“An honest politician is an oxymoron,” Mark Twain once famously said. Yet even he would have been quite impressed with the lengths to which Wisconsin Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes is going to deceive voters. It’s particularly rich, given the left-wing attacks calling incumbent Ron Johnson (R-WI) dishonest. Yet while on the campaign trail, Barnes himself was caught misleading the public about who has actually endorsed him.
Earlier this month, Mandela Barnes touted that his campaign had the support of active law enforcement officials. He provided a list of nine police officers who had endorsed his candidacy.
This, in and of itself, is embarrassing, given that there are over 13,000 police officers in Wisconsin. But, to make matters worse, Barnes didn’t even have nine real supporters. After he listed the names of those law enforcement officials who supported him, it was revealed that only one of the nine was a legitimate endorsement by an active officer.
First, LaCroix Police Capt. John Siegel, a Democratic candidate for sheriff, denied ever endorsing Barnes in the first place. His name had to be removed, but then it turned out that seven of the remaining eight are retired officers, not active ones. This meant that out of 13,000 police officers in his state, Barnes could only find one legitimate, active officer who would publicly support his candidacy. It’s an embarrassing display of police officers’ lack of faith in Barnes just two years after he was caught making excuses for the riots that tore up Kenosha and other Midwestern cities.
It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that officers aren’t big Barnes fans. The incumbent lieutenant governor jumped right on the defund-the-police bandwagon, speaking openly about reducing police funding.
“This is a huge red flag. Mandela Barnes is so dangerous for Wisconsin that no on-duty law enforcement officer will endorse his run for Senate,” NRSC spokeswoman Lizzie Litzow said. “If Wisconsinites don’t know Barnes’ stance on crime yet, then they need to take this as a warning: Barnes will only make their state and communities less safe.”
