A photo surface on social media and was sent to Cities by several community members.
“Not much to discuss, my kids loved Napoleon Dynamite 10 years ago and that’s what they wanted to do for Halloween,” said Tipsword. “Not much else to see there.”
In a statement provided by Tipsword:
“Many, many years ago when my kids were younger they loved the movie Napoleon Dynamite. That movie played around the clock in our home, everyone quoted lines from the movie daily in our normal routine. Even today my kids will slip in a one liner from the movie just for a laugh. This particular year my kids decided they wanted to dress as the cast of Napoleon Dynamite for Halloween, being a devoted father that rarely takes part in costume parties I begrudgingly agreed as I saw how much they wanted to do this. Everyone picked a character, my son was ‘Napoleon,’ my youngest daughter was ‘Deb,’ my oldest daughter was ‘Pedro’ I was ‘Kip’ and my wife was ‘LaFawnduh. We spent days getting the costumes right, unfortunately we couldn’t find a blond wig for “Napoleon” so we settled for a black wig other than that the costumes were spot on. Absolutely nothing about these costumes were meant to be racist, at all. But rather a compliment to a great movie that meant so much to our kids. I am disappointed that this picture was published as ‘Black face’ by a disgruntled former employee who is looking for his ‘pound of flesh’ from me. If someone took this picture out of the context that I explained above, I am truly sorry for that, nothing here was meant to be mean spirited toward anyone.”
The Photo posted by Brad Duley, former Woodford County Law Enforcment
Also running in the 105th state house district is Mike Kirkton…and Kirkton said this was discussed at a candidate forum where Desi Anderson brought up the photo and Kevin Woodard moderated the event.
Kirkton said he saw the photo and said it bothered him.
“Kyle Ham and I both said we would do nothing about it and we want to run our campaigns on integrity,” said Kirkton. “You have to sit across the aisle with folks who don’t look like you. Having this out there is going to really damage your integrity.”
Kirkton said Desi Anderson makes a great point. Anderson is a local business owner and a Bulgaria native.
“To this day minorities don’t trust law enforcement,” said Kirkton. “What I think we’re trying to do and what Desi is trying to do in her district is close that gap. This makes it much more difficult to do that.”
Kirkton pointed out that once elected, you represent all people of that district. Kirkton said you don’t need to have issues that distract from helping people in said district.
“This past week it was brought to my attention by several individuals, a photo of Mr. Tipsword’s wife dressed in blackface with him by her side participating,” said Desi Anderson, a Republican Illinois Senate candidate, in a statement provided to Cities 92.9. “The lack of sensitivity to the matter this week is what has been disheartening. In a candidate forum I felt it incumbent on me to ask Mr. Tipsword to give more explanation around the photo and hopefully respond in a way that showed sensitivity and understanding.”
Anderson said instead it was disappointing to hear a lack of any awareness of the harm that a photo like this could cause to the minority community and to the perception towards our leaders and police.
“I look forward to working with our police and our diverse neighborhoods to help towards a greater understanding of one another and to build trust for better community engagement,” said Anderson.
Today, June 24, Kyle Ham, candidate for State Representative , denounced the negative campaigning that has arisen during the closing days of the election contest in the 105th legislative district. He released a press release.
“If we have learned anything over the years, it is that people are sick and tired of negative campaigning. We just have to look at the governor’s race and see how much money is being spent on attack ads,” said Ham. “Unfortunately, at this 11th hour, the negative campaigning has now entered my race for state representative. I committed from day one that I would not go negative and attack any of my opponents. And, I am proud to say, I have kept that commitment.”
Ham said his campaign is based on values that he learned growing up in Central Illinois.
“I am the proven conservative in this race who is pro-life, defender of the 2nd Amendment and a supporter of fully funding law enforcement,” said Ham.
