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Wisconsin
Elections 2004 – An Overview
Andy
Franken and Amy Boyer
The Hamilton Consulting Group
Updated September
2004
©
2004 The Hamilton Consulting Group
Introduction
State Senate Race
State Assembly Race
U.S. Congress
– Wisconsin Delegation
U.S. Senate
U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
was born
in Janesville,
is married and has two daughters
and two step-sons. The Feingolds live in Middleton. He graduated
from Janesville Craig High School, in 1971; UW
- Madison, Phi Beta Kappa, Bachelor of Arts with Honors, 1975,
Rhodes Scholar, Final Honours School of Jurisprudence, Magdalen
College, Oxford University, Bachelor of Arts with Honors, 1977;
Harvard University Law School, Juris Doctor with Honors, 1979. He
was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate in 1982; Re-elected 1986
and 1990; He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992 and is
seeking his third term.
Tim Michels and his wife have
three children. He is a graduate of Lomira High School, 1980; St Norbert College, Green Bay, Bachelor Arts,
Political Science, 1984; University of Chicago, Masters of
Business Administration, 1997; Illinois Institute of Technology,
Masters of Public Administration, 1997. He is the co-owner and
vice president of Michels Corporation,
Brownsville, Wisconsin. He served twelve years of active duty
service as an Airborne Ranger Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army,
Rank of Major. Former Commander of the Army’s elite Honor Guard
with duties at the White House, State Department, and Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier. He is still serving in the IRR (reserves).
U.S. House of Representatives
1st Congressional District
Incumbent Republican
Paul Ryan was born and raised
in
Janesville. Prior to entering Congress, Ryan worked at Ryan Inc.,
Central, a construction firm based in Janesville, founded by his
great-grandfather in 1884. Ryan previously served as an aide to
former U.S. Sen. Bob Kasten (R-Wis.), as an economic advisor and
speechwriter for former vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp and
former U.S. Drug Czar Bill Bennett, and as a legislative director
in the U.S. Senate. A graduate of Craig High School in Janesville,
he earned degrees in economics and political science from Miami
University in Ohio. Ryan is married and has two children. He and
his wife are
expecting their third child in December. Ryan is a member of the
House Ways
and Means Committee and the Joint Economic Committee.
Perennial Democratic candidate and retired
orthopedic surgeon
Jeff Thomas survived his primary race to take on Ryan. Thomas
graduated from Janesville High School in 1958; Dartmouth College
in 1962, and UW Medical School in 1966. He previously served on the Janesville School Board and Janesville
City Council.
2nd Congressional District
Incumbent Democrat
Tammy Baldwin was born in
Wisconsin’s Second Congressional District.
Baldwin graduated first in her class at
Madison West High School in 1980. She received an A.B. degree from
Smith
College in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1984 with majors in
government and mathematics. In 1989, while a member of the Dane
County Board of Supervisors, Baldwin earned her J.D. from the
University of Wisconsin Law School and practiced law from
1989-1992. In November 1998,
Baldwin was elected to Congress and became the first
woman to serve in the House of Representatives from
Wisconsin. She serves on the House Budget and Judiciary
Committees. She served as a State Representative from
1993 to 1999.
Baldwin is being challenged by Republican
David Magnum. He is a native
of Wisconsin Dells. Magnum, with his late wife, Lynn, founded
Magnum Broadcasting, Inc. 12 years ago in Tomah. The company
currently operates eight radio stations and one television station
in the La Crosse, Green Bay and Madison markets. Magnum lost his
wife to breast cancer in December of 2002. He resides in Portage
(Pardeeville address) with his two sons.
3rd Congressional District
Incumbent Democrat
Ron Kind was born and raised
in western Wisconsin, attended public schools in La Crosse, and
graduated from La Crosse Logan in 1981. Kind and his wife have two
sons. He graduated with honors in 1985 from
Harvard University. He worked for former Wisconsin Senator William
Proxmire in Washington. He received his Master's Degree from the
London School of Economics and his law degree from the
University of
Minnesota. After practicing law for two years, he served as an
associate DA in La Crosse and as a Special Prosecutor in
western Wisconsin. He currently serves on the House Budget
Committee, the Education and Workforce Committee, and the
Resources Committee. Additionally, he serves on the Education
Committee's Oversight and Postsecondary Education subcommittees as
well as the Resource Energy Subcommittee where he is the ranking
Democrat.
Kind faces a serious from
State Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland
Center). Schultz was born in Madison in
1953. He is a farm manager and real estate broker.
Schultz graduated with a
B.B.A. UW-Madison 1975 where he was a member of the 1972
championship rowing team. Schultz and his wife have two daughters.
He currently is the chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture,
Financial Institutions and Insurance, and is a member of the
Senate Committee on Higher Education and Tourism and the Committee
on Health, Children, Families, Aging and Long-term Care. He is
also the co-chair for the Joint Committee on Retirement Systems.
Schultz is a current member of the State Historical Society Board
of Curators. He was first elected to the Assembly in 1982 and was
elected to the Senate in a September 1991 special election.
4th Congressional District
Democratic
State Senator Gwen Moore
was born in
Racine and raised
in Milwaukee. Sen. Moore graduated from North Division High School
and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from
Marquette.
After graduation, she served as a VISTA volunteer and spearheaded
the start-up of the Cream City Community Development Credit Union.
From 1985-89, Moore worked for the City of Milwaukee as a
Neighborhood Development Specialist, for both the Wisconsin
Department of Employment Relations and the Department of Health
and Human Services, as a Program and Planning Analyst and as a
Housing Officer for the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development
Authority (WHEDA).
Moore won two consecutive terms to the Wisconsin State
Assembly (1989-92) and then in 1992 was elected to the Wisconsin
State Senate, becoming the first African-American woman to hold
this office.
Moore is
currently serving her third term in the Senate.
Republican
Gerald Boyle was born in
Milwaukee
in 1972. He received his BA from the University of
Notre
Dame and JD from Pepperdine University. He is currently
an attorney with Boyle, Boyle & Boyle. Prior to that, he served on
active duty with the United States Marine Corps, including nine
months in Iraq.
5th Congressional District
Incumbent Republican
F. James Sensenbrenner
represents the Fifth Congressional District of Wisconsin. He was
born in
1943
in Chicago, Illinois. He received a B.A. degree, Political
Science, Stanford University, 1965; J.D. degree, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, 1968. He is married and has two children. He
won the race to become a member of Congress in November of 1978,
after serving ten years in the Wisconsin State Legislature.
Congressman Sensenbrenner serves as chair of the House Committee
on the Judiciary and serves on the Committee on Homeland Security.
Democrat
Bryan Kennedy was born inb
1970 in
Hagerstown, Maryland. Kennedy attended Brigham Young University on
an academic scholarship. He took a two-year leave of absence to
serve as a missionary for the
LDS
Church
in northern Portugal. He graduated with his BA in Portuguese and
Political Science in 1994 and worked briefly for former
Congressman Bill Orton (D-UT 3rd). After completing his Ph.D in
Romance Languages and Latin American Studies, Bryan taught Spanish
for one year. He was hired several years ago to supervise a
Portuguese language program at UW-Milwaukee.
Libertarian
Tim Peterson is also running.
Peterson received a BS Agricultural Business, from the University
of Wisconsin - River Falls. Previous candidacy's include U.S.
Senate, 2000 and State of Wisconsin Treasurer, 1998.
6th Congressional District
Incumbent Republican
Tom Petri was born in 1940 in
Marinette, Wisconsin and graduated from Goodrich High in 1958. In
1961 he worked in Kenya for three months with Operation
Crossroads. He graduated from Harvard College in 1962 and from
Harvard Law School in 1965. In 1965-66, he clerked for James
Doyle, the federal judge for Wisconsin's Western District. In
1966-67 Petri served in Somalia with the Peace Corps and
with the United States Agency for International Development.
In 1968 he was Executive Director of the Ripon Society. In 1969-70
he worked in the White House as Director of Crime Studies for
President Nixon's Advisory Council on Executive Reorganization
(also known as the "Ash Council"). He worked as a lawyer in Fond du Lac from 1970 to 1979, and was elected to the Wisconsin State
Senate in 1973. He is married and has a daughter. Petri is
currently in his 13th term in the U.S. House of
Representatives. He serves as vice-chair of the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee where he is also chair
of the Highways, Transit and Pipelines subcommittee. He is also
vice chair of the Education and the Workforce committee.
Petri
is being challenged by Democrat
Jef Hall and Wisconsin Green
Candidate
Carol Ann Rittenhouse.
7th Congressional District
Incumbent Democrat
Dave Obey grew up in Wausau
where he graduated from
Wausau
East
High School. He received his Bachelor’s degree from UW-Madison.
Obey did graduate work in Soviet politics at the
University of
Wisconsin. He served three full terms in the Wisconsin State
Assembly, representing Marathon County, rising to the position of
Assistant Democratic Leader. He is the ranking member of the House
Committee on Appropriations.
Obey
faces only third party opposition by Mike Miles, Wisconsin Green
Party, and Larry Oftedahl, Constitution Party.
8th Congressional District
Incumbent Republican
Mark Green was born June 1, 1960. He is married and has three
children. He received his J.D., University of Wisconsin Law
School; B.A.,
University of
Wisconsin - Eau Claire. Green served for six years in the
Wisconsin State Assembly where he chaired both the Assembly
Republican Caucus and the Judiciary Committee. Green is currently
finishing his 3rd term, where he serves as Assistant
House Majority Whip as well as serving on the following
Congressional Committees: Judiciary; Banking and Financial
Services; International Relations; Republican Policy Committee.
Green also served in the Judge Advocate Generals (JAG) Corps.
Dottie LeClair - Dottie
LeClair has served the Democratic Party of Outagamie County for
the past 12 years as county chair. She is a former state party
officer and also was the chair of the State Democratic Party’s
County
Chairs’ Association for seven years. She has served as Commander
of the Disabled American Veterans’ Auxiliary #18, been the 3rd
District Commander for the DAV Auxiliary and served five years as
the State Legislative chair for the Wisconsin Disabled American
Veterans’ Auxiliary. She is a wife, mother, grandmother and great
– grandmother and is employed at an
Appleton
area mortgage company.
Introduction
State Senate Race
State Assembly Race
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