Joseph Gerth and Allison Ross

The Courier-Journal

A write-in candidate from Northern Kentucky who is running for the U.S. Senate is a neo-Nazi who once belonged to an organization whose founder inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Robert Edward Ransdell has made news in recent days with signs he has posted in Northern Kentucky and Lexington that say "With Jews We Lose" and when he was ushered offstage on Wednesday after espousing his anti-Jewish rhetoric during an event at the University of Kentucky.

Now, he plans to begin running commercials on a mainstream talk radio station in Cincinnati, according to a white supremacist website where he posted that federal communication laws ensure that the radio station will air his ad.

"He's a very bad person," said Heidi Beirich, director of the intelligence project at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which tracks hate groups.

"His views are virulently anti-Semitic and racist," said Marilyn Mayo, the co-director of the center on extremism at the Anti-Defamation League.

But both Beirich and Mayo said attention must be brought to Ransdell and his views so that Kentucky voters know who he is and where he stands.

Ransdell couldn't be reached for comment for this story.

His voice mail, on which he promised that he would "take a noose to black-on-white crime," was full and could no longer accept messages.

Scott Reinhart, programming director at 55KRC, the radio station in Cincinnati, didn't return a phone call.

Spreading message

But Ransdell has a long history of racist views, according to those who track hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. In fact, he announced his write-in candidacy on the neo-Nazi website Stormfront.

In the post, he said his campaign isn't designed to win the Senate seat but simply to spread his message.

"This campaign will attempt to expose as many White people as possible to the facts regarding the Jewish role in America's decline as well as highlight the destructive effects that multiculturalism, diversity, and political correctness have had on this country," he wrote on the site.

He laid out plans in the post for airing radio ads and speaking on college campuses.

On Wednesday, he was invited to speak at a Constitution Week event at the University of Kentucky, which was designed to celebrate the signing of the U.S. Constitution.

After he espoused his anti-Jewish views and said that he was "the white people's candidate," he was asked to stop talking. When he refused, his microphone was cut off, said Al Cross, a columnist for The Courier-Journal and the director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at UK.

Students in attendance "were horrified," said Cross, who used the opportunity to begin a discussion about the First Amendment and freedom of speech, even if that speech is upsetting or runs counter to accepted beliefs.

Thirty-five students from Louisville's Manual High School attended the event to see two of their teachers receive awards.

One of the students, Cicada Hoyt, 14, said she was shocked by Ransdell's comments, particularly since she is Jewish herself. She said she saw students from one school get up and leave as Ransdell was speaking.

"It was an experience in itself. I've never experienced any adult say any of those racist or anti-Semitic things," Cicada said. "He was completely serious. There are people in this world who believe that. It was really upsetting."

James Miller, one of the teachers, took the lectern to rebut Ransdell.

"You can't have that stuff appear in a vacuum," Miller said of Ransdell's comments. "I felt like I had to go up there and address it. I felt I had to apologize to my students for exposing them to this stuff. … This is not some interesting, abstract question of First Amendment rights. This guy is going on crazy rants about Jews and blacks. I can't just let that go."

Cicada said Miller later saw one of Ransdell's signs on the side of the road, reading "With Jews We Lose." Miller got off the bus and pulled the sign from the ground.

Miller would say only that he didn't think that was an official campaign sign. (After this article was first published, Miller clarified that he'd just read an article suggesting that Ransdell's signs might not comply with election law. He also said the sign was on a public median.)

Buck Ryan, director of the Citizen Kentucky Project at UK, which organized the event, did not return a call or Facebook message.

UK's statement

Kathy Johnson, a spokeswoman for the school, issued a statement saying the school didn't know what Ransdell was going to say.

"Mr. Ransdell was invited because he has registered and has been qualified as a write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate with the Kentucky Secretary of State Office," said in the statement.

"Constitution Day is not about politics, it is a celebration of the principles of the Constitution. All speakers are asked to focus on those principles. Unfortunately, Mr. Ransdell included his political beliefs and platform in his comments," she wrote. "The University of Kentucky was not aware of the content of his remarks prior to him speaking and does not condone or endorse any political platform or agenda."

Amber Duke, a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said it is unclear whether Ransdell's First Amendment rights were violated at UK.

Ransdell was formerly associated with the National Alliance, a West Virginia-based hate group. Recently, he broke off and associated with a rival organization called the National Alliance Reform and Restoration Group.

Mayo said Ransdell once distributed fliers at the University of Cincinnati offering a reward for anyone who could get Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel to show his concentration camp tattoo while Wiesel was on a visit to Cincinnati.

Beirich said white supremacists will occasionally seek public office but, like Ransdell, really don't expect to win.

"They rarely get any votes and it's usually done for free publicity," she said.

Mayo noted that Frazier Glenn Miller, who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups, ran for the U.S. Senate in Missouri in 2010. He was charged this year in the shooting deaths of a 14-year-old boy and his grandfather outside an Overland Park, Kan., Jewish community center.

Both Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes and Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell issued statements condemning Ransdell.

"Bigotry has no place in this world. Messages of hate such as those espoused by a recent U.S. Senate write-in candidate are despicable and should be rejected," Grimes spokeswoman Charly Norton said in a statement.

"One would hope that this sort of thing would never make its way into any modern day discussion let alone a U.S. Senate race," McConnell spokeswoman Allison Moore said.

Reach Joseph Gerth at (502) 582-4702. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Gerth. Reporter Allison Ross can be reached at (502) 582-4241. Follow her on Twitter at @allisonross.