State Superintendent Tony Evers’ campaign released its first two TV ads of the campaign today, both of which knock opponent Lowell Holtz for a proposed deal that could have landed the challenger a six-figure, taxpayer-funded job.
Without naming Holtz in either ad, Evers references talks Holtz and fellow primary challenger John Humphries had that one could get a six-figure salary and a driver if one of them left the race and other beat Evers in the April election.
“My opponent’s plan raises his own salary, and pays for a personal driver,” Evers says in the ad that launches tomorrow in Madison and Milwaukee. “That’s wrong, folks.”
The other ad, part of a different TV ad buy for markets in Green Bay, La Crosse and Wausau, hones in on the proposed personal driver.
“When it comes to education, we can’t afford to waste a single dollar,” Evers says. “Yet my opponent thinks taxpayers should pay for his personal driver. I’m Tony Evers, and I don’t need some chauffeur to show me the way.”
Evers also touts higher graduation rates, higher standards and the expansion of career and technical education in both ads, as he seeks a third term as the state’s head of schools.
A WisPolitics.com check of the ad buy found the campaign is spending at least $110,000 to run TV ads through the April 4 election.
Repeated checks have not turned up any ad buys from Holtz, the former superintendent of the Whitnall and Beloit school districts, or outside groups.
See the Madison and Milwaukee ad:
See the Green Bay, La Crosse and Wausau ad:
