Not a good little doggie: With this move, Tim Michels risks losing Trump endorsement

Headline:  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/1/2022

Michels and his top two opponents in the Republican primary for governor on Monday distanced themselves from Trump during a town hall candidate forum in Milwaukee in their final meeting before voters decide which candidate will compete against Democratic incumbent Gov. Tony Evers in November. 

Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and state Rep. Tim Ramthun joined Michels in declining to say they would back Trump for president in two years when asked by a Republican voter whether support another run for president in light of his actions during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But Trump has nowhere else to go.

7/21/20212 update, "Welcome to the Tim Michels Clown Show (GOP hypocrisy episode, sponsored by Donald Trump)", starts here.

Headline:  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/19/2022

Michels' own company was named a subcontractor for the project in 2018 and it made millions of dollars building roads for the Foxconn project. 

The wealthy business executive has also gotten the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, who proclaimed Foxconn's Mount Pleasant complex would be the "eighth wonder of the world." 

"We had a problem with the initial Foxconn negotiation and then Tony Evers said he was going to renegotiate Foxconn made a big complete mess of it," Michels said in an interview after a campaign rally Monday.

Sorry guy, it was a mess from the start.

7/20/2022 update, "Wisconsin GOP candidate for governor Tim Michels has a bridge for sale", starts here.

Top headline:  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/18/2022

Bottom headline:  Washington Post, 7/18/2022

MJS excerpt

Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels sent out a campaign mailer to potential voters in recent days promoting an endorsement from the National Rifle Association that Michels does not have — an error Michels characterized as a "big technicality." 

Michels' campaign mailer included a photo of Michels in blaze orange with a freshly harvested buck and said Michels was "standing up for our gun rights." At the bottom of the campaign flyer, it promoted the endorsement coveted by all Republican candidates.

WAPO excerpt

Michels’ campaign sent out a flyer that landed in mailboxes Saturday that claimed the NRA had endorsed him. Scott Meyer, a Wisconsin lobbyist who has done work for the NRA, said the group hasn’t endorsed anyone in the GOP primary and doesn’t plan to do so. 

“All this came out of the blue,” Meyer said of the flyer. “Stunned is the best word to describe it. I’ve never seen this before.”

 

7/17/2022 update, "Wisconsin GOP candidate for governor Tim Michels attempts to buy his way into office", starts here.

Headline:  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/16/2022

Michels, a multimillionaire who co-owns the state's largest construction company, has donated $7.9 million of his own money to his campaign since April — accounting for nearly all of the money the campaign raised as of July, according to Michels' first campaign finance report. 

When Michels joined the race in April, he pledged not to seek donations and would accept only up to $500 from individuals — a promise he has fulfilled so far in 2022, according to the finance report. 

The campaign received about $60,000 from individual donors. The campaign's spending has largely been on television ads and digital advertising.

 

7/17/2022 update starts here

Top headline:  The Michels Insider

Bottom headline:  WisPolitics

From the WisPolitcs press release:

Michels’ support for the Walker-Kleefisch Foxconn deal could potentially put the state back on the line for billions in taxpayer-funded handouts, years after the company failed to meet its obligations to the state despite a record-breaking $3 billion in subsidies from Wisconsin taxpayers. 

TIM MICHELS: “I don’t know if I’ll be able to get it done at Foxconn, but I’ll tell you what, the taxpayers in Wisconsin, they deserve to have a governor at least try. [. . .] I’m going to try and put that Foxconn deal back together. I’m not going to give the state away. I’m not gonna give anything away, but if we can make that work, I believe there’s some potential there.”

6/15/2022 update, "Wisconsin GOP governor candidate and troglodyte Tim Michels opposes same-sex marriage", starts here.

Dictionary definition:  Merriam-Webster (red box added)

Illustration:  Gem Stone Wiki

Headline:  Wisconsin State Journal, 6/15/2022

His views on same-sex marriage have been in question after he made comments in his U.S. Senate race in 2004 when he backed a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. He did not comment when asked earlier this month what he thought of Evers raising a rainbow flag over the state Capitol to celebrate Pride Month. 

"My position that is that marriage should be between a man and a woman," Michels said when asked about it Tuesday. 

When asked if he would take steps as governor to limit the rights of gay people, Michels said: "As a businessman, what I do is I look at what's in the legislation and it's all about the details. So I am very hesitant to do hypotheticals on a broadly stated question like that."

Hypotheticals?  The fact that he is dithering is all we need to know.

6/13/2022 update, "GOP hypocrite Tim Michels decides he wants other people's money after all," starts here.

Screenshot:  Michels for Governor

Headline:  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6/7/2022

"I will never ask anyone for a donation," said Michels, who co-owns and co-manages Michels Corp., a family-owned construction company. He's accepting donations of up to $500 to his campaign, but he won't be dialing for dollars.   

Why? 

"I'm not gonna owe anyone anything," Michels told conservative talk show host Jay Weber on WISN-AM (1130) on April 25. 

Sounds like a variation on former multimillionaire Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl's old campaign theme: "Nobody's senator but yours." 

But Michels apparently found that self-funded campaigns are easier said than done. 

On April 28, just three days after he entered the race, Team Tim sent supporters a fundraising email.

6/3/2022 update, " In Wisconsin, Trump picks the GOP gubernatorial candidate with the biggest bankroll", starts here

Headline:  Wisconsin State Journal, 6/1/2022

Trump’s endorsement had remained a lingering question in the Republican primary for governor and has been described by some as the most important endorsement in the race due to the considerable sway the former president still holds over Republican voters. Several of the top GOP candidates in the race have been actively seeking Trump’s backing and made trips to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the former president. 

In a statement issued Thursday, Trump described Michels as “a very successful businessman,” touting the millionaire co-owner of Brownsville-based Michels Corp. over Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who Trump said has been “an abject failure for the people of Wisconsin.”

"Abject failure"?  Trump is projecting again.

5/24/2022 update, "With massive wealth, Tim Michels plans to buy his way into the governor's office" starts here.

Headline:  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/24/2022

Michels’ tax records offer a glimpse of just how wealthy the construction company co-owner is. In 2020, he owed $3.7 million in state income taxes — an amount that suggests he reported income of tens of millions of dollars that year. 

Since 2010, he's owed more than $1 million in state income taxes five other times, records show. 

Recent years have been particularly good for Michels' bottom line. He owed $1.7 million in 2018 and $1.9 million in 2019, according to records from the state Department of Revenue.

 

5/2/2022 update, "Meet Tim Michels, Connecticut resident and Wisconsin GOP candidate for governor", starts here.

Map and headline:  Wisconsin Right Now, 5/1/2022

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels left some key facts out of his campaign biography: Namely, a $17 million Long Island Sound home located in a Greenwich, Connecticut neighborhood. The home was purchased in October 2020 through an oddly named LLC that makes ownership hard to trace. However, we have uncovered a building permit buried in a series of public documents that lists the owners as Tim and Barbara Michels. 

Furthermore, from 2013-2021, all three Michels children attended and graduated from high schools in Connecticut and New York City, Wisconsin Right Now has documented. They are not boarding schools, and the kids were extensively involved in high school sporting activities there. The youngest son graduated from a Greenwich high school in 2021, where he was on the sailing team, skippering yachts, in the same neighborhood as the $17 million home

Original 4/28/2022 post, "Welcome to Tim Michels' vanity project, starts here.

Headline:  Wisconsin State Journal, 4/25/2122

Michels, 59, joins former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, business owner Kevin Nicholson and state Rep. Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport, in the Aug. 9 GOP primary. The winner will face Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is seeking a second term this year, in the general election on Nov. 8. 

“Today begins a new era in Wisconsin,” Michels told a crowd of about 200 supporters, family members, Michels Corp. employees and others gathered inside a company maintenance building in Brownsville on Monday.

Related posts:
Wisconsin GOP remains in a panic over governor's race; Don T. Know holds leads in GOP primary poll.  (4/27/2022

Please welcome Tim Michels to the Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial clown show.  (4/24/2022)
Tommy Thompson keeps his distance, declines to join GOP gubernatorial clown show.  (4/19/2022)

When it comes to abortion, Tony Evers is the only adult in the room.  (3/25/2022)

Waiting for Rebecca Kleefisch and Kevin Nicholson to tell us if they stand with Donald Trump. 
 (3/19/2022)

Plutocrats for Wisconsin: Ultra-conservative billionaire Liz Uihlein underwrites Rebecca Kleefisch Clown Show.  (1/19/2022)