Does the Republican party want John Gard to lose? Because that whole let's-attack-the-lawyer-who-tried-to-get-Steve-Kagen-paid thing? It hasn't worked out too well.
From the JSOnline's All Politics Watch (10/11/ 6:40):
Ads prompt Republican to back Democrat
An Appleton lawyer and local Republican activist today threw his support to Democrat Steve Kagen in the 8th District House race over an anti-Kagen campaign mailing the lawyer described as slanderous.
"The ads are worse than dishonest; they are immoral," said Bruce Chudacoff, a former Outagamie County Republican Party chairman and friend of Kagen's. He appeared with Kagen at a news conference at the Brown County Courthouse in Green Bay.
Chudacoff said he decided to switch from supporting John Gard, the Assembly speaker and Kagen's Republican opponent in the 8th District race.
The ads in question were sponsored by state and national Republican Party organizations. TV ads criticized Kagen, a physician who operates four allergy clinics, over 80 lawsuits his business filed over unpaid patients' bills. It was a mailing on the same issue, however, that Chudacoff said had crossed the line of what's fair game in a campaign.
The mailing notes that many of the small claims cases were filed on behalf of Kagen's clinics by a "bloodthirsty" lawyer who also once represented David Spanbauer, a rapist and killer. Chudacoff said the obvious intent of the mailing was to try to link Kagen with Spanbauer.
Chudacoff said he decided to support Kagen after failing to persuade Gard's campaign to cancel the ad.
Christine Mangi, Gard's campaign spokeswoman, said the ads and mailing Chudacoff objected to were done independently by the party. She said she had not heard about Chudacoff's contact with Gard's campaign.
Chudacoff said even though Gard's campaign maintained the ads and mailing were done by the Republican Party without any coordination with Gard, that Gard could have prevailed on the party to cancel them.
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