FALSE:-Ad says JoAnne Kloppenburg jailed an 80-year-old farmer for refusing to plant native vegetati

[iwishiwas]

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/apr/01/citizens-strong-america/ad-says-joanne-kloppenburg-jailed-80-year-old-farm/

Ad says JoAnne Kloppenburg jailed an 80-year-old farmer for refusing to plant native vegetation on his farm

Critics of JoAnne Kloppenburg, the challenger to Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser in the April 5, 2011 election, portray her as a rigid "government lawyer" bent on enforcing regulations no matter the consequences.

Among them is a group called Citizens for a Strong America, which claims in a TV ad:

"Kloppenburg is so extreme, she even put an 80-year-old farmer in jail for refusing to plant native vegetation on his farm."

Among its other charges, the ad points out that Kloppenburg has never been a judge. Of course, only a judge -- not an assistant attorney general such as Kloppenburg -- can put people in jail.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Let’s till some ground and see how much truth grows out of this claim.

The farmer referenced in the ad is Wayne Hensler, who was involved in an 11-year water pollution dispute with Jefferson County, as well as the state, over farmland he owned adjacent to Marsh Lake.

We wanted to ask Citizens for a Strong America-- one of five conservative groups that reportedly have spent $2 million in TV advertising against Kloppenburg -- for evidence to back its claim. That proved to be difficult.

According to its website, the group is based in Beaver Dam, Wis., and "promotes public policies that reduce tax burdens on families, increase public safety and protect the rights of parents to make decisions about their children’s medical, psychological and educational well-being.".......................;( ;( ;( :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[rzemanfl]

1. The big lies come just before the election. n/t

[MineralMan]

2. Typical lie from the GOP. They take a situation, oversimplify it,

leave out all the pertinent information, then make some scathing accusation. Only if you go look at the facts do you find out the real story, and very, very few people bother to hunt down the actual story. It's a very effective technique, and one that's sometimes used in other places to distort the meaning of something. I've even seen it used here on DU.

[iwishiwas]

4. It is played early evening at news times. People do listen.

[Viking12]

3. The more details I hear about Kloppenburg's record, the greater I support her!

She's been a strong supporter of environmental regulations.

[elocs]

5. These types of ads are used because they work. Many voters will only hear the ads,

others might be motivated to vote where they otherwise may have not bothered.

There is a tv ad which has Kloppenburg speaking about crime and the implication is that she is soft on crime. I would love to see the entire clip of what she is saying and in context and how it was edited into distorting her views.

[meegbear]

6. You're think a group called Citizens for a Strong America would want to put people in jail ...

go figure.

[dragonlady]

7. It's good that Politifact gave this a "Pants-on-Fire" rating

People do read Politifact because everybody likes to read about scandal. Unfortunately, they are quite uneven in their ratings, often showing the newspaper's right-wing bias. But this time it turned out fine.

Interesting side note: The article mentions Randy Koschnick, the Jefferson County judge who first found the farmer in contempt of court. Koschnick was the conservative candidate who challenged Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson (Kloppenburg's mentor) in 2009 and thankfully lost.