How sickening. Jim Sullivan & supporters slam Leah Vukmir with untrue attacks +CORRECTION

Democrat Wisconsin State Senator Jim Sullivan is in the fight of his life to hold onto his 5th District Senate seat this November, and the tone of his campaign shows it. Having campaigned as a moderate Democrat, Sullivan's performance and voting record in Madison these past 4 years has been anything but moderate.

Jim Sullivan fancies himself as an independent, a maverick, yet Sullivan voted with Jim Doyle 99% of the time! (Sullivan rather reminds me of another so-called maverick in the US Senate: Russ Feingold. Maybe Sullivan is a Feingold wannabe?)

To the casual observer, Sullivan did vote no on the last budget, which might make you think he is a maverick. But his NO vote was only because the Democrats didn't need his vote. (Candidates facing a tough challenger are often given permission to vote no.) Sullivan still managed to bloat the 2009 budget at the committee level--not very maverick-ish. He also voted in favor of the 2007 budget and voted for expensive and destructive bills like Healthy Wisconsin, Combined Reporting, Badger Care Plus, etc.

Every day the airwaves, billboards, and mailboxes are being assaulted with misleading and downright untrue campaign pieces against Sullivan's opponent, Leah Vukmir, from PACs and Sullivan himself. Since I just blogged about Scott Walker's support for adult stem cell research and Tom Barrett's accusations to the contrary, we will start there.

As I mentioned,"there is nothing new here" in Democrats deception when it comes to stem cell research. Obama accused McCain and Palin of being against it. Feingold accused Ron Johnson, Barrett accused Scott Walker, and now Jim Sullivan accuses Leah Vukmir.

In all of these cases, the accusations were not true. Let's call these accusations what they are: they are out and out lies. All 5 of these Republicans support Stem Cell Research. They support the kind that works--the kind obtained from adult and umbilical cord stem cells.

Jim Sullivan's campaign piece goes a step further, however. He also accuses Vukmir of voting to criminalize stem cell research! "Vukmir voted to criminalize stem cell research that could help cure debilitating diseases like Alzheimer's (AB 499, 6/23/05)", Sullivan proclaims.

Now in the days before the internet, it would have been difficult to see if these wild accusations were true. But we do have the internet. So here is the bill Sullivan is referring to: "2005 Assembly Bill 499, AN ACT to create 146.347 of the statutes; relating to: human cloning and parthenogenesis and providing penalties."

"Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau

"This bill prohibits human cloning and parthenogenesis; attempting to perform human cloning or parthenogenesis; transferring or acquiring a human embryo produced by human cloning or parthenogenesis; and transferring or acquiring any embryo, cell, tissue, or product derived from a human embryo produced by human cloning or parthenogenesis."

The bill is NOT about Stem Cell research; it IS about Human Cloning.

In 2006, the race between Incumbent Republican Tom Reynolds and challenger Democrat Jim Sullivan was close: *Sullivan won by 2,462 votes, a 1.2% margin. Brookfield's Mayor Bloomberg endorsed Sullivan back then saying he would serve and represent the people of the 5th district effectively. (I did NOT agree.)

People voted for Sullivan in 2006, trusting that he was a moderate. I don't think they will be fooled again.

If you see campaign material that just doesn't ring true, check it out for yourself. We need honesty in Madison, someone who will fight to reduce taxes and respect life, like Leah Vukmir, not "barely true" Jim Sullivan.

*CORRECTION: I had mistakenly stated Sullivan won by a slim margin of 700 votes, however I had written that the night of the election and noted it was before the final count in the original 2006 post.

If you recall, the Reynolds, Sullivan race was deemed a tight race the night of the election. It was called for Sullivan, with him 700 or so ahead, at the time I posted that night, but not all the votes had been counted. All Politics Blog wrote: "With more than half the vote counted, the battle for the 5th Senate District remained too close to call, according to results from WTMJ-TV (Channel 4). Democratic challenger Jim Sullivan held a narrow lead, but incumbent GOP Sen. Tom Reynolds led earlier in the night. That west suburban seat is one of three that Democrats need to win to take control of the state Senate." The final vote tally was 36,148 Sullivan to 33,686 Reynolds, a 1.2% margin of 2,462 votes.


JSOnline: As Doyle's polls plunge, state Democrats try to stand clear, Democrats in tough contests are trying to distance themselves from the head of their party
PoliFact Wisconsin: Jim Sullivan says he voted against his own party to "stop runaway government spending" Barely true!

Past Posts: When did politics become so dirty? + P.S. 2006 campaign
Bloomberg's endorsement shows her true "blue state" colors? 2006
Senator Jim Sullivan's Town Hall.....GRILLING! OUCH! 2009 A taste of the REAL Jim Sullivan on a host of issues
Will Jim Sullivan recall effort affect his vote on $62.2 billion state budget? 2009

Rep. Leah Vukmir's Budget Update: Assembly passes [2009] budget
Wisconsin Assembly Update: Working night & day - RTA, Global Warming, Voter Act on hold April 2010, Vukmir the Valiant kills the RTA

For shame, Tom Barrett, Scott Walker SUPPORTS Stem Cell research!

Links: Practically Speaking, Betterbrookfield, RandyMelchert, Jay Weber, Vicki McKenna, The Right View Wisconsin, CNS News, Mark Levin, Breitbart BigGovernment, The Heritage Foundation