The chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party received a cease-and-desist letter last week from a conservative political action committee propping up Rep. Tom Tiffany’s gubernatorial campaign, after a Texas man — who had previously worked for a consulting firm contracted by the PAC — seriously injured a bicyclist in a hit-and-run crash while driving under the influence.
The party’s chair, Devin Remiker, issued a biting “public apology” on Friday to Restoration PAC, a super PAC that is primarily funded by billionaire Richard Uihlein, after an attorney threatened Remiker with legal action unless he took down posts on X and press releases from the party linking the man who hit the cyclist directly to the committee.
“For their benefit and to ensure there is no further confusion, allow me to state it again clearly: The individual from Texas who was canvassing to support Tom Tiffany was a CONTRACTOR for Echo Canyon, a firm being paid millions under a CONTRACT, with Restoration of America PAC, which is funded with millions by the Uihlein family,” Remiker wrote in the news release.
Remiker continued to poke Tiffany for allegedly “relying on out-of-state billionaires like the Uihleins to save his campaign.”
Trending
According to Wisconsin campaign finance records, Uihlein has contributed more than $3 million to Restoration PAC, and the committee has given Echo Canyon, a political consulting firm based in Phoenix, nearly $2.5 million to canvas on behalf of Tiffany. The congressman faces Democrat David Crowley, the executive of Milwaukee County, in the general election for governor.
Tiffany’s campaign wrote in an emailed statement that the suspect in the crash worked “through a separate outside organization” and “has never been employed by our campaign,” adding that the campaign’s “prayers are with the bicyclist and their family, and the perpetrator should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
Duan Maiden II was charged with several felonies in connection with the hit-and-run that occurred on Sept. 3. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Maiden admitted to police that he had consumed vodka and four BuzzBallz drinks, ready-to-drink cocktails containing around 15% alcohol by volume, prior to the incident. Witnesses to the crash told police the cyclist had completely flipped over the vehicle, and Maiden was apprehended after a mile-and-a-half pursuit.
Maiden told police in an interview that he had been living in an Airbnb in Milwaukee with eight of his other coworkers while they were canvassing for the Wisconsin gubernatorial race, the Journal Sentinel reported.
Conflicting accounts of the aftermath of the accident began to emerge, especially regarding the timing of a flight for Maiden out of the state booked by Echo Canyon, when the Journal Sentinel reported on statements from the firm and information from the criminal complaints.
The cease-and-desist letter sent to Remiker specifically took issue with the Wisconsin Democrat’s press release alleging that “Restoration and the Uihleins were directly involved in attempting to help Mr. Maiden flee the state of Wisconsin” and the party’s characterization of Maiden as an “employee” of Restoration PAC, because “he was not.”
Wisconsin Democratic Party spokesperson Sam Roecker told The Washington Sun that the party has not received any additional communication from the PAC’s attorney and confirmed that the original Sept. 18 press release and the post from Remiker on X, which are linked in the letter, have been taken down.
Restoration PAC and Echo Canyon Consulting did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
After receiving the letter, Remiker quipped on social media that he plans to repeat his statements about the incident in which he points out that Maiden was a “CONTRACTOR, not an employee, of a firm being paid millions by the PAC funded by the Uihleins.”
“This distinction is clearly very important, and I feel so remorseful that I will repeat this frequently and often,” Remiker wrote Friday on X.
Author
