Former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde says he saw “crime escalating” in Madison and decided to do something about it. Just not publicly.
This summer the downtown Madison property owner quietly spearheaded an effort, dubbed “Save Madison,” aimed at alders who, he claims, want to “defund the police.”
“In the last few years, public safety has really declined. Particularly in this last year, rather meaningfully so,” Hovde tells Isthmus. “The council has done nothing but attack the police. I mean, how many oversight boards do we need? And at the same time this is happening, we’ve had an 80 percent increase in shootings.” (This is a reference to police data on incidents of “shots fired,” not individuals who were shot.)
Save Madison attempted to recruit pro-law enforcement candidates to run for local office via its website. It also spent thousands putting up billboards targeting Alds. Tag Evers, Grant Foster, Rebecca Kemble and Max Prestigiacomo, and the local political party Progressive Dane. The high cost of these outdoor advertisements make them extremely uncommon in council races.
The billboards, some of which are still up, debuted in November. The prominent ads read, “SHOOTINGS UP 78%” followed by a specific alder's name and their purported response to the shootings: “DEFUND THE POLICE.” These billboards appeared on Park Street, Cottage Grove Road, North Sherman Avenue and Regent Street.
There is also a billboard near the John Nolen Drive exit of the eastbound Beltline that reads “RIOTS & CRIME INCREASING. Progressive Dane, what happened to our city?” Save Madison also produced a web ad titled “Mayor Satya is Moving Madison Backwards.”
“Violence has erupted. Crime is increasing. Businesses are closing,” declares the narrator in the Oct. 1 ad, which has about 25 views. “It’s time to hold our mayor and city council accountable. Visit SaveMSN.org to help restore our city.”
The organizers of Save Madison are not listed on its website and were something of a mystery to even those steeped in city politics.
Isthmus called a number of city alders, downtown property owners and advocates, even a notable former mayor, and none knew who was behind the Save Madison effort. Jon Rygiewicz helped organize the attempted recall of Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway this summer in part because of the destruction downtown that accompanied some of the Black Lives Matter protests. Despite sharing many of Hovde’s concerns, Rygiewicz was in the dark about Save Madison.
“I was wondering who was involved in this group, too. I just don’t know,” says Rygiewicz. “Which is surprising because these are usually my kind of people.”
Conservative blogger David Blaska, while a guest of Vicki McKenna’s radio show and on his blog, encouraged Madison residents to visit the Save Madison website and consider running for city council. He knew who was behind the effort but wouldn’t name names.
“It’s not my place to say, Dylan. And you make sure to note that,” says Blaska, who supports but isn’t part of Save Madison. “I will tell you, it’s great that some of these council races are going to be a real referendum on public safety.”
Hovde, who acknowledged his involvement with the group only after being asked by Isthmus, says other residents concerned about crime are also behind the “Save Madison” political action committee. But he declined to name any other members.
“Look, there’s no big secret. I just took the lead on this,” says Hovde. “I didn’t want this to be all about me.”
Madison City Attorney Michael Haas says since Save Madison didn’t advocate voting for or against a particular candidate, it likely doesn’t have to publicly disclose any details about the organization with the city or state. Haas, the former staff counsel and elections division administrator at the Government Accountability Board, says when the GOP-controlled Legislature dismantled the GAB in 2018 there was a lot of discussion about the regulation of issue ads.
“The Republicans didn't agree with GAB’s interpretation of what the court cases said about advocacy/issue groups. So they pretty much abolished any chance that either the state or municipalities could regulate that type of ad,” says Haas. “Definitely the part about who's contributing to them. They don't have to disclose that.”
Haas adds that it is relatively rare for advocacy groups to dabble in city politics.
“You do get some local groups popping up once in a while if there's a particular issue that's controversial,” says Haas. “I would say there's not a lot of them that end up raising the kind of money to put up billboards.”
Co-chair of Progressive Dane Diane Farsetta says the billboards targeting the party and its members are “inaccurate and alarmist.”
“This kind of fear mongering plays off inherently racist rhetoric we see on the national political stage,” says Farsetta. “Progressive Dane has played an important part in Madison’s strong history of more nuanced and evidence-based discussions around local policy.”
Farsetta explains that part of the Progressive Dane platform is “community control and oversight of the police.” She says her party members are pleased that the 2020 city budget included funding for a new police auditor position and that the 2021 budget created a new civilian police oversight board. They also worked to keep the number of Madison police officers the same.
Progressive Dane members don’t vote in lockstep and hold different policy priorities, adds Farsetta. The party would like to see funds allocated to mental health care services and addiction treatment to help solve systematic issues of inequality that underlie many police calls. She says equating “defunding the police” with accepting lawlessness is misleading.
“When we have healthy communities, we have secure communities,” says Farsetta. “Police are basically evidence that our systems need to be strengthened.”
There are six open seats for the April 6 city council elections but only four of those races are contested. The deadline for candidates to file was Jan. 5. There are 10 incumbents running for reelection who face challengers and four running unopposed. The billboards paid for by Save Madison targeted Foster and Prestigiacomo. But Foster ended up having no opponent and Prestigiacomo isn’t seeking another term.
When asked, Hovde declined to name any specific candidate recruited by Save Madison or aligned with the group.
“There’s some good people, I've heard, that decided to jump in,” says Hovde, who didn’t elaborate. He did express support for incumbent Ald. Sheri Carter, whom he says is “reasonable” but “clearly very liberal,” and who faces a challenge from Urban Triage CEO Brandi Grayson.
Hovde says the current political climate in Madison makes it difficult for individuals who support law enforcement to speak out publicly — let alone run for local office.
“Just look at what happened to Gloria Reyes,” says Hovde, referring to the former police officer who currently serves on the Madison school board. In June Black Lives Matter activists protested outside her home when the school board was debating the presence of police in the schools. “[Protesters] showed up at her house and made threats and all the rest. I mean, that's intimidating for a lot of people.”
Hovde played a much more public role in early May when rallying opposition to quarantine restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He launched a group called Open Wisconsin Now and starred in a 60-second television ad questioning why Gov. Tony Evers had extended the “Safer at Home” order that restricted business operations, closed schools, and restricted travel in the state.
“Why did you extend the lockdown when we are far below the original projections for infections and deaths?” Hovde asked Evers in the May 6 ad. “You were also legitimately concerned about our hospitals getting overrun. However, did you recognize that never occurred and most hospitals are now empty?”
Hovde says one of the goals of Save Madison was to encourage Madison residents who “care about public safety” to run for city council this spring.
“I don't care if [they are] Democrat, Republican, independent, we need [candidates] that are competent, will look at the facts and put as a primary goal the safety of our community,” says Hovde. “Crime is unacceptable at any level. The looting and rioting on State Street and our Capitol here — just like what happened in the nation's Capitol this past week — is never acceptable. There’s never a time when violence is acceptable.”
Madison, like many cities, had countless peaceful protests this summer that called for an end to police violence and systematic change to law enforcement. There were also several episodes of property damage and looting sparked after the death of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May and the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer in Kenosha.
“I have zero issue with people protesting for racial equality and promoting that,” says Hovde. “But don't tell me crossing the line into creating violence and destroying people's property and looting is justification for anything. One is legitimate protest. One is crime.”
Hovde also points to some high-profile incidents in 2020 as evidence that crime isn’t being addressed in Madison. He mentions the kidnapping and murder of Dr. Beth Potter and Robin Carre at the UW Arboretum in March; the 11-year-old girl who was fatally shot in August while driving down East Washington Avenue in what police say was a targeted shooting of the driver; and the death this September of Anthony Chung, a former student representative of the Madison school board, who was killed in a crash after a teenager driving a stolen car T-boned his vehicle at a high speed.
Hovde says the council should have responded to these incidents by supporting law enforcement and hiring more cops.
“Former Police Chief Mike Koval resigned in frustration because crime was increasing, the city population was increasing, and he couldn’t get the proper funding for his department. That tells you all you need to know,” Hovde says. “Instead, we had members of the city council wanting to cut funding from police.”
Hovde is vague about whether Save Madison will continue its advocacy now that the deadline to run for city council has expired.
“I don't know if it will go anything much beyond the call for public safety and trying to hold people that suggest things like defunding the police accountable,” says Hovde. “I’m getting ready to head out of the state here for the next couple months. But, yes, I would like to see quality candidates supported.”
Another group called Community for Responsible Government also put up billboards this fall trying to recruit candidates for local office. One of its billboards is still up just off University Avenue on Whitney Way. The organizers, whodid not respond to Isthmus' request for comment, are also a mystery. On its website the group promotes a similar public safety message to Save Madison and calls for “competent, common-sense candidates to run for office.”
Hovde says he has “limited involvement” in Community for Responsible Government and won’t disclose who is organizing the effort.
“There's a board that's formed, they're really focused on trying to recruit and find reasonable candidates to run,” says Hovde. “And I’m just playing a role in Save Madison. I'm the one who understood how to set up a 527 [political action committee] and all the rest. By the way, how did you get my name out of this?”
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Eric Hovde behind “Save Madison” billboards - Isthmus
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