It's the eve of the primary election for both Republicans and Democrats running to become Attorney General of Wisconsin, and the candidates ads are in full rotation on the tube.  Conspicuously absent are any ads from Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher, a Republican who looks like a long long shot Sept. 12.

Also conspicuously absent from the ads running for Republican J.B. Van Hollen and Democrats Kathleen Falk and Peg Lautenschlager is any mention of the methamphetamine epidemic that has swept Wisconsin in the last few years.  Western counties have been hardest hit, and meth has run rampant in the Fon du Lac area and other corners of the state.  AG Lautenschlager has focused law enforcement resources on the epidemic, yet, still, meth use continues to rise.

So why is AG Lautenschlager boasting an decrease in meth lab busts this year, after those busts soared in the previous three years? And with meth on the rise, she touts a 30 percent decrease in meth cases.

It doesn't add up, a problem for any AG who's asking for a second term — and it has not escaped notice.  The Kathleen Falk campaign issued in August a detailed, well-researched position statement on "Fighting Meth," presenting a comprehensive approach to the problem.  

The Falk plan involves bringing federal resources to bear by declaring western Wisconsin a High Intensity Drug Trafficking area, and treating the epidemic as a public health problem by setting up treatment systems through the courts. It's a revolutionary approach in Wisconsin still, despite years of proven success with Day Reporting Centers and other incarceration alternatives which have reduced criminal justice costs by reducing the recidivism that drives costs. The Falk plan deserves a serious look as both a law enforcement and public health plan.

Unfortunately, media didn't bite on the issue, and neither have the campaign handlers, loaded with ample arsenal to attack Lautenschlager without looking at her anti-meth program. As the Falk position piece points out, cracking down on meth labs doesn't address the fact that most of the meth is now being imported into the state.

AG Lautenschlager, it should be pointed out, is telling only half the meth story on her campaign website. While this may have escaped notice from most campaign watchers, it did not escape notice from law enforcement in western Wisconsin, where meth flows across the Minnesota border.  They're endorsing Kathleen Falk.

Polk County DA Karen Olsen and Iowa County DA Larry Nelson announced they were supporting Falk in early August, joining Kenosha County DA Bob Zapf and others who say they want a more serious approach from the AG.  Here's what Polk County DA Olsen said when endorsing Falk:

"Wisconsin is facing serious issues, and we need serious people to address them. I look forward to working closely with Kathleen on the issues that are important to me – and other district attorneys – fixing the rising meth problem, putting a stop to growing violence in our communities, and fixing the backlog at the crime lab."

And seriously now, this race may never have been as close as Lautenschlager's friends in Madison seemed to have thought it was.