Well, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Dan Bice has finally found his “in” to the National Enquirer: a series on the college roommates of the rich and famous. This week’s entry is Adam Tillotson, the president of the the Wayzata Education Association in Minnesota, who apparently doesn’t like his old college roommate, Kevin Nicholson, a Republican candidate for US Senate.
Tillotson, the president of the the Wayzata Education Association in Minnesota, wrote a detailed post in a comment on Nicholson’s Facebook page. The comment has since been removed.
In the post, Tillotson said his former roommate was obsessed with becoming president, even getting a license plate that read ARFS1, short for Air Force One. Nicholson, he said, was also concerned about getting photographed drinking beer or kissing his girlfriend in public for fear it might be used against him one day.
Tillotson was most critical of the way he said Nicholson sometimes bullied or berated others, especially women.
“Everything was about Kevin,” Tillotson said in an interview. “He’s a more polished and more educated version of Donald Trump.”
Of course, Bice waits until near the end of the story to reveal why Tillotson might be holding a grudge:
Despite their political similarities, the two had a falling out, and Tillotson moved out of the apartment before the second semester of the school year. It got so bad that Nicholson tried to oust Tillotson as head of the campus chapter of the College Dems, and Tillotson resigned.
So they had a fight. One roommate moved out. And, according to Tillotson, the two have not seen each other since 2002. Since then, Nicholson has served in the military, gotten married, fathered children, and switched political parties. In the Senate primary, Republican voters will judge whether the Nicholson’s political conversion is sincere, but clearly the person running for the Senate is not the same person who was Tillotson’s roommate over fifteen years ago.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel seems obsessed with the college days of Republicans. First, there was/is the endless digging into Governor Scott Walker’s student career at Marquette University. Then there was the smear job of state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley. Now it’s Nicholson’s turn.
Given the Journal Sentinel’s obsession with the follies of youth, Nicholson was probably right to be concerned about his image if he had any interest in politics. It’s too bad Nicholson didn’t have the good judgment back then to pick better roommates.
I’m looking forward to the next round of stories in the college days series from Bice. We can’t wait to find out if Senator Tammy Baldwin refused to do the dishes, or if Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was obsessed with becoming governor as a College Democrat.
I suspect we’re going to have wait a while for the crazy college days of the Democrats to appear in the newspaper.
As for Bice’s college roommates, I’m betting they would complain how he always snitched to the dorm managers every time they brought girls or booze back to their rooms.
Update: Dan Bice tweeted this response to a tweet by RightWisconsin:
Went to an evangelical Christian college. We didn't buy beer. I downed my first brew at 24 or 25. That's how you know I wasn't born in WI.
— Daniel Bice (@DanielBice) July 12, 2017
