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| Leonard, with wife Jenell and daughter Hannah |
By Brandon Hall
(Email Him At WestMIPolitics@Gmail.com)
Speaker of the House Tom Leonard is normally pretty soft spoken, but Tuesday night, Leonard was furious, ready to knuckle up after learning his opponent in the Attorney General's race, State Senator Tonya Schuitmaker, was having a consultant prepare an attack on Leonard's wife, Jenell.
In a Facebook statement shredding Schuitmaker, Leonard callied her actions desperate.
"Desperate candidates sometimes resort to desperate actions – I get that. Unfortunately, that’s just politics. But after a couple weeks of hit pieces against me, she is now trying to go further and attack my family. That is unacceptable," Leonard said.
"We recently found out her campaign consultant has requested personal information about my wife Jenell from her former place of work. I don’t know what Senator Schuitmaker is fishing for, but she is clearly looking for something to attack my wife for her own personal gain.
This is wrong. This is above and beyond the desperate campaign mudslinging we all hate. My wife and daughter should be absolutely off-limits to personal attacks. If Senator Schuitmaker wants to take her campaign to the gutter, then she should keep focused on me. Leave my family out of it."
Leonard pledged to run a clean campaign with no personal attacks on Schuitmaker's family.
"You have my word – I am going to do all I can to keep my campaign focused on the issues that matter to you and not on the innocent families of my opponents," Leonard said. "I know the type of convention campaign I am going to run - honest, effective, well-organized, and strong. It will be a campaign I can be proud of - that my family would be proud of - and that you can be proud to support."
Leonard says he is disappointed in Schuitmaker and urged the Senator to "cut it out."
"I am so deeply disappointed in her, and I feel awful for Jenell," Leonard said. "Please know that no matter what my opponents do going forward, I am going to continue to talk about the issues that matter...Simply put, Tonya: cut it out. Our families are off limits."
Read Schuitmaker's Response HERE
>>>Tom Leonard's Full Statement:
In a Facebook statement shredding Schuitmaker, Leonard callied her actions desperate.
"Desperate candidates sometimes resort to desperate actions – I get that. Unfortunately, that’s just politics. But after a couple weeks of hit pieces against me, she is now trying to go further and attack my family. That is unacceptable," Leonard said.
"We recently found out her campaign consultant has requested personal information about my wife Jenell from her former place of work. I don’t know what Senator Schuitmaker is fishing for, but she is clearly looking for something to attack my wife for her own personal gain.
This is wrong. This is above and beyond the desperate campaign mudslinging we all hate. My wife and daughter should be absolutely off-limits to personal attacks. If Senator Schuitmaker wants to take her campaign to the gutter, then she should keep focused on me. Leave my family out of it."
Leonard pledged to run a clean campaign with no personal attacks on Schuitmaker's family.
"You have my word – I am going to do all I can to keep my campaign focused on the issues that matter to you and not on the innocent families of my opponents," Leonard said. "I know the type of convention campaign I am going to run - honest, effective, well-organized, and strong. It will be a campaign I can be proud of - that my family would be proud of - and that you can be proud to support."
Leonard says he is disappointed in Schuitmaker and urged the Senator to "cut it out."
"I am so deeply disappointed in her, and I feel awful for Jenell," Leonard said. "Please know that no matter what my opponents do going forward, I am going to continue to talk about the issues that matter...Simply put, Tonya: cut it out. Our families are off limits."
Read Schuitmaker's Response HERE
>>>Tom Leonard's Full Statement:
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Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.
Thanks very nice blog!
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