Rush Limbaugh critic Kevin Stevenson ousted as Marathon County Republican Party spokesman

Rush Limbaugh critic Kevin Stevenson ousted as Marathon County Republican Party spokesman
By Robert Mentzer
Copyright by The Wausau Daily Herald
June 2, 2009
http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20090602/WDH0101/906020543/1981


The Republican Party of Marathon County has stripped its spokesman of his title less than three months after he wrote a column critical of conservative talk radio star Rush Limbaugh.
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Kevin Stevenson said he believes his March guest column in the Wausau Daily Herald criticizing Limbaugh turned local party members against him.

"They felt I was too moderate in what I was speaking and printing," he said.

Stevenson, who characterizes himself as a "John McCain-type of Republican," said the conflict was a microcosm of a national debate about what political message to put forward. A debate at a local Republican meeting on Thursday "got hostile and it got personal," he said.

When Stevenson criticized Limbaugh for saying he wanted President Barack Obama to fail, other local Republicans wrote to the newspaper, arguing that conservatives ought to want Obama's policies to fail.

"This is just part of what you're seeing nationwide," he said. "(Party members) know that I don't agree with Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh is hurting us more than helping us."

Kevin Hermening, the local Republican Party treasurer and a past president, said although Stevenson's columns were circulated among the party's executive committee, they did not always represent the views of most members.

“He was sharing a moderate view in his columns, which I think is terrific,” Hermening said. "If the leadership had wanted a more moderate position, we would have let him (continue)."

Stevenson, who lives in Lincoln County, was removed when the party adopted a new interpretation of residency -- but he said he considered that an excuse. Stevenson had previously been included because he owns land in neighboring Marathon County.

Party Chairman Joe Wachtel said he disagreed with the decision to remove Stevenson as spokesman, but that he also disagreed with a moderate position.

"I don't think the Republican Party and the conservative movement is going to be served by being Democrat-lite," Wachtel said.