The race for Wisconsin’s second congressional district between incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin and Republican challenger Ron Greer is heating up.
As the election nears, candidates have been calling personal information about their opponents into question. Baldwin has called Greer anti-homosexual, and Greer has accused Baldwin of attacking religions that do not welcome her agendas.
In a press release last Wednesday, Greer called Baldwin a religious bigot based on a fund-raising letter the Baldwin campaign sent out.
“In this letter Ms. Baldwin attacks Protestants, Catholics, Jews and Evangelical Christians for daring to have a viewpoint that is different from the radical homosexual agenda she champions,” Greer said.
The letter didn’t mention these religions but did call Greer an “anti-choice, anti-gay exponent of the extreme religious right.”
“Accusing someone of religious bigotry is a very serious charge, especially when it’s unfounded,” Baldwin’s Campaign Manager Karen Johanson said.
Johanson said the fund-raising letter was sent to private donors with the intention of soliciting campaign donations, not votes.
Baldwin has stipulated a “Clean Campaign Pledge” which outlines specifically a campaign that “will not use race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or age as the basis for any attacks against [her] opponent.”
“There is a substantial difference on the issues between these two candidates, so it’s not really necessary to worry about personal issues,” Johanson said. “Ultimately, the issues are what the voters decide on.”
Johanson said Greer misinterpreted the letter, although the letter did include personal information about Greer.
The letter listed “homophobia, distortion and character assassinations” as components of Greer’s campaigning and recounted how Greer was fired from the Madison Police Department for distributing “inflammatory and divisive antigay literature to fellow firefighters saying homosexuality is immoral and sinful.”
The Washington Times reported in September that the firehouse incident caused Greer to be labeled as an anti-homosexual, and that Baldwin, then a state legislator, wrote an open letter to the media calling for Greer’s dismissal, pushing Greer to enter the political arena in the 1998 Republican primary.
Early in his 1998 campaign, Greer was criticized for referring to Baldwin, the first openly gay women to be elected to Congress, as a “left-wing lesbian.”
The Greer press release said Baldwin in fact welcomed the attack as an opportunity to attack Greer’s religious faith.
The candidates will square off in a debate at the University of Wisconsin Union Theater on Oct. 15.
The debate will offer UW students an open forum to quiz the candidates on students’ issues.