Departing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) told the Associated Press that he’s keeping his campaign accounts open and wouldn’t rule out running for governor again in four years.
He also said he would consider running for U.S. Senate in 2022 to replace Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who has said he would not seek a third term.
An invite that appeared to have been sent from the campaign of Wisconsin state Sen. Leah Vukmir (R), who’s running against Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), promoted a fundraising event for “above average people,” The Hill reports.
For $500, attendees are invited to “relax amongst other above average people while enjoying hors d’oeuvres and refreshments” on Sept. 5.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) “wants everyone to know she could lose. It’s an unusual message for any candidate, but the liberal Democrat from Wisconsin is sounding the alarm after Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer effectively declared the first-term senator a favorite to keep her seat in November by leaving her off their lists of top-tier Senate races,” Politico reports.
“After their pronouncements, major outside groups in both parties skipped Wisconsin in their initial $120 million of spending planned for this fall — triggering fears among state Democrats that the party will take victory for granted. But there’s palpable concern here among Democrats — and Baldwin especially — that Wisconsin is ripe for a repeat of 2016, when Donald Trump carried the state by less than a percentage point and GOP Sen. Ron Johnson surged to a surprise reelection behind a flood of late spending from conservative groups.”
A new Marquette Law School poll in Wisconsin shows Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) ahead of GOP challengers Leah Vukmir (R), 49% to 40%, and Kevin Nicholson (R), 50% to 39%.
“Those veterans that are out there in the Democrat party, I question their cognitive thought process because the bottom line is, they’re signing up to defend the Constitution that their party is continually dragging through the mud.”
— Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson (R), in an interview on WTMJ.
“In many parts of the country, Republican candidates are trying to put distance between themselves and President Trump. In the Indiana Senate primary, the bruising fight is over which candidate is the more authentically Trumpian,” the New York Times reports.
“As the May 8 primary election approaches, the race here has taken a nasty turn, with candidates attacking one another as insufficiently aligned with the president, or way too late to Team Trump. Some Republicans worry that the tenor has the potential to bloody the winner so badly that he will be weakened in the general election contest against Sen. Joe Donnelly, one of this election year’s most vulnerable Democrats.”
“The Indiana primary is among several, including those in West Virginia and Wisconsin, where Republicans are locked in nominating battles in states Mr. Trump won in 2016 and where the party has hoped to add to its slender two-seat majority.”
Just months after Kevin Nicholson (R) announced his bid to run against incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Nicholson’s own parents donated the legal maximum to Baldwin’s primary campaign, CNN reports.
Explained Nicholson: “My parents have a different worldview than I do, and it is not surprising that they would support a candidate like Tammy Baldwin who shares their perspective.”
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Sen. John McCain and former Sen. Russ Feingold are now benefiting from the campaign donations they once fought so fiercely against, Politico reports.
“Supporters of Sen. McCain (R-AZ), seeking a sixth term after 30 years in the Senate, have boosted his campaign through a super PAC specifically designed to run ads on his behalf, financed almost entirely by six-figure donations from Wall Street titans and other corporate executives. Feingold, the former Senate Democrat trying to reclaim his old seat in Wisconsin, has been boosted by outside groups financed through ‘dark money’ committees that don’t reveal their donors.”
“An apparent Republican activist tried to join Democrat Russ Feingold’s team this week in what Feingold’s campaign suspects was a plot to dig up dirt on him,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) mistakenly called Gov. Nikki Haley (R) an “immigrant” even though she was born in South Carolina, Politico reports.
Said Johnson: “Let’s face it: No two people agree on everything. And Governor Haley is an immigrant. She has powerful stories of being an immigrant and experiencing discrimination herself.”
A new Marquette University poll shows Russ Feingold (D) leading Sen. Ron Johnson (R) in a U.S. Senate race, 49% to 38%.
A new Wisconsin Public Radio poll finds Russ Feingold (D) leads Sen. Ron Johnson (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 51% to 40%.
A new Marquette University Law School poll in Wisconsin finds Russ Feingold (D) leading Sen. Ron Johnson (R) by 14 points, 50% to 36%.
A new Marquette Law School Poll in Wisconsin finds Russ Feingold (D) leading Sen. Ron Johnson (R) in a U.S. Senate match up, 47% to 42%.
A new Luntz Global (R) poll in Wisconsin shows Russ Feingold (D) leading Sen. Ron Johnson (R) by eight points in the U.S. Senate race, 50% to 42%.
Smart Politics finds that Russ Feingold’s (D) official entrance into the 2016 U.S. Senate race puts him on an unusual pathway back to the nation’s upper legislative chamber.
“Over the last half-century only two U.S. Senators have returned to the chamber after losing their seat at the ballot box – Ohio Democrat Howard Metzenbaum in 1976 and Washington Republican Slade Gorton in 1988. No other Senator accomplished this feat since 1956.”
However, from “the beginning of direct elections in 1913 until the mid-1950s, such political comebacks were much more common with 14 defeated ex-U.S. Senators winning back a seat in the chamber including one who accomplished the feat twice: Kentucky Republican John Cooper in 1952 and 1956 (after losses in 1948 and 1954 respectively).”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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