Wisconsin Democratic congressional candidate Fred Clark is campaigning on a pledge to stand up for women, even after he was caught on a constituent’s voicemail saying he felt like “smackin’ her around” and was ordered to pay thousands of dollars in back child support to his ex-wife.
On his campaign site, Clark says that as a candidate and former legislator he has “firmly supported women’s freedom to make choices about reproductive care” and has backed funding and access to reproductive health care, contraception, and related services. The page, titled “Supporting Women’s Rights and Women’s Health,” lists his legilative priorities as the passing the Women’s Health Protection Act and increasing access to abortions.
I feel like calling her back and smackin’ her around.
Fred Clark
Those claims sit in stark contrast to two episodes from his 2011 state recall campaign that revealed what he really believes about women
In June 2011, while Clark, then a Democratic state representative, was calling voters in a recall race against Republican state Sen. Luther Olsen, he reached constituent Sue Stapelman. According to the Baraboo News Republic, Stapelman picked up after her machine answered, responded dismissively to his pitch, and hung up. The recorder kept running. Clark then told a campaign aide, “OK. I feel like calling her back and smackin’ her around.”
Clark later apologized, saying the remark was “completely inappropriate under any circumstance.” Stapelman told reporters she was “flabbergasted” and that the comment spoke to his respect for voters. The Republican Party of Wisconsin called the remark a disturbing glimpse of Clark “when he thinks no one is listening,” arguing that even a joking threat of violence against a woman showed a lack of character amid rising concern about domestic abuse. Clark described the line as a moment of frustration after a discouraging call.
Days later, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Clark had been billed $6,500 earlier that year for unpaid increases in child support. Court records cited by columnist Daniel Bice showed Clark and his ex-wife, Brenda Ryther, divorced in 1999, with Clark ordered to pay $400 a month for their son. After Clark won an Assembly seat in November 2008 — a job then paying about $49,943 a year — the payments were not formally raised for more than a year. In March 2010 the two signed an agreement lifting support to $650 a month. Officials later found he was $6,500 in arrears for the extra $250 over 26 months and ordered the back amount paid.
Clark told the Journal Sentinel he paid the bill, plus interest, on May 5, 2011, about two weeks after he announced the recall bid. He said he had been making the original payments on time, that neither he nor Ryther treated the increase as a priority, and that he did not believe he had acted irresponsibly. He also said he was “real engaged” in his son’s life and hoped the arrears would not become a campaign issue.
Clark is the Democratic nominee for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, an open seat covering much of northern Wisconsin. Incumbent Republican Tom Tiffany is leaving the House to run for governor, and the district has been held by Republicans since 2011.
Clark faces Republican Michael Alfonso in the November 3 general election.
