billion Foxconn giveaway,” Helmstetter said in a statement. “Now, Walker is trying to buy his way out of a bad deal with slick TV ads. But the truth is, a few TV spots can’t make up for 8 years of neglecting Wisconsin’s priorities.”
Meanwhile, Evers’ ad seeks to promote his extensive education credentials and dings Walker on the Foxconn deal. Mitchell’s argues he’s the candidate who will cure racism and division among Wisconsin voters.
“Instead of investing a billion dollars in handouts to companies like Foxconn, I’m going to invest in our kids and our workers,” Evers says to a crowd at Cooper’s Tavern in Madison.
Evers says he would make sure “every kid gets a great school no matter what the ZIP code,” rhetoric similar to promises Walker has repeatedly made.
Mitchell’s ad — released Tuesday and slated to begin airing Wednesday — shows him with his fellow firefighters at a Madison firehouse, standing with his family, talking to kids, shaking hands with a construction worker and holding a toddler.
“I’ll take on corporations to raise wages, restore the money that Walker stole from our schools and I will fight against racism and division because our kids’ future depends on it,” Mitchell says in the ad.
Hours before the ads became public, Walker posted an unusual string of messages on Twitter that compared the left in America to Communists.
“With all the talk from the left, take a look at what people do when they have a choice between Communism and capitalism,” Walker wrote above pictures of people fleeing East Germany and Cuba.
Democrats responded by noting Walker broke into national news in July when it was disclosed that he had his photo taken in 2015 with Maria Butina, who is now charged with trying to interfere in American politics as a Russian agent.
“Scott Walker is so angry about his tanking poll numbers, he forgot he is the only candidate for governor who got his photo taken with an indicted Russian spy,” Scot Ross of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now said by email.