As TPM has reported, Wisconsin Republicans have pushed a plan to frustrate Democratic efforts in the state Senate recalls by running fake Democratic candidates, thus forcing primaries and delaying the general elections from July to August. But one targeted Republican state senator, Luther Olsen, is vigorously denying that he had any knowledge of the plan — even as state Senate leader Scott Fitzgerald said that everyone knew.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on Tuesday:
“All of them were aware that this was taking place,” Fitzgerald said. “Some were questioning the angles on it.”
He said it was discussed at the state Republican convention in Wisconsin Dells in May.
After Fitzgerald made his comments, Olsen continued to insist he had no knowledge of the plan. Asked if he was sure he didn’t know about it, he said: “Unless I wasn’t paying attention, but I’m sure I was paying attention.”
And since then, as the Portage Daily Register reports, Olsen is continuing to deny any prior knowledge of the plan, in an e-mail reply to a constituent who wrote to him about her opposition to the campaign ploy. “I do not have anything to do with finding a Democratic candidate to run against Fred Clark,” Olsen wrote to the constituent. “I learned about it in the paper just like you.”
The key here is that recalls are now tentatively scheduled for July 12, under the state election officials’ proposed timelines, targeting six Republicans. If there were only one Democrat against each one Republican, then the July 12 date would be the general election. But if there were additional Democrats, the July 12 date would then become the primary, giving the incumbents more time to campaign for a general election in August.
Also, thanks to Wisconsin’s open primary system in which anybody can vote in a party primary, it would force the Democrats to spend time, money and resources campaigning for their own nominations.
