Desperate Times... Desperate Measures

So what do you do when you’re fighting an uphill battle to win a state senate seat and you’re name recognition outside 3 miles of your home is in the toilet?  If you’re two-time loser Terry Moulton running for the 23^rd  SD, you buy commercial time for your business hobby business  (Which is it?  Terry's been running for office for 10 years now), Mouldy’s Archery and Tackle. Long-time Chippewa Valley residents know that before Terry started running for elected office, we could count the number of Mouldy’s commercials we’d see during a year with our fingers(and maybe a few toes).  If there was a commercial, it was usually aired during Dave Carlson’s outdoors show and Terry was NEVER in them.  Airtime was spent talking about the Topper Stopper, the Hawg Wobbler or sighting in your bow.  Since being bitten by the political bug, Terry has cracked open his own wallet (we assume) to star in new ads that have aired only during the summer before an election campaign. Being that time of year again, he has been airing this spot during the WEAU 6pm & 10pm News (the highest rated and most expensive local origination slots available).  He starts the ad in full view with his Cheshire cat grin, “Hello, I’m Terry Moulton and this is my store…”

At some point he’ll need to pull the ad to comply with campaign laws but it will be interesting to see if the desperate (and expensive) ploy to up his name recognition works.

To review - he didn't do it in 2002 and lost. In 2004, he didn’t need it to defeat a candidate who spoke English like it was his 3^rd language (which it was).  In 2006, used it and barely held on to defeat a throw away opponent. In 2008 it didn’t work again. We doubt it will work this time either, but the local television advertisers thank him for his money.

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Also from the Gingrich-like mind of the Terry Moulton campaign, yesterday we got this tweet: “Still crisscrossing the 23^rd SD with the boat to “Reel in Spending…””   Is that what he’s been doing?  Here, we thought he was being pulled in his chariot (like former 23^rd Senator Dave Zien) while trying to lure young kids into oncoming traffic…

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One last note, kudo’s to Terry and one of his local puppet masters – Neal Hasslewander for being able to bring Paul Ryan to Eau Claire for a fund raiser tomorrow.  It will be interesting to see if Moulton has the courage to sign onto the Ryan plan to slash Medicare and Social Security in order to give tax breaks to the rich and corporations in hopes that their largesse trickles down to us.  Either way, it’s going to be interesting to see if an appearance by the GOP Golden Boy will but a dent in the large campaign fund lead held by Senator Pat Kreitlow,