Complaint alleges Tony Wied's nomination papers presented as support for homeless

WASHINGTON – Republican Tony Wied is facing accusations of misrepresenting his nomination papers while collecting signatures to qualify for the ballot in the northeastern Wisconsin House race to replace retired Rep. Mike Gallagher.

A former Green Bay alderman filed a complaint Thursday with the state elections board alleging petitioners for Wied at a farmers market in Green Bay late last month asked people to sign papers to help the homeless, though the documents were Wied’s nomination papers.

Tony Theisen, the former alderman who has also volunteered to collect signatures for one of Wied’s primary opponents, state Sen. Andre Jacque, said two petition circulators for Wied on the morning of May 25 asked shoppers to sign Wied’s papers by presenting them as a petition for “housing for the homeless.”

Theisen in the complaint identified one of the circulators by name and challenged 425 signatures collected by that circulator between the nomination papers for both the special and regularly scheduled election for the district.

While the potential removal of the signatures would not drop Wied below the threshold to qualify for the ballot, Theisen in his challenge asked the elections commission to “conduct a thorough investigation into all of the nominating petitions” submitted by Wied.

“These fraudulent signature-gathering tactics violated Wisconsin law and affronted the Republican Party’s commitment to the rule of law and election integrity,” he wrote in the petition.

Wied’s campaign on Thursday called the challenge “nothing more than dirty political games,” adding that Wisconsin voters will “see right through it.”

“Career politicians will do anything to stay in power,” Wied’s campaign said in a statement. “Just like the Democrats are trying to do to President Trump, Andre Jacque and his allies are trying to remove the Trump-endorsed conservative from the ballot.”

Still, another attendee at the Green Bay farmers market the same morning — separate from Theisen — told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel she also witnessed two petition circulators for Wied present the nomination papers as supporting homeless people.

Maureen Hughson, a De Pere resident who was at the market with her husband, said a woman approached her and asked if she would sign a petition “to help get funding for homelessness on the ballot.”

Hughson said the documents were clearly marked as Wied’s nomination papers and made no mention of homelessness, but she noted people appeared to sign them “without reading the petition.”

“I’m still pissed,” said Hughson, a self-described Independent voter who posted about the incident on Facebook later that day. “I think if somebody is starting out — even though he may not know the people who are circulating the petition — when someone is starting out with misrepresentation to get their name on the ballot, that’s a bad start.”

Theisen, who served on the Green Bay city council from 1984 to 2012, told the Journal Sentinel he volunteered to collect signatures for Jacque last month but said he is not getting paid for his help.

Theisen similarly said people appeared to be “readily signing” the petition without asking questions. He claimed he walked around the market shortly after encountering two women circulating the petitions and returned about 20 minutes later to find two men had taken their place.

“They were holding up Tony Wied flyers, and they are straightforward saying, ‘Please sign for Tony Wied for Congress,’” Theisen said. “I’m thinking, these people are doing it the right way. … It was just a night and day difference.”

Wied, Jacque and former state Sen. Roger Roth are competing in the Republican primary for the 8th Congressional District, set for Aug. 13. De Pere OB-GYN Kristin Lyerly is the only Democrat in the race.

Candidates in the district needed to submit two sets of nomination papers after Gov. Tony Evers last month called for a special election to fill the vacancy left by the early retirement of Gallagher.

Evers set the 8th Congressional District special election for the same dates as the regularly scheduled partisan primary and general elections, meaning candidates for the seat will appear twice on the same ballot.

More: Donald Trump Jr. blasts congressional candidate Andre Jacque over IVF stance

The Wisconsin Elections Commission this week recommended for approval well over the required minimum of 1,000 valid signatures needed to qualify for both ballots for each of the four candidates.

A WEC spokesman declined to comment on the Thursday complaint. But the commission will review challenges and formally vote to approve candidates for the Aug. 13 and Nov. 5 elections during a meeting on June 10.

Wied can file a response to the challenge in the next three days, according to guidance from WEC.

The strength of the challenge to Wied signatures, however, is uncertain.

Theisen’s complaint challenges 228 signatures collected by one of the circulators on the special election nomination papers and 197 signatures on the regular papers. Wied collected 1,667 for the special election ballot and 1,647 signatures for the regularly scheduled election ballot, records show.

Under Wisconsin law, nomination paper signatories must have “signed the paper with full knowledge of its content.”

Both Hughson and Theisen told the Journal Sentinel that the papers circulated at the farmers market last month were clearly marked as Wied’s nomination papers.

But Wied’s opponents were quick to seize on the allegations Thursday.

Will Terry, Jacque’s campaign manager, called the complaint an “extremely serious charge.”

“It’s vital that our elections are secure and the process to get on the ballot has integrity and accountability,” Terry said.

And Roth had this to say: “Anyone who talks to voters in the 8th District understands the importance of election integrity, which is why I am proud of how our campaign collected our signatures — through hard work and grassroots volunteers — to get on the ballot."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Complaint says Wied's nomination papers presented as help for homeless