Wednesday, March 31, 2010

What Happens in the Dells…

Sudden Shakeup Follows Tea Party Police Call

MADISON — The Arizona-based campaign manager for reality tee-vee star Sean Duffy this week abruptly announced his resignation following a bizarre incident earlier this month at a “Tea Party” in the Wisconsin Dells in which the police were called.

Chris DeRose, recently named as Duffy’s campaign manager, never has publicly specified his role in the madcap happenings, when Republican challenger Dan Mielke called the police after a reported altercation with Sean Duffy’s wife.

Since the 911 call, Duffy, a star of MTV’s “The Real World,” has made himself available for national television interviews in which Duffy, the lawyer son, brother, nephew and grandson of lawyers, has highlighted his play-acting stints as a competition timber worker.

But Duffy has yet to comment on just where he was when police were called to the Wisconsin Dells resort, where he stood side-by-side “Tea Party” organizer and criminal fundraiser Mark Block.

DeRose, meanwhile, only has been on the job two months but he wrote in a recent e-mail that matters at his Arizona law firm required his “attention.”

“Whether or not he actually had pressing business in Arizona, I assume that Chris DeRose saw it like the rest of us, that Sean Duffy is a phony and is not now, nor will he ever be, ready for prime time,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said. “Maybe Duffy’s next campaign manager can be from someplace closer to Wisconsin. Like Nevada.”