Racine Debate Mystery Solved

The mystery of the 'missing' Monday debate invitation that Citizen Action of Wisconsin sent to Racine debate no-show State Sen. Van Wanggaard, (R), has been solved.

No, a homework eating pooch was not involved.

Good dog.

At first, Wanggaard's staffer said forcefully and definitively to the Racine Journal Times that no such invitation had been received:

Wanggaard’s Chief of Staff Scott Kelly, contacted on Monday, denied the lawmaker ever received an invitation.

“I heard that they said Van was invited — that is a lie,” Kelly wrote in a text message. “You can quote me on that. We were not invited.”

But after the group produced a postal service receipt for the invitation's delivery, Kelly and Wanggaard remembered something different, but still had a fresh insult for the group.

Looking for the letter on Tuesday, Kelly said the senator eventually found it among some papers that were in his car. Kelly said that upon finding the letter, Wanggaard told him that he did remember getting something from Citizen Action of Wisconsin.

“He remembers having received a letter from a liberal interest group, and having dealt with it accordingly,” Kelly said.

When asked what “dealt with it accordingly” meant, Kelly repeated his quote. Asked if the senator ever opened the letter he said, “He didn’t tell me whether he opened it.”

All of which adds meaning to the headline the paper ran over a Wanggaard op-ed the previous weekend:

Next session, Wanggaard’s focus will remain the same