Four more days.

Four more days and the ads will end. What will commercial watchers do? It was a political season in which there seemed to be so many Obama or McCain pitches that they were an incessant intrusion on our television viewing.

Even lesser contests got into the ad frenzy, with the likes of state Rep. Sheldon Wasserman and Sen. Alberta Darling hitting the airwaves for what normally would be considered a minor race with parochial consequences -- a state senate district representing the North Shore. But Dems are drooling that Wasserman has a shot at ousting Darling from her long-held seat.

In any case, we get to watch it unfold in 30-second spots.

One major issue missing from the airwaves: the referendum question asking Milwaukee voters to mandate employers provide paid sick leave for all employees. Perhaps lacking funds, this issue remained low-key until the city's business lobby groups proclaimed their opposition.

It's groundbreaking stuff; the likes we haven't seen on a ballot since voters were asked to ban handguns in the city.

Even the question asking voters to raise the county sales tax by one percent got some airplay on billboards and in our mailboxes. Maybe the backers of the paid sick leave movement wanted to keep this one under the radar until voters hit the booths.

One issue unlikely to disappear soon is the continued challenge to voter registration efforts and registrants themselves. Led by GOP operatives including state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, many efforts were made to purge voter rolls.

The latest attempt to kick 1,000 people in Milwaukee off the lists was rejected by the Milwaukee Election Commission this week. It's a favorite topic of the right-wing radio squawkers and we should hear plenty of noise on the issue no matter the results on Tuesday.

The Power of Schlitz: One record will fall during this election cycle: the amount of money state residents donated to independent, unregulated special interest groups.

The so-called 527 groups are generally the pit-bull attack entities that end up running the negative and false ads on behalf of candidates. Wisconsinites donated a record $3.27 million to the special interest groups, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

With more than two months left in the 2007-‘08 election cycle, the $3.27 million surpassed the previous record for Wisconsin contributions to 527 groups for an entire two-year election cycle -- $2.57 million in 2001-‘02.

Nearly a third of Wisconsin's total contributions came from one person -- Lynde Uihlein, heir to the Schlitz Brewing and Allen-Bradley fortunes. Uihlein contributed $1.08 million to four groups including $370,000 to the Progressive Majority, $250,000 each to the League of Conservation Voters and America Votes 2006 and $138,000 to the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund.

Uihlein was followed by Terry and Mary Kohler, prominent supporters of right-wing causes. The two gave $467,000 to six 527 groups including $110,000 to All Children Matter, $105,000 each to America's PAC and American Solutions for Winning the Future, $85,000 to GOPAC, $37,000 to the Club for Growth and $25,000 to the Republican Governors Association.

Strange Bedfellows: Here's something you won't normally hear a state Democrat say:

"Paul Ryan is one of the most influential Republican members of Congress."

The speaker? None other than Democratic Party Chair Joe Wineke. First off, Ryan isn't that influential, but Wineke praises Ryan's take on the McCain campaign holds that the GOP nominee should have stuck to the issues and focused more on economics and health care plans.

"This is just another painful blow to McCain's dishonorable low-road campaign, which has apparently run itself into a ditch in Wisconsin," added Wineke.

Paving the way for Paradise: It's apparent the Park East Freeway corridor has been slow to develop. Several projects have been put on hold pending whether or not the public chips in some development dough. That's why an Aloft Hotel project has gone to the state to grab an extra $10 million toward the bottom line. The aid will come from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority and the Wisconsin Community Development Legacy Fund. The fund focuses on helping create business in distressed urban areas.

Say it ain't so... : The state McCain campaign has gotten on the "Joe the Plumber" bandwagon almost to the point of silliness. It announced this week that there will be a "Joe the Plumber" Day across the state.

According to the statement, "Joes from across the state are available to discuss their support for John McCain." The campaign, however doesn't say which day it will be.

"These Wisconsin ‘Joes' are outraged that Obama wants to raise their taxes so he can pay for his government-mandated health care system and other big government programs," says the campaign.

It goes on to list 11 small business owners ranging from a banker and a trucker to an artist and an actuary, offering them up for interviews.

While John McCain's campaign attempts to take something resembling the high road in his advertising regarding Barack Obama, the Republican Party of Wisconsin doesn't seem to have any problems firing up the incendiary propaganda. The state GOP sent out two mailers in the last week telling voters "Barack Obama. Not who you think he is."

One flyer tries to put Obama in bed with former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, with whom Obama served on two boards in Chicago, some 30 years after the Weatherman ran around with bombs.

No matter, the state GOP's mailer says "William Ayers. Terrorist. Radical. Friend of Obama." It further exacerbates, "Obama has close ties to domestic terrorist." Obama has addressed his relationship with Ayers many times, noting that he was about eight years old in the late 1960s.

The other mailer accuses Obama of being soft on crime, claiming that Obama voted "Against tough penalties for drug-related crimes. ... Against protecting children from danger. ... Against protecting families from abuse." One headline states, "He acted more as a friend to criminals than to cops."

As of this writing, the state Obama campaign either waited to the last days before sending out a mailer or is content with TV ads. Maybe I'm just not on the right mailing list.