Sen. Russ Feingold’s (D-WI) campaign is patting itself on the back today after last week’s news that former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) won’t run against the incumbent Democrat.
Thompson had been expected to run for months, and polls showed he would have made it tough for Feingold to win a fourth term. Without him in the fight, however, it looks like smooth sailing ahead (so far) for the Feingold team.
Feingold’s campaign is taking credit for keeping Thompson on the fence for so long — and for pushing him out of the race all together.
“[W]ith your help, the strength of our campaign forced Tommy Thompson out of the U.S. Senate race,” Feingold Sr. Strategist John Kraus wrote in an email to supporters today. “There can be no doubt that he saw what he would be up against and decided not to get in the ring because he saw a fight he could not win.”
Kraus warned other Republicans considering taking on Feingold that the Democrat is ready to send them packing, too. He wrote that Thompson attempted to tar Feingold over bailouts and health care reform. Kraus said that Feingold’s unique positions in both cases (he voted against TARP under both President Bush and President Obama, and often criticized Democratic health care reform efforts from the left) kept Thompson out.
When he announced his intention not to run, Thompson said his family had decided it was time to step back from politics for a while after a long career. Thompson was governor of Wisconsin for nearly two decades before serving as Health and Human Services Secretary in President George W. Bush’s first term.
Kraus said he expects other Republicans to take their shot at Feingold now that Thompson’s out of the race for good.
“[T]here is now chatter about other candidates getting in this race,” Kraus wrote. “They will no doubt be offering the same empty slogans and distortions when the people of Wisconsin are looking for solutions.”
With Thompson gone, Feingold’s team hopes for an electoral landscape more to their liking.
“It’s our hope that the election can now be focused where it should be,” Kraus wrote, “on the issues important to the people of Wisconsin and on who will be an independent voice for them in Washington, working hard to move our state forward.”
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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