New York Times: “Democrats in Wisconsin are wringing their hands about how Mandela Barnes’s political fortunes have sagged under the weight of the Republican advertising blitz.”
“Grumbling about his campaign tactics and the help he is receiving from national Democrats, they worry that he could be one of several of the party’s Senate candidates whose struggles to parry a withering GOP onslaught could sink their candidacies and cost Democrats control of the chamber.”
The Economist: “On the one hand, it retains a large blue-collar workforce—19% of the state’s GDP comes from manufacturing—who have been drifting more towards Republicans in recent years, making the state look more like Indiana or Ohio, which are now both solidly Republican. On the other hand, it also has a vast and growing progressive vote, particularly around Madison, the home of the largest University of Wisconsin campus. About 7% of the state’s adult population consists of students, who are well organised, and who this year especially, have been fired up by the Supreme Court’s decision to undo abortion rights (it helps that Wisconsin now has, by virtue of a law passed in 1849, one of the strictest bans on abortion in the country.)”
“This helps to explain why the Badger State is so weird. Essentially, when Democrats can motivate their electorate (which also includes the large black population of Milwaukee, and a surprising rural redoubt in the north-west) they can win. The state’s junior senator, Tammy Baldwin, is a lesbian progressive who wants America to introduce universal health care. But when they fail, Republicans, with their more unified base, can also get in their own radicals. Ron Johnson thinks global warming is fake, covid-19 vaccines are dangerous, and that the Trumpist riot on January 6th 2021 was no big deal.”
Wisconsin Senate candidate Mandela Barnes (D) “raised more than $20 million in the third quarter of 2022, dwarfing what he raised throughout his entire bid for Senate,” CNN reports.
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A new AARP poll in Wisconsin finds Sen. Ron Johnson (R) leading challenger Mandela Barnes (D) by five points, 51% to 46%.
In the governor’s race, Tim Michels (R) leads Gov. Tony Evers (D) by three points, 50% to 47%.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Wisconsin shows Sen. Ron Johnson (R) and challenger Mandela Barnes (D) in a dead heat, 47% to 47%.
In the race for governor, Tony Evers (D) edges Tim Michels (R), 48% to 46%.
“For months, Sen. Ron Johnson has drawn scrutiny for his office’s role in attempting to deliver false packets of electors to former Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“While the Oshkosh Republican continues to downplay his office’s connection to the effort, saying his participation lasted just seconds, one of Wisconsin’s false electors has been working on Johnson’s reelection campaign.”
A new Trafalgar Group poll in Wisconsin finds Mandela Barnes (D) leading Sen. Ron Johnson (R) in the U.S, Senate race, 49% to 47%.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) accused his critics Wednesday of “playing class envy” as he defended doubling his wealth while in office and inserting a major provision into former President Donald Trump’s signature 2017 tax bill, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Said Johnson: “I’m up against massive amounts of spending. I’m up against the media. They’re very good. They are very good at assassinating people’s character, playing class envy, distorting things beyond any reasonable recognition of things I say.”
He added: “That’s been twisted to I carved out a special deal for myself. When you cut taxes for everybody, everybody gets a tax cut.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Wisconsin finds that 55% of voters are concerned — 50% are “very concerned” — about Sen. Johnson’s role in trying to put fake elector documents from Wisconsin and Michigan into the former Vice President’s hands on January 6th.
A Fox News poll in Wisconsin finds Mandela Barnes (D) leading Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) in the U.S. Senate race by four points, 50% to 46%.
A new Marquette Law School Poll in Wisconsin finds Mandela Barnes (D) leading Sen. Ron Johnson (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 51% to 44%.
In June, Barnes led by 46% to 44%.
“Saying programs like Social Security and Medicare suffer from improper oversight, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) called for turning every government program into discretionary spending programs, meaning Congress would have to allocate funding for the programs each year,” the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
“Such an effort could lead to yearly battles over the programs — fights that some Republicans say are necessary to cut down on government spending, while many Democrats consider the programs to be some of the nation’s most beneficial.”
Alex Lasry (D), who dropped out of the U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin, said he will use $584,000 worth of previously purchased airtime to run attack ads against Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), NBC News reports.
Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Sarah Godlewski (D) is suspending her campaign and endorsing Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D), the Madison Capital Times reports.
Godlewski’s decision to drop out of the race comes just days after fellow front-runners Tom Nelson (D) and Alex Lasry (D) also dropped out of the race and endorsed Barnes.
“In a stunning move with less than two weeks before the primary, Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry (D) is dropping out of the Democratic U.S. Senate race after having spent more than $12.3 million on the contest,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“Lasry’s withdrawal puts Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D) in the driver’s seat to win the Aug. 9 primary and face Sen. Ron Johnson (R) in the fall… Lasry is expected to endorse Barnes.”
Tom Nelson (D) announced that he was ending his Democratic primary campaign for Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate seat and throwing his support to Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D), the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“Although Nelson was running fourth in the polls, the move could provide a significant boost for Barnes, who is locked in a tight race with Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry, with state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski further behind.”
“The primary winner will meet Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) in November.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Real America’s Voice that President Biden is “comprised” because he allegedly financed a “global sex scandal, sex… um… operation.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) claimed he broke his term limit promise because people were crying and begging him to run.
Said Johnson: “I didn’t want to do this… but people are literally coming up to me with tears in their eyes, streaming down their cheeks saying, ‘You got to run. You got to help us save this country!'”
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.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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