Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is getting closer to a run for Senate in the very polarized swing state of Wisconsin, where four-term Dem Sen. Herb Kohl is retiring in 2012.
“I think I am likely to run,” Baldwin told the Capital Times, in a profile piece. She later added: “It is a major decision, and I have to make it carefully, but I am likely to do it.”
Baldwin was first elected to Congress in 1998, representing a strongly Democratic district comprising Madison and the surrounding counties. Except for a close-call race for her second term in 2000, she has been easily re-elected ever since.
A survey in late May from Public Policy Polling (D) found that Baldwin could start out with a plurality of 30% in a wide open Democratic primary — that is, if former Sen. Russ Feingold, who lost in the 2010 Republican wave, were to decide not to run. If Feingold were to run, he would begin with a prohibitive 70%, with Baldwin at a mere 12%.
