Stem Cells Back in Political Spotlight: Issue Key in Wisconsin Election

[DeepModem Mom]

Washington Post: Stem Cells Back in Political Spotlight
Issue Is Key in Wisconsin's Gubernatorial Election
By David S. Broder
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 9, 2006; Page A05


Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat in a tough reelection bid, says one of his goals is to help his state benefit from the stem cell bioscience industry. He hopes the issue will bring his supporters to the polls. (By Michael Sears -- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Via Associated Press)

MADISON, Wis. -- From the back patio of his official residence here, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle can look across Lake Mendota to the campus of the University of Wisconsin and see a forest of construction cranes at the medical research complex and the new Institute of Discovery. Doyle calls the facilities "the epicenter of the world's work on embryonic stem cells."

Those cells may offer hope for curing crippling diseases, but at the moment, they are also at the center of an impassioned political debate, one that will occupy the Senate this summer and may provoke President Bush's first veto. It is an issue that may swing the outcome of Doyle's reelection race and a U.S. Senate contest in Missouri, where a stem cell research referendum is on the ballot.

University of Wisconsin scientists were the first to isolate embryonic stem cells, and the state, the alumni association and private firms have invested millions in building facilities and attracting scientists to work here. Doyle said in an interview that stem-cell-based bioscience will become, in time, "a $100 billion enterprise" and that his goal is to capture 10 percent of the bounty for his state.

But Doyle faces a difficult campaign, after four contentious years in office, against U.S. Rep. Mark Green....Green has voted to ban work on cells donated by fertility clinics or created from embryos in medical labs. The fourth-term House member supports Bush's policy of limiting work to the relatively few cell lines created before a 2001 executive order setting forth terms for government-funded research....Doyle has called Green "a relentless opponent of stem cell research," pointing to eight votes in which he says Green "tried to ban or even criminalize proven methods of stem cell research."

A similar debate is taking place in Missouri, where supporters of stem cell research have placed on the ballot an initiative protecting all forms of the research permitted by federal law. Republican Sen. James M. Talent has come out against it, while state Auditor Claire McCaskill, his Democratic challenger, favors it. The two are in a very close race, and early polls show majority support for the initiative....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/08/AR2006070800506.html

[snowbear]

1. Good luck to Doyle and McCaskill !!!

I hope they kick the nasty Rethugs ass in both races!

[Greeby]

2. Don't forget Bryan Kennedy

Down with Senselessbrenner! :bounce: