Before Todd Akin or Roger Rivard, there was Don Pridemore.
The Republican state representative from Hartford, who’s announcing his candidacy today for superintendent of the state Department of Public Instruction, made no comment on rape, getting pregnant from a rape, or how “easy” it is for some women to get raped, but he did suggest, in a Jimmy Stewart kind of way, that even relationships torn asunder by violence and abuse can be reforged in romance. Maybe over a candlelit dinner, or a nice night at the movies.
The micro-controversy arose in March, after a TMJ4 story on a bill co-sponsored by Pridemore that would have declared single parenting a contributing factor to child abuse. Referring to those marriages and relationships broken by abuse, he struck a hopeful tone.
“If they can re-find those reasons and get back to why they got married in the first place,” he told reporter Annie Scholz, “it might help.”
Catch him next at the Republican Women of Waukesha County Christmas Luncheon on Wednesday.
