Letter Threatens Boycott for Displaying GOP Signs, Business Owner Says

WAUWATOSA, Wis. — A business owner who helped promote a Republican state senator says a nursing instructor with union ties wrote a letter threatening her company with financial harm because of that support.

In the letter, the signatory, Allison Nicol, says she has stopped advising prospective students to receive training through Quality Healthcare Options Inc.

Nicol, who works at the Mequon campus of Milwaukee Area Technical College, doesn’t agree with company owner Sally Sprenger’s backing of state Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, the letter says.

“For many years, my colleagues and I have recommended that our future nursing students obtain their CNA training or take refresher courses through Quality Healthcare Options,” said the Oct. 10 letter to the Wauwatosa-based business. “I will no longer recommend your company to our students, and I am in the process of notifying our entire faculty as well as our program leadership of the same.”

Nicol says in the letter she no longer would recommend students to receive training through Quality Healthcare Options because she alleges Vukmir, a registered nurse, disregarded the Nursing Code of Ethics when she voted against a bill requiring health plans to provide the same coverage for chemotherapy pills.

It says she also had concerns with Vukmir’s “disturbing relationship” with the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization many consider as Public Enemy No. 1

As legal expert Rick Esenberg sees it, the apparent tactics of intimidation could be considered a violation of Sprenger’s rights under the First Amendment.

“(Sprenger) cannot be discriminated against based upon her decision to express her political viewpoints,” said Esenberg, president and general counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. “You can’t announce that you’re only going to award contracts to Democrats or you’re only going to award contracts to Republicans.”

Sprenger, who promoted Vukmir by allowing campaign signs at Quality Healthcare Options, has tried to file a complaint with the college since she got the letter. But she hasn’t gotten an official response.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE LETTER

Last week, Sprenger asked for a meeting with the MATC board of directors to review the threats.

“I look forward to continuing our good business relationship in spite of any individual political differences or opinions, as it is truly irrelevant to our mutual business,” Sprenger said in the email.

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