A Brookfield physician raised some eyebrows by running ads right before and after the Super Bowl touting his intent to run as an Independent candidate for governor.
Hariprasad "Hari" Trivedi ran a 32-second spot that focused on unemployment, showing statistics on Wisconsin's recent job losses amid national job gains.
"The job situation in Wisconsin is quite dismal," said Trivedi, a kidney specialist and professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "You will see why there is clearly a need for a change here in Wisconsin."
If a gubernatorial recall election is scheduled and Trivedi runs, it will be his second attempt.
Trivedi ran as an official write-in Independent candidate for governor in the November 2010 Walker-Barrett race, garnering less than one-tenth of one percent of the vote.
Conservative blog freedomeden.blogpost.com said Trivedi ran a local television ad in October 2010 saying he was "disillusioned" with both Scott Walker and Tom Barrett and that voters should "think out of the box." In both the 2010 ad and the Super Bowl Sunday ad, Trivedi appears to be standing in front of the same background wall and artwork.
Trivedi pledged during his 2010 campaign that he would accept a $1 salary as governor until the state's deficit was eliminated.
His wife is also a physician and their three sons attend Brookfield East High School. (The three sons made the same final round of a forensics tournament in Wauwatosa Saturday, with the eldest sibling winning first place.)
According to his web site, trigov.com, Trivedi plans at least for now to self-finance his campaign, saying he is not accepting campaign contributions. The site doesn't appear to list any endorsements and he doesn't have name recognition.
After his Super Bowl ad ran, game viewers tweeted such messages as:
"@GovWalker is this hairi trivedi guy for real? Everyone has a chance at doing something but really?"
"How am I suppose to support Hari Trivedi for Governer if he isn't on Twitter or Facebook?"
"How did harpirsad trivedi get superbowl facetime for wisconsin??"
"Who IS that guy, and how can he afford local SB ad rates?!?"
Trivedi's website says he opposes cutting funds for education and favors increasing capital in the state by offering "low taxes, incentives to invest in the State, appropriate regulations, but with simplicity and lack of unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles."
He says he supports gun rights, abortion rights, gay rights and medicinal marijuana. Also on his agenda: bolstering the state's agricultural and tourism industries and green efforts such as requiring the planting of two trees for every one cut.
This JSOnline.com blog says he spent about $17,000 on the Super Bowl ad play.
What are your thoughts about a Trivedi campaign for governor? Share in the comments below.
I don't know - we always cry about not having more than 2 choices - maybe we should check this guy out and see what's what ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d_FvgQ1csE
While I find Trivedi interesting and well informed, his platform is a little wanting. Perhaps if he could better explain what he'd do with the tax code and how he'd be able to lower taxes across the board while restoring and increasing funding in education, agriculture, tourism, and other areas of focus for him without increasing our structural deficit or external debts, I'd definitely be all ears. Attracting new capital to the state is also a primary goal of the Walker administration, so I'm wondering what Trivedi would do differently that Walker hasn't already tried or is considering doing in order to accomplish this goal. He has a nice website upon which he could effectively organize, lay out, and communicate his platform to the public, so I would start with developing that a little more. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, and structurally it could stay how it is now. It just needs to include more well organized information on his policy positions and platform. I hope we hear more from him. Perhaps Patch could reach out for an exclusive and attempt to get him to fill in some of the holes with his current platform? Just an idea.
Sadly this guy might have some "interesting" ideas , but these guys never win or even get close.... look at Ron Paul ........ Its not about ideas on elections any more, its how much money you have an who you kiss up too :( These people will say ANYTHING to get the job and once they get in or even before they will simply say "I didnt say that" and then all heck breaks loose.