Joke Wis. Candidate Promises To Build Wall Along Illinois Border
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Move over, Donald Trump. There's a new candidate for president making provocative statements about border security, national defense and air quality.
The earnest-looking presidential wannabe started popping up on billboards around Madison, Wisconsin, 11 days ago promising to erect a wall to keep out people from neighboring Illinois, hiring professional wrestler John Cena to defend threats from abroad and bringing "our dairy air to the White House."
Todd McWilliams, the man behind the satirical campaign, told The Associated Press on Monday in his first interview that what he launched as a joke has attracted so much interest that hundreds of people have already committed to writing in his name on Wisconsin's April 5 primary ballot.
"I know it's a longshot," laughed McWilliams, or Todd Mac as he is known on the billboards, campaign website and Twitter account.
Since launching the campaign on Feb. 18, with eye-catching billboards along heavily trafficked areas in and around Madison, McWilliams said his website has gotten 15,000 hits and more than 30,000 page views. His online survey has been filled out more than 650 times, with 54 percent as of Monday morning saying they were dissatisfied with the current crop of presidential candidates.
Now McWilliams is planning to register as an official write-in candidate, so any votes he gets are counted. The deadline to submit the required paperwork is, no joke, April 1.
McWilliams, who grew up in Wisconsin and moved back to Madison three months ago after living more than 25 years in other states, said he figured his joke candidacy would fit in well in an unpredictable election year that he described as "kind of crazy."
"It's kind of making fun of the whole campaign that's going on right now, how ridiculous it is," he said.
One 14 foot-by-48 foot billboard along a highway in Madison plays off a profane but regionally well-known acronym for people who live across Wisconsin's southern border in Illinois and says a wall should be built to keep them out. An image of McWilliams looking squarely at the viewer is plastered on another billboard next to the promise, "Casual Friday will be a Law." Still another says, "Let's Start a Cold War with Canada."
McWilliams' website lists his stands on several issues, including national defense. His plan has two components: "John Cena and an active program to create a working Iron Man suit for him."
The 51-year-old McWilliams has spent his career not in politics, but advertising. He works as general manager of Adams Outdoor Advertising, a billboard company that promotes itself as having "Out There Thinking." He enlisted two sales assistants and an art director as his campaign staff, and they dreamed up his platform and the billboards.
Asked how much he's spent so far, McWilliams said it's "classified," but he has no plans to expand to television advertising.
"I don't want to go overboard. I have a day job," he said before laughing and adding, "Unless I get elected."
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