Although Wisconsin’s 2018 elections are more than a year away, politicos are buzzing. Both Republicans and Democrats are gearing up for the races for governor and U.S. Senate. Incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin is expected to run again for the senate, while Republican Gov. Scott Walker will likely seek a third term. Both parties’ conventions this year are focusing on a similar theme: taking the campaigns to the grass roots level.
Gov. Walker dropped major hints about his future, when he spoke to the Republican convention in Wisconsin Dells earlier this month. “I’m ready! I’m ready to help move Wisconsin forward for four more years.” Walker applauded the efforts of hundreds of volunteers, who knocked on doors and manned phone banks for the 2016 elections.
“And those grass roots efforts helped us deliver a Republican victory in the presidential election for the first time since I was in high school in 1984, with the election of Donald Trump and Mike Pence!”
Grass roots organization is paramount to winning elections these days, according to Alec Zimmerman.
“In the last cycle, we made 4.7 million voter contacts, between phone calls and door knocks.”
Zimmerman is spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin. He says its convention featured workshops, instructing people in the art of personally reaching out to voters.
“It’s everything from how to handle and work with constituent meetings, to building the best ground game at the county party. It’s all across the map,” Zimmerman says.
“We are investing so much into creating that grass roots activism.”
That’s the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Martha Laning. She says grass roots organizing will top the agenda at its convention June 2-3. Laning says leaders will echo the message that DNC Deputy Chairman Keith Ellison recently shared on MSNBC. He says the party needs to personally communicate with voters in all 50 states.
“That is how we’re going to win, we’ve got to invest in the entire country. We’ve got to stop ignoring the people who we know will vote for us or who we know won’t vote for us,” Ellison says.
Ellison laments the criticism the party had to absorb after the 2016 presidential election – that the DNC may have taken certain voting blocs for granted, including in Wisconsin. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton did not campaign here before the general election and Wisconsin was one of three states that tipped the scales to Republican Donald Trump. Laning says at the state convention, party leaders will discuss ways to implement Ellison’s message.
“It’s really important that the Democratic Party come back to a 72 county strategy. We need to work to do that and it’s challenging because the Republican Party has billionaires who just pour out money,” Laning says.
While the state parties are beginning to sound the drum beat, UW-Milwaukee Political Scientist Kathleen Dolan says we won’t see grass roots efforts in earnest for a while.
“Until there is a target, until there is an election in sight or until there is a candidate for any particular election, let’s say when the Republicans who might challenge Sen. Baldwin start to make themselves known or if there’s a high profile challenge to one of our sitting House members or something like that, but those are activities that we generally see closer to the primaries and to the general election,” Dolan says.
So, barnstorming across the state – when you find yourself getting phone calls and knocks at your door, probably won’t kick into high gear until 2018.
