Tom Reynolds' wingnut brigadepeddling recycled, discredited garbage

The right-wing slime brigade is out in force tonight, trying to dump some old, recycled garbage on Jim Sullivan, the Democratic candidate who seems well on his way to defeating State Sen. Tom Reynolds (R-Loonyville). Reynolds holds the title of the wingnut with the loosest threads in the legislature, where there is a lot of competition, and looks to be in serious trouble in his re-election bid.

Now along comes Bob Dohnal, publisher of the Wisconsin Conservative Digest, and a consultant to Reynolds' campaign. He and J.J. Blonien, editor of the same "publication," widely distributed an e-mail to bloggers Monday night claiming Sullivan had voted twice in the 1996 election. Blonien is sometimes on Reynolds' legislative staff, paid by the taxpayers, and sometimes is his campaign manager. Sometimes he's both.

What the boys are sending around is a letter from Stan Zurawski to the Tosa weekly which claims Sullivan voted twice in the same election in 1996, in Whitefish Bay and Wauwatosa.

Zurawski's right at home with the Dohnal-Blonien Dirty Tricksters. He's a failed candidate for Wauwatosa mayor -- rejected by the voters three times -- who heads Tosans for Responsible Government, a CRG affiliate. In his spare time, he and his wife headed up the "anti-porn" crusade against mannequins wearing underwear at Mayfair Mall.

The charge is totally bogus, and was dismissed by the district attorney's office in 2000, when Sullivan was running for Wauwatosa alderman. (He won.)

Someone named Michael Goggins filed the complaint then, attaching the same voter lists that Zurawski is now circulating, purporting to show Sullivan voted twice.

The district attorney's office investigated and wrote Goggins on March 28. 2000 to say the office was closing the investigation and taking no action.

Why? The Whitefish Bay voter history list was unreliable, Assistant DA Kurt Benkley said.

You see, Wauwatosa Ald. Jim Sullivan, the one running for the State Senate, is James Sullivan, Jr. His father, you won't be surprised to learn, is James Sullivan, Sr.

Therein the confusion, and the conclusion by the DA that the confusion "renders Whitefish Bay voter history records as to James Sullivan, Jr. and James Sullivan, Sr. unreliable and valueless." (My emphasis.)

Those are the same records being circulated today by Blonien, Dohnal and Zurawski. They've already gotten Owen Robinson to bite and are frantically working other bloggers and reporters to try to spread the lie.

The charge wasn't true then and it wasn't true now. Those who spread it, knowing it is baseless, open themselves up to all sorts of problems -- especially if, like Dohnal and Blonien, they are working for the opposing candidate.

Let's see who files the next complaint.

Jim McGuigan has more.

UPDATE: Sullivan was interrogated on the air Tuesday by the Grand Inquisitor, Mark Belling, who said he was satisfied that Sullivan was telling the truth and had not double-voted. Here's a 15-minute audio clip, which is more than you need to know. Sullivan comes on in the last half.