AS NASTY AS THEY WANNA BE The primary race in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District took a negative turn this week when a conservative blog attacked candidate Ken Van Doren as senile and unelectable. Author Nik Nelson wrote on the website morningmartini that Van Doren’s “senile blitherings and overt disrespect for his opponent’s military service were just the rantings of a candidate very likely to lose the primary.” “Van Doren has the capacity to not only lose in an unprecedented landslide to Ron Kind,” Nelson wrote, “but also the potential to be a massive embarrassment to the entire Republican Party in the 3rd District.” In a response on his campaign website, Van Doren called the post ageist and “par for the course from the GOP ‘establishment,’ who always backs the candidates that are willing to submit to the will of the party and not to the will of the people.” The post included a leaked memo from Van Dorn’s campaign that outlined plans to attack Kurtz as a “war monger” who has benefited from government, both as a government contractor and a recipient of farm subsidies. He defended the memo, which he said outlines “serious issues” with Kurtz’s campaign, “including the fact that Kurtz has no political track record here in Wisconsin, and that Kurtz has taken in over eleven thousand dollars in taxpayer paid subsidies (welfare) for his ‘farm.’” Van Doren went on to write of the other GOP candidate, Karen Mueller, that he planned “to ignore Karen altogether.” The Van Doren campaign said the blog post simply generated more traffic to his campaign website. Kurtz, a former Army helicopter pilot and crash investigator, now has an organic farm near Prairie du Chien. A political novice, he has garnered endorsements from Dan Kapanke and former Wisconsin VA Secretary Ray Boland, the last two Republicans to run against Kind. He also has the support of Christopher Anderson, a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse graduate who dropped out of the race and is now serving as his campaign finance director. Van Doren meanwhile announced an endorsement Wednesday from the Republican Liberty Caucus, the party’s libertarian wing. “I am honored to stand with other RLC members like Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Rand Paul, former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina,” he wrote.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 16:26:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015