Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Thursday, May 15, 2008
Kind agrees to include Libertarian in debates
U.S. Rep. Ron Kind has agreed to include Libertarian Kevin Barrett in campaign debates later this year.
Barrett, a 9/11 skeptic from Lone Rock, announced his candidacy Monday in Sparta just before Kind held a listening session.
In the hallway, Kind and Barrett spoke amicably, and Barrett asked about debating. Kind replied, “I’m sure we will during the course of the campaign. Absolutely. I usually look forward to those as the year progresses.”
Barrett issued a statement later saying his respect for Kind “just went up a couple notches,” and called it a breakthrough for the “Libertarian party and the 9/11 truth movement.”
Kind’s spokeswoman, Anne Lupardus, said Wednesday that debates will be “much later” in the year and will be about all the issues and not focused on Barrett’s theories about 9/11 conspiracies.
On Wednesday, Republican Paul Stark of Eau Claire said he’d be happy to debate Kind and Barrett. “Oh, yes. The sooner the better,” he said. “Here in western Wisconsin we have a stark difference between all three candidates. In a sense that’s a good thing.”
However, Stark called Barrett “a controversial man,” and said, “As an American, as a Wisconsinite, I am offended that he will teach our young people in schools and walk around telling people that 9/11 was an inside job.”
Barrett grabbed national headlines in 2006 when he taught an elective class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison about Islamic culture and religion that included discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories.
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