Dueling Wisconsin Senate candidates want to ‘support law enforcement’ in key midterm state

The growing problem of crime and public safety continues to plague the key battleground state of Wisconsin, as voters begin to focus on candidates who will address these crucial issues in the midterm elections this fall. .

A Marquette University poll, conducted September 6-11 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points, found that 88% of Wisconsin residents are somewhat or very concerned about crime in their state. According to WISN 12 News, the Milwaukee Medical Examiner’s Office recently reported that four Milwaukee teenagers have died violent deaths since early September.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is seeking re-election in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races, against Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. On Monday, Johnson shared the story of a 17-year-old victim of gun violence in Milwaukee on Twitter, highlighting the city’s crime problem and saying his opponent wanted to free 50% of the prison population.

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“While Mandela Barnes says it hurts him to see law enforcement fully funded, the people who really suffer from his soft on crime policies, like defunding the police and freeing criminals, are the friends and families who lose loved ones to violent crime,” Ron Johnson’s campaign press secretary Mike Marinella told Fox News Digital on Monday, “We need to support law enforcement and restore security. in our communities, not adopt the dangerous policies of Mandela Barnes.”

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Maddy McDaniel, a Barnes’ campaign spokesman told Fox News Digital that Barnes doesn’t want to defund the police, but to make sure “law enforcement has the resources they need.”

“Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes has a long history of working to prevent senseless gun violence,” McDaniel said of the state’s surge in crime. “In the U.S. Senate, he will ensure that law enforcement has the resources they need to keep Wisconsin safe, and that communities have what they need to stop crime from happening in the first place. — unlike Ron Johnson, who voted against the $100 million in public safety funding the Evers-Barnes administration has invested in law enforcement and violence prevention.

In his bid for the Wisconsin Senate seat, Barnes now says he wants to fund public safety, a revision of an interview with PBS Wisconsin in 2020 where he said money can be taken from police departments to fund other community efforts. “We need to invest more in neighborhood services and programs for our residents, for our upriver communities. Where is that money going to come from? Well, it can come from bloated budgets in policing, you know?” Barnes said.

Barnes continued, “Likewise, the more money we invest in communities, the more opportunities we provide to residents in all parts of our state, the less we will have to spend on police work. And that It’s not about, you know, beating up cops, it’s about acknowledging the moment we’re in and acknowledging the needs that exist.

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In 2012, Democrat Barnes teamed up with Wisdom, an organization created to end mass incarceration in Wisconsin, and launched the 11×15 campaign which aimed to halve the state’s prison population.

Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.