And they’re off!

Republicans can see daylight from here!

Election season began Thursday 07-24-25 when Tony Evers announced he would not seek a third four-year term. The fella always struck us as a mild-mannered Mr. Peepers (all our cultural references are at least 30 years old). A walking snooze button but no lightning rod, either. 

So the field is wide open for both parties. Republicans turned out in good numbers yesterday evening to picnic at McKee Park in Fitchburg and vet the early runners. Two candidates for governor spoke. Tom Tiffany is unannounced but he’s running or he wouldn’t have come all the way down from his Wausau-based Wisconsin congressional district. Tiffany (despite the name) resembles your local HVAC dealer but delivers a good stump speech.

Made the point that Dane County is crucial. The second-most populous county can churn out the third-highest number of Republican votes. But Dane County gave conservative court candidate Brad Schimel only 18.3% of its votes. The circuit judge got his shoe strings tied to Elon Musk. Slash & Burn does not sell hereabouts, we say. 

Bill Berrien took his turn. Former Navy Seal — as he reminds. (Are they all entering politics?) Knew Derrick Van Orden in their military days. Manufactures high-precision parts in Waukesha County — components of bigger parts, he tried to explain. Physically resembles Virginia Sen. Mark Warner. Still buff enough to deploy, it appears. Self-deprecates — seemingly a lost art in the Trump era.

No Josh Schoemann in Fitchburg. The Washington County exec is the only announced candidate for governor. Eric Toney spoke, too; was just named Wisconsin district attorney of the year (Fond du Lac). He’s running again for AG. That kind of candidate attention tells us the Dane County does, indeed, loom large on statewide electoral radar.

 Evers won the pity vote

Gov. Evers’ withdrawal is neither a plus nor a minus. The guy was never a juggernaut (like Tommy Thompson) but neither did he make himself a ready target. Always had the underdog thing going for him.

Republicans are hoping “the nut cases come out of the woodwork,” state GOP chairman Brian Schimming told the picnickers in Fitchburg last night. Salivating over the possibility that Mandela Barnes runs with his closet full of Woke skeletons. Another Zohrad Mamdani? More likely, it sez here, Democrats will turn to Josh Kaul, the colorless attorney general. Strikes us as even less likable than Jim Doyle, another AG who ran for governor — but Doyle did win. Twice. 

Already, Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley have announced on the Democrat(ic) side.

Problem is, our Republican woodwork is Chock full a’ Nuts, too. Already hearing clamor from the Robin Vos haters for Timothy Ramthun, an election denier who campaigned with the My Pillow guy in 2022 and lost with 6% of the vote — in the Republican primary!

Heard from State Sen. Howard Marklein at the Esquire Club a few days ago. Democrats gerrymandered him and five other Republican state senators out of their districts. Sen. Marklein had to personally move across the Wisconsin River to Iowa County. For good measure, they gave him the SW quadrant of Dane County.

In other words, he’s a target and he knows it. He can win, the candidate vowed, if he can persuade the 15 percent of voters in the middle. Helps that Republicans cut taxes by $1.5 billion — including doubling the deductible on incomes taxes for us old folks and eliminating sales tax on utilities — instead of acceding to Democrats’ $3 billion tax hike.

A criminal complaint is filed against Brandi Grayson of Urban Triage.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Whoever Republicans put up in Wisconsin, Democrats will call them Donald Trump. Our fear is that if the Republican primary ballot is crowded — like cats in a burlap bag, they’ll claw each other to capture the Qanon/anti-Vos nut-wing of our party while spending themselves dry. That’s a formula for zeroing out Dane County and electing more Democrats.

Who has the issues and the profile to win?