Don Zimmer, chair of the Republican Party of Manitowoc County, sees a problem with the candidacy of Andrew Wisniewski, a GOP candidate in the state’s 25th Assembly District. “We think that Mr. Wisniewski is not really a Republican, and that this is a ploy by the Democrats to take votes away from Mr. Ziegelbaur,” Zimmer says. That’s Assembly incumbent Bob Ziegelbaur, who recently bailed out of the Democratic Party to declare himself an Independent. This week the Government Accountability Board ruled Wisniewski did not have enough valid signatures to be on the ballot, but reversed itself the next day. Zimmer finds fault with the Wisniewski campaign.
“These people, I mean Wisniewski and his people that campaigned for his nomination, they’re treating the political process like it’s a joke, and I think they’re attitude towards the political process is absolutely contemptible,” says Zimmer. Republican Party officials have claimed that Wisniewski did not circulate his own nomination papers, and that the work was instead done by union members. GAB staff discovered eleven signatures which put Wisniewski back on the ballot. He’ll face Democrat Kerry Trask and Ziegelbauer in November.
Brian Norton, WOMT