Democrat Tom Barrett and Republican Scott Walker are in a very tight race for governor for Wisconsin.  I conjectured earlier in October that reproductive rights could prove key in this race.  The release of a new “Scott Walker is too extreme for Wisconsin” ad from the Barrett campaign shows that may be true.

Via the Washington Post:

Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett’s latest television advertisement features the parents of a rape victim who accuse his Republican opponent of being “too extreme for Wisconsin” because of his anti-abortion views.

Scott Walker’s campaign shot back, accusing Barrett of holding even more extreme positions because he once voted against banning a procedure opponents call partial-birth abortion.

The advertisement and Walker’s response are the latest example of the increasingly negative tone ads and other campaigning are taking across the country, especially in competitive races, during the last weeks before the Nov. 2 election.

Barrett’s new ad which began airing in Milwaukee and Green Bay on Wednesday night features parents of a rape victim identified only as Mike and Lana. They speak about how their teenage daughter was brutally raped, with the father saying that it makes him “so mad” that Walker wants to ban abortion even in the cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother.

“Who is Scott Walker to play god with our family? I just think Scott Walker is too extreme for Wisconsin,” he says.

The Barrett campaign identified the people in the ad and The Associated Press spoke with their daughter, who said she was given emergency contraception at an Italian hospital after her attack to prevent a possible pregnancy. The AP does not identify victims of sexual assault.

This is the second of Barrett’s “Too Extreme” commercials to focus on Walker’s reproductive rights record.  An earlier commercial discussed Walker’s opposition to stem cell research, stating it could shut down research at the University of Wisconsin.  Polifact called the ad a lie, saying Walker only wanted to ban research on embryonic stem cells, not adult stem cells.