Finally, the Dick Leinenkugel website is up. His people really need to get working on Search Engine Optimization, because when I google "Dick Leinenkugel for Senate" the campaign website is the last result on the first page.
First impression: Not bad. Snazzy pictures, links to all the crucial social networking, blah blah blah. The content is a little puzzling, however.
First off, if Leinenkugel wants to convince Republican voters that he is one of them, he better address his position in the Doyle administration head on. In the lengthy biography he provides, he mentions his accomplishments as Commerce Secretary but doesn't bother mentioning his resignation this year.
In 2008, Governor Doyle asked Dick to help out Wisconsin's businesses during a deep recession by serving as Wisconsin's Commerce Secretary. Dick accepted the call to service, and effectively led the government agency with nearly 400 employees and a $200 million budget to retain and create jobs and to strategically lead Wisconsin through the economic downturn.
If he really wants to defend himself from RINO accusations, he should go on the offense immediately, and say that well, darn it, I tried to help the state by working with Democrats but their ideas were just so bad that I couldn't bare to continue...I had to help the state by running for Senate...as a Republican.
Two more paragraphs deal with a number of businesses that Leinenkugel credits his policies for attracting to Wisconsin.
Unlike his primary opponents, Leinenkugel does not mention social issues at all on his website, although during his first press conference he referred to himself as a "pro-life Catholic." Nevertheless, if he keeps social issues off his site it demonstrates the angle he is going for in the race: Electable. He's a businessman, he's reached across the aisle and his mission is to create jobs. That's the jist of the message.