By Renee Gasch
One thing is certain in Wisconsin: the Packers
score will always make the national news. Wisconsin politics, however,
may not. Tom Brokaw, Bill O’Reilly, Larry King, Dan Rather,
Diane Sawyer – they just don’t seem to care.
This is understandable, I guess. We’re not nightly news material. No president
has hailed from Wisconsin, our Legislature has never staged party-wide strikes
and our governor is neither a pro-wrestler nor a movie action hero. Even when
we reached record budget deficits in 2003, media hogs like California still beat
us to the chase.
But every four years, Wisconsinites can feel a little more special. Election
year is upon us again, and campaign buses have already started burning rubber
on the nation’s interstates. Their destination? Swing states. And at the
top of the list is Wisconsin.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, a self-proclaimed “Hog rider,” made “Bikers
for Kerry” campaign T-shirts to pass out at the Harley-Davidson 100th anniversary
celebrations in Milwaukee. The Massachusetts senator backed out of attending
the party at the last minute, however, due to “internal campaign problems” – none
of which had to do with the T-shirt concept, I’m sure.
Like his eight other democratic counterparts vying for the presidential nomination,
Kerry recognizes the importance of Wisconsin voters in the presidential election.
In 1960, Wisconsin was a pivotal state in the campaign of another Massachusetts
senator, John F. Kennedy. Wisconsin’s primary helped propel JFK to the
Democratic nomination and the presidency.
Forty years later, Wisconsin’s early primary date and 11 electoral
votes have potential presidents pandering for our attention once again. To make
the game a little more interesting and perhaps to earn some retribution for the
past three years of being ignored, Wisconsinites will again tease Democrats and
Republicans with their political indecisiveness.
Since the 1960 election, Democrats have captured Wisconsin’s electoral
votes six times. But these margins have been tight. In the 2000 nail-biter election,
Democratic candidate Al Gore eked out a Wisconsin win over Republican George
W. Bush by only 3.4 percentage points. If 5,709 more Wisconsinites would have
voted for Bush in 2000, the state’s electoral votes would have gone to
the elephants, and we could all legitimately call Bush our president.
But Bush has said he will not be satisfied with only an electoral vote win this
time around. He desperately wants to win the popular vote – presumably
to avoid another four years of public mocking by comedians and editorial writers
alike. No sooner will the tar have dried on Wisconsin’s new highways funded
by Bush’s 2004 federal highway bill, then his campaign buses will roll
into the state touting tax cuts and the farm bill. Both agenda items were strongly
supported by the Midwestern swing states.
Meanwhile, the Democrat campaign trails will blaze through Wisconsin reaching
out to middle-class Midwesterners. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a Democratic
frontrunner in the race, appeared in Madison in the fall as a part of his cleverly
named “Raise the Roots” tour to appeal to young Midwestern voters.
In his hippest demeanor, he shared his vision with the young crowd just as the
eight other democratic candidates will do after him. “No war in Iraq!” “Jobs
for the middle class!” “Health care for all!”
And if the issues fail to spark the attention of Wisconsinites, candidates can
always fall back on the age-old political strategy of shameless photo ops. Soon,
every presidential candidate will be drinking milk, donning a cheesehead hat
and driving a Harley Davidson – at least until Nov. 4, 2004. After
that, we’ll probably need another three-year break.
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