Tom Petri has been the most mainstream of Wisconsin's 5 conservative congressmen. First elected in 1979, he's generally considered a "moderate" in Congress and has been part of Steve Israel's Center Aisle caucus of Blue Dogs and mainstream Republicans. This has also guaranteed that he wouldn't face any serious challenges from Democrats while Israel ran the DCCC. Even though Obama won the R+5 district in 2008, the DCCC protected Petri in 2010 and 2012 and this year-- aside from conflict of interests ethics charges-- the only impediment to reelection looked like a primary challenge from deranged right-wing crackpot (and carpetbagger) Glenn Grothman. This Wisconsin delegation, each with his or her lifetime ProgressivePunch crucial vote score:
• Mark Pocan (D)- 98.64• Gwen Moore (D)- 92.66• Ron Kind (New Dem)- 73.17• Tom Petri ®- 12.72• Jim Sensenbrenner ®- 11.32• Reid Ribble ®- 6.83• Paul Ryan ®- 4.14• Sean Duffy ®- 4.07
And then Petri announced in April he'd had enough and was retiring. Once Petri was out, less extremist Republicans, state Sen. Joe Leibham, state Rep. Duey Stroebel and Tom Denow, a retired college instructor, all jumped into the race. As of the July 23 FEC filing deadline these are what the candidates spent in the primary:
• Duey Strobel- $468,286 (part of a $691,950 check he wrote to himself)• Joe Leibham- $207,888• Glenn Grothman- $176,346 ($100,000 of which was self-financed)
Leibham was generally viewed as the relatively mainstream conservative and Grothman as the off-the-rails Tea Party candidate from the Joe McCartthy/Ted Cruz wing of the party. Last time we looked at him, we noted that Grothman is the furthest right whack-job in the Wisconsin state Senate who sensed an opportunity to advance himself and his insane agenda. And his insane agenda goes beyond just the standard fare of the far right. Sure, he wrote the concealed carry legislation that Scott Walker signed into law in 2011 and he has been an outspoken opponent of equal pay for women, a fanatic opponent of LGBT equality and an advocate for tobacco companies-- all pretty standard Republican Party fare these days-- but that's where it gets bizarre. Grothman is the anti-chlorination nut (every legislature needs at least one) and the guy who obsesses over unpasteurized milk. He's also the guy who wants to abolish Martin Luther King Day as a holiday for state employees. And the weekend… yes, Glenn Grothman is another reactionary, union-hating Republican who wants to take the U.S. back to the "good old days" when workers had no right to even one day off for a weekend.One of his colleagues in the state Senate laughed when I told him Grothman was running against Petri at the time. "Let DC take him… He's caused nothing but problems for Wisconsin since he was elected to the Assembly in the early '90s… I don't think West Bend, where he lives, is even in Petri's district but everyone in Madison will be hoping to never hear from him again… He's really the quintessential ALEC puppet."A Democratic congressional staffer from Wisconsin was less sanguine at the prospect of Grothman in Washington. "It's radical right asshats like Glenn Grothman that make serious legislators hate Washington so much and want to leave. You can't ever get any common ground between the two parties with extremist ideologues like him. I never studied more psychology than Psych 101 and 102 but I am confident in saying that the man is insane-- and a danger to democracy."Last night, because the non-teabaggers split the vote, Grothman eked out the narrowest of victories in the primary (which will probably be subject to a recount):
• Grothman- 23,241 (36%)• Leibham- 23,026 (36%)• Stroebel- 15,867 (25%)• Denow 2,115 (3%)
Grothman will be favored to win over little known, underfunded Democrat, Mark Harris, the Winnebago County Executive. Despite polling that shows WI-06 voters amenable to electing a Democrat (see chart above), the DCCC was unprepared for the race, took no role in finding a candidate and will just write off the district and allow Grothman to skate to victory, a direct consequence of Nancy Pelosi reappointing the most incompetent and ill-prepared DCCC chairman in history. For his part, Grothman has already announced he plans to impeach President Obama, ban women's Choice and repeal the Affordable Care Act.
