GOP mega-donors will help seal truce after Kevin Nicholson, Leah Vukmir Senate primary
Bill GlauberAs Republican U.S. Senate hopefuls Leah Vukmir and Kevin Nicholson engage in an increasingly bitter primary, plans are underway to unify the GOP for the fall campaign against Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
And it turns out, two GOP mega-donors will be part of the truce, according to a report by Right Wisconsin.
Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks, who backs Vukmir, and Illinois businessman Richard Uihlein, who supports Nicholson, will serve as "event chairs" for a fundraising event in Milwaukee on Aug. 17 — three days after the primary.
Details on the fundraiser are still taking shape.
The dinner will include honorary guests Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who heads up the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Tickets start at $1,000 per person.
Republicans are trying to avoid what happened in 2012, when former Gov. Tommy Thompson emerged from a long, expensive primary, and was beaten by Baldwin.
With the way the Vukmir-Nicholson race is going, there may be plenty of fence mending to be done.
Both candidates have been hit with negative advertising from outside groups funded by Hendricks, chairman of ABC Supply Co., and Uihlein. a Lake Forest, Illinois, resident who is a founder of the Pleasant Prairie-based Uline company
RELATED:GOP mega-donor Richard Uihlein backs Kevin Nicholson with $2 million to challenge Tammy Baldwin
Wisconsin Next PAC, a pro-Vukmir group funded by Hendricks and others, hit Nicholson for his past support for abortion rights while he was president of the College Democrats of America.
Club for Growth Action Wisconsin countered with an ad that attacked Vukmir as a shady career politician. The group's sole financial backer is Uihlein.
On Tuesday, Vukmir picked up a key endorsement from the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund.
Chris W. Cox, chairman of NRA-PVF, said: "Vukmir’s record demonstrates her strong support for our Second Amendment freedoms and hunting heritage. We can count on Leah Vukmir to strongly support our right to keep and bear arms in the U.S. Senate.”
Also this week, Nicholson weighed in on Fox News in an online post and on-air appearance about his conversion from being a college Democrat to a conservative Republican.
His online written piece ran under the provocative headline: "I'm running for Senate as a Republican. My Democrat parents are so furious they're backing my opponent."
Nicholson's parents contributed to Baldwin's campaign.
Nicholson wrote: "While my choice (to become a conservative Republican) was made clear to me through the experience of my marriage, the birth of my three children, my acceptance of Jesus Christ as my savior, my time fighting in two wars, and my experience in business since leaving the Marine Corps, it came at personal cost.
"My parents have since turned their back on me, my wife, their grandchildren, and their extended family. Adding to this, they decided to make the maximum contribution to my Democrat opponent in my campaign for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin, an intentional personal blow that made headlines across the country. It was deliberate — and it is a true representation of the intolerance of a political philosophy that stands on the false platform of tolerance."