Eric Hovde is having another bad week » Urban Milwaukee

Erik Hovde.

Republican candidate for US Senate Erik Hovde remains in the news. But not in a good way.

Two weeks ago, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin sparked a controversy with comments suggesting that almost everyone in nursing homes is not “about” to vote. “Well, if you’re in a nursing home, you only have a life expectancy of five to six months,” he said. “Almost no one in a nursing home is about to vote.”

This left Ben Voelkel, his campaign spokesman, to explain that the candidate was not arguing that nursing home residents should not vote. “Eric Hovde has in no way suggested that older people should not vote,” Voelkel said. “He referenced specific cases in Racine where family members expressed concerns about their loved ones voting.”

Hovde claimed that there were nursing homes where more than 100% of residents voted. That is not true. A Wisconsin State Journal investigation found that only one nursing home in Dane County — with 12 residents — had a 100 percent turnout, and elsewhere turnout ranged from 42% to 91%.

Former Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul Jabbar jumped on the controversy last Tuesday with a blog post titled “GOP candidate wants to take away the voice of nursing home residents.”

“What is disturbing here is his desire to take away the rights of people who have contributed their entire lives to this country based on one physical characteristic: age,” he wrote. “Even if there is fraud, the goal should be to expose it and not deny voice to everyone in nursing homes.”

“Is this the man who should be a senator?”

Meanwhile, instead of dropping the matter, Hovde went on conservative radio to explain that he had been misunderstood. “They tried to say I didn’t want older people to vote,” Hovde said on WISN-AM. “I don’t even know how they came up with that.”

But as an AP reporter Scott Bauer wrote Saturday, Hovde also said that “a large percentage” of nursing home residents “do not have the mental capacity to vote.” Hovde countered the comment on Wednesday Meg Ellefsonthe Fox radio news host in Wausau.

Also on Saturday, the New York Times offered a new and scathing follow-up to the controversy, reporting that Hovde’s bank, Utah-based Sunwest, “was named last month as a co-defendant in a California lawsuit accusing a senior living facility that is partly owned by the bank for elder abuse, negligence and wrongful death.”

Hovde’s campaign called the lawsuit meritless and said it was farcical to hold a bank’s chairman and CEO responsible for the actions of a company seized in bankruptcy in 2021. But as the Times noted, “Sunwest has claimed millions of dollars. in revenue from its assisted living properties, including Claremont Hacienda,” the facility named in the lawsuit.

Hovde “may have a problem with older voters,” the story suggested.

But it’s not the only group of voters who could be bothered by his comments. In March, a Daily Beast story unearthed a video of Hovde proposing in 2012 that insurance companies charge higher premiums for obese people. His comments came in the context of his opposition to the Affordable Care Act.

“If you become obese, your health care is going to cost more,” he told public affairs station WisconsinEye.

“If they suddenly realized that they were paying more for their health care by consuming huge amounts of soda every day, or eating fatty foods and not exercising, they might change their behavior patterns. .”

“It’s a personal choice,” he said of obesity, “but there have to be consequences for those personal choices.”

There was good news for Hovde last week. Marquette’s latest poll showed Hovde’s opponent, the incumbent Democratic U.S. senator Tammy Baldwin led the race 52% to 47% among registered voters. But among likely voters, the race was even.

Beyond the headline, however, there was also data indicating that as voters get to know Hovde better, his unfavorable rating increases. A year ago, only 8% of respondents had an unfavorable opinion. In the most recent poll, 24% had an unfavorable opinion of Hovde, compared to 19% who had a favorable rating. Baldwin, meanwhile, was 47% favorable and 42% unfavorable.

Hovde has to turn that around. His recent comments are not helping his case.