The Leinenkugel for Senate campaign starts out with a gaffe

It seems Dick Leinenkugel, the soon-to-be former commerce secretary and rumored U.S. Senate candidate, didn’t learn any lessons from the underwhelming start to fellow Republican Terrence Wall’s U.S. Senate campaign, as Leinenkugel has committed his first campaign blunder, as first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

“The Web site leinenkugelforsenate.com was registered in Leinenkugel’s name Monday, with his Menomonee Falls home address and state phone number.”

That’s right….Dick Leinenkugel registered his U.S. Senate campaign’s website using his state telephone number. Now sure, I suppose this isn’t a huge issue in the grand scheme of things, but remember, Dick Leinenkugel’s state-provided telephone number is a number provided to him at taxpayer expense to allow him to do the state’s business, not to conduct his burgeoning U.S. Senate campaign. The fact that Dick Leinenkugel used his state-provided telephone number when he registered his U.S. Senate campaign’s website could leave one to wonder what else – if anything – Dick Leinenkugel has been doing on the taxpayers’ dime in support of his possible U.S. Senate campaign. While I’m not inclined to believe this warrants a full Government Accountability Board investigation, I do believe an open records request is certainly in order, because it would certainly be interesting to see what Dick Leinenkugel’s been doing on the state’s dime.

Mike Tate, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, was quick to issue a statement regarding Leinenkugel’s first campaign gaffe, noting, “While many Republicans have already widely panned Secretary Leinenkugel’s candidacy, kicking off his campaign on the taxpayers dime isn’t going to make things any easier for him.”

As Jim Arndt of Pretty Important Politics notes, the Leinenkugel campaign may have started out inauspiciously, but Terrence Wall is still likely to be the first Republican Senate candidate to drop out of the race. While I’m inclined to agree with Jim’s assessment that Wall will be the first Republican to drop out, I’ve heard the man has an ego the size of Wisconsin, so I wouldn’t put it past him to stay in the race until the bitter end (and given how negative his campaign has been, it’ll be a very bitter end).