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The letter sent contained the following information.
No electronic copy so it was retyped. Excuse spelling errors.


Clean Campaign Ultimatum
Republican candidates in the 7th GOP district of Wisconsin are expected to:

· Not make any direct or indirect personal attacks upon any and all other Republican candidates, their family members, friends, or acquaintances. (My comment: this leaves us wide open. Can we expose facts and truths? Can we expose differences? Acquaintances, friends,and relatives, is a loaded gun that could go off anywhere without our knowledge.)
· Show at all times the utmost respect for any and all other Republican candidates, to refrain from mockery, the spreading of false rumors, the dissemination of misinformation or confidential information, about these individuals’ friends, and family. ( My comments: Double standard. We can slam a Democrat but not a republican. I thought we believed in treating everyone the same)
· Not instruct or through third parties cause to be instructed any individual to carry out any activities which are prohibited above. (my comment: Again a loaded gun with no safety. Anyone can claim to be a supporter and slam the opponent and we get punished)
· Dismiss any individual from his/her campaign who engages in conduct prohibited above other Republican candidates. ( my comments: Easy way to eliminate key campaign staff by the opponent)
· Follow the spirit of President Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment, “Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican. ( my comment: Ronald Reagan would never approve of such censorship)

If the above conditions are not followed by a Republican candidate running for congress in the 7th GOP district, the following chairs of county parties pledge to sever relations with the offending candidate By.

(My comment: This is blackmail. How can a chair make such a claim without consent of the membership? I know for a fact that Portage County has not had a meeting since this came out).
· Not responding to or forwarding email messages from the candidate or his/her campaign and to not disseminate any other campaign material on behalf of the offending candidate or his/her campaign
· We further pledge to deny the offending candidate opportunities to speak or participate at Lincoln Day Dinners, Reagan Day dinners, picnics, parades, fair booths, caucuses, or other events and activities conducted by our respective county parties.
· Space in campaign headquarters will not be afforded to an offending candidate, yard signs will not be distributed, phone banks will be denied, and any other party activity that might promote the campaign of the offending candidate.


Chair names withheld for the moment to allow them to change their minds. 16 chairs apparently agreed to this.

Comments from
By Robert Mentzer
Wausau Daily Herald
Mike Monson is the Chair of the 7th Congressional district:
For Monson, the solution to this problem is for the party to endorse its candidate at its spring caucus. That endorsement would not be binding, but it could create political pressure if party members believe it's important for them to rally behind a single candidate.
"I don't think we're going to go to the primary process," Monson said. "Going into the 7th District caucus next spring ... the Republican delegates will choose a candidate."


July 19, 2009
Race to unseat Obey creates rift among District 7 Republicans

By Robert Mentzer
Wausau Daily Herald
The race for the GOP nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Dave Obey is barely into its second week and already there are indications, worrying some Republicans, that things could get ugly.
In Sean Duffy and Dan Mielke, Wisconsin Republicans have two very different political candidates vying for the nomination to challenge the 40-year Democratic incumbent in 2010. Although both candidates say they are most concerned with the November general election race against Obey, behind-the-scenes actions indicate intra-party jostling for position.
An hour before Duffy's official announcement of his candidacy on July 8 in Wausau, a bogus e-mail was sent to media saying that the time and place of the event had changed. It is not known who sent the e-mail.
Meanwhile, at the county level, some Mielke supporters say they have felt pressured by Duffy allies -- and in at least one case, a party official believes he was removed from his position because of his support for Mielke.
"It seems like anyone who's not going to back Sean Duffy, they're going to get him out of it," said Pete Pospichal, who this summer was removed as vice chairman of the Republican Party of Langlade County.
Pospichal, 73, of Deerbrook sent an angry letter to Republican colleagues after his removal, alleging that he was denied due process and was unfairly targeted for personal retribution by Mike Monson, who was then the Republicans' 7th District vice chairman. Monson became 7th District chairman when Duffy stepped down from that position to become a candidate.
Pospichal, who was involved with the Langlade County party for 12 years, said he believes Monson is trying to marginalize Mielke supporters.
"What's happening, I believe, is mostly because of Sean Duffy running for Congress. Monson has been trying to get Mielke out of there," Pospichal said.
Monson, 53, of Antigo said Pospichal is a disgruntled former party member who is lashing out, and that his removal was not related to either Mielke or Duffy. And he believes the substance of Pospichal's complaints originated with Mielke.
"Dan Mielke and Pete are connected," Monson said. "So Pete makes it a Dan Mielke issue. ... The district is not against Dan Mielke. Dan is a Republican and he is a candidate. So is Sean Duffy."
Mielke is practicing the "politics of personal destruction," Monson said, echoing a phrase used by President Bill Clinton during his impeachment. "He's acting like everybody's against him, but that's simply not true."
What seems clear is that bad blood exists between Mielke and Monson. During Mielke's 2008 campaign to unseat Obey, the two butted heads when Mielke failed to meet established fundraising goals. According to Monson, Mielke began to attack him to others around the district.
"If (Mielke) wants to run in this process, he needs to run a clean campaign," Monson said. "He's attacking me, attacking (people in) county parties. Dan Mielke is out there personally attacking people in different ways. Is that the kind of candidate we want?"
Mielke, by contrast, said he has been the target of behind-the-scenes attacks by politicos including Monson who want him out of the race.
"It's being dealt with by a few select -- what I call 'elitist Republicans' who are trying to control what's happening," Mielke said.
'Going to get ugly'
It is hard to imagine two more different candidates than Sean Duffy and Dan Mielke.
Duffy, the 37-year-old Ashland County district attorney, is disciplined and on-message, in interviews careful to stick to his talking points. A former cast member of MTV's "The Real World: Boston," he has matinee-idol looks and the sense of self-consciousness of a person accustomed to cameras. The former chairman of Wisconsin's 7th District Republican Party, as a candidate Duffy has retained a Washington, D.C.-based online consulting firm Engage DC to help shape his campaign message.
Mielke, 55, is a garrulous organic farmer from Rudolph and a political activist without experience in elected office. In interviews, he's prone to digressions about history and the Constitution. He wears a long beard, has three grandchildren, and holds the fact that he is not a professional politician as a point of pride. Mielke ran against Obey last year and got more than 40 percent of the vote, despite meager fundraising totals and an admitted difficulty in campaigning across the district's 20 counties.
Both say that although the election is nearly a year and a half away, they are focused on their campaigns against Obey.
"I'm running full steam ahead building a campaign and putting a team together," Duffy said. "I'm focused on Dave Obey and I'm focused on November 2010."
"What I'm doing in this campaign, and have been doing all along, is campaigning against Dave Obey," Mielke said.
But some worry that having Republican candidates slugging it out in the run-up to November 2010 could harm the eventual nominee. The party's primary does not take place until September of that year, leaving scarce time to campaign for the general election.
Jeff Tyberg of Wisconsin Rapids, who was defeated by Nick Reid in a 2006 Republican 7th District primary, said the short period before the general election makes it next to impossible for a candidate to raise the money necessary to run against an incumbent.
"I would love to see no primary happen (next year)," Tyberg said. "But on the other hand, I fought to make sure that I stayed through to the primary (in 2006), just to give voters the choice."
Joe Wachtel of Wausau, who in June resigned from his position as chairman of the Republican Party of Marathon County, said he worries about the damage a primary could do.
"I suspect it's going to get pretty ugly," he said.
Wachtel, who supports Mielke, said he was not pressured to step down. But he vehemently denied Monson's claim, made in an interview, that he resigned "because he was tired of dealing with Mielke."
"That's crazy!" Wachtel said. "The thing I didn't like is that I couldn't support him in a primary. ... That's pure rubbish."
For Monson, the solution to this problem is for the party to endorse its candidate at its spring caucus. That endorsement would not be binding, but it could create political pressure if party members believe it's important for them to rally behind a single candidate.
"I don't think we're going to go to the primary process," Monson said. "Going into the 7th District caucus next spring ... the Republican delegates will choose a candidate."
For Mielke, though, that is anathema to the democratic process.
"It's my hope and it's my prayer that people will be enlightened and realize that it's important to let this campaign take its course naturally," he said. "My fear is that they'll do everything they can to open the door for the candidate of their choice and push the other one out."
A clean primary?
Not every hard-fought primary campaign makes it impossible for the eventual nominee to win the election -- for evidence, look no further than the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential contest. Still, some say it's important for both candidates to remain focused on Obey, not one another. Citing Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment -- Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican -- Monson said he has proposed an agreement between the candidates that they not attack one another, but rather focus on their contrasts with Obey.
Duffy said he has not seen this proposal, but that it is consistent with his stated goal to run a clean campaign. And in interviews he has consistently declined to criticize or even mention Mielke.
Mielke has not agreed to Monson's proposal, and said he will not.
"If that is the case, I'm saddened, because I really believe that the idea of a free nation is to have an open election," he said. "Trying to control, orchestrate or manipulate a campaign so it looks good is, to me, fraudulent. It's not real, and it sets us up for disaster when the winner takes on Dave Obey."
For others, though, including Pospichal, the early days of the campaign are cause for depression.
"The Republican Party in the 7th District is going to hell, is what's happening," Pospichal said. "I can see why Obey's been winning. We don't support our own candidates. If it ain't their choice, they ain't going to back you."

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for Race to unseat Obey creates rift among District 7 Republicans



TheSniper wrote:
Replying to strangetime:
I wonder???...Do you think that Flava-flav would have a chance if he moved into the 7th district? He was on MTV too, ya know.


Oh hell yeah! Duffy is da man! He's flashy. We all love flashy, right?
7/19/2009 6:30:23 PM

strangetime wrote:
I wonder???...Do you think that Flava-flav would have a chance if he moved into the 7th district? He was on MTV too, ya know.
7/19/2009 5:49:14 PM

DrDoominator wrote:
Oh boy...some good old boys don't like what the big guys are doing so they have decided to talk to the press...ohhh I bet Rob almost pee'd his pants.

Who cares, it happens in the Democrat party too, they just don't blab as much to the press.
7/19/2009 5:27:51 PM

TheSniper wrote:
Replying to Stand4America:
I think Mike Munson should step down, after all he has been arrested for drunk-driving, had his Securites license removed for embezzelment, was forced out as mayor of Antigo because of fraud (that has yet to come to light). But over all he's a good guy, I can see why he's obviously in Duffy's camp. So much for our Constitutional Republic, I'd love to be Obey right now.


Great point. Obey has this one in the bag.

It's too bad because Mielke has grassroots support and was adheres to the Constitution. He is the better candidate. Care to send me some information on the alleged fraud by Munson?


TheSniper wrote:
Replying to ImTheDude:
Mielke should step aside. He's had his chance but has proven he can't generate the necessary fundraising. Besides, few of the votes Mielke got were so-much Mielke as votes as they were votes against Obey. Seems like a long shot, but maybe Duffy can pull this off.


I disagree. Duffy is already playing dirty politics and then trying to accuse Mielke of the same.
7/19/2009 12:25:42 PM

Stand4America wrote:
Replying to ImTheDude:
Mielke should step aside. He's had his chance but has proven he can't generate the necessary fundraising. Besides, few of the votes Mielke got were so-much Mielke as votes as they were votes against Obey. Seems like a long shot, but maybe Duffy can pull this off.


I think Mike Munson should step down, after all he has been arrested for drunk-driving, had his Securites license removed for embezzelment, was forced out as mayor of Antigo because of fraud (that has yet to come to light). But over all he's a good guy, I can see why he's obviously in Duffy's camp. So much for our Constitutional Republic, I'd love to be Obey right now.
7/19/2009 12:24:55 PM

WisconsinProud wrote:
Given the headline, I have to ask: What doesn't cause a rift among district 7 republicans these days?
7/19/2009 12:19:36 PM

ImTheDude wrote:
Mielke should step aside. He's had his chance but has proven he can't generate the necessary fundraising. Besides, few of the votes Mielke got were so-much Mielke as votes as they were votes against Obey. Seems like a long shot, but maybe Duffy can pull this off.


7/19/2009 12:01:01 PM

strangetime wrote:
Maybe they should bring Joe the Plumber or some other wise "elder statesman" of their movement in to orchestrate a truce between the two sides.

Maybe they both could put up some of those Burma Shave type signs announcing themselves...or maybe an MTV van with a screaming, flag-wrapped Ted Nugent driving around drumming up votes would be the ticket to Washington. I suspect that we're going to see quite a dog and pony show before this is over.