[AuH2ORepublican]

What do you think would be David Clarke's chances if he ran as a Republican in the 4th CD?

[steveegg]

What do you think would be David Clarke's chances if he ran as a Republican in the 4th CD?

It would be an "interesting" decision. While it would collect the few "straight-ticket" Republican votes left in the district, far more people simply select the straight-Democratic ticket and give voting no more thought (note; in a general election one can select a "straight-party" ticket in Wisconsin and override it for individual offices).

Do bear in mind that Clarke, who was appointed sheriff when Lev Baldwin took his platinum parachute as part of the pension scandal fallout, ran on the Democratic ticket when he faced re-election as sheriff (which, unlike either mayor or conty exec, is a partisan office), even though he never joined the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (it seems that there is no party membership requirement to run on any particular party's slate in Wisconsin). In fact, it was a mini-controversy on both sides of the aisle - the Pubbies were pissed that he would "turn his back" on McCallum, who appointed him; the RATs were pissed that Clarke figured out how a moderate-to-conservative could win a partisan race in one of their strongholds.

[steveegg]

One thing I forgot about that was just brought up by Mark Belling; we're going to be busy with the Republican US Senate primary (the one to oust Russ (Slimeroad) Feingold). While there is no party requirement for voting in a primary, we can't vote in more than one party's primary. That is going to give a major boost to the more-liberal candidates in the 4th (e.g. Gwen Moore).