On September 12th, Waukesha County Supervisor Bill Kramer defeated taxpayer advocate Chris Lufter for the Republican nomination in the 97th assembly district. By the next evening, even as the dust was still settling on the Republican side, Democratic assembly candidate Steve Schumki's campaign was out putting up yard signs. Schmuki is a longshot in this race, but the Democrats got the Republican they wanted. As I noted before the primary,What's even more amazing to me is how little Republican party members have learned from past campaigns. The playbook for the Democrats is the same: claim they will hold the line on taxes and blast the Republicans for any tax increases they may have voted for. Brian Manthey did it to Mary Lazich (who escaped thanks to Charlie Sykes), Jim Doyle did it to Scott McCallum and here in Waukesha Larry Nelson did it to Ann Nischke, whose embarrassing loss in the mayor's race is a perfect example of what could happen if County Supervisor Bill Kramer is nominated.Schmuki has no record as a public official so he can claim he's not in favor of raising taxes while at the same time attacking his opponent as the $6 million dollar man.
Schumki has no reason to show the restraint Lufter showed during the primary. Look for Schmuki to re-use the ethics charge (the Democrats already knew about the conflict of interest involving Kramer's campaign treasurer), tie Kramer in with the Republican establishment, and make any noise Kramer makes about capping taxes as harmful to the environment and education. And if Kramer has any "anti-environment votes" (I know of at least one) Schmuki will use that, too.
What hurts Kramer even more is that he enters this cycle of the campaign actually down financially compared to the Democrat. Look for Schmuki to raise even more money in an attempt to make this a competitive race.
All that being said, Schmuki is still the long shot, given the number of Republican voters in the district. The straight ticket voters alone should be enough. Kramer will need to paint Schmuki as an environmental extremist who is in favor of massive spending on mass transit in Waukesha County. If Kramer can undermine Schmuki on that level while at the same time keeping the GOP base, he should do well.
One last piece of advice to Kramer: get Brad Schimel's lists.
