MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The mayor of Waukesha on Wednesday condemned a campaign ad run by a Republican independent group that links Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin with the killings of six people at a 2021 Christmas parade in that Wisconsin city.
Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly called the ad a “pitiful political tool” that “doesn’t just hurt the families that had members that were killed, or those that were injured or those that even saw it, it hurts the whole entire community.”
Baldwin faces Republican Eric Hovde in one of the most hotly contested Senate races in the country this year. The race is crucial for Democrats to win to maintain majority control of the Senate.
The ad, which began airing across Wisconsin last week, was paid for by One Nation, an independent group aligned with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“This issue ad focused on Senator Baldwin’s vote against increased funding for pretrial detention of violent criminals and included a call-to-action at the end,” said One Nation spokesperson Torunn Sinclair. “It’s not political.”
She said the ad stopped running on Monday. It remained viewable online on Wednesday.
Reilly said in a telephone interview that “our pain and our suffering from the 2021 Waukesha Christmas parade is once again being used by unprincipled people to drive votes.”
Reilly referred to a joint statement issued by Baldwin and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson shortly after the parade killings in 2021 urging no one to use it for political gain.
“I would hope that Eric Hovde would also support what Sen. Johnson said,” Reilly said. “No politician should allow the use of the Waukesha Christmas parade attack and its impact on our community to drive votes by creating fear and disgust to purposely create divisions.”
Hovde said after touring a manufacturing business in Waunakee, Wisconsin, that he wasn't familiar with the ad in question. But he accused Baldwin and her allies of unfairly attacking him, including the allegation that he is more of a Californian because he bought a business and a home there than he is a Wisconsinite where he was born.
“I think we need to lower the rhetoric on both sides,” Hovde said. “I would prefer not to see all these negative attack ads. I’d rather focus on the issues.”
Baldwin’s campaign spoke out against the parade ad.
“Using the attack for political purposes is not only wrong, it is deeply hurtful to a community still recovering from the tragedy of that day,” her campaign spokesman Andrew Mamo said.
Reilly used to be a Republican but disavowed the party after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He said he is now an independent who supports Baldwin in the Senate race.
The ad shows footage from the Waukesha Christmas parade in November 2021 after Darrell Brooks Jr. drove his SUV through the parade route, killing six people. Brooks was sentenced to six life consecutive sentences without parole.
“It never should have happened,” the narrator of the ad says over the sound of sirens and video images of people running along the parade route and people hovering over those struck by the SUV. The narrator adds that Brooks was released on $1,000 bail just days earlier after trying to run over his girlfriend with the same car.
The ad then shows an image of Baldwin on the Senate floor, with the narrator saying she voted against funding for pretrial detention of violent criminals. The ad cites an Aug. 7, 2022, vote, which came nearly a year after the parade killings.
The narrator says the vote made it “easier for criminals like Darrell Brooks to terrorize our communities." The ad ends with side-by-side images of Baldwin on the Senate floor and Brooks in an orange prison outfit.
Baldwin had nothing to do with the setting of Brooks’ bail before the Christmas parade.
The $1,000 bail was the amount requested by the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office. District Attorney John Chisholm acknowledged later that the $1,000 bail request from an assistant prosecutor in his office was far too low.
The judge granted the bail request, which Brooks posted, just days before he drove through the Christmas parade, killing six.
Wisconsin voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2023, pushed by Republicans after the parade killings, that makes it easier for judges to post higher bail amounts.
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This story has been corrected to show that One Nation is an independent group and not a super PAC.