Because he’s smarter than the average bear!
Republicans running for election in purple, battleground Wisconsin are not going to pick fights with voters. They are not going to name-call potential voters “Deplorables” or (for that matter) RINOs. They have no urge to purge. Successful candidates (not you, Timothy Ramthun) understand elections are about addition and multiplication, not subtraction and division.
Which is why Ron Johnson is winning. That’s right, despite the antipathy of the state’s mainstream news media, Johnson is on track to win a third term in the U.S. Senate. Don’t take Blaska’s word for it. (Why start now?) When RealClearPolitics says “Republicans are favored to win the Senate,” they credit Ron Johnson.
Right now, Democrats have two realistic targets: Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. … Both … have been, on average, two points more Republican than the country as a whole in presidential elections. … it isn’t impossible for Democrats to flip one of these seats. It would just be unusual, especially with a President whose job approval sits in the 30s.
Farther out on a limb, Nate Silver at the respected FiveThirtyEight gives Ron Johnson a 72% chance of re-election with 50.7% of the vote compared to the lesser Mandela Barnes at 28% with 46.3%. All the others track at less than one percent.
Has anyone noticed? Sen. Johnson voted to certify the 2020 presidential election but he does not call for purging conspiracists who think it was stolen.
Nikki don’t lose that number!
RoJo is even raising campaign money off former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley — a frequent Trump critic. A month after the unsuccessful January 6 insurrection, CNN headlined: “Nikki Haley criticizes Trump and says he has no future in the GOP.” Last month, the former governor backed the re-election of South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, a freshman congresswoman who blamed Trump for the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Mace defeated an opponent Trump endorsed.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: disagrees with RoJo about the severity of January 6. We subscribe to the Reagan formula: My 80% friend is not my 20% enemy. We cut the senator some slack, he has to navigate the Always Trumpers. He needs all the votes he can get, including independents. Even a RINO or two.
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
Mistake to compare Johnson to Barnes… I still think it will be Lasry.
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God forbid that happens. Lasry a lifelong Democrat activist, son of a millionaire who on his own has never worked a real job and has no connection to the everyday Wisconsinite. Except for the “son of a millionaire,” sounds also like Mandela Barnes.
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I noticed that in the hypothetical head to head match up poll, that Lasry was the only Democrat who would LOSE to Rojo
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Tom Rice, a well thought of Republican congress critter since 2012 lost his mind and voted to impeach Trump. He was primaried and kicked out on that one issue.
Ask Nikki Haley.
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My bet would be RoJo. He is the only logical choice in the race. I mean, do you really want Alex, the coat tail hanging fool who is rich because his daddy made it so or Mandela Barns who despite the fact that he was born in 1986, is worth 1.5 million dollars. How I don’t know but I have worked since 1975 and am worth a hell of a lot less than he is.
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Bill, that’s because you paid your parking tickets, Mandela has not. Seriously, I cannot believe Barnes is even in the conversation given the lies about college degree, not paying fines, etc.
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Parking tickets? Lies? You are aware of his skin color, right? He could hold up a Kwik Trip tomorrow and every Democrat in Madison would still vote for him.
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Gary,
You are correct.
I keep asking myself, what has this guy really done to improve the life of the average Wisconsinite?
If someone has an answer to that, please let me know.
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Has kept getting tax payers money one way or another without having to do anything.
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First off, I voted for Ron Johnson in 2010 and 2016 when he was going up as an underdog to Russ Feingold and I will be voting for RoJo in 2022. Russ must have decided that RoJo must be his Kryptonite and decided not to take him on for a third time.
My take on the Dems in the primary to face him:
* Mandela Barnes – I haven’t heard anything from him – no TV or radio ads, no print or mailing ads, no internet ads and no personal appearances in the hinterlands where I live. Maybe he is taking a page from Biden in 2020 and hiding out in his basement. I suspect he is making personal appearances in Milwaukee and Madison focusing on where the biggest concentration of Dem voters reside.
* Alex Lasry – poor little rich boy, born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Rips RoJo about kissing up to China in TV ads saying he will make China pay while in reality he is an executive for the Milwaukee Bucks (daddy’s one of the major owners), a member of the NBA that are kings of the world in not only kissing China’s derrière but defends China’s human rights abuses. No way in hell does he take China to task if elected.
* Sarah Godlewski – another rich maven. Wisconsin State Treasurer looking for a job that has actual job responsibilities. I think many Wisconsin residents probably don’t know that she is their state treasurer. The only TV ad that I have seen from her focuses solely on abortion and not the real world issues of inflation and the economy that affect everyone, not just a small group of birthing persons who don’t want to give birth to a live human being after getting pregnant.
* Tom Nelson – he signed on the Green New Deal and provide “Medicare for All”. He got Bernie Sander’s endorsement and nothing else. ‘Nuff said.
Lasry will do better outside of the inner city of Milwaukee and Madison than Barnes in the primary. If the blacks don’t get out to vote in Milwaukee, Barnes is toast.
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FYI – Debate amongst the Democrat Senate candidates Sunday, 6 pm on NBC. Have they all agreed to focus on RoJo and abortion or will the mudslinging commence?
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“Because he’s smarter than the average bear!”
Surely (or is it Shirley?) you jest. rojo was smart enough to marry up, I’ll give him that, but smart, nope.
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