Trevor Jung is flooding Milwaukee television with over half a million dollars in ads. But one of those spots leans on Mitchell Yurkowitz, a left-wing Wisconsin lawyer, to level unsubstantiated accusations at Republican Jim Croft. The ad uses the weasel phrase “living around here” to smuggle in outsiders while still pretending the attack came from the district.
District 21 is not “around here.” It is a specific map: northern Racine, Caledonia, Raymond, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, and parts of southern Milwaukee County. Croft is a Franklin businessman. Jung is Racine’s transit director under criminal investigation for campaigning on the taxpayer dime.
Yurkowitz is not a random constituent who wandered in front of the camera. He is Mitchell T. Yurkowitz, a Wisconsin attorney who writes housing and tenant pieces for a Wisconsin law blog, including a 2025 essay on landlord duties and “infestation injustice.” Putting him on camera as one of the voices of “around here” is the oldest trick in political advertising: hide the résumé, use a letter for the last name, and hope nobody Googles it.
The accusations are the other half of the con. Jung’s spot treats Yurkowitz’s claims about Croft as settled fact. They are not. No court filing, news or police reports, or named local official is shown on screen. If the charges were as clean as Jung wants voters to believe, the ad would cite them. It doesn’t take a lawyer from outside the district to know this.
Jung can spare the lecture about who belongs in the 21st. He has his own problem at home. Heartland Post reported that Racine employment records show the transit director marking full regular-pay days on dates that line up with campaign videos, a kickoff, and partisan events. That is not a rumor from “around here.” That is his timesheet. A candidate who spent a year mixing public payroll with campaign work is in no position to outsource character attacks to a lawyer who does not even have to live with the result.
This seat is open because Sen. Van Wanggaard is retiring. Democrats need it to flip the Senate. That is why the money is pouring in and why the ads suddenly sound like they were filmed in a neighborhood in the district. Using left-wing lawyers, making unsubstantiated claims, and saying “Living around here” is the tell.
