Just a few Senate-related tidbits to start out the day:
- Over at The Daily Cardinal, Jamie Stark isn’t too bullish on Dick Leinenkugel’s chances of unseating Sen. Russ Feingold, noting, “Leinenkugel’s entry may help the tea bagger candidate by dividing the moderate, business-minded Republican vote and leaving the more conservative wing to coalesce around Westlake.” While some conservatives from the “Tea Party” element of the right may coalesce behind Dave Westlake’s candidacy, I think Terrence Wall will ultimately be the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, because he has virtually unlimited funds with which to win the Republican primary.
- In other news, a new Political Action Committee has been formed to oust Sen. Feingold. The Fire Feingold PAC mission consists of, “firing and replacing Senator Feingold,” but there’s not much else to be found on the group’s website as of yet. Larry Gamble of Franklin, Wisconsin is the only name mentioned on the PAC’s website and the group’s PO box is registered out of Racine, so it’ll be interesting to see who the rest of the players are behind the scenes of the PAC. I’ll be sure to update as I get more information.
- While I mentioned on Wednesday that Republican U.S. Senate candidate Terrence Wall successfully raised $1.2 million of his own money (in contrast to raising only $100,000 in donations from outside his own pockets) during the last fundraising quarter, it occurred to me I neglected to mention Sen. Russ Feingold’s strong fundraising quarter. In the first quarter of 2010, the Feingold campaign raised over $1.34 million, ending the quarter with more than $4.26 million cash on hand.
- Speaking of Terrence Wall, he thinks Tommy Thompson gave a great speech at yesterday’s anti-tax rally in Madison, but I’m betting Wall thinks it was a great speech only because Tommy’s entry into the U.S. Senate race would have likely been the beginning of the end of Wall’s hopes of being the Republican nominee for Senate.
Mr. Leinenkugel seems like a sensible person, and we’ll see what due diligence brings forward about his record and background. And that will prove to be his undoing. He will have no choice but to pander to the teabaggers or risk splitting the Republican vote. That also puts Mr. BlazeOrange in the position of actually having something to say about the outcome of the primary or even the general election. And for Mr. Wall? Outside looking in.
I liked how Wall used the coverage of the Thompson debacle to ask Thompson, via the media, for his endorsement. The was classy.
Yeah, T. Wall is the epitome of class.