Justin's Political Corner

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Tommy Thompson, four-term Wisconsin governor and now Senate nominee, warmed up the GOP audience for the main event, which was an exuberant, humorous, always biographical plea from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for Republicans to get their friends and neighbors to vote.

“You don’t want to wake up and have Tommy miss by that much,” Christie told a quiet luncheon of about 150 recently, imploring them to spend every day but Green Bay Packers’ game day calling names in the Wisconsin phone book.

“You don’t want to say to yourself, ‘I could have done something, I could have done a little more. I didn’t listen to Christie. … I didn’t make a difference and now we have her as United States senator.’ We don’t want that.”

“Her” is Rep. Tammy Baldwin, a seven-term liberal Democrat locked in an excruciatingly close race with the better-known Thompson for the seat held by retiring Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl. Baldwin started hard early while Thompson struggled in a four-way GOP primary that left him bruised and underfunded. Republicans say he has revived his campaign in the closing weeks and holds a slight edge.

Both the presidential election in this competitive state and the Senate contest will be a true test of the ability of the campaigns to energize voters weary after Republican Gov. Scott Walker prevailed in a June recall vote.

The election also stands as a tie-breaker on Wisconsin’s political identity. The state backed President Barack Obama by 14 percentage points in 2008 but two years later elected Walker and tea party-backed Ron Johnson over incumbent Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold.

The Thompson-Baldwin race will help determine which party controls the Senate. Democrats hold a 53-47 advantage, with Republicans needing a net of four seats to grab the majority. If Republican Mitt Romney wins the presidency, the GOP will need just three: The vice president casts tie-breaking votes in the Senate.

h/t: Yahoo! News