The Senate campaign of Eric Hovde, a Republican in Wisconsin, has just begun running this 30-second ad on television stations in Madison, Wis., this week, so far at a cost of $30,000, according to AdImpact.
Here’s a look at the ad, its accuracy and its major takeaway.
On the Screen
The advertisement opens with images of Senator Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin, seemingly in midshout, and a woman described by a female narrator as Ms. Baldwin’s “life partner,” Maria Brisbane. The two women appear to be side by side in matching turquoise suits against a city skyline. The music has a boisterous, big-band swing, as if the two women are out on the town.
The ad zooms in on Ms. Brisbane’s LinkedIn profile, and a headline identifies her as a private wealth adviser to “the superrich and private equity.” Images of New York City flash by — the East River, a loaded hot dog, a Wall Street subway platform — as do close-ups of the initial images of Ms. Baldwin and Ms. Brisbane. Money showers down from the sky in between the two women, with an aerial view of the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building in the background.
A headline blares that Ms. Baldwin “received over $1.3 million from N.Y. donors,” then an image of Ms. Baldwin is placed in front of Times Square as another headline declares she’s “not Wisconsin’s senator anymore.” Instead, it concludes, she’s “the third senator from New York” — as she is shown looking angry and windblown in an “I Love New York” T-shirt.
The Script
Narrator
“This is Senator Tammy Baldwin. This is her life partner, Maria Brisbane, a Wall Street exec who makes millions advising the superrich how to make money off industries Tammy regulates. Tammy doesn’t get home to Wisconsin most weekends. She’d rather be in New York at Maria’s $7 million condo. That’s why New Yorkers have given Tammy over $1.3 million. Tammy Baldwin’s not Wisconsin’s senator anymore — she’s the third senator from New York.”
Accuracy
Republican political operatives have been pressing one of the ad’s claims — that Ms. Baldwin has used her position as a senator to enrich her romantic partner, which would be a violation of ethics rules — for months, but they have had little success. The reason: There’s no evidence for it. Without seats on the Senate Banking or Finance Committees, Ms. Baldwin has limited ability to regulate industries, and the Baldwin campaign says her opponent has no proof that she has helped Ms. Brisbane.
Additionally, Ms. Baldwin and Ms. Brisbane are not married or domestic partners in any formalized legal sense that would require financial disclosures. Ms. Baldwin, who is gay, does not refer to Ms. Brisbane as a “life partner,” though they have been dating for a few years, according to her campaign.
The Takeaway
The ad, while just now starting, could be the final shot in an extremely negative campaign.
It puts the spotlight on Ms. Baldwin’s personal life in an attempt to turn a low-key Midwesterner into a high-flying East Coast elitist. And it also tries to invert one of Democrats’ most effective criticisms of Mr. Hovde, the extremely wealthy chairman and chief executive of a bank in Utah.
He has been taking heat for much of the year for a $7 million mansion in Laguna Beach, Calif., and his tenuous ties to the state he hopes to represent in the Senate. Mr. Hovde is closing the campaign by calling Ms. Baldwin, in so many words, a rich Wall Street lesbian — hoping that both her sexuality and her partner’s wealth will give some voters pause.
Ms. Baldwin was first elected in 2012 as a pioneer — the first openly gay senator — and Wisconsinites have sent her back to Washington multiple times since.
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