,

Tiffany, Duffy Attack Impeachment At Campaign Event

Former Congressman Announced His Endorsement Of Tiffany In Republican Primary

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Sean Duffy endorses Tom Tiffany
Former Rep. Sean Duffy shakes hands with state Sen. Tom Tiffany at a campaign event in Rothschild, Thursday, December 19, 2019. Tiffany is seeking the Republican nomination in the 7th Congressional District special election. Rob Mentzer/WPR

The special election campaign of congressional candidate Tom Tiffany got a boost Thursday as former U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy endorsed him at a campaign event in Rothschild.

Both politicians used the event as an occasion to take shots at Congress for its vote on Wednesday evening to impeach President Donald Trump.

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“They’re trying to nullify our votes from 2016,” Tiffany said in a campaign speech at a Wausau Homes factory. “They’re trying to wipe that out.”

“What we’re looking at here and what we saw happen yesterday,” Duffy said, “is an impeachment of a president who has done nothing but fight for the forgotten men and women of America.”

In comments to WPR after the event, Tiffany drew a parallel between Congress’s impeachment efforts and the 2012 recall of then-Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. He called impeachment “pure partisanship” and said the public will reject political fighting done outside of normal electoral channels.

“What you’re seeing in the polling right now is people are saying, you take your policy differences to the next regularly scheduled election. You do not use extraordinary means to do it,” Tiffany said.

Most recent Marquette Law School Poll results found that 34 percent of respondents in the 7th Congressional District favored impeaching and removing Trump from office, while 61 percent opposed it.

Tiffany, a Republican state senator from Minocqua, is seeking the congressional seat that was most recently held by Duffy, a Wausau Republican. Duffy resigned in September. The sprawling district encompasses much of central and Northwoods Wisconsin and all of the northwestern part of the state.

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Tiffany faces a primary challenger in Jason Church, an Afghanistan war veteran and former staffer for U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson. The Church campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WPR.

Duffy said his decision to endorse Tiffany is based on his experience working with him.

“I’ve known Tom since before we were both elected,” Duffy said. “I’ve seen what he did during the recall (of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in 2012), and how he was one of the first ones to stand up and push back.”

The primary is Feb. 18. Though the district voted heavily Republican in 2016 and has been represented by a Republican since 2011, the special election is being closely watched by both political parties for signs of strength or potential cracks in the rural Wisconsin counties that were Trump strongholds in 2016.

Tiffany and Church met in their first debate Dec. 12 in Wausau, an event which included some pointed barbs mostly centered on who would be a better ally to Trump.

Church has made a point of saying that he supported Trump’s candidacy “from day one,” a contrast to Tiffany and Wisconsin Republicans who were skeptical of Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

No such skepticism was on display at Thursday’s event, which found Tiffany pledging to stand with Trump and praising the president’s judicial appointments and lightened regulatory approach.

On the Democratic side in the 7th Congressional District race, Wausau School Board president Tricia Zunker announced her candidacy in October. She’ll face Lawrence Dale in the primary. Dale is an insurance salesman who ran as a Green Party candidate in the district in 2014. Zunker, who is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, would be the first Native American candidate for Congress from Wisconsin since 1992.

Tiffany has received support from other Wisconsin Republicans. On hand for the endorsement were state Reps. Pat Snyder and Mary Felzkowski. He also has the endorsement of former Gov. Scott Walker.

Tiffany announced that he had raised nearly $250,000 for his campaign only weeks after declaring his candidacy. Neither Church nor his Democratic opponents have released fundraising numbers.

The general election for the congressional seat happens on May 12.