Pubdate: Sat, 22 Jul 2006 Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) Copyright: 2006 Journal Sentinel Inc. Contact: http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/submit.asp Website: http://www.jsonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/265 Author: Alan J. Borsuk Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Ben+Masel HOW DID KOHL GET A FREE RIDE? With Thompson Out, Party Lacks Senate Contender If you go to the Web site of the Republican Party of Wisconsin and click on "Election Candidates 2006," you'll get a list of candidates backed by the party in races from governor to the Assembly's 75th District. What you won't find is any mention of the U.S. Senate race. "Our attention now is fully on the governor's race," said Rick Wiley, executive director of the party. "It's unfortunate that Herb Kohl is going to get, for all intents and purposes, a free pass on this one." Yes, there will be a Republican candidate on the November ballot. There also will be a Green Party candidate and an independent. And there's even a Democratic primary, with Ben Masel, a well-known Madison marijuana activist, challenging Kohl in September. But, for all practical purposes, Kohl won re-election when the mainstream Republican Party failed to come up with a strong candidate to run against him. In that lies a story of Kohl's advantages of wealth, 18 years in office and favorable standing in opinion polls, all of which clearly discouraged some potential opponents. But it is also a story of Republican leaders - starting with Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee - banking heavily on a long shot that they appear to have thought was their only real chance to win the election. That long shot was that former Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, who had often said he did not want to be a senator, would change his mind and run against Kohl. According to some who were involved, the Thompson idea eclipsed work on recruiting or launching the campaigns of other candidates during the crucial period when such work could have been done. By the time Thompson pulled the plug on the idea in late June, it was too late for anything but a Hail Mary pass to a clearly lesser figure, state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend). Grothman decided at the last moment not to catch the pass. Isn't it, like, kind of embarrassing for a major party not to be able to come up with a candidate it backs for a major office? Isn't there some Republican out there who wanted to be a senator or perhaps just to build up some experience and contacts for a future race? Someone other than Robert Gerald Lorge, who will be the Republican candidate, whom party leaders repeatedly dismissed, who has limited resources, who got 4.3% of the Republican vote when he ran in a Senate primary in 2004, who has views on issues that are to the right of the Republican mainstream and who is the target of an allegation of sexual misconduct that became publicized in recent days? "It's not from lack of trying, that's all I can say," said Mary Buestrin, a Republican National Committee member from Mequon. "It's one of those things that happen." Or don't happen. "There is not a whole lot to say," Terry Kohler, also a Republican National Committee member, wrote in an e-mail. "Herb Kohl will spend what he needs to, to stay in office, thereby precluding a challenge by any front line potential candidates. His negatives outside of the 'right-to-life' issue are, at most, very mild. He stays well under the radar most of the time, thereby giving hardly anything as a reason to diss him, except to argue he is 'ineffective.' Not a winning issue, apparently." Recruitment efforts fail Republican Party leaders talked for months like that issue of effectiveness was going to be a winner. But in reality, they were always in a position of trying to recruit someone rather than having major candidates come forward on their own. As Wiley recounts it, a lot of work was being done to persuade Tim Michels to run. Young, photogenic and with a compelling personal story of business success and military service, Michels got 44% of the vote in losing to Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold in 2004. This time, Wiley said, polls showed Michels could do well. Efforts to persuade him included phone calls from current Republican senators from other states - but apparently not promises of major financial help. Wiley said things took a different turn in February, when Dole said the party should focus on talking Thompson into running. Thompson was much more interested in running for governor again and, by his own description, came close to saying yes to that idea. But while Thompson's interest in a Senate race was, at best, more muted, the idea of him as the candidate was appealing to Republican leaders. One big reason was that he was the only person who feasibly could turn the race into a real contest, one that could bring a victory of national significance to Republicans who are concerned about maintaining a majority in the Senate after this year. In polls through the spring, Thompson held a slight lead on Kohl. GOP leaders took Dole's cue and worked on the Thompson possibility, Wiley said. That put Michels on the sidelines for months. By the time Thompson said no, Michels said no also, noting that he couldn't put together a successful campaign in the remaining time. In the end, only Lorge filed as a Republican candidate. A 46-year-old lawyer from a political family and a resident of Bear Creek, a small town in Outagamie County, Lorge described himself in a mid-June interview as "probably the most pro-life candidate in America" and said that as a senator, he would not give in to special interests such as "slave trade nations like Communist China." Lorge did not return calls. WisPolitics, an Internet news service, reported last week that a civil lawsuit filed in December in Dane County Circuit Court accused Lorge of molesting a female relative 20 years ago, when she was 3 years old. In a press release, Lorge called the accusations false and vicious. Not all dismiss Lorge Lorge does have backers within the party. Don Taylor, chairman of the Waukesha County Republican Party, called him "an honorable, hard-working, common sense man who would represent us very well in Washington." And Lorge is actively campaigning across the state, though he is expected to have limited, if any, ability to buy television advertising. There also are others on the Senate ballot this fall: . Rae Vogeler, 50, from Oregon in Dane County, the Green Party candidate who describes herself as "a working mother, a community activist and a peace organizer." . Masel, organizer in recent years of "Weedstock," a marijuana celebration, who has run in other elections as a Republican or a Libertarian. His presence on the ballot means there will be a Democratic primary on Sept. 12. . Ben Glatzel, 44, a construction manager for the Milwaukee Water Works who has never run for office and is on the ballot as an independent who opposes abortion and same-sex marriage. Where does that leave Kohl? Somewhere in his sixth round of statewide television advertising, with more than $2 million already spent on his campaign, with polls that show him far ahead of Lorge and with more than 60% of respondents saying they have a favorable opinion of him. That was the highest rating among the politicians included in a recent survey by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. Kohl campaign manager Phil Walzak said the lack of a major opponent shows that Kohl is in touch with what Wisconsinites want and that people think "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Walzak argued that it's more than just Kohl's wealth and willingness to spend heavily in self-funding his campaigns. He said candidates across the U.S. had run campaigns in the past in which they spent huge amounts of personal money and lost, so there is more to Kohl's political strength than his willingness to self-fund his campaigns in huge amounts. The National Republican Senatorial Committee provides millions of dollars to campaigns. If Thompson had run, it presumably would have directed large amounts to Wisconsin. "You look at the different races, you size up the political landscape, you size up who's going to be vulnerable in terms of incumbents and where you have opportunities . . . and you make those funding decisions," said the committee's press secretary, Brian Nick. Nick said that so far, no money had been committed to Wisconsin. There is no indication that that is likely to change. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake