Frederica Freyberg:

But first, game on. Mary Burke’s easy win over her Democratic primary challenger makes her Wisconsin’s first female candidate for governor in the general election. Burke skipped Tuesday night primary parties in order to head north, hitting the campaign trail on Wednesday. In one of the tightest governor races in the country, Burke and incumbent Scott Walker are hitting the same campaign theme with all their might, jobs. Walker took his message of continued job growth midweek to Stevens Point. His new statewide TV ad this week pressed pause on the attack button in favor of a more favorable message for Wisconsin workers who are back on the job.

In the hotly contested Republican primary for the 6^th Congressional seat vacated by the long serving US representative Tom Petri, a clear winner is not yet known. Four Republicans vied to move ahead into the general election along with the Democrat and Libertarian in that district, but at week’s end pending a formal canvas of the votes, a recount could be requested because Republican state senator Glenn Grothman won the primary election by just 214 votes over Senator Joe Leibham.

Early results had Glenn Grothman the clear winner as declared by headlines across the district. But as the count wore on into the early morning hours post-primary, votes out of Sheboygan County tipped the race recount-close. Glenn Grothman says he wants to get on with the general election campaign, saying, I’m honored that the voters chose me at the Republican nominee for the 6th Congressional District. I’m confident that the lead we have today will hold strong and look forward to a speedy certification of the results, a robust general election campaign and another victory on November 4. For his part, Republican state senator Joe Leibham was laying low following the run-off releasing a statement, saying, Out of respect to the voters of the 6^th Congressional District, I believe we need to allow the election officials to finish counting and double-checking all of the votes cast in Tuesday’s election. For Democrat Mark Harris, the sitting Winnebago County executive, the general election race started in earnest following the primary, whichever Republican he faces.

Mark Harris:

There’s some uncertainty of exactly which Republican is my opponent, but my campaign is going to move forward and I’m going to take this campaign to all 11 counties in the 6^th Congressional District.

Frederica Freyberg:

Harris says he is running as a moderate, fiscally conservative, socially progressive. He says his opponents run to the extreme right, campaigning on stanching uncontrolled federal spending and debt.

Mark Harris:

And they’d like to do for Washington what they’ve done for Wisconsin. And that was even put into some of the ads. But, again, just because it was in an ad doesn’t make it true. It just means that it’s paid for. And the truth is that Wisconsin’s debt and spending are at all-time highs.