Wardell and Wisdom Endorse Goodman?

DefeatNodler.com reported yesterday morning that Michael Wardell and Jeff Wisdom are teaming together and endorsing Jack Goodman in Missouri's 7th Congressional District Republican primary.

The anonymous author writes, "A source close to the Wardell camp (which we can only identify as one of the his seven supporters that are registered to vote) told us that Wardell and Wisdom are preparing to endorse Jack Goodman some time this week. Lately the two have been doing a bit of campaigning together, seeking strength in numbers (the move brought their combined total number of supporters to approximately 11)."

Well, there seem to be quite a few problems with this DefeatNodler blog post. I have contacted people close to the Wardell and Wisdom campaigns and both deny the report. Neither campaign has said they plan on dropping out of the race and endorsing Goodman. The likely source of this story is from a recent debate held at the Springfield Library Center. One of the questions in the debate was: Which candidate would you support next to yourself? Each of the candidates failed to mention a name except Wardell and Wisdom, who answered the question honestly and both happened to say Goodman. But neither said anything about endorsing him.

Because there is so much that must be corrected, let's go down the lengthy article. "An individual who identified himself as Wardell’s Senior Foreign Policy Advisor, who took a course on international relations at the local community college and said he got a good grade, told us that things went bad when Wardell looked up Federal election law and realized that blog posts don’t count as votes," the article states.

Mr. Wardell's Senior Foreign Policy Advisor didn't attend a local community college. In fact, he has a doctorate from Harvard. There is one thing true in this entire article though: "blog posts don't count as votes." It's true, they don't. But blog posts do help generate voters. Compare that to Billy Long's strange TV commercial that has since been removed.

Now skipping down through a few paragraphs of the DefeatNodler report, we find the next statement that deserves a response.

"Somewhat reliable sources told us that Jack Goodman will be uncomfortable with the prospect of their endorsements – seeing no possible upside – and that he won’t even want to issue a press release acknowledging them. Less reliable sources told us that he would rather have his campaign office infested with a plague of locusts than deal with Wardell and Wisdom. We sympathize."

The reason Jack Goodman won't issue a press release isn't because he's "uncomfortable," it's because the endorsement hasn't really happened! Goodman has been in contact with Wardell and Wisdom since and knows that this article doesn't reflect their statements.

It's interesting to me that the DefeatNodler site, which is run anonymously, would choose to unite Wardell and Wisdom. Although my sources tell me there is no such alliance, the DefeatNodler claim could actually reflect a positive. That is the fact that Wardell and Wisdom have been working together to come up with some clever out-of-the-box solutions to today's issues.

It seems to me DefeatNodler tends to be inaccurate in a number of areas. Their reporting of the Wisdom/Wardell/Goodman alliance is similar to how they reported that Gary Nodler and Missouri Republicans grew the budget each year. The facts just don't seem to support either claim.