Tommy Thompson says no to Wisconsin Senate race, will not challenge Feingold.

Tommy Thompson says no to Wisconsin Senate race

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson has decided against challenging Sen. Russ Feingold (D), robbing Republicans of their top recruit and likely removing the race from most target lists.

"My family did not want me to run," Thompson told a local newspaper.

Thompson spent nearly two decades as governor of the state from the mid 1980s until early last decade when he was plucked to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Bush Administration.

Thompson, who remains popular in the state, has seen his name floated (or floated it himself) for nearly every statewide opening in recent years. He considered the possibility of running against Feingold far more closely, however, as, at age 68, this might have been his last, best chance to run for office again in Wisconsin.

With Thompson out, Republicans are left with a relatively thin field that includes wealthy developer Terrence Wall and Dick Leinenkugel, a former Commerce Secretary in Gov. Jim Doyle's (D) Administration.

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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/tommy-thompson-says-no-to-wisc.html

Go, Russ! :applause:

The only gop candidate I was worried about.

I put nothing past repubs...or dems for that matter.

... when he spoke at the Tea thing in Madison today. He shrieked and screeched the whole time, looked like a tired old man, and went on and on with that teabag rhetoric. Every other sentence was an Obama-bash. The guy came across as completely unbalanced. He kept saying how thrilled he was to join up with them and join the 'movement', and they can have him. He never was a good speaker.

The speech happened during our local noon news, which is why I even saw it.