Murders are up and businesses moving out of Madison. Is Gov. Scott Walker overstating his attacks on a Democratic rival in the governor's race?
PolitiFact Wisconsin looks at the numbers and puts them through the Truth O Meter.
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin is one of 18 Democrats running to unseat Walker.
Soglin's recent decision to jump into the race prompted Walker to tweet quote "The last thing we need is more Madison in our lives."
"Governor Walker says that Madison Mayor Paul Soglin has taken Madison backward, that businesses have left and murders are up," said Tom Kertscher with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
One example from Walker's campaign was the decision by Heinz Kraft in 2015 to close its Oscar Mayer plant in Madison with 1000 employees.
PolitiFact Wisconsin says city records show there are more businesses in Madison today than when Soglin became Mayor in 2011. The Oscar Mayer plant closing was part of a bigger picture.
" For example when the Oscar Mayer plant was shut down that was part of a larger shutdown of plants around the country," said Kertscher.
Homicides in Madison are more rare than Milwaukee and usually number in the single digits. But in 2017 the number of murders jumped to 11, the highest in Soglin's recent tenure
"But when the numbers are so small like they are in Madison, it's hard to draw conclusions from the number of homicides in a given year," said Kertscher.
PolitiFact Wisconsin rated this claim Mostly False, meaning it contains an element of truth but is overbroad.
