California banker and mail order candidate for Wisconsin Republicans finally kicked off his official campaign for US Senate on Tuesday, with only months before the election. Hovde launched his campaign by mostly phoning it in.

Even before Hovde could announce, he had to take care of some important things, like divesting himself of his $2.3 million home in Washington DC by transfering the title of the house to his brother, who is also his business partner. This would have been just enough to maybe raise some eyebrows, until Hovde's inept spokesperson came along with some ridiculous story:

Ben Voelkel, a spokesman for Hovde's campaign, said the decision to transfer ownership of the D.C. home had nothing to do with the upcoming race.

Instead, Voelkel said, the family realized a couple of years ago that an attorney mistakenly put ownership of the D.C. house in trusts held by Hovde and his wife's names and not in his brother's. For 20 years, Steven Hovde has headed the two main trusts set up for the two daughters. The family fixed the mistake and filed the paperwork six months ago.

"In summary, Eric doesn't own the home," Voelkel said. "He doesn't live in the home."

Then on Tuesday, he launched an introductory video on social media, complaining about all the bickering in politics He followed this up by using Republican talking points to blame Washington.

This is the same theme when he ran for the senate in 2012.

Maybe it's me, but I wouldn't call insurrection and corruption to be bickering. But hey, at least he is into recycling, amirite?

It should also be noted that not once in his ad did Hovde even mention Wisconsin. What is he running for again?

Then on Tuesday afternoon, he finally held the formal kickoff, where he spent most of the time listing off the problems he wants to address and implying that he knows how to fix them because he and his brother are so very filthy rich. In fact, Hovde held his kickoff in the top floor "Sky Club" of a building that he and his brother own.

Despite Hovde's claims that his is not a politican, as noted above, he had run in 2012 for the very same office. At that time, he lost in the primary to former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson, who in turn lost to Tammy Baldwin. Hovde had also toyed with the idea of running for the senate in 2018 and for Wisconsin governor in 2020, but ultimely opted out.

It's also rather telling that both the state and national Republican parties have warned others that they don't want Hovde to have to go through a primary. The lateness of the kickoff and the warning tends to make one think that there is a lot of stuff that Hovde and friends don't want the voting public to know.

It would also be interesting to know why Wisconsin Republicans have to keep going outside of the state to find their candidates. Hovde is living in Laguna Beach, California. And in 2022, the GOP candidate for governor, Tim Michels, lived in Connecticut.