A Democratic candidate running for Michigan state office had harsh words for the local GOP after the statewide Republican Party sent a mailer urging supporters to harass the Democrat's elderly mother in hospice and provided her phone number, UPI reported on Thursday.
A set of flyers, paid for and sent by the Michigan Republican Party, called on supporters to oppose the Affordable Care Act, saying it and 61st state House District Candidate John Fisher could leave the state "bedridden."
The number they provided calls the bedside of Fisher's 91-year-old mother, Isabel Marie Kramb, who is in hospice care with congestive heart failure.
Fisher, who supports the Affordable Care Act, wrote a statement describing his outrage.
"To direct people to call a suffering woman who deserves peace and comfort is beyond the pale," Fisher said. "Their lack of ethics and contempt for personal privacy is just another reason for people to question what - or better, who - the Republican Party stands for, so that they can make a wise decision at the ballot box on Nov. 4."
Kalamazoo County Commissioner Brandt Iden, Fisher's Republican opponent, said his campaign had nothing to do with the mailing. Fisher called on Iden to denounce the state GOP, according to the Huffington Post.
This isn't the first time this election cycle that the privacy of a candidate's family has been compromised. A man was arrested in May after he allegedly broke into a nursing home and took photos of the bedridden wife of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). The photos were said to have been used in an ad against Cochran that was eventually removed from the Internet.
