A Republican running in the Seventh Congressional District isn’t free of his primary opponent, despite haven beaten him in September. Dan Mielke, an organic farmer from central Wisconsin, says he wanted assurances that former Ashland County District Attorney Sean Duffy, winner of the September GOP primary, would fairly represent conservative viewpoints. “I sent out an e-mail basically stating that if he’d be willing to sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury, that he’d uphold those values that he claims he upholds, that I question, that I would consider endorsing him,” Mielke said Friday. “These are all things he claims he’s for.”
That didn’t happen, so Mielke says he now plans to run as a write in candidate in November. And he’s not worried that might throw the election to Democratic state Senator Julie Lassa. “If Sean Duffy is not willing to hold to the moral conservative values that we hold to, there is no difference between him and Julie Lassa,” says Mielke. “It’s worse in one sense because he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
An inquiry to the Duffy campaign did not receive a response. Limited polling has been done in the race between Duffy and Lassa to succeed veteran Democrat David Obey, but what has been done shows Duffy with the lead.