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Tim Nguyen's avatar

They got caught napping in 2022 too. Mandela Barnes had a very winnable race and everyone ignored him until it was too late.

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Jonathan's avatar

I disagree, I think they got the most they could out of Barnes; personally, I thought he was kind of a weak candidate that was propped up as much as humanly possible

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Andrew's avatar

Agreed. Considering the riots after George Floyd next door in MN, running a black man for Senate two years later was going to elicit political attacks that would be more potent. We lost bc of exactly why many of us thought we could lose. Also didnтАЩt help that he was a young up and comer vs a long-time politician voters knew.

Smart that WI Dems have positioned Sarah Godlewski to run in 2028 if she can win SoS in 2026. Which, thatтАЩs a long time and some ifs when it comes to politics. Who knows, maybe someone better will come along. But, laying the groundwork immediately after the loss is what makes WI Dems a party to watch. The state has strong Dem, progressive roots.

Lastly, bc shoulda woulda couldas, Ron Kind was either tired of politics or is a turd. He read the room and wanted to leave WI-3 after barely winning in 2020, which was fair. But, I wonder if he assumed crappy midterm during a Dem POTUS, why bother for Senate in 2022? Bc then the GOP did mostly terrible and he couldтАЩve been a Senator. I donтАЩt think itтАЩs much of a question that he wouldтАЩve won. ItтАЩs more of would it have still been a squeaker, or a solid 5%? Johnson really is a lucky SOB. WI Dems know it and hate it.

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benamery21's avatar

Godlewski is married to a serial white collar crook. She's not who we need representing our party.

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Jonathan's avatar

I would argue that she'd be better than the alternative

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Jonathan's avatar

I find nowhere about anything of her husband other than he's a rich investor; do you care to elaborate?

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benamery21's avatar

From my comment on DKE 8/25/2021:

"There was a question here about the source of GodlewskiтАЩs wealth.

In briefly looking into that, I realized that her husband Max Duckworth appears to have been the highest ranking of 4 individuals named in the $0.25 billion 2012 FERC settlement with Constellation Energy over their 2007-08 illegal market manipulation of several of the countryтАЩs wholesale power markets. The 4 individuals were named in the settlement and prohibited from engaging in physical or financial energy trading.

DuckworthтАЩs LinkedIn Bio indicates to me that he was also significantly involved in trading at the company during an earlier period when they engaged in market manipulation back in the 2000-2001 CA power crisis. "

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Jonathan's avatar

I would think Kind wins that race

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michaelflutist's avatar

As I remember, he declined to run.

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benamery21's avatar

The problem in 2022 WI-Sen was that we didn't clear the field for Barnes nearly soon enough, so that his early fundraising suffered.

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Avedee Eikew's avatar

That and everyone wrote him off due to crappy October polling + Red Wave hype that didn't materialize.

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