Democratic candidate for governor Brett Hulsey plans to hand out white Ku Klux Klan-style hoods to Wisconsin Republicans as they gather for their annual convention Friday to highlight what he says are their racist policies, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
Hulsey, a state representative from Madison who is white, came into the state Capitol press room on Thursday to show off a hood he says he made with his daughter's sewing machine using curtain material he purchased for $1, the State Journal reported.
"It's a Wisconsin Republican Party hat," Hulsey said, according to the State Journal. "And people can interpret it any way they want."
When asked whether he was serious, trying to be funny or provocative, Hulsey answered: "All of the above," the State Journal reported.
Hulsey said he was trying to highlight what he called racist Republican policies to require photo identification at the polls, a law struck down in federal court on Tuesday as unconstitutional because of how it would affect minorities, passage of a law making it more difficult to force schools to remove American Indian mascots and cuts to public school funding, according to the State Journal.
"They need to own up to their racism, which is what I am trying to highlight," Hulsey added, the State Journal reported.
Hulsey, a two-term state representative, is running a long-shot campaign for the Democratic nomination against the better-funded and more broadly supported candidate Mary Burke, according to the State Journal. She is a former state commerce secretary and Trek Bicycle Corp. executive. Her campaign spokesman Joe Zepecki called Hulsey's latest stunt "completely unacceptable and totally inappropriate."
Hulsey has a history of outlandish behavior and once contemplated bringing a musket onto the Assembly floor to call attention to GOP policies, like legalizing carrying concealed weapons, that he opposed, the State Journal reported.
Last year, one of his legislative staffers told police she feared for her safety because he brought a box-cutter to the office, according to the State Journal.
In 2012, Hulsey pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct citation after police accused him of flipping a 9-year-old boy off an inner tube at a Madison beach and taking pictures of the child, the State Journal reported.
Hulsey told police he just walked by the boy and didn't "touch or molest him," according to the State Journal. He also said he needed to point his camera toward the boy in order to get a shot of a sailboat and the sunset.
