The super-PAC affiliated with EMILY's List is up with a new ad in Wisconsin slamming former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) and businessman Eric Hovde as "D.C. insiders" and touting Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).
Thompson and Hovde are two of the three main Republicans in the race, and it's worth noting that the group attacks them and not Rep. Mark Neumann (R-Wis.), who seems to be slipping as Hovde has spent heavily to define the GOP primary as a choice between himself and Thompson. Many analysts also believe Neumann would be the weakest general-election nominee of the three candidates.
"D.C. insiders like Tommy Thompson and Eric Hovde are not going to stick up for me," says one voter in the ad.
"I voted for Tommy Thompson," says another. "I can't vote for him now. He's changed — he's tied to the lobbyists and special interests."
A third criticizes Hovde for living in Washington, D.C., for "the last 20-some years" and accuses him of "stick[ing] up for Wall Street, the people that made him money."
The ad then praises Baldwin as "strong" and "honest" and promises she "won't give the state away to special interests."
The group, which backs pro-abortion-rights Democratic women, is spending $400,000 on the ad, a substantial buy in the state. Baldwin is the presumptive Democratic nominee in the state in what will likely be an expensive, and hard-fought, general election.
