Tom Palzewicz, a Brookfield Democrat running against Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-WI5, sent out an email to supporters about the mass shooting in Las Vegas. According to the Associated Press, Palzewicz included a fundraising link in the email.
Palzewicz also mentioned a pair of shootings in his Wisconsin congressional district before detailing his support for tighter gun control laws and criticizing Sensenbrenner for not taking action.
At the bottom of the email there’s a button recipients can click to make a donation to Palzewicz’s campaign.
Palzewicz’s spokeswoman Mary McCarthy said the button was part of a routine email template. In a typical fundraising email, the recipient would be asked multiple times to donate, often for a specific amount, something this one did not do, McCarthy said.
“This was an email laying out a policy agenda on the issue,” she said. “It’s part of the campaign.”
Several other Wisconsin Democrats have sent emails referencing the Las Vegas shooting but did not ask for donations in the same message.
If a campaign is sophisticated enough to have a “spokeswoman,” it’s sophisticated enough to make sure the email isn’t asking for money when it’s completely inappropriate. Other Democrats figured that out. Apparently Palzewicz, who is a business consultant, was either too careless or just too callous to worry about using mass murder as a fundraising tool.
Let’s hope that Palzewicz is a better business consultant than he is a political candidate.
(By the way, the Associated Press gets it wrong again. The Associated Press reports Sensenbrenner has held his seat since 2003. He’s actually held his seat since 1979. The districts were re-numbered following the 2000 census and redistricting.)
