Wisconsin US Senate 2018: Primary August 14

[Addie]

Axios: The 2018 Senate elections to keep an eye on

Wisconsin: There's a lot of outside money backing Republicans challenging Sen. Tammy Baldwin, which gives Democrats some cause for concern. Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton is spending $1 million to back candidate Kevin Nicholson, who will be up against state senator Leah Vukmir in the August primary.

[MRich]

Nicholson's parents are involved - they're contributing to their son's opponent:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ke ... 2a03522378

That a parent would do this seems like a warning to others: "We know what he's like, DON'T vote for him!"

[RTH10260]

Koch-backed group puts $1.5M into ads hitting Wis. senator over VA scandal
BY JONATHAN EASLEY - 03/06/18 05:00 AM EST

A group associated with billionaire conservative donors Charles and David Koch is putting $1.5 million behind two advertisements attacking Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) for her handling of the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center scandal.

Concerned Veterans for America will run ads in Wisconsin highlighting Baldwin’s handling of an opioid over-prescription crisis at the Veterans Affairs center in Tomah.

One of the ads is a first-person testimony from a man identified only as Mark, who said that he worked at the Tomah VA as a nurse but was also treated there as a veteran.


http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/37 ... va-scandal

[Addie]

Vox: A vicious Senate primary is hurting Republicans in Wisconsin

Kevin Nicholson faces Leah Vukmir for the right to oppose Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in the midterm elections.

[Addie]

FiveThirtyEight: Polls close: 9 p.m. Eastern

Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race has fallen off the radar a little bit, but at least two Republicans are still hoping to unseat Tammy Baldwin. State Sen. Leah Vukmir is the pick of the local GOP establishment and has $2.5 million in PAC spending behind her, but that’s nothing compared with the $10.7 million that Republican uber-donor Richard Uihlein has spent plugging 40-year-old Marine veteran and business consultant Kevin Nicholson. Even though Nicholson is backed by some of the most conservative names in Republican politics, Vukmir partisans have questioned whether he’s a real Republican. Nicholson was president of the College Democrats of America and spoke at the 2000 Democratic National Convention, although he says he left that event “absolutely sure I was not a Democrat.” But he worked for Democrats in Minnesota in 2002, voted in the 2008 presidential primary2 and remained a registered Democrat until 2010.

[phaseolus]

In one of their most dramatic faceoffs, Vukmir and Nicholson tried to top each other by arguing about which one had been called the worst names in politics. “I’ve already been called vile,” Vukmir bragged. “I’ve already been called Nurse Ratched.” Not to be outdone, Nicholson boasted: “I’ve had people try to kill me for what I believe…I’ve had people in our own party say I have no real principles.” Can’t we just all agree that they’re both terrible human beings?

- Joel McNally in the Shepherd Express

Edit: now in the correct topic where it belongs