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Riding herd on restless Republicans

Photo at left: Senate candidate Ron Johnson aboard the Walworth County GOP's annual Geneva Lake Cruise. More photos are HERE

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WHITEWATER -- Republicans think they have a good shot at taking Russ Feingold's senate seat in November, and they don't want party infighting to get in the way.

But Mitch Sands, chairman of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater College Republicans, is more worried about getting behind his candidate than about hurting feelings in someone else's campaign.

In the process, Sands wonders if state Republican Party officials are trying to put the muzzle on him.

The dust-up began July 19 during the Walworth County GOP's annual Geneva Lake Cruise, and was the topic of story in Wednesday's Ishthmus.

The cruise attracted an A-list of Republican candidates, donors and supporters, including both front-runner Ron Johnson and Sands, who is supporting Watertown businessman Dave Westlake in the primary.

In his story, Bill Leuders reports that Sands approached Johnson and asked him why he thought he was more qualified than Westlake.

After going back and forth for a bit, Johnson eventually shook Sands' hand and walked away, admitting he wasn't going to win him over. "He blew me off," is how Sands characterized it.

But the end of the encounter apparently wasn't the end of the matter.

Word of the exchange eventually made it to the "Sly in the Morning" radio show on Madison's WTDY, a left-leaning talk show, which wanted to book Sands to talk about his encounter with Johnson.

Word got back to at least one party officials and it wasn't long before Sands got the word strongly urging him to stay off the show.

Sands never did appear on the show, but he told Leuders that he decided to go public with his experience, saying "My loyalty to Dave [Westlake] is much more than it is to the party."

Read the full story HERE.