Wisconsin Governor: In The Veepstakes?

MADISON, Wis. (AllPolitics, June 27) -- When House Speaker Newt Gingrich told reporters his vice presidential choices Wednesday, popular Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson wasn't mentioned. Thompson shrugs and says he's still in the running to be presumptive GOP nominee Robert Dole's running mate.

Thompson suggested he didn't make Gingrich's list "because of Wisconsin's (few) electoral votes." (The state has only 11 of them.) "I think I'm a contender," Thompson said, "but I don't think I'm going to get it because of the size of the state." He's probably right.

In any case, Wisconsin voters are an unpredictable lot, supporting Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, Michael Dukakis in 1988 and Bill Clinton in 1992. Were Dole to choose another rising GOP star, Michigan Gov. John Engler, he'd improve his chances for that state's 18 electoral votes; Republican governor George Voinovich could help deliver Ohio's 20 electoral votes.

Who Is Tommy Thompson? Thompson, 54, is still worth considering. A Catholic and the state's longest-serving governor (10 years), he's on the cutting edge of GOP politics. Thompson's welfare plan, which requires recipients to work, has become a national model, one President Bill Clinton rushed to endorse (in principle, at least) just days before Dole was scheduled to give a major speech in Wisconsin on welfare reform.

Partisans say Wisconsin has flourished under Thompson, with 530,000 jobs added since 1986 and unemployment a low 3.7 percent last year. He's out front on education, backing the controversial voucher plan of Democratic state Rep. Polly Williams, which sent 1,000 inner city children to private schools.

Some doubt Thompson fits the part. "He just generally does not project well or in a polished kind of way," notes University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Dennis Dresang. "He avoids situations where he has to do a lot of thinking on this feet."

Still, Thompson is serving as chairman of the National Governor's Association, and he is a good ideological fit for Dole; plus, as a Catholic, he helps with a powerful voting bloc. He's pro-life (while supportive of "big tent" platform langauge) and supports one of Dole's major priorities: devolving federal power back to state governments.

Wisconsin Governor: In The Veepstakes?

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