I called up my mom today and the first thing she said to me was, “The Republicans are finally getting smart.” Then she told me that some Republican had switched their registration to Democrat in order to run against the Dem who’s challenging Dan Kapanke in his recall election. She was like, “Shilling’s complaining that a primary will cost money. Democrats just wasted $500,000 on recounting those Prosser votes. They can deal with it!” ROFL.
James Smith, a member of the La Crosse County Republican Party’s executive committee, resigned Monday and announced his intention to run as a Democrat to force the primary.
“Running this fake Democrat in the primary is the latest attempt by Dan Kapanke and his supporters to hide from the people of the 32nd Senate District and manipulate the electoral process,” said Shilling, a representative in the state Assembly.
Kapanke’s campaign has repeatedly denied being involved in a spoiler strategy, which GOP leaders believe will bleed resources from Shilling’s campaign and allow a spoiler candidate to attack her as Kapanke stays out of the fray.
Shilling continued:
“This all began when thousands of his constituents trying to contact him were greeted with unanswered phones, full inboxes and locked doors. Since then, Dan has hidden behind frivolous court challenges, trumped up threats to his safety and now an attempt to manipulate the voters.”
Kapanke is one of six state Republicans facing summer recalls. The election is scheduled for June 12, but a primary would move the general election to August.
Yeah, those “I’m going to cut your head off and put it on a stake” threats were so overblown. /s
Hm. I wonder if I could vote for this guy in the Democratic primary. Haha.
This is James Smith:
Oh, my word. I think I know that guy. That’s not the guy I stood next to in Madison, is it? I think it might be. Maybe it just looks like him. I know he worked with the Republican party in LaCrosse. Huh.
Here is a letter James sent out to people trying to garner support for his protest candidacy.
Here’s an article saying he attended protests in Madison:
Republicans have found a spoiler candidate to challenge Rep. Jennifer Shilling in this summer’s recall election, which would force a Democratic primary and extend the campaign by nearly a month.
James Smith, until recently a member of the La Crosse County GOP’s executive committee, says he is running as a protest candidate.
Smith, a regular fixture at local labor protests this spring where he held signs touting his support for Gov. Scott Walker, said he resigned his party leadership position Monday before announcing his candidacy. He said he does not plan on campaigning aggressively but wants to protest the recall process.
“I want to bring light on the issue that 22,000 signatures can pretty much overturn an election where even the loser got 40,000 votes,” he said Tuesday.
The 25-year-old hospital technician said he had the idea to run last spring but discussed it recently with state party officials.
Wow. I’m not sure if it’s the same guy or not, but it’s looking likely. Let me see if I can find video…
Found some:
Yep! That’s him. That’s the same guy I rode down to Madison with in a bus to the Palin speech. LOL. Wow. Small world. I can believe Kapanke didn’t have anything to do with this. This guy seemed like the type to take his own initative and do things just to bug Democrats.
I actually caught video of him while I was in Madison. He’s the guy yelling “David Prosser’s what Democracy looks like!” and “Thank you, Brookfield!”
I’m not sure if this will actually help Dan or not, but I’m kind of done caring. Politics is such a circus in this state right now, I’m in popcorn-eating mode. Don’t really care what happens, just enjoying the show.
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