The latest campaign ads from Wisconsin Senate candidate Eric Hovde have come under fire by his opponent for crossing the line into "personal vindictive," NBC News reported Saturday.
Republican Eric Hovde is battling to unseat incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin in what has become a closer than expected race in a key battleground state. The latest series of attack ads attempt to show that Baldwin has spent too much time away from Wisconsin to truly focus on the needs of her constituents. Yet, a series of commercials that focus on Baldwin’s successful girlfriend and her ties to Wall Street have opened up a fresh window of counterattack.
One such ad features a Wisconsin resident saying that Baldwin is “in bed with Wall Street.” Baldwin became the first openly gay woman elected to Congress in 1998 and then to the Senate in 2012. Maria Brisbane is a private wealth adviser for a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley. The two have been dating since 2018.
“While she sleeps in her girlfriend’s million-dollar condo in New York City, Wisconsin families are getting hammered by high inflation and handouts for illegal immigrants.”
“Tammy and her girlfriend are living large while Wisconsin families foot the bill,” the woman concludes in the campaign ad.
The second spot to take aim at Brisbane and Baldwin's relationship claims a conflict of interest such a relationship poses when a high-ranking government official is romantically involved with a powerful financial executive.
“This is Sen. Tammy Baldwin,” the narrator says. “This is her life partner, Maria Brisbane, a Wall Street exec who makes millions advising the super-rich 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,” the narrator continues.
When asked about the tactic to highlight the Baldwin's personal relationship, Hovde campaign spokesman Zach Bannon said, “We agree with the 2009 version of Tammy Baldwin and any effort to distract from the facts of this conflict of interest is a disservice to the people of Wisconsin who deserve transparency.”
During a 2009 congressional hearing, Baldwin said, “All members of Congress file annual financial disclosures. Married members must file very important information about their spouses’ income, their investments, gifts and debts, et cetera. Surely, the public interest would require that these obligations apply also to partners of gay and lesbian officeholders.”
The Baldwin camp has noted that the senator and Brisbane are not married nor are they legal domestic partners.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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