Dateline Muncie. Democratic hopeful, Barry Welsh, took a punch to the head from a Muncie GOP leader by the name of Will Statom. Welsh is seeking the nomination in the hopes of unseating Mike Pence in the fall.
Statom is described by the Muncie Star Press as the “GOP registration deputy and secretary of the local Republican Party.” The altercation apparently started as Statom was whining about media coverage. A Star Press reporter was interviewing a citizen about the flood of new registrations apparently generated by the Obama campaign. As Statom walked passed the reporter, he shoved Werner. Candidate Welsh stepped in to break it up and took a swing at Welsh. Statom was arrested for battery.
Perhaps related is the fact that the Delaware County voter registration office is understaffed because the local GOP has filled only 2 of its 3 slots. This may cause tensions as the office is called upon to process a large volume of new registrations; registrations about which the local GOP might not be thrilled if they were generated through the efforts of the Obama campaign.
The reporter, Nick Werner had written a story about the staffing shortage. Statom had refused comment. The position had been vacant since 2006.
[U]nder the worst circumstances, [Democratic Delaware County Election Board Member Phil] Nichols said, some registration applications may not be processed in time for voting in the May 6 primary.
While Indiana voters are not required to register with a party, the majority of applications came from the Barack Obama campaign and other Democratic sources.
“In that sense, it’s no skin off their nose that these don’t get processed,” Nichols said.
Update The Star Press has an update. Apparently the Star Press reporter wasn’t entirely blameless. After Statom whined sarcastically about Werner’s reporting, Werner said “shut up.” Statom practically had to resort to violence after that kind of verbal provocation.
This guy has “Worst Person in the World” written all over him. “Assaulting Ministers For Freedom” could be a good GOP slogan in the upcoming races, anyway.
Hopefully Welsh gets some publicity over this. After Pence’s role in posting nuclear bomb-making info (conveniently already in Arabic) on the internet, and his rug-buying junket to the Baghdad market as a metric of how safe the place is, he should be done as a congressman.
“Assaulting Ministers for Freedom;” I am offended. Nothing in the article even lists if this person is a Christian, Muslim, Jew, etc. And you have to remember that a number of us Mailnline guys do not associate ourselves (any longer) with the Republican party.
I do agree with the “Worst Person in the World” reference.
So does that make you a “Derainged Doctor for Democracy?”