Governor Hopeful Spent $27,600 on Super Bowl Ad Packages

A Brookfield physician says he spent to draw attention to his planned bid for governor as an independent candidate if a recall election is scheduled.

Hariprasad "Hari" Trivedi ran a 32-second spot that focused on unemployment, showing statistics on Wisconsin's recent job losses amid national job gains.

In an email to Patch Monday, Trivedi said he paid $17,000 for eight ad spots in Milwaukee that included pre- and post-Super Bowl times and some slots on other days. He said he spent another $10,625 for four ad spots in the Madison television market.

"The most important thing that drove me to run was the disillusionment with the current political establishment — be it Republican or Democratic," wrote Trivedi, a kidney specialist and professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

"I see constant bickering, partisanship and nobody takes a stance based on what they believe is the right thing to do but rather solely based on party lines," he said. "I thought rather than complain (talk is free) I thought I should take action."

Trivedi was a write-in independent candidate for governor in the November 2010 race when then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker defeated Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Trivedi received less than one-tenth of one percent of the vote, while the top-vote getting independent candidate earned less than one-half of one percent of the more than 2.2 million votes cast statewide.

On Monday, Trivedi told Patch that unemployment — "job malaise" — was the biggest problem facing the state and noted that Wisconsin job numbers have declined in recent months while national statistics have improved.

"This clearly shows failure of the current administration's policies. My specific ideas to increase jobs are outlined on my website — influx of capital, enhance tourism, improve agricultural productivity."

Improving education also is key in Wisconsin, he wrote, saying cutting funding creates a "false economy."

"States that out-educate us will outcompete us," he said. "There is a gap between the needs of employers and skills available in the labor force suggesting a need to enhance skills — i.e. improve education. We should be a state that is crème de la crème of education — not the other way around."

Earlier Monday on 620 WTMJ, Trivedi told radio host John Mercure that he knew he couldn't self-finance a winning gubernatorial campaign that would require millions of dollars and he eventually would need to start accepting campaign donations. His website currently says he is not taking contributions.

As the state Government Accountability Board is determining whether a sufficient number of valid petitions have been filed to schedule a recall election, Walker has raised more than $4.5 million in just five weeks, JSOnline.com reported last month. In a little more than a year, he has raised more than $12 million, according to campaign finance reports.

State Sen. Tim Cullen cited the difficulty in raising $1 million to $2 million in a short timeframe for a primary election as the reason he was not going to vie with former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk as the Democratic challenger to Walker.