Chad Lee campaign worker Kyle Wood recants story that he was attacked for being gay and Republican
Source: Isthmus Daily Page
Kyle Wood, a campaign worker for the Republican congressional candidate Chad Lee, today recanted his statements about being assaulted and choked at his home on Oct. 24, according to Madison police.
The department updated its incident report late Monday afternoon after Wood met with detectives. Captain Joe Balles, commander of the South District, confirms that Wood recanted his allegations of the beating.
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Earlier Monday afternoon, a spokesman for Rep. Mark Pocan and an attorney representing his partner, Philip Frank, said they were considering suing for libel over claims that Frank threatened Wood.
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A conservative website, Media Trackers, reported early Monday that Frank had sent a series of abusive and threatening text messages to Wood in the days leading up to the attack. Author Brian Sikma does not say what steps he took to verify the text messages or what number they were sent from. The Daily Caller, a conservative news and opinion website, first reported the attack, painted it as payback for Wood not supporting Pocan, who is, like Wood, openly gay.
Read more: http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=38133
Back story
This article was written by Christian Schneider
Christian Schneider is a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and a regular contributor to National Review Online. He holds a master's degree from Marquette University in political science. His op-eds have been featured in The New York Times, New York Post, City Journal Magazine and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Beaten for being a gay Republican? An interview with Kyle Wood
At 7:00 last Wednesday morning, Kyle Wood was just one of thousands of campaign staffers strewn throughout the country, making phone calls and knocking on doors for candidates on the ballot in November. But an hour later, Wood was lying on the floor of his apartment, covered in blood, having been the victim of a beating he believes was politically motivated.
Wood, 29, who is volunteering for Republican Chad Lee in a Madison-area congressional race, believes the attack was punishment for “betraying” his fellow gays. “My feeling, based on the statements that were made [during the attack], it probably had something to do with the fact that I support a Republican candidate running against an openly gay man,” Wood told me. “And as a gay man, I’m supposed to support that gay man. And I don’t. “ (Lee is running against openly gay Democratic State Assemblyman Mark Pocan.)
As first reported by the Daily Caller, Wood was at home on Wednesday morning, getting ready for work, when he heard a knock at the door. Wood, who is also Mormon, noted that Wednesday was “transfer day” – the day in the Mormon church where missionaries who are about to be transferred to other areas stop by to say goodbye to people they’ve gotten to know during their time there. Wood says he thought his visitors were missionary friends.
Instead, Wood got an unwelcome surprise. “I opened the door, and didn’t see anyone, and suddenly someone had me by the head and was cracking me into the door frame,” he said. “I don’t know how whatever it was got around my neck, but it happened at the same time. It was terrifying. All of a sudden, there was something around my neck, so I couldn’t breathe – I mean, I could breathe enough to live, but I couldn’t scream. All I could think about was getting it off my neck.”
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/purple-wisconsin/176169841.html
Following that news, Media Trackers printed damaging allegations about "a series of shocking text messages purportedly from Philip Frank," Pocan's husband. Media Trackers printed the whole series of text messages, which were laced with threats, sexual innuendo and racist language and which were supposedly sent to Wood just days before the alleged attack on him.
“Remember your station in life and remember not to cross the husband of a powerful man. You are on shaky footing as it is, push much farther and you won’t have a future in this town, or any other," one of the supposed messages reads.
Brian Sikma, the Media Trackers blogger who wrote the item and who regularly accuses mainstream journalists of sloppy and biased reporting, said his story was based on information from Wood. Sikma said Wood's "conduct is unacceptable and such actions have no place as a part of our public debate," but Sikma made no mention of his own role in the allegation against Frank getting onto the Internet.
Sikma said that Media Trackers had also talked with workers in Lee's campaign and other unnamed individuals who knew Wood "in an attempt to verify his personal integrity." Sikma refused to say whether Media Trackers had reached out to Pocan's campaign before running the story.
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/176338211.html
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