WEST BEND — A West Bend man was arrested and issued a citation for disorderly conduct after allegedly threatening a campaign volunteer for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tom Nelson.
The incident took place Saturday morning outside Democratic Party headquarters in West Bend during a campaign stop as part of Nelson’s tour of all 72-Wisconsin counties.
In a post on his Facebook page, Nelson placed the blame on those who he says are inciting violence.
“On Saturday, a right-wing moron told one of my volunteers that we deserved to be shot in the head,” Nelson wrote. “Republicans like Senator Ron Johnson who hype up lies & incite violence are responsible.”
“It won’t intimidate us,” Nelson said. “Our tour of every Wisconsin county continues.”
JSOnline.com reports that according to the police report, the volunteer said the man told him, “Treason is a capital punishment you should all have bullets in your heads, including you.”
Police told the paper that the suspect, Michael J. Richter, was arrested, brought to the police department, issued a citation for disorderly conduct and released.
Richter denied he said anything about putting a bullet in someone’s head and was not armed, the report said.
Nelson, the current Outagamie County Executive, was the first Democrat to announce his run for the Senate seat currently held by Republican Ron Johnson.
Johnson has yet to announce if he will run for re-election.
(The author, Dan Plutchak, has endorsed Tom Nelson for U.S. Senate.)
