Just a year ago at the annual gathering of the nefarious Koch donor network, the billionaire owners of Republican politicians identified Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin as the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent in this year’s election. They immediately began spending more than $11 million on early attack ads that were supposed to have reduced Baldwin to human rubble by now.
Funny thing, though. A year later, Sen. Tammy Baldwin is looking stronger than ever against either of her extremely unpleasant Republican challengers—Kevin Nicholson or Leah Vukmir—whose bloody cage match will come to a welcome end with next week’s Tuesday, Aug. 14, primary election.
We knew it was going to be bad when the Wisconsin race attracted Nicholson, who was personally endorsed by Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s sleazy former chief political strategist, as part of his now shattered dream of electing his own slate of reprehensible Republicans to the U.S. Senate. It got worse when establishment Republicans hoping to protect Wisconsin from Nicholson chose State Sen. Vukmir, eager to prove she could be just as vile a candidate. This is what Republican politics has been reduced to in the Trump era.
In one of their most dramatic faceoffs, Vukmir and Nicholson tried to top each other by arguing about which one had been called the worst names in politics. “I’ve already been called vile,” Vukmir bragged. “I’ve already been called Nurse Ratched.” Not to be outdone, Nicholson boasted: “I’ve had people try to kill me for what I believe…I’ve had people in our own party say I have no real principles.” Can’t we just all agree that they’re both terrible human beings?
Before we leave Vukmir’s pride in being compared to Nurse Ratched, we should explain to younger readers that Vukmir, whose background is in nursing, was referring to film history’s most chilling portrayal of a sadistically cruel nurse in a mental hospital. Louise Fletcher won an Oscar for the role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the 1975 film starring Jack Nicholson. And Kevin Nicholson wasn’t suggesting the Wisconsin Republican Party was trying to assassinate him to prevent him from winning the Senate nomination; he was referring to the only real credential he ever cites qualifying him for public office. He once served in the military.
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Hatred Toward Health Care
Actually, Vukmir’s professional background in nursing should be a much stronger asset since voters have identified protecting health care as one of the most important issues in this year’s election. But, of course, that doesn’t apply in rightwing Republican primaries. That’s because Republicans all promise to continue trying to destroy affordable health care for millions of people, end women’s access to birth control and cancer screenings by Planned Parenthood and, most importantly, support U.S. Supreme Court nominees who will repeal Roe v. Wade, which protects abortion rights for women. Nurse Ratched heartily agrees.
So does Nicholson. Forget that video of Nicholson speaking at the 2000 Democratic convention declaring his passionate support for a woman’s right to choose. That was way back when Nicholson was president of the College Democrats of America. Nicholson says he’s since learned Democrats “have wholesale rejected the Constitution.” Nicholson says he now believes “the Constitution is pro-life,” which apparently the U.S. Supreme Court has violated for 45 years by upholding abortion rights for women as completely constitutional.
But the terrible Republican candidates aren’t the only reason U.S. Senate Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell has removed Wisconsin (along with Ohio and Pennsylvania) from his list of states voting for Trump that he believes Republicans have a chance of winning to hang on to their razor-thin Senate majority.
One of the reasons Baldwin is running so far ahead of either Republican candidate in the polls—anywhere from nine to 17 points ahead of Vukmir and nine to 15 points ahead of Nicholson—is the past year has already been terrible for Republicans in Wisconsin special elections and the statewide Supreme Court race. The anchors that appear to be pulling the party down are both Trump and Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Despite everything you hear about how Trump’s voters will stick with him through every crazed tweet and outrageous lie, according to a recent NBC News-Marist College poll, only 31% of Wisconsin voters, a state Trump won, believe he deserves to be reelected. There also are warning signs Walker fatigue is growing in the state. Early polls—held before Walker’s Democratic opponent has even been determined—show him with either a very narrow lead or losing by as much as 13 points.
No one should get cocky about polls after empty suit Sen. Ron Johnson overcame Russ Feingold’s commanding lead, but Baldwin also is a terrific campaigner. She proved that against former Gov. Tommy Thompson, whom Republicans throughout the state were far more likely to vote for than either of this year’s nasty opponents.
