The latest entry to the Wisconsin senate race asked us to meet him Sunday at a neighborhood bar called Spanky’s in a blue collar section of Kenosha (near the Illinois border).
The tavern is owned by a friend of Dick Leinenkugel. This morning, Leinenkugel will announce what’s been rumored for weeks, that the former Wisconsin Commerce Secretary for Democratic Governor Jim Doyle will enter the Republican primary for the US Senate seat held for the last 17-years by Russ Feingold.
Leinenkugel is well-known statewide largely because of the family business…beer. Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company out of Chippewa Falls may not be as big as Milwaukee brewing behemoth Miller-Coors…but it’s a popular line of beers. Dick Leinenkugel left the company when he joined the Doyle administration in 2007.
When Leinenkugel officially joins the GOP contest…he will enter a race where two candidates have been at work for months getting ready for the September primary. They are Terrence Wall, a real estate entreprenuer from Madison and Dave Westlake, a West Point grad and Army vet turned small businessman from Watertown.
Just last week, former Governor Tommy Thompson said no to a bid for the Senate seat even though polls suggested a Feingold-Thompson race was a deadheat. So…why did Leinenkugel decide to jump into the Senate battle?
That’s the question we started with when we sat down at Spanky’s for Leinenkugel’s first campaign interview. The bar was busy and a Brewers/Cubs game was on…so there were some interruptions. And yes, “Leinies” were in the hands of more than a few patrons.
(Click on the attached video to see and hear the Leinenkugel interview.)