MADISON, Wis. -- In Friday's
"We The People" debate, viewers didn't see the spate of negative attack ads driving the debate over who will run for one of Wisconsin's U.S. Senate seats, against incumbent Sen. Russ Feingold.
On the Republican side, candidate Tim Michels, a construction company owner, began airing one such ad last week in Green Bay.
It features Feingold quoting a 1994 interview with another GOP candidate, State Senate President Pro Tempore Bob Welch, in which Welch applauds Feingold for his involvement with voters.
The ad then challenges Welch's Republican credentials.
But the ad skips the part of the speech where Welch says, "Russ Feingold and I disagree on almost every issue that's important."
A recent ad by another Republican, car dealer Russ Darrow, questions Michels' ties to the gambling industry.
"Tim Michels, for 12 months, has failed to mention his family's involvement in major gambling operations," the ad says.
It even lists Michels' gambling Web site.
News 3's Colin Benedict explored the site Monday. He found that the company runs four casinos in Washington State. He also found that the company's president is Steve Michels -- Tim Michels' brother.
"I've never profited from any gaming entity," Tim Michels told News 3. "I've never been on the payroll of any gaming entity. I've never had any ownership of any gaming entity. This is last-minute desperation slandering on the part of the Darrow campaign."
Darrow told News 3 he stands by the ad.
"I'm just bringing up the question: Shouldn't the people of Wisconsin know if a candidate for U.S. Senate is very heavily involved in gambling and gaming and card rooms?"
The Web site in question was shut down by mid-morning Monday, News 3 reported.
Another recent radio ad took a hard shot at Welch, pointing to a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story alleging he has illegally moved money from his state campaign to his federal campaign. He denies the accusation.
"This just utterly ridiculous," he told News 3. "I have received contributions from dozens of my colleagues in the legislature and I have had a past practice going back 20 years of making contributions to Republican candidates, so this is just ludicrous."
With the election fast approaching, all the candidates say they're defending themselves as hard as they can.
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