It’s looking a lot like Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker may have a real challenge on his hands. Former Congressman Mark Neumann has said he’s planning to seek the Republican nomination for Governor. That’s a position that Walker had dreamt he would be able to win an easy and uncontested nomination for. The democratic nomination is all but sewn up by incumbent Governor Jim Doyle who still maintains a respectable popularity among Wisconsinites.

So what will a Neuman vs Walker match look like? Expect Neuman to compare and contrast his real world private sector experience as a business owner with the fact that Walker has never held a private sector job in his life. It wouldn’t be shocking to see Neuman contrasting his educational experience with Walker who never even finished college. As for campaign financing, expect Neuman to do very well with business types, while Walker has worked hard to burn bridges through broken promises to the business community — a core republican constituency.

On the other hand, Walker is beloved by local talk radio show hosts in Wisconsin’s largest media market — metro Milwaukee. This will help him greatly in the GOP vote.

Whoever wins will face an uphill battle against Doyle and in politics, coming in second place doesn’t mean much.
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This column was originally published on BrownDeerNow.com on Apr. 24, 2009