in the 2002 Gubernatorial Election against Scott McCallum. In all the times I spoke with him or saw him speak he has never outlined a position where he is against gay marriage. The problem is there is a Republican legislature that is extremely bitter about Doyle's progressive agenda and bitter that we're finally out from under 14 years of Tommy Thompson's rule.
Thompson had people so brainwashed here before that they voted for him even when he was killing the country's welfare system or racking up billions in debt that Doyle has worked hard to get rid of. (McCallum got the job in 2000 when Thompson took a Bush cabinet position and sold off the state's $6 billion tobacco settlement for 30 cents on the dollar which has seriously hurt the state's ability to recover funds on it's debt).
He has struggled with Republicans in the state on an Indian Casino pact that put a lot more Casino money in the state's treasury and seriously help our deficit issues, on a concealed weapons ban that he wants to keep in play, and basically every other issue there is.
Wisconsin to me represents the same demographic statistically as the South.
The big cities vote Dem. Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay has a large part of the State's overall vote and they vote Dem. Some of the smaller cities are undecided but swing slightly center-right in Appleton, Oshkosh, and Fond Du Lac.
The rural areas vote almost predominately Republican. Again that's still because Tommy Thompson used to go to farmers in the state and tell them what they wanted to hear while he did the exact opposite when in office. The funny part is you don't want to consider the rural residents unintelligent or uninformed but I seriously doubt they ever fact checked their Republican candidates after they heard what they wanted to hear in the speeches. Plus hunting is a major issue here because Deer Hunting is one of the biggest events in the state yearly and Republicans cater to the gun issues more.
Overall it's not too bad. I live in Appleton now, lived in Oshkosh for 10 years prior, lived in rural Wisconsin for 7 years and lived in Milwaukee for 5. I have seen all landscapes and travel around enough to see how the views break down demographically.
The area I live in is center-right and it's frustrating that Mark Green is in office with his lips attached to Bush's ass right now. Dottie LeClair, the Outagamie County Democratic Party chair is going to run against him next year so hopefully we can oust his ass from office.
Wisconsin is considered to be a possibly big swing state so if any of you live in one of those stubborn red states that will not change for Bush, please give some thought to moving here and helping sway our vote even more Democratic. It's no given in 2004 to be blue no matter how hard I work in it.
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