Glenn Grothman: Wrong on running against Kohl

Hi folks,

It's been a quiet news week for Glenn, so let's revisit some leftovers I've been keeping in the fridge. Here's something from last month during his aborted-run against Senator Kohl that still has me scratching my head.

You'll remember that he put together the required number of signatures to go for it, but pulled out at the last minute. Anyway, here's an example of weirdness in the Milwaukee Journal from back in July:

FRIDAY, July 14, 2006, 11:23 a.m.
By Steven Walters

Grothman produces 3,012 signatures

Madison-State Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) showed up at the home of a Journal Sentinel reporter at 9 p.m. Thursday with a box of nomination papers.

"Let's count," he said.

So, the reporter and the senator huddled at a kitchen table, going through a pile of nomination papers Grothman, his friends and local party leaders circulated last weekend that -- had they been filed by 5 p.m. Tuesday -- would have put the Republican on the ballot as a U.S. Senate candidate against three-term Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.).

Grothman produced the pile of nomination papers, each of whom had room for 10 signatures of Wisconsin residents, after accusations by bloggers and others that he didn't run against Kohl because he couldn't get the 2,000 signatures required by the 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline. He picked the home of the Journal Sentinel reporter who had personally asked to see the nomination papers.

But the number of signatures on nomination papers he produced Thursday night was 3,012.

"It just proves they're lying," Grothman said about the bloggers and emailers who suggested that he didn't run because he had failed to get the required number of signatures. "We got them."

Two items about this that made me go "hmmmmm...."

• I'd have to ask Steve Walters, the reporter here, whether he and Glenn are buddies or whether Glenn knew he was a reporter and just appeared at his back door at 9pm on a Thursday night. Sounds like Glenn just showed up and broke into the guy's kitchen.

--and

• ... wait a sec, read that again: "Glenn showed up at this guy's house at 9 o'clock on a Thursday night" to 'prove" he had enough signatures to run? I mean, what makes you so insecure that you need to prove to a Journal reporter that you have enough signatures when the election commission -- surely the uber-authority here -- would have guaranteed those signatures? Doesn't this seem a bit... I dunno... hysterical?

Glenn was wrong to pull out of a race against Senator Kohl. Personally, I'm sorry he didn't run and I know that those of us to the left of the Spanish Inquisition feel that way too. It would have been a chance for Glenn to air his politics in the open light of day where everyone could get a clear look at them -- a quick and certain way to make Democrats out of anyone who is raising a child or earning less than $150,000 a year.


hiho
Mpeterson