Several weeks ago there was an article on the website of The Hispanic Conservative about candidate for County Supervisor Penny Sikora and the endorsement he received from County Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic. Some of the points were touched on in a No Quarter piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by their staff writer Daniel Bice.
At that time several liberal bloggers including myself were informed about The Hispanic Conservative article by an anonymous emailer using the account Nicole.ronto@gmail.com. In my on own ramble about the issue, I asked who is Nicole Ronto? At the time all I could find were a few tweets seemingly aimed at conservatives and a profile of a 19 year old woman in Vienna who obviously has nothing to do with Milwaukee politics.
Well this weekend my antique flip phone couldn’t handle a number of text messages that it received and I asked the party to contact me via email. After a number of email exchanges with the sender, Julio Guerrero, Chair of the Latino Caucus of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, confirmed that Nicole Ronto is actually Milwaukee liberal political activist, Nicholas Reindl. Mr. Guerrero also confirmed that Mr. Reindl has used twitter account @notpennysikora. I haven’t followed up on that track.
Now, Mr. Reindl just happens to be the campaign manager for Tracey Corder. And Ms. Corder just happens to be an opponent of Mr. Sikora for County Supervisor in the 18th District. Mr. Reindl is also peripherally involved in the campaign of Chez Ordonez who is running for Milwaukee Alderman in the 8th District against incumbent Alderman Bob Donovan.
So we have a campaign manager for one current campaigns playing dirty tricks via anonymous emails and tweets…this type of dirty trick is Karl Rovean in nature (thank you Zach) and totally inexcusable in local or for that matter any level of politics. Smearing candidates and trying to hide? If you’ve got something to say about your opponent and think it’s valid and needs to be aired…then say it. This is utterly repellant.
Ms. Corder…pay attention to who you are working with and make sure you understand what they are doing on behalf of your campaign. They may bring you some unwarranted criticism.
Mr. Reindl…reconsider your tactics and your employment…maybe you’re in the wrong party!
(Full disclosure: I met with Mr. Reindl just over a year ago to discuss my then current campaign for Milwaukee School Board…it never went beyond that).
Ed. Note: I’ve edited this to reflect the true nature of Nick Reindl’s relationship with Chez Ordonez.
Really? Who cares? Smearing? I think Mr. Sikora ruined his own reputation when using violence towards his significant others. It’s public info for starters and using a fake name/email to get it out there in the public isnt the worse things democratic campaigns have done.
And you’re listening to Julio Guerrero? When did he become a great source of information? When he refused to pay his rent and try to smear his roommates reputation to get his roommate to pay his share? Maybe you should consider what is newsworthy and what isn’t. Julio’s issues with his roommate isn’t newsworthy. The source of the fake email (which Julio was totally on board with) isn’t newsworthy. The info about Mr. Sikora is out there and now what he does with it is his business.
I think it’s safe to say Julio’s personal dispute with Nicholas wasn’t a part of the conversation he had with Ed.
Yeah I agree. I’m sure he acted like it was ground breaking news that a democrat got a little dirty with politics (even though it wasn’t smearing). What Julio (and this blogger) is doing is smearing actually.
Sad Julio didn’t say he is the one who exchanged emails with the author of the original article and he is the one who encouraged the fake emails… oh well. Must’ve been a slow news day if this is the crap people blog about.
I am smearing? LOL! I am the one who called it dirty politics…Mr. Guerrero simply stated that Nicole Ronto = Nicholas Reindl. Despite your commentary and Nick’s recent FB post “wishes aspiring journalists would actually fact check stories before running them.”…no one is actually denying the Nicole Ronto = Nicholas Reindl!
Whatever the motivation behind the exposure…if this is a fact it’s a fact.
This story is no longer about Mr. Sikora in case you haven’t noticed…that one’s been told.
Lee…you are debating facts not in evidence…if Mr. Guerrero isn’t being factual here…then he’s becomes the issue…I didn’t hide behind a false name nor refuse to name my source. If you’ve got more facts or information, spill it now or remain part of the problem.
“The source of the fake email (which Julio was totally on board with) isn’t newsworthy.”
I think there are a few people here in Milwaukee that would disagree with you. And it’s an even bigger story if Mr. Guerrero was on board with it…now we have a party caucus chair involved in nonsense.
“…and using a fake name/email to get it out there in the public isnt the worse things democratic campaigns have done. ”
We aren’t trying to engage in another race to the bottom…
Sockpuppetry is never good no matter who is doing it.
How did Julio acquire this knowledge about Nick/Nicole? I find it nearly impossible to believe that Julio’s involvement is limited to Nick’s alias. Ed, I think, you have only touched the tip of the ice berg on this story.
woah. I’m hiding behind a fake name? Not true. Lee is on my birth certificate. Am I denying anything Nicholas did? No.
And exactly what Tony said…why should Julio know anything? Because Julio is involved. How do I know? I go to their house all the time and hear him talk about it. He’s the one who leaked it originally to get it in the press. That’s why he knows about the emails. But also don’t come across to me saying I’m hiding behind a fake name and I don’t have proof. 1. You don’t know me…you don’t know everyone who reads your blog. 2. I don’t ow e you anything so you don’t tell me to spill it or get out.
But I think you are choosing to ignore a bigger problem. Didn’t you for once think Ed, that Julio had to be involved in the problem to know anything about it? Did you tell him to spill or shutup basically? No. You just take his storytelling as facts.
Maybe you should contact Nicholas so he can show you the emails and texts from Julio demanding payment for no reason whatsoever or Julio would smear his name. Julio would do whatever to make nicholas pay him, even if it’s this sikora bs. But unfortunately for Julio he didn’t think about how to explain his role in the situation. We may not have proof that Julio had because for the fact it was all done on Julio’s computer. But if you want to go on and complain about smearing in politics maybe you should target a caucus chair in the state party rather than a college student.
Read all of my replies…I think you’ll see that I agree with you on a few counts here. Including the issue of a party caucus chair being involved. But Mr. Guerrero’s issues would certainly be a separate but related story.
And I wasn’t talking about you when I was talking about fake names…but until now I wouldn’t have known if Lee was your name or an alias either.
And I have been in touch with Mr. Reindl since last evening.
I hope Sup. M.D. realizes a reputation is a terrible thing to waste. I signed her nomination papers but a few weeks ago, but that HispCon article gives me great pause. Marina, you really must explain this. I respect your opinion, but this is confusing. And no, I have no dog in this fight.
Good to see this unsubstantiated story is being used by conservatives to attack Progressives like Marina and Tracey
I don’t read this as an attack on Tracey Corder, and from talking with Ed it was meant to be an indictment of Nicholas Reindl.
It is a bit flattering that this little political sideshow should draw so much interest from a conservative campaign. As Zach stated, this original post had nothing to do with Ms. Corder, Supervisor Dimitrijevic, or Mr. Ordonez. It was simply to open the discussion about questionable activities on the part of Mr. Reindl as I was aware of them at the time.
Zach.. I think she means my “indictment” is now being used by conservatives….
http://wispolitics.com/1006/120313_alexander_campaign.pdf
An indictment that for the record is unsubstantiated, I was never contacted by Ed or Blogging Blue for comment until after this was posted, and appears to be written completely on the word of one person.
I did not contact Mr. Reindl before I published this article but was satisfied that there was some fire underneath the smoke. I didn’t publish everything I had been told about the situation because I wasn’t able to confirm it, but this wasn’t the whole story. I did talk with Mr. Reindl after he officially resigned Ms. Corder’s campaign. He did not deny nor refute anything that was written here.
Especially as it seems that the gentleman that Julio Gurrero apparently worked with in this issue is now coordinating with Deanna Alexander to attack Tracey Corder…
I did refute the idea that it was me that sent these things out… I made it very clear that Julio Gurrero, then chair of the Latino Caucus of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin had taken it upon his own to leak these documents using Aaron Rodreguiz and the Hispanic Conservative.
I did refute the idea I was less than honest in dealings. Mr. Sikora had a record, the campaign did draft a white paper about it, it was leaked by Mr. Gurrero.
The idea that I didn’t refute anything is ridiculous. The fact that this story was even written with no sourcing is ridiculous.
Mr. Gurrero threatened people I know, made outlandish claims against them, tried to extort me for money, yet a story with zero sourcing gets written, one that is consistently cited by conservatives…
It is a shame really
A: This isn’t a newspaper it’s a blog…I am a blogger not a journalist
B: I didn’t talk to Mr. Reindl before publishing but I did in fact have a source for this, I didn’t make it up. It is all explained in the original post and again in my comments of March 13.
C: In a separate but fairly equal blog post I discussed Mr. Guerrero’s issues and he has resigned his position with the Dem party.
D: I don’t believe I have ever accused Mr. Reindl of actually providing Mr. Rodriquez or the Hispanic Conservative with the information…it was the email blasts that I questioned here.
E: If credible threats were made, this isn’t the venue to rectify that…the MPD is easily contacted in this day and age.
F: And although it is unclear if they have continued their friendship, at the time of this brouhaha, Mr. Reindl and Mr. Guerrero were friends and roommates. Why they want to continue to parade their dirty laundry in public instead of letting it blow over and getting on with life is beyond me.