DeMint, Huckabee duel in Wisconsin Senate race

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

MADISON — In the parlance of political poker, Mark Neumann came to the table Monday with an endorsement from tea party darling Jim DeMint.

Tommy Thompson then raised the stakes with the backing of Mike Huckabee.

Neumann and Thompson, presumptive GOP rivals in the quest for the U.S.. Senate seat being vacated by veteran Democrat Sen. Herb Kohl, are betting that their big-name endorsements matter — and to a certain extent, asserts a political expert, they do.

DeMint, the Republican South Carolina U.S.. senator with the fiscal conservative street cred, announced that his political action committee, the Senate Conservatives Fund, or SCF, is throwing its full support behind Neumann, a former U.S. representative for Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District.

While DeMint gushed with praise for Neumann's conservative record, he attacked Thompson, painting the former long-serving Badger State governor as a liberal Republican who "helped President (Barack) Obama pass his health-care takeover." The Thompson campaign vehemently denied the characterizations.

"We're endorsing Mark Neumann because he has the strongest conservative record in the field, he has the support of the grassroots, and he's in the best position to win this race for freedom-loving Americans," DeMint said in a letter announcing the endorsement on the conservative PAC website.

The senator said more than 88 percent of SCF members surveyed said the PAC should endorse Neumann, and 60 percent-plus said they would donate to his campaign.

Thompson, who gingerly has stepped to the starting line of a Senate run, is expected to announce the official kickoff of his campaign Thursday.

Darrin Schmitz, a consultant for the Tommy Thompson for Senate campaign committee, attacked Neumann's latest attack — by proxy — on the former governor.

"First, Mark Neumann used the National Club for Growth to trash Tommy Thompson, now he's using a sitting US Senator. The bottom line is Wisconsin Republicans want a clean, issue-based primary," Schmitz said in an email to Wisconsin Reporter. "Mark Neumann has a history of tearing down fellow Republicans to promote himself."

So much for the gloves-off approach to late 2011 campaigning.

John McAdams, political science professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, noted the usual protocol of Senate candidates in the same party laying off each other in the early days of a primary campaign, instead releasing their venom on the rival party and their candidates.

[Valin]

I really really don't like the Huckester! I know nothing about this race, but......

[Geee]

I really really don't like the Huckester! I know nothing about this race, but......

 

 

Tommy Thompson-RHINO-nuff said

[NCTexan]

A lot of thanks can go to Huck for giving us John McCain in 2008.

 

Enough said on that!