Primary For Governor Continues Century-Old Reform

The no-holds-barred showdown between the two leading Republican candidates for governor, Rebecca Kleefisch and Kevin Nicholson, continues Wisconsin’s proud tradition of primary elections.

“Wisconsin became, in 1904, the first state to endorse a direct primary, determining party nominations by popular vote,” Wisconsin native and political reformer Katherine Gehl noted in the book, The Politics Industry, she co-authored last year.

The primary was a reform championed by “Fightin’ Bob” — then-Republican Gov. Robert La Follette.

Now, 118 years later, Kleefisch, lieutenant governor for Gov. Scott Walker for eight years, and Nicholson, who is running as the anti-establishment outsider, will face off in the Aug. 8 Republican primary. The winner will challenge Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Nov. 9.

“You represent a broken machine — you’re part of it,” Nicholson told State Republican Party Chairman Paul Farrow at a party event, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Nicholson formally announced last week, blaming the “tired political class” for a lack of “vision, ability and will.”

Kleefisch was recently endorsed by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which will help her primary campaign. She has also touted her endorsements by 39 sheriffs, the Fraternal Order of Police and Milwaukee’s police union.

But when Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told Nicholson not to challenge Kleefisch, some conservative leaders rebelled. “Crony politics leads to corrupt politics and a system where only insiders have access and a voice. It is what spawns career politicians like Robin Vos,” said former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. “In a primary, voters select a candidate.

“Vos usurped the right of voters to do that and anointed himself as the king or – in the case of Rebecca Kleefisch – queen maker,” added Clarke, He said Vos would control Kleefisch if she is governor.

In 2018, Nicholson got 43% of the Republican primary vote for the U.S. Senate, losing to then-State Sen. Leah Vukmir, who got 48% of GOP votes. Vukmir lost to Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

There are two theories about primaries. One is that candidates who win primaries are stronger for them, since they have built a battle-tested campaign staff, identified donors and figured out how to deflect personal and political criticism from their opponents leading up to the primary. Basically, that theory believes that primary winners and their campaigns are “leaner and meaner” because of the challenge.

A second theory: Bitter primaries weaken the winner, who has spent critical funds and political capital to win the nomination, while making enemies within the party. Charges and counter-charges also expose candidates’ weaknesses their November general election opponent can exploit, this theory holds. Exhibit A of that theory is Tommy Thompson, the four-term governor who was left exhausted, and with an empty campaign treasury, after the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in 2012.

Thompson won that primary with 34% of the vote, defeating Madison business executive Eric Hovde (30.8%), former Congressman Mark Neumann (22.8%) and Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (12.3%). But that primary left Thompson and his campaign so depleted they couldn’t recover fast enough to win in November 2012, when Baldwin beat him. She did not have a primary challenge in her bid for the Senate seat open after Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl retired.

Wisconsin Democrats have also slugged their way through crowded, bitter primaries. Nine Democrats are running for the party’s nomination to run against Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, for example. More than 10 Democrats ran in the 2018 primary for governor that Evers won. There was a tough primary for governor in 2010 and again for the party’s nomination to face Walker in the 2012 recall election, which the governor survived.

The Kleefisch/Nicholson showdown follows these past Republican primary fights for statewide office:

-2010 Republican primary for governor: Walker got 58% of the vote, beating Neumann (38%) and Scott Paterick (3%).

-2004 Republican primary for U.S. Senate: Construction industry executive Tim Michels got 44% of the vote, beating car salesman Russ Darrow (31%) and state Sen. Robert Welch (24%).

-1986 Republican primary for governor: Thompson got 52% of the vote, beating Jonathan Barry (22%), George Watts (19%) and two other candidates.

But some Republican primaries are so lopsided they don’t hurt the winner’s November chances. Johnson, for example, got almost 85% of the 2010 primary vote for his party’s U. Senate nomination, crushing David Westlake, who got 10% of the vote.

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988 Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com