Audio obtained: Fond du Lac man’s threats to kill Gov. Evers

MADISON, Wis. (Gray) - The voicemails a Fond du Lac man left threatening to kill Gov. Tony Evers have been obtained through an open records request.

Bradley Hartmann, 46, was charged earlier this summer with three counts of terrorist threats and four counts of unlawful use of a telephone. Hartmann left two voicemails for Evers’ office and two for Dane County dispatch. The messages included slurs against LGBTQ and Black people.

In one message left for the governor’s office, Hartmann said: “I will f****** kill you and your f****** family, Tony Evers. You might be dead come Monday morning.” In a separate voicemail, he said: “I will f****** kill you if I find you. Resign. Trump ‘24.”

In a voicemail left with Dane County Communications, Hartmann said: “You better protect Tony Evers right now... I’m gonna f****** find him and I’m gonna f****** kill him.”

Benny Witkovsky, a senior researcher at Princeton University’s nonpartisan Bridging Divides Initiative, said the voicemails reflect a rise in violent political threats across Wisconsin and the country.

“It is everywhere. It is not limited to any one place,” Witkovsky said. “I think the challenge that we have in places like Wisconsin is how divided our politics are and how much conflict there is in our politics is definitely something why we see it more intensely here.”

Witkovsky said threats are reaching officials on both sides of the aisle and at every level of government.

“The President of the Village of Arena was threatened a few weeks ago. School board members in Watertown, the mayor of Port Washington — all of these people have reported receiving serious threats,” Witkovsky said. “And those are people who don’t have the benefit of the Capitol Police.”

A Princeton Bridging Divides Initiative survey of local elected officials nationwide found more than three in four said they are less willing to engage in political activities like posting on social media, appearing at public events, or running for re-election, due to threats.

Witkovsky said threats targeting officials’ families compound the problem.

“As a politician, you do sign up to be hated by many, many people,” Witkovsky said, “but your children don’t.”

Evers’ office did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Hartmann is out on bail after paying a $15,000 cash bond. As a condition of his release, he is banned from communicating with Gov. Evers or attending any event where Evers is present. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 19.

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