Kevin Nicholson’s campaign for U.S. Senate confirmed Thursday that political consultant Chip Englander and campaign spokesman Michael Antonopolous have left the campaign. The change was first reported by WisPolitics on Wednesday in their afternoon email to subscribers.
The Nicholson campaign could not comment on the report from WisPolitics that Englander has joined the Super PAC supporting Nicholson funded by Richard Uihlein. However, it is highly unlikely since coordination between the campaign and the Super PAC is prohibited by law, and there is a 120 day “cooling off” period before the Super PAC would be legally allowed to hire Englander.
Replacing Englander as the general campaign consultant is Axiom Strategies. Jeff Roe, Axiom’s founder and CEO, managed Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign for President in the 2016 Wisconsin primary. Axiom’s Brandon Moody will act as the campaign spokesman. He has worked for the campaigns of Representatives Sean Duffy, Glenn Grothman, and Reid Ribble.
Before the Nicholson campaign, Englander was the campaign manager for former Congressman Mark Neumann’s last two statewide campaigns. Neumann finished a distant second to Walker in 2010 in the Republican Gubernatorial primary and a distant third behind former Governor Tommy Thompson in the 2012 Republican Senate primary. Both Neumann campaigns were controversial because of the negative, even dishonest, attacks on Neumann’s Republican opponents in the primaries.
