David Michael Miller
Eleven.
That’s the number of candidates running, thus far, for the Democratic nomination for governor. That doesn’t even count the candidates who have yet to formally announce their campaign, including everyone’s favorite grumpy mayor, Paul Soglin.
I love seeing so many candidates run. First of all, it tells me that it is a winnable race. In a column two years ago, I said that the best chance to defeat Gov. Scott Walker would occur with a Republican in the White House. Of course, in the halcyon days of 2015, my theoretical GOP presidents were Rubio or Jeb!
Still, despite living in a nightmare scenario worse than anything I could fathom only two years ago, the basic wisdom still holds. The party that controls the White House struggles in the midterms particularly when the president is unpopular. In the last six elections, the president’s party has lost the governor’s race in Wisconsin. The forecast is right to go seven for seven.
I’m also happy to see a multitude of candidates because it allows candidates a chance to see what resonates with voters as they campaign across the state. A crowded campaign also feels more empowering for voters. Voters, understandably so, want to feel like they have more choice in the matter than checking one of two boxes. While I like Mary Burke and thought she ran a pretty good campaign, I could never quite shake the annoyance that the state party anointed her the candidate.
However, with this many candidates, I have one major concern. If the primary gets divisive, there’s only a short window for healing between the primary and general election. Wisconsin’s fall primary election isn’t until Aug. 14. That’s less than three months before the general election. That’s not a lot of time to bring the party together under one flag.
Discord among the liberal-left coalition is not a campaign death sentence. Democrat Ralph Northam faced a torrent of criticism the week before Virginia’s gubernatorial election earlier this month and he ended up winning by a huge margin.
Still, the gubernatorial campaign must be run with eventual party unity in mind. I’m not saying that the primary should be nerfed to the point where candidates are pulling their punches. No, campaigns are messy affairs that get personal quickly, particularly when you have big, surly personalities like Soglin getting into the mix.
But there are still a couple of ground rules candidates should follow. As promoted by One Wisconsin Now’s Scot Ross, all the candidates should pledge to support the winner of the race. Make it clear that getting a Democrat into the governor’s office is more important than any one candidate. Even far-left candidates like Bob Harlow should agree that any of the Democrats currently running will do more for Wisconsin than Walker.
Imagine a scenario where no Democratic candidate gets 50 percent of the vote in the primary. Party hacks like Christian Schneider will be vomiting a “Democrats in disarray” storyline all over the pages of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A unity rally where all the major candidates come out to praise the winner would stop that storyline in its tracks.
Additionally, Democratic candidates should refrain from distractions that attract attention but damage the party’s chances of winning in November.
Candidate Mike McCabe recently tried to pull a rather lame stunt when he accused the Democratic Party of Wisconsin of withholding Democratic voter lists from his campaign. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin, however, was happy to give McCabe access to the lists as long as he paid the membership fees to join the state party.
How much were these loathsome membership fees that McCabe had to protest via press release? $25. It’s a negligible amount — I can’t get an oil change for $25. McCabe wanted to manufacture a crisis where the Democratic Party was conspiring against him. It was self-serving and did nothing to advance his campaign’s otherwise admirable issues such as raising the minimum wage and allowing buy-in to Badgercare.
Tossing out loaded accusations like that could potentially demoralize some of McCabe’s die-hard supporters if McCabe doesn’t win the primary. And, boy, does that guy have some die-hard supporters.
No matter the outcome of the primary, Democrats need the Blue Jean aficionados to win next November. They’ll also need the Evans acolytes, the Vinehout backers, the Mitchellians and whoever the hell votes for Andy Gronik.
All 11 candidates should campaign hard all the way to Aug. 14. But, in the process, they shouldn’t be sabotaging the real campaign that starts on Aug. 15.
Alan Talaga co-writes the Off the Square cartoon with Jon Lyons and blogs at Madland.
