They must be seeing the same polling we’re seeing.” Ron Kind (D-Wis.), the veteran lawmaker from the western swath of the state. “I can’t remember the last time Mitt Romney even looked toward Wisconsin,” said Rep. “It’s been an interesting contrast to 2004 where the Bush campaign was unambiguously all out for Wisconsin,” said Gilbert, who recalled the former president taking a bus tour through the western part of the state.ĭemocrats, who concede they saw a real shift in polling after Ryan was put on the ticket, are gleeful that Romney stayed away for so long. Gilbert makes the case, and privately Republicans agree, that Romney’s campaign sent “mixed signals about what their priority was” by not returning to the state until the end of October. “It’s close with a slight Obama advantage,” said Craig Gilbert, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s political sage. Most Democrats, however, believe firmly Obama is still narrowly ahead, and both private polling conducted by Republicans and Democrats as well as independent observers give the incumbent the edge going into the final week. Walker emphasized that he thinks Romney can win and called the race “a dead heat.” “Our voters want to see the candidate, and it’s not enough to see the candidate on TV.” “They’ve clearly heard our requests,” Walker said pointing to Romney’s trip on Monday. In an interview, Walker said he had been “pestering” senior Republicans, including Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus, who’s from Kenosha, and Romney officials to get the GOP nominee back to the state. Only Ryan has been on the trail here over the past two months. “It’s the most important election in our life, and you didn’t vote?”įurther, while the selection of Ryan lifted Republican hopes here for the first time and threw a scare into Democrats, what came after has left GOP veterans befuddled: Romney didn’t come back to the state following a joint rally he held the day after he put the young House Budget Committee chairman on the ticket in mid-August. “That is my biggest concern,” Vos said of the falloff between the presidential campaign and recall. That is the only reason this thing would be close.”Ī GOP member of the state Assembly, Robin Vos, was blunter. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said a bit incredulously, adding, “I’m a little concerned about the half-million voters. “If you’re not involved or engaged enough to come out for the Walker recall,” freshman Sen. Political veterans in both parties here believe those Wisconsinites are likely Obama voters if he can turn them out again. And they believe that the presence of the popular 42-year-old Wisconsinite on the Republican ticket will lift Romney in some of the state’s Democratic-leaning precincts.īut what makes Republicans uneasy about their prospects next month can also be traced back to the recall and the Ryan pick.Ībout 500,000 voters who cast ballots in the 2008 election didn’t show up for the recall, which Walker won by seven points. They think the effort to dislodge Walker from office a year and a half into his term has sparked a backlash and created an organization that will carry over into the presidential race. The GOP case for why they can win Wisconsin for the first time since 1984 rests in no small part on both. Scott Walker and Romney’s selection in August of Janesville’s Ryan as his running mate. What gives Republicans a measure of both hope and concern are the two preceding events this year that thrust Wisconsin into the national spotlight: the contentious and unsuccessful June recall of Gov. Independent observers here still give Obama the edge at the moment - but barely. Suddenly, the Badger State is looking more like it did in 20, when presidential hopefuls lavished attention on the cheese and beer-loving people between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, and the campaigns were decided by less than a percentage point.
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