MADISON, Wis. – A La Crosse County Sheriff’s Department captain who was listed in a press release from law enforcement officials endorsing Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Mandela Barnes says he made no such endorsement.
Capt. John Siegel, who is also running as a Democrat for La Crosse County sheriff, said he discovered on Friday that his name was on the list of endorsers.
“I called immediately – whoever I could reach, and eventually got through to someone who was running their campaign and said, ‘Hey, I never agreed to put my name on anything. either or being added to a list,'” Siegel said in a call with News 3 Now.
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He said the confusion may stem from a brief conversation he had with Barnes campaign staff, during which Siegel said he didn’t do an endorsement.
He said the Barnes campaign told him it would rectify the issue, and in a statement on Monday the campaign said it had corrected the discrepancy on its website.
“As Captain Siegel said, due to a clerical error by our staff, there was an error in our original list,” campaign spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel said. “The error has been corrected on our website. The lieutenant governor is proud to be supported by a coalition of more than a dozen law enforcement personnel across the state, including the sheriffs of Rock County and Green County.
Currently, Siegel is not listed on Barnes’ website under the endorsement tab, nor are other law enforcement officials included in the press release. The campaign corrected the endorsement error by adding a line to the digital version of a press release issued on Saturday.
Barnes takes on Republican incumbent Ron Johnson in the general election. Johnson’s campaign spokesman Alec Zimmerman said in a statement that “this election is about who you can trust…now [Barnes] hopes voters won’t pay attention to his lies as he tries to cover himself up.
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