That seems to be the MO of Wisconsin Republicans, who are seeking fake Democratic candidates to run as spoilers in their recall elections. Six Republican senators are up for recall, with each facing one Democrat. Additional Democratic challengers would force a Democratic primary that would delay the general recall elections scheduled for July 12.
The word that the Republican senators were seeking spoilers started coming out last week, when reports emerged of an audio recording of a county GOP chairman in the district of Sen. Dan Hanky-Kapanke discussing the idea of recruiting fake candidates. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is now reporting Republican officials in Sens. randy Randy Hopper and Lex Luther Olsen's districts are also interested in spoilers:
Local Republican Party officials are encouraging their GOP colleagues to collect enough signatures to get a fake Democratic candidate on the ballot in each of two upcoming recall elections.
The spoiler Democrats, who are identified by name in the letters, would run in the Democratic primaries for the seats now held by Republican Sens. Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac and Luther Olsen of Ripon.
Both of the fake Democrats have a history of giving almost exclusively to major Republicans.
"We need to make sure Democrat challengers face primaries to allow our Republicans time to mount a campaign," Dan Feyen, chairman of the 6th Congressional District Republican Party, wrote in the letter to "fellow conservatives" on Friday.As a kicker, here is a sentence from the letter in Olsen's race, written by Sauk County Republican Party Chairman Tim McCumber and Waupaca County Republican Party Chairman Fred Zaug, promoting the fake campaign of "Democrat" Rol Church: "We can't stress enough how important it is to have Rol on the ballot to combat the shady maneuvers of Madison liberals and their out-of-state allies."
Charming.
