If I were truly a good blogger, I probably would’ve had this about the same time that Kevin Binversie and Ed Morrissey did, but I was busy doing my taxes so I would be able to show up at the likely announcement tomorrow.
WTMJ-TV/AM is reporting that former Governor Tommy Thompson is expected to announce something regarding a potential Senate bid tomorrow at the Madison Tea Party. Charles Benson initially reported that a source close to Thomspon said that he would not run, but the Associated Press subsequently quoted Thompson, “The only person who knows what I’m going to do is myself and I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
In anticipation of an actual announcement tomorrow, I will be closing the poll on whether Thompson should run, which is over on the left sidebar, at midnight tonight. I will mention that I chose “He won’t run, but should.”
While much of Thompson’s free-spending record, as well as his infamous “Stick it to ’em” quip to outstate Wisconsinites in the middle of the debate of whether to allow a Milwaukee-area-only sales tax to finance construction of Miller Park, would tend to mitigate against him appearing at a Tax Day Tea Party, he does have some credentials when it comes to school financing. As part of the deal where the state took over 2/3rds of funding, school districts have to have their budgets approved by the district’s electors at an annual meeting, and have to go to a voter referendum to either offer bonds of over $1 million or exceed revenue limits (historically anything more than the Qualified Economic Offer plus increase in enrollment from the previous year).
There are currently two announced candidates, Dave Westlake and Terrence Wall. They have both been rather-heavily courting the Tea Party crowd, and both have said that they would stay in the race even if Thompson enters. Westlake has the more-consistent track record, but he has essentially stopped trying to raise funds after a far-less-than-successful early effort. Wall, who has significant self-financing ability and has had some fundraising efforts, has donated to numerous Democrats.
Meanwhile, Dick Leinenkugel, late of Democrat Governor Jim Doyle’s administration as Secretary of Commerce, and part of the Leinenkugel Brewing family, has broadly dropped hints that he will enter the race for the Republican nomination. If Wall has issues with his donation record, Leinenkugel would have more-significant issues with his record as Commerce Secretary under a Democrat governor, which includes not getting personally invovled in numerous failed attempts to woo and keep companies that don’t serve the wants of government while getting personally involved in a rather-shady Spain-based Talgo train-car deal that was the nail in Milwaukee-based Super Steel. I’ll refer you to Kevin for the both-sides-of-the-street beatdown.
While the WTMJ video report didn’t mention Leinenkugel, it did mention Oshkosh businessman Ron Johnson. Johnson said that, if Thompson didn’t get in the race, he would, but if Thompson did get in, he wouldn’t. I honestly don’t know who Johnson is, so I can’t offer an opinion yet on whether he should enter the race.
Revisions/extensions (4:40 pm 4/14/2010) – WISN-AM’s Mark Belling is talking about this now. He’s saying that while Thompson really wants to run, the rest of his family is begging him to not run.
R&E part 2 (8:12 am 4/15/2010) – A bit more on Johnson, who is a founder of the Oshkosh Tea Party, as well as the theory from WISN-AM’s Jay Weber, that Thompson will endorse Johnson today, here.
