WisPolitics Budget Blog

Now that Wisconsin Congressman Mark Green has formally entered the race for governor, how long before the media begins to measure the horserace, and then appoint themselves the arbitrator of our GOP Primary?

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and Green have established a record start date for gubernatorial campaigns. Whoever said the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step had a leisurely walk compared to a campaign manager with 500 days until the Primary.

Walker and Green will struggle with keeping their campaigns fresh, their supporters motivated, their campaign coffers full and the pundits off their backs. When either candidate has something important to say, bet the media will ignore it. When an insignificant event, such as a fundraising letter mailed to a rented list of magazine suscribers is delivered to the home of your Primary opponent, count on being ridiculed for ineptness.

We are now officially engaged in a GOP Primary for Governor; nothing is fair, and nothing makes sense. Walker and Green will scrutinize each other's finance reports and find the same people donating to both their campaigns. Gee-whiz, they'll find their own donors have also contributed to Democrat Jim Doyle's reelection!

It's all a game of expectations; who is leading in the polls, in fundraising, in endorsements. It's all a game of artificial threshholds; is someone falling behind, is someone surging ahead?

And to think, just 14 months until nomination papers are due, marking the hour that the Walker and Green campaigns are officially official -- assuming the media has not written-off one by then.