ALBANY, N.Y. _ A fundraiser for a Republican state Senate candidate in New York tweeted out attacks on two student survivors of the February mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school.
Denise Ward, who hosted a fundraiser last week for GOP candidate Julie Killian, took to Twitter to attack Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg, who since the attack has been an outspoken advocate for gun control.
Ward in one tweet wrote: "Every time that idiotic Hogg person speaks I am compelled to do the opposite of whatever he's advocating, because it's so clear that he's nothing more than a tool & a drone."
Ward also retweeted a photo put forth by conspiracy theorists of Gonzalez saying she and her classmates bullied the Parkland shooter for three years.
Another retweet asked who is the most annoying person _ Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Kimmel, Mark Zuckerberg or Hogg.
Doug Forand, spokesman for Killian's Democratic opponent, Shelley Mayer, said "no amount of campaign cash is worth appeasing those who attack children, let alone those who have survived a tragic school shooting."
Killian and Mayer are set to square off on April 24 in a critical special election for a Westchester County state Senate seat that could help decide which party controls the chamber.
Killian's campaign quickly announced it would return any money Ward raised for or donated to the campaign.
"Julie is vehemently opposed to these notions," Killian spokeswoman Mollie Fullington said of Ward's tweets and retweets.
Fullington couldn't immediately say how much money Ward raised for the campaign. "We will return everything she raised or contributed," she said.
She accused Mayer's campaign of trying to distract "from the real story that Shelley Mayer had an opportunity to help victims of sexual harassment and she didn't."
The New York Daily News reported last week the story of two women who said Mayer as Senate Democratic counsel in 2010 offered little help with their complaints to her of sexual harassment by their bosses. Mayer's campaign insists she followed all proper protocols.
