You can’t make this stuff up: The former chairman of the Waukesha County Republican Party (WCRP) is accusing the current chairman of the WCRP of violating campaign laws, and has hired a Democratic lawyer to represent him, according to a report today in the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel (www.jsonline.com/...).
Oh, and the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee is less than 10 months away, and the Waukesha Republicans are an essential part of pulling that baby off. So, a potential mess of a convention, due to national Republican infighting, has perhaps just become messier.
Short summary: the former chairman, John Macy, is accusing the current chairman, Terry Dittrich, of coordinating with a conservative PAC, WisRed PAC, which in turn funneled money into Republican-owned companies, including a company, TWD Global Enterprises, owned by one... Terence W. Dittrich.
Whoa!
This whole thing is really convoluted and messy, so it’d be best if you read the article itself. But a few highlights…
1) In 2020, the WCRP formed the WISRED Initiative, one of those groups that endorsed and promoted MAGA candidates running for non-partisan elections for school boards, city councils, etc. In other words, they helped turn meetings of local governing bodies into right-wing screaming matches. And many of their candidates won and are now screwing up school districts all over Waukesha County, driving talented teachers, administrators, and superintendents out of their jobs.
2) In 2021, conservatives set up the WisRed PAC to support these whacko candidates financially. The treasurer of this PAC worked for Belt Accounting, which is owned by one Kelli Belt — the treasurer of the WCRP.
3) The WCRP’s constitution says its officers are to be unpaid volunteers. Unless they happen to run a company getting money from the MAGA PAC they helped create, I guess…
There’s more “follow-the-money” intrigue to the story that you can read for yourself.
The key part of this story is that the Waukesha County Republican Party is in a state of disarray due to possible internal corruption by its officers. In the meantime, the Waukesha Dems are harmoniously working hard together, in a red county that is becoming purple-to-blue in its professional, highly educated eastern suburbs, closest to Milwaukee County.
Being one of the three heavily populated “WOW” counties (Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington) that have in past years swung statewide elections to the Republicans, this is a bad sign for Republicans. A movement of just a few percentage points towards Democrats and progressives in these three counties can help swing a statewide election for...Democrats and progressives. This most recently happened in the special election for State Supreme Court, which Janet Protasiewicz won by an eleven-point Wisconsin landslide.
This trend of Dems gradually chipping into the Republican share of the vote in the WOW counties had already begun happening in the 2020 election. It accelerated for the Supreme Court race. Now that the Waukesha Republicans are beginning to “eat their own,” it should bode well for Wisconsin Dems.
Oh, and Republicans, good luck with that convention next summer… ;-)