GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Five Republican names will be on the ballot for governor on August 9th, but only four remain in the race after Kevin Nicholson dropped out this week.
If you ask political experts, it’s really only a two-person race now, and that became more evident on Wednesday.
In a new ad, former lieutenant governor Rebecca Kleefisch goes after Tim Michels directly when it comes to potentially raising the state’s gas tax. Michels says the ad false.
“We’re not going to go negative,” said Michels. “Clearly she has and I’m disappointed. The lieutenant governor, she’s kind of coming across as a desperate, career politician. That is her decision. In my business, we’ve never won a single contract by talking bad about our competition.”
“I don’t know that talking about people’s records has ever been off limits,” said Kleefisch. “This is the same people who shopped around a 26-year-old story about an underage drinking ticket I got in college.”
Lawrence University professor Jerald Podair says the Republican primary for governor is a two-person race.
He points to the latest Marquette University Law School poll released on June 22nd. It shows Michels has 27 percent support from Republicans and independents who plan to vote in the primary. Kleefisch received 26 percent. 32 percent said they were undecided and 10 percent supported Kevin Nicholson.
Podair tells FOX 11 he believes Nicholson’s exit gives momentum to Michels.
“My guess is that Nicholson running as an outsider, attacking the Republican establishment, which means Rebecca Kleefisch, I would say the majority of his votes would logically go to Tim Michels.”
“If you consider who the real political outsider is, it was me,” said Kleefisch. “When I first started in politics, I was a Tea Party stay-at-home mom, small business owner. I was roundly rejected by the Republican Party, voted first off the endorsement ballot, but I’ve earned my stripes.”
“Everywhere I go people are saying ‘Tim, thank you, thank you for getting in this race, I’ve been waiting for an outsider, I’ve been waiting for a businessman, a veteran to get in this race’,” said Michels.
The other Republicans on the ballot for the primary are State Representative Tim Ramthun and Adam Fischer.
Ramthun received three percent support in the latest Marquette poll. Fischer received less than half a percent.
The winner of the Republican race will take on Democratic incumbent Tony Evers in the general election on November 8th.
