Do a little research, the answer is out there. Check the vote totals;compare the numbers in past elections to this past one. The people that did not show up were Republican voters. Ed Thompson did not lose the election for you, Jim Doyle did not lose the election for you, the state GOP and the GOP candidate blew it.
You sem to feel that by running with an R after your name, you get elected....well guess what, you still need people to pull the lever by your name. The GOP voters of the past did not show up at the polls.Blame the libertarians all you want but the truth is very different.
In the 2000 fall election, with 2,958,607 total votes cast, 6640 Wisconsinites voted for Harry Browne, the Libertarian Presidential Candidate, representing only 0.26% of the total vote.
In the 2002 fall election, only two years later, with 1,771,013 total votes cast, 183,352 Wisconsinites voted for Ed Thompson, the Libertarian Gubernatorial Candidate, representing a whopping 11% of the total vote.
Where did all these Libertarian voters (from 6640 in 2000 to 183,352 in 2002 - two short years) come from?
You seem to believe that these Libertarian voters for Ed Thompson didn't come from the ranks of otherwise Republican-voting Wisconsinites, siphoning off valuable votes that would have put McCallum over the top, and I believe that they did. Well, where were all these Libertarian voters in 2000?
I won't dispute that McCallum wasn't a politically astute candidate. But then, neither was Ed Thompson, who's big issue was off-reservation non-Indian gambling machines, which should come as no surprise as he was busted for just such an offense.
I've also witnessed an interesting turn of admittedly anectdotal events. Over the last year, having attended many of the gun shows in SE WI, I saw many exhibiters with "Ed Thompson for Governor" bumper stickers afixed to their display cases - bumper stickers which were noticeably absent at the most recent post-election gun show. Me thinks these otherwise likely Republican voters have recognized, too late unfortunately, the tactical mistake they made, and aren't too comfortable advertizing that fact, even if you haven't come to grips with it yet.