The American Spectator onDoyle - Green Guv Race

The American Spectator takes a look at the fall political contests in America's Dairyland.

Wisconsin's primary is late by state standards, falling in early September. Walker said he couldn't raise enough money to do anything but attack his friend and former state Assembly colleague, U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Green Bay), who had sloshed $1.3 million from his congressional campaign fund to his gubernatorial campaign treasury. If they both spent heavily in the primary, Walker said, Democratic incumbent Gov. Jim Doyle would coast to re-election. Walker won plaudits from Republicans all over the state because they could now unite behind Green.

If Lautenschlager's wounds were self-inflicted, so are Governor Doyle's. He has exacerbated his problems by being politically tone deaf. If Bill Clinton was a Teflon politician, to whom nothing stuck, Doyle seems to be a Velcro politician, to whom everything sticks.

A deputy state transportation secretary invited dozens of engineers competing for $100 million in state contracts to a fundraiser for Doyle, netting $17,000. Last year, the Public Service Commission approved selling a power plant owned by two Wisconsin utilities to a Virginia firm. Utility executives donated $15,000.

This year a state employee was indicted for steering $750,000 worth of state travel business to a company whose executives gave Doyle $20,000. Doyle canceled the contract but kept the contribution and has kept what should have been a one-day story alive for months.

Read the whole thing, here.