Governor's race triggers creative ad

In less than a year we will be casting our ballots for Wisconsin's next governor, and creative advertising is already out there.

The Republican party of Wisconsin decided to give the state democratic party a little help finding a candidate, by running an ad in about nine newspapers this past weekend.

"It's a little tongue in cheek and a little humor intended there, but it's been a fairly effective way to get our point across," said Mark Jefferson, executive director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin says it's point - is to show the differences between the two parties by placing a classified ad for a "Democratic Nominee for Governor." The ad reads: "Wanted: Individual willing to run as the Democratic Nominee for Governor of Wisconsin. Must be willing to defend tax hikes, eroding business climate and higher vehicle insurance rates. No experience necessary, but willingness to take direction from WEAC and trial lawyers a must. Deep pockets of personal wealth a plus." The ad goes on to list the phone number for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, and says it is paid for by the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

A party representative says she has received no real responses to the ad, just people calling to alert the party about it.

"I think it's telling that the Republican party has nothing better to do than sit around and dream up pranks while Democrats are hard at work repairing our economy and passing health care reform," said Maggie Brick, executive director for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. "It's disappointing to me and to many people I think that the Republican party would abuse the classified section of newspapers at a time when there are hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites looking for jobs thanks to the Bush recession."

Neither the current governor nor lieutenant governor are planning to run. The state democratic party says it has viable candidates in Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, and businessman Kevin Conroy. Neither of them have officially announced their candidacy.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin says former congressman Mark Neuman and current Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker have good chances of winning the office.

"I think we're going to have high quality candidates because there's an opportunity of winning and I think that combination of an open seat, a competitive seat, high quality candidates who have experience raising money means that we'll probably have a very high cost election in 2010," said David Wegge, political science professor at St. Norbert College.

The cost of the election has only started to add up with a couple hundred dollars for a sarcastic ad in the newspaper.