× Expand David Michael Miller

This post is for the West Bend Republicans out there. Some of you have to be embarrassed by the actions of Rep. Bob Gannon (R-Slinger). At least a few of you have to be interested in running for office. Let me encourage you to challenge Gannon in the fall primary election.

Gannon has had a string of embarrassing statements and outbursts over the last month. After the shooting in East Towne Mall, he encouraged Wisconsin residents to hunt down criminals à la Charles Bronson. In a news release, he blamed Wisconsin’s economic woes entirely on the black residents of Milwaukee. Then, when called out for his offensive release, he flipped off Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) on the Assembly floor.

The guy who espouses the virtues of a “good guy with a gun” should not be the same guy who loses his temper when a colleague questions a news release.

Gannon makes me nostalgic for the good old days when his legislative seat was held by predecessors like Pat “giant sodas are a more fundamental American right than voting” Strachota and Glenn “single-parent households are a contributing factor to child abuse/4-year-old kindergarten is a scam/men need to make more money than women/Kwanzaa shouldn’t be a holiday” Grothman.

I disagreed with pretty much every policy position Grothman and Strachota held, but I never questioned their ability to hold the basic decorum and tone one expects from our legislators. Grothman has said some wacky things in his time but he never crossed the line into outright encouraging and endorsing vigilante justice.

West Bend is one of the most conservative places in Wisconsin. There’s no way a Democrat will win that seat no matter how ridiculous Gannon gets. A Republican primary challenger is the only way to get him out. I’m not asking for a moderate, I expect the representative from this district to be super-duper conservative. I’m just asking for someone with a little dignity.

Here in Madison, when a representative in a safely partisan district got out of line, his constituents did something about it. Rep. Brett Hulsey was an embarrassment to the Democratic Party and his district. When Hulsey started buying old convertables with campaign cash and fighting adolescents in inner tubes, several people in his district expressed interest in running. Faced with the potential primary challenge, Hulsey dropped out of the race and, instead, began an odd campaign for governor. Subeck is at least as liberal as Hulsey, but to my knowledge has never toyed with the idea of distributing Klan hoods at the opposing party’s convention.

When we let people like Hulsey and Gannon represent us, we needlessly increase the divide in an already divided state. We allow ourselves to think that every member of the opposing party is just like them.

Their antics distract from the important work that needs to be done. The same day Gannon decided to let his finger fly, Assembly Republicans led efforts to pass a series of anti-heroin bills. Even as a liberal, I have to say these bills are good legislation. That’s what should have gotten headlines, not the actions of one hot-headed member of the caucus. Let that be how Wisconsinites think of your party.

The filing deadline is June 1.

Editor's note: This post was corrected to reflect that Hulsey did not run for re-election.