Wisconsin's Lieberman battle
Spivak and Bice recently wrote about a poll showing State Senator Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee)is posting a President Bush-like approval rating of only 29 percent. Plale's primary battle is quickly shaping up to be Wisconsin's Lieberman-Lamont fight based on a Democrat voting more like a Republican.
Bad timing on Plale's part to be acting more like the party that everyone loves to hate right now than his own party.
Plale says the poll is skewed left and not many people are paying attention to the election right now.
He may be right that no one is paying much attention right now but Plale's biggest problem is that people are upset with him because of his votes. Something he can't change between now and election day when people are paying attention.
The Republicans are trying to sell the spin that if Plale goes down in the primary, they have a chance to take that seat. But the seat is over 55% Democratic so there would have to be a lot of cross-over votes for a Republican to win. The Republicans offer no explanation as to how they will convince a bunch of Dems that voted out an incumbent that was too conservative to cross-over and vote for a Republican if Plale loses the primary.
But will the Republicans get that chance to try to win the seat wtihout the incumbent?
I think it is almost impossible for Plale to pull through this primary in the current anti-Repbulican mood with votes for things like concealed carry and against things like a woman's right to control her reproductive freedom. But it's tough to beat an incumbent so he could prove me wrong.
5 Comments:
You're right - you liberals need to skewer him for upholding the Governor's veto of concealed carry and otherwise towing the line on all the other non-high profile bills that passed out of Madison and the Governor signed...
Who does he think he is going against the liberal base that constitute only one-third of his largely Reagan Democrat district.
Why that no-good, southside piece of bloated crap...!
Publius, your weird rant sharply contrasts with the complete absence of any personal attacks or venom the Riley folks have employed.
The fact is that Jeff has a strange district and is far more conservative than many in his district. On concealed carry, by the way, its hardly a major partisan issue. Even conservatives in an urban setting have a hard time with the idea of more handguns in the streets.
But anyway, there is tension in this district that should be sorted out in a primary. Your bizarre angry response is totally inappropriate.
Plale is right to say that the poll is 'skewed left,' as it only question people who said they were likely to vote in the Democratic Primary. Evidently the largely 'Reagan Democrat' district is open to a change, namely Donovan Riley. And in case you hadn't heard, there is no such thing as Regan Democrats anymore, they've all be Republicans since 2000.
If Plale's district is as conservative as his voting record, he will have no trouble winning again.
But I think a large majority, or at least more than a third, of the people in his district believe pharmacists should fill birth control prescriptions. And the polling shows far more than a third of the general public (not just the dems) do not support concealed weapons on the streets. Plale's district might even be higher than the rest of the state since they see the Milwaukee gun violence.
The Plale circumstance seems to me a different scenario than Lieberman/Lamont. I see much of the left energy to unseat Lieberman flowing from his consistent pleasure in public dissing the Democratic party, not just disagreement with his positions on issues. I don't know that the same concern applies to Plale.
Democrats do have a big tent that will accept a broad spectrum of political beliefs. We just get a little pissed at people like Lieberman who enjoy ripping holes in it so it leaks.
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