WISCONSIN: House GOP Candidate Fires GOProud Hate Crime Hoaxer

U.S. House candidate Chad Lee, who is running for Tammy Baldwin's seat against openly gay state Assemblyman Mark Pocan, has fired GOP campaign worker Kyle Wood, who has recanted his claim of being violently beaten for being gay conservative.

The Lee campaign put out a statement Monday night saying that Wood had been dismissed.  "Today, our campaign unfortunately learned that a deeply troubled volunteer misled police, news outlets, and our own team in regards to an attack at his home that apparently never occured," the statement read. "Our campaign dismissed Mr. Wood immediately and we will fully cooperate with the authorities as they continue with their investigation. As the Madison Police Department is investigating this matter, we cannot comment further at this time."

Wood didn't respond to requests for comment Monday but over the weekend he told Schneider, the conservative blogger, that he had received threats and putdowns for being a gay Republican opposing Pocan. “It probably had something to do with the fact that I support a Republican candidate running against an openly gay man,” Wood said of the attack. Wood claimed the attack occured on Wednesday morning when an unidentified man knocked on his door and then brutally attacked him as soon as Wood answered it.

Following that news, Media Trackers printed damaging allegations about "a series of shocking text messages purportedly from Philip Frank," Pocan's husband. Media Trackers printed the whole series of text messages, which were laced with threats, sexual innuendo and racist language and which were supposedly sent to Wood just days before the alleged attack on him.

Pocan and his husband are reportedly considering suing Wood for the allegedly faked text messages given to the police. The right wing site Media Trackers, which printed the messages, has deleted that entry.  Wood has apparently deleted his Twitter and Facebook accounts.  GOProud has issued no statement on the scandal after a week of tweeting outraged demands for media coverage and blaming the attack on Dan Savage and myself.