By: Associated Press//September 28, 2017//
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic candidate for governor Kathleen Vinehout is defending a character reference letter she wrote for a legislative attorney found guilty of possessing child pornography.
Vinehout, a state senator from Alma, wrote the letter on behalf of David L. Lovell in 2015. Vinehout told the Cap Times in a story Thursday that people won’t find anything objectionable in the letter she wrote.
Vinehout tells the newspaper that “My mother taught me to hate the sin but not shun the sinner.”
In the 2015 letter, she described Lovell as a “hardworking, intelligent, persistent, dedicated public servant” with “extraordinary diplomatic skills.”
Lovell was sentenced to concurrent three-year prison sentences for each count of possession of child pornography and has been in prison since June.
Vinehout launched her run for governor on Monday.