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"State Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate tells \"UPFRONT with Mike Gousha\" the party will have a great candidate to challenge Gov. Scott Walker next year. He said on the Sunday program, produced with WisPolitics.com, that it would be wrong to assume it\u2019s a sign of weakness that no one has declared for the race yet.Tate said the party doesn\u2019t think \u201Csticking our head up early is a positive thing\u201D and insisted Walker\u2019s first term record gives Dems plenty of fodder to challenge him next year. Tate said that includes being dead last in the country for short-term job growth, dropping to 44th from 11th in the country for job creation and ranking last in the Midwest on several economic indicators.\u201CI think that we have a huge opportunity to just simply present the facts to Wisconsin voters and say you\u2019re not better off than you were four years ago under Scott Walker,\u201D said Tate, who's fending off a challenge to his chairmanship at next month's state convention in Oconomowoc.Tate said several \u201Cgood people\u201D are looking at a run for governor, but he declined to provide names. He said the list includes several elected officials, adding the party doesn\u2019t need someone from the private sector to challenge Walker.He also said Walker\u2019s record puts the state Senate in play, too.He said Republicans are opening the door for Democrats in the Senate, where the GOP now holds with an 18-15 majority. He said state Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, is extremely vulnerable and talked up the party\u2019s chances of picking up the 17th Senate District in southwestern Wisconsin now held by longtime incumbent Dale Schultz of Richland Center.VIDEO: Democratic chairman predicts Senate controlTate pointed out President Barack Obama won 59 percent of the vote in that district last fall and said Dems are now working to build out their statewide operation for 2014. He said the party is in the process of recruiting a \u201Cphenomenal candidate\u201D in the 17th and said it helps that GOP state Rep. Howard Marklein is planning to challenge Schultz.\u201CWe\u2019re going to let them have that family feud while we pick up that Senate seat,\u201D Tate said.VIDEO: Senate district could have GOP primaryMeanwhile, Tate is fending off a challenge from Joe Kallas, who ran unsuccessfully for the 6th CD last fall.Tate pointed to President Barack Obama\u2019s win in Wisconsin last fall and Tammy Baldwin\u2019s election to the U.S. Senate as evidence of the party\u2019s recent successes, but acknowledged the difficult time he\u2019s faced as chair.\u201CI\u2019m proud of what we\u2019ve done. I\u2019m aware of our challenges, and we are ready to keep moving forward,\u201D Tate said.--Also on the show, Marklein noted while the president won the 17th SD, all three Assembly seats in the district are held by Republicans and Walker won it in the 2012 recall election.\u201CIt\u2019s a district where people, I think, they vote the candidate,\u201D Marklein said. \u201CThere\u2019s a core of people who are Republicans and Democrats, but there are an awful lot of people, middle-of-the-road sorts of people, that vote the candidate.\u201DMarklein said some former supporters of Schultz have expressed concern about the Richland Center lawmaker\u2019s votes and said he was contacted by a lot of people who encouraged him to run.The certified public accountant said he isn't a career politician \u201Cby any means,\u201D noting he ran for the first time in 2010 and doesn\u2019t plan on being in politics his entire life.\u201CI\u2019m a problem solver. I want to serve my district, and I\u2019ll do very, very well,\u201D he said.Marklein is part of what some call the \u201CCPA caucus,\u201D four accountants in the Assembly all elected in 2010. He said they have the ability to look at state audits and financial statements from a different perspective.He said they first raised questions about the UW System budget that led to the discovery it had hundreds of millions in reserve and said other lawmakers have approached him to look at other concerns they\u2019ve had.\u201CWe\u2019ve got that skill set that is unique to the Legislature,\u201D Marklein said.The Spring Green Republican was asked about the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., which has faced a series of questions about how it\u2019s managed state money and other issues. Marklein, vice chair of the Joint Audit Committee, said he was disappointed by the audit results.Still, he said everyone who was running WEDC at the time of the audit is gone, and he\u2019s now confident new CEO Reed Hall will turn it around and that he gets the message.\u201CHe\u2019s going to be on a short leash, and he should be,\u201D Marklein said.-- In the final segment, David Yepsen, a former Des Moines Register political reporter who is now at Southern Illinois University, said Walker\u2019s stop in the Des Moines area last week is a sign to Iowa Republicans that he wants them to keep him in mind for the party\u2019s 2016 presidential nomination.VIDEO: Walker appears at Iowa GOP eventWalker spoke to the Polk County GOP on Thursday, and Yepsen speculated Walker is likely not sure yet whether he wants to run for president in 2016.Still, he said speaking to the party fundraiser is a big deal and a good place to be for anyone looking to run. He also said Walker, who spent seven years of his youth living in the state, would feel at home making stops in the state.He said being from the Midwest is no guarantee to win the caucuses, pointing out Tommy Thompson\u2019s failed bid there. But he said those from the region tend to do well there. He can also easily bring supporters in to work the state and noted the similarities between Iowa and Wisconsin.\u201CHe could go into a small Iowa town and feel like he\u2019s right at home in Wisconsin,\u201D Yepsen said.--Also on the show, Gousha said as Congress grapples with immigration reform, the latest Marquette University Law School poll shows a majority of the public supports reform.VIDEO: Poll shows support for immigration reformSee more from the show at http://www.wisn.com/politics/upfront"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wisn.com/article/wis-democratic-party-chair-says-party-will-have-great-candidate-to-challenge-walker/6315706>