Republican Scott Walker and Democratic rival Mary Burke are spending Thursday drumming up votes with only five days between now and Tuesday’s election. Credit: Journal Sentinel files

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Democratic candidate for governor and former Trek Bicycle executive Mary Burke hit back hard Thursday against claims by other former executives that she was forced out of the family company in 1993.

At a campaign stop in Port Washington, Burke said the claims are being made by disgruntled former colleagues who want to help GOP Gov. Scott Walker.

"These are complete lies, fabrications. Tom (Albers) had an ax to grind, Gary Ellerman has an ax to grind with Trek," Burke said, naming the two former Trek employees who have spoken publicly.

"It shows Scott Walker is not going to stop at anything. He is a career politician who will do anything to win an election, including lies, smears, dragging a great Wisconsin company through the mud."

At his own campaign stop in Sheboygan, Walker said that wasn't true.

"The bottom line is, I'm not talking about it, I'm not behind it. I don't need to talk about it. I need to talk about how this state is headed in the right direction," Walker said of the claim.

The governor said he had known of the claim that Burke was forced out for months but never acted on it, saying Burke had received less vetting by the news media than "any other candidate at any other time in the state's history."

"We haven't talked about it because unless somebody can validate it that's really none of my business to be talking about it. That's why I haven't talked about it," he said.

Burke has staked her candidacy on her experience as a former Trek executive who helped the company expand its European sales and become a global powerhouse. The questions by Burke's detractors go to the heart of that claim.

Burke said she was proud of her record in Europe for Trek.

"I grew sales from $3 million to over $50 million and I did all of this before I was 35 years old. Trek's European operations have been a source of strength for that. And I stand by my performance and the success of those operations," she told reporters at Molded Dimensions, a manufacturer in Port Washington.

PolitiFact Wisconsin found in January that there was no way to independently verify those sales figures put forward by Burke since Trek is a privately held company and neither Burke nor the company has released documentation on those figures.

The claims concerning Burke's departure from Trek in 1993 came from Albers, the former longtime chief operations officer of the company, and Ellerman, the former human resources director.

Albers said he is a conservative and gave $50 to Walker but is not an active Republican. He left Trek to go to work for Trek's main competitor. Ellerman is the chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party, ran as a sham Democratic candidate in the 2012 Senate recall primary to help the incumbent GOP senator in that race and has been criticized by Democrats for comments made on his Facebook page.

Two days ago, Burke was drawing attention for mounting a competitive challenge to Walker, one of the most prominent governors in the nation and a potential 2016 presidential contender.

The most respected poll in the state put Burke and Walker at 47%-47% and media from outside Wisconsin were questioning whether Walker was in trouble. On Wednesday, a new installment of the Marquette University Law School poll showed a very different picture, giving Walker a lead of 50%-43%, which was outside the survey's margin of error.

The same day, Albers and Ellerman made their claim about Burke, putting one more challenge before her.

But at the same time, neither side is conceding or easing up. The shift in the Marquette poll largely dealt with those voters who described themselves as motivated and likely to vote, meaning that the election will still depend on which side gets its supporters to the polls to cast their ballots.

Typically, turnout in midterm elections for governor has favored Republicans in Wisconsin, while presidential elections in this state have favored Democrats. But Burke's campaign is seeking to shift that historical trend by bringing in national figures such as President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton to get out the vote.

Wary of overconfidence, Walker's campaign sent out a fundraising email to supporters Wednesday afternoon that downplayed the governor's lead among likely voters and instead focused on the much tighter numbers on registered voters.

"A new independent poll shows I'm in a dead heat with my Democratic opponent among registered voters," the email begins.

To help get out the vote, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka visited Miller Brewing workers during shift change Thursday afternoon and stood with about two dozen union representatives and other supporters in Miller Valley as workers filed by him.

"Vote for Mary Burke. Be safe today," Trumka said, pressing fliers into workers' hands.

"This is going to be a close election for governor and it's going to be all about getting out the vote," Trumka said. "It's an easy choice for workers: It's a choice between progress and conflict. We want Mary Burke for progress."

Referring to the Trumka visit, Walker said union leaders like the AFL-CIO head were opposing him because of his cuts to government spending and legislation repealing most collective bargaining for most public employees.

"They've got a candidate and that candidate is not me and the reason they've made me the number one target in America is because I took their power away," Walker said.

Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.