Sec’y of State Ripe for GOP Pickup Maybe?

It’s an interesting question. Is the statewide partisan elected office of Secretary of State ripe for Republicans in the 2006 cycle?

For the last forever, the office has been the fortified territory of incumbent Democrat Doug LaFollette. Though only a distant counsin, he shares the name of a veritable Wisconsin institution/political tradition and as a result has been relatively invincible.

The first chink in the armor came last weekend, when (relatively) young upstart Scot Ross received the votes of 54.2 percent of Democratic Party of Wisconsin convention straw poll voters, with 37.4, percent for LaFollette.

Ross has been running hard, and LaFollette has simply tried to brush him off as inconsequential (indicative: Ross has a website; LaFollette doesn’t). It is a strategy that LaFollette adopts at his own peril.

So imagine if, not inconceivably, Scot Ross beats Doug LaFollette in the Democratic Primary for Secretary of State. All of a sudden a Republican would not be running against a multi-term incumbent with the last name LaFollette, but rather a political unknown.

Such a race would be the right Republican’s to lose. Ross has been a professional liberal Democratic “progressive” political operative his whole life: working for Kathy Falk, Peg Lautenschlager, Ron Kind, DPW, America Coming Together… He’s also knee-deep in the caucus scandal, and openly admits what he did was wrong. By the way, he stuck the taxpayers with a $4000 legal bill. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Ross admitted to investigators five years ago that he did nothing but campaign on the taxpayer’s dime for months at a time when he worked for the state Assembly Democratic Caucus.”

And, to make things more interesting, what is Ross’ campaign platform? Election integrity and voter education! He wants to travel the state telling high school students how important it is to be involved in politics!

He’s a bleeding heart liberal; check out this passage from a recent Ashland newspaper story: “‘I’m very concerned about Mark Green, George Bush and the Republicans’ plan to keep people who earn less than $35,000 a year from voting,’ Ross said. ‘I think there’s a concerted effort out there to prevent certain people from exercising their right to vote.’”

This could be the right moment for the GOP… if Ross upsets LaFollette, and I’m laying 2 in 5 odds on that right now, a GOP candidate with enough money for three flyers and a pair of radio ads could devastate Ross. Particularly if gubernatorial candidate Mark Green has coat-tails.

I’m thinking a retiring state legislator with money left in his or her campaign account, someone like Gregg Underheim, who has already run a statewide race for DPI Superintendent, or maybe Bob Welch, former state senator. Cate Zeuske would be perfect, but unfortunately she’s got a different race to worry about this cycle. Experience and Integrity versus Professional Campaign Operative who was part of the Caucus Scandal. Hmmm, hard choice there… 

Certainly the 2 in 5 chance of Ross winning the primary is worth the 4 in 5 chance of a Republican state leggie beating Ross and taking the seat.

Now, there are those who will object that the Sec’y of State’s office is meaningless, that no self-respecting state legislator would take such a job. Wrong on a few counts. First, it is a statewide office, and plenty of state leggies would gladly take a pass at any elected statewide post. Second, we could get a Republican in there who could verify it is useless and lead the effort to abolish his/her own job. Third, we could get a Republican in there who proves the job can be meaningful, and uses it basically as a bully pulpit from which to visit schools, Rotary clubs, weekly newspapers’ editorial boards, and veterans’ halls working hard on a particular issue. Basically that is what Ross is talking about for elections.

Imagine, a clear Republican sweep: Mark Green as governor, a Republican AG, Jack Voight back as State Treasurer, and a Republican Secretary of State. What a change – from one statewide elected office to four in one day!

P.S. Xoff rightly called it a “rookie mistake” when GOP Assembly candidate Jim Ott forgot to put a disclaimer on his website. Well, today Democratic State Senate candidate Pat Kreitlow trumpeted via press release a new website, WeDeserveABetterLegislature.com. It’s a clearing house for websites for Democrats in the Northern and Western parts of Wisconsin; basically a neat web address that just links to other sites. Only problem – the disclaimer required by state law is absent. It is, as we say, a rookie mistake.

P.P.S. If I were ever President, I think I would do this:

Imagine the president meeting every two weeks, say, with his historian. Everyone else around him is focused relentlessly on the present, not least on the ever-proliferating opinion polls. When his advisers venture into history, they generally do so in the spirit of a raid—to rip from its context a precedent, an anecdote, a jeweled phrase that will serve some partisan purpose. But for a half-hour every fortnight, the president simply listens to his historian telling him about another time, with its enigmas and ironies intact—yet also, always, a tale of choices made for better or worse, hence bearing on the choices to be made today.

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