Johnson campaign scrapes the bottom of the barrel for campaign staff

By Zach W On May 12, 2010 · 4 Comments · In Election 2010, Those Kooky Conservatives!, Wisconsin Politics

Last week I noted Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson had hired Darren “purposeful distortion” Schmitz to serve as a consultant to his campaign, and now Johnson has gone out and scraped the bottom of the campaign staff barrel again, hiring Mark Stephens, the former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign. Stephens helped run divisive campaigns for the late Senator Jesse Helms and the former Senator Elizabeth Dole, and just before leaving his job with the RNC, Stephens was able to appoint his replacement Rob Bickhart. As the RNC’s finance director Bickhart encouraged using “fear” to solicit contributions and depicted President Obama as the Batman villain, “The Joker,” and caricatured top Democrats in fundraising presentations. Bickhart was recently fired from his post at the RNC for his role in spending RNC contributions at a bondage-themed club in West Hollywood.

Darren Schmitz and Mark Stephens…..the fact that these two individuals are among Ron Johnson’s first hires for his U.S. Senate campaign speaks volumes about the kind of campaign he plans on running, a campaign that will no doubt be as securely based in negativity and mudslinging as the campaigns of Dick Leinenkugel and Terrence Wall.

Tagged with: Darren Schmitz • Ron Johnson

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4 Responses to Johnson campaign scrapes the bottom of the barrel for campaign staff

Publius says:

May 12, 2010 at 11:32 pm

I’m not sure that Democrats want to start slinging mud based on a guilt-by-association effort.

Julie Lassa and Chuch Chvala? Barack Obama and William Ayres? Mike Tate and his dishonest campaign for Fair Wisconsin? Jim Doyle and Norman Hsu?

Everyone in both parties have enough baggage in that regard that the bottom of the barrel isn’t who Ron Johnson hires, but rather, the place the stupid press release you regurgitated should be.
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- forgotmyscreenname says:
  
  May 13, 2010 at 12:39 am
  
  “Barack Obama and William Ayres?”
  
  – How dare you. That is completely irrelevant. How can you try to tarnish this brilliant man. Hope. Change. Health Care. You’re a racist.
  
  Figured I might as well beat everyone to the punch on this one.
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  - Zach W says:
    
    May 13, 2010 at 10:16 am
    
    Was Ayers a paid member of Obama’s campaign staff?
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Jim says:

May 13, 2010 at 11:00 am

So does this mean the Johnson campaign will feature strippers? This will be a more interesting summer than I thought.

Publius your comparisons are pretty flawed. It’s one thing to associate (to varying degrees, in your example) with a person later found out of wrongdoing. It’s a whole different animal to HIRE someone AFTER.
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