Wis. — Rep. Tammy Baldwin stood in the Friendship Cafe, giving voters a populist pitch for why she should be elected to keep Wisconsin’s open Senate seat in Democratic hands, where it’s been for the last 55 years.
When she began to field questions, a 70-year-old retiree offered the first comment, and hit on one of the most difficult issues confronting Baldwin as she tries to break the Democrats’ recent losing streak in the battleground state.
“I’m not sure how to deal with your situation of who you love and who your partner is,” said Harry Davis, a retired Internal Revenue Service worker.
For Baldwin, the first openly gay candidate elected to Congress, questions about her sexuality evoke her reputation as an unabashed liberal and a product of left-leaning Madison, and reinforce concerns about her viability in the more conservative parts of the state she’ll need to win the Senate seat in November.
“I ran into all kinds of people who thought Obama was a Muslim,” said Davis, a Democratic activist from nearby Adams, adding that he’s worried Baldwin will struggle to get votes beyond Dane and Milwaukee counties, the more liberal parts of Wisconsin.
With Baldwin running unopposed in the Democratic primary, attention has been focused on the GOP field, where four Republicans are vying for their party’s nod to succeed retiring Sen. Herb Kohl, a Democrat. Leading the pack is former Gov. Tommy Thompson, who has positioned himself as a moderate Republican with the best prospects for winning the general election in a state President Barack Obama won by 14 percentage points in 2008.
But despite her lack of a primary challenge, Baldwin isn’t running toward the middle in an attempt to sway independent voters. Instead, she casts her campaign as a fight for the working class while also speaking out about saving Medicare, reforming Wall Street and embracing Obama’s health care reform.
Being both a Madison liberal and gay “pretty much can be the kiss of death,” acknowledged Jane Witt, chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Racine County, a bellwether. Still, Witt called Baldwin a “damn good candidate” who can win, although she acknowledged the race will be an uphill battle for Democrats.
Democrats are counting on Baldwin to snap a series of losses in Wisconsin that began in 2010, when Republicans took control of both houses of the Legislature, Scott Walker was elected governor and tea party favorite Ron Johnson knocked off then-Sen. Russ Feingold. The defeats mounted when the conservative-backed candidate for state Supreme Court prevailed last year and Walker fought back a recall effort with a decisive 7-point victory in June.
The election could sway the balance of power in a closely divided Senate come 2013. The GOP needs a net gain of four seats to take over, or three if Republican Mitt Romney is elected president, giving his vice president the tie-breaking vote.
Baldwin, who was first elected to the House in 1998 after serving six years in the state Assembly, is popular in liberal Madison, where she has been re-elected with more than 60 percent of the vote every two years since 2002.
When she began to field questions, a 70-year-old retiree offered the first comment, and hit on one of the most difficult issues confronting Baldwin as she tries to break the Democrats’ recent losing streak in the battleground state.
“I’m not sure how to deal with your situation of who you love and who your partner is,” said Harry Davis, a retired Internal Revenue Service worker.
For Baldwin, the first openly gay candidate elected to Congress, questions about her sexuality evoke her reputation as an unabashed liberal and a product of left-leaning Madison, and reinforce concerns about her viability in the more conservative parts of the state she’ll need to win the Senate seat in November.
“I ran into all kinds of people who thought Obama was a Muslim,” said Davis, a Democratic activist from nearby Adams, adding that he’s worried Baldwin will struggle to get votes beyond Dane and Milwaukee counties, the more liberal parts of Wisconsin.
With Baldwin running unopposed in the Democratic primary, attention has been focused on the GOP field, where four Republicans are vying for their party’s nod to succeed retiring Sen. Herb Kohl, a Democrat. Leading the pack is former Gov. Tommy Thompson, who has positioned himself as a moderate Republican with the best prospects for winning the general election in a state President Barack Obama won by 14 percentage points in 2008.
But despite her lack of a primary challenge, Baldwin isn’t running toward the middle in an attempt to sway independent voters. Instead, she casts her campaign as a fight for the working class while also speaking out about saving Medicare, reforming Wall Street and embracing Obama’s health care reform.
Being both a Madison liberal and gay “pretty much can be the kiss of death,” acknowledged Jane Witt, chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Racine County, a bellwether. Still, Witt called Baldwin a “damn good candidate” who can win, although she acknowledged the race will be an uphill battle for Democrats.
Democrats are counting on Baldwin to snap a series of losses in Wisconsin that began in 2010, when Republicans took control of both houses of the Legislature, Scott Walker was elected governor and tea party favorite Ron Johnson knocked off then-Sen. Russ Feingold. The defeats mounted when the conservative-backed candidate for state Supreme Court prevailed last year and Walker fought back a recall effort with a decisive 7-point victory in June.
The election could sway the balance of power in a closely divided Senate come 2013. The GOP needs a net gain of four seats to take over, or three if Republican Mitt Romney is elected president, giving his vice president the tie-breaking vote.
Baldwin, who was first elected to the House in 1998 after serving six years in the state Assembly, is popular in liberal Madison, where she has been re-elected with more than 60 percent of the vote every two years since 2002.
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