“I can say now I’m raising money, and I can say now I’m doing everything I need to do to run, but I don’t know that I need to say I am going to run because I think there’s still room to decide that,” Doyle said in an interview at the governor’s mansion. “I think everybody who looks at what we’re doing and how we’re doing it can draw their own conclusions.” Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle and his wife served as Peace Corps Volunteers in Tunisia in the 1960's.
Jim Doyle says There’s still time to decide on re-election
Doyle: There’s still time to decide on re-election
By Scott Bauer
December 30, 2008
MADISON, Wis. -
Gov. Jim Doyle has already raised more than $1 million for a potential re-election campaign in 2010, but he said Tuesday there’s still time for him to decide against it.
“I can say now I’m raising money, and I can say now I’m doing everything I need to do to run, but I don’t know that I need to say I am going to run because I think there’s still room to decide that,” Doyle said in an interview at the governor’s mansion. “I think everybody who looks at what we’re doing and how we’re doing it can draw their own conclusions.”
Doyle started raising money shortly after he won re-election to his second term in 2006. He has a paid campaign finance director traveling across the state and nation seeking donations and had more than $1 million on hand through the first half of 2008.
His campaign also operates a Web site that appears to indicate a run in 2010: www.jimdoyle2010.com. But although the name was changed this year, the content is from the 2006 campaign.
State Republican Party executive director Mark Jefferson said he has no doubt Doyle will run. But he predicted it will be a tough race since Doyle will likely have to make some unpopular decisions to balance the state budget in the coming year.
Even though the election is nearly two years away, the names of potential Republican challengers have already been circulating. Chief among them is Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, who briefly ran in 2006 but deferred to former U.S. Rep. Mark Green when fundraising lagged.
Doyle raised $10.5 million in his victorious campaign over Green. That was the most ever raised by a candidate for governor in Wisconsin in one four-year cycle, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
Doyle said he won’t base his decision, or an announcement on his re-election plans, on what Walker does.
In fact, Doyle doesn’t seem all that worried about making a big announcement.
“I’m not sure last time I ever actually announced,” he said, laughing.
Doyle’s wife Jessica, who joined him for the interview, said they would make the decision together.
“A lot of it really does depend on Jim leaving the state where he wants it,” she said. “The major stumbling block right now for making a quick decision would be there are many things that he still would like to do.”
The biggest challenge facing Doyle at the moment is a budget shortfall projected to reach a record $5.4 billion by mid-2011. Doyle said he remains committed to solving the problem without raising general sales or income taxes, but “nothing is off the table.”
A major component to solving the budget shortfall will be an anticipated federal stimulus plan. Doyle and other governors have lobbied Congress about the need for such a bailout, and Doyle said he is working on coming up with a quick way to spend the money once it arrives.
He said he wants to find projects, such as road and bridge repairs, that can begin immediately to create jobs and help the economy. But he said there’s also an “incredible opportunity” to take on larger, longer-range projects such as building high-speed passenger rail lines.
Doyle said he wants to streamline the bidding process and other regulations to ensure that projects can get started quickly, without removing quality controls that ensure the money is spent appropriately.
He didn’t reveal any new details about how he intends to balance the budget.
“There’s just too many moving pieces right now,” he said.
Doyle intends to present his plan to the Legislature in early February.
