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Democrats, Republicans and outside groups are spending huge amounts of money in the presidential and congressional races. They're also setting spending records in state races, including in Wisconsin, where both parties are contending to try to win control of the state legislature, as Chuck Quirmbach of member station WUWM reports.
CHUCK QUIRMBACH, BYLINE: When the Wisconsin Supreme Court, last December, threw out old legislative maps that Democrats say unfairly favored Republicans, GOP leaders begrudgingly accepted new maps from Democratic Governor Tony Evers. During a recent rally in suburban Milwaukee, Democratic National Committee chairperson Jaime Harrison predicted his party can make significant gains in Wisconsin.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JAIME HARRISON: You have an opportunity to really make a difference in a legislature.
QUIRMBACH: One competitive race is in the 8th Senate district in Milwaukee suburbs, where GOP incumbent Duey Stroebel is now in a district where he is new to 80% of the voters. It still has a Republican lean but includes closer-in suburbs that have gone Democratic in recent decades. Stroebel says it was unusual for the state to draw maps twice in one decade.
DUEY STROEBEL: But I'm fine with it. I'm obviously running in the new 8th, and we feel very confident. It gives us a chance to get out and meet the voters and talk to people and listen.
QUIRMBACH: Stroebel says he and his supporters have knocked on 25,000 doors in the new district with a message that includes reducing inflation, improving children's reading scores and middle-class tax cuts. He's up against Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin, who narrowly lost a special election last year and, encouraged by the new maps, is making another bid.
JODI HABUSH SINYKIN: Yesterday, I was in...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Cedarburg.
HABUSH SINYKIN: ...Cedarburg.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah.
HABUSH SINYKIN: The day before in Germantown.
QUIRMBACH: Habush Sinykin has been doing doors, too, thousands, she says. On a sunny afternoon in the suburb of Thiensville, she came across Charles Beacham sitting on his front porch. After expressing some concern about illegal immigration, Beacham turned to his support for abortion rights.
CHARLES BEACHAM: The Roe v. Wade stuff. I think a woman should have the right to choose whether they can support a kid, want a kid and have their own choice.
QUIRMBACH: Habush Sinykin did not respond on immigration, but on abortion, told him...
HABUSH SINYKIN: I understand where you are coming from completely. And when it comes to women's reproductive freedoms and lives...
BEACHAM: Yeah.
HABUSH SINYKIN: ...That is very much a top priority of mine.
QUIRMBACH: Eventually, Beacham promised to vote for Habush Sinykin, who is also running on criticism of some of Stroebel's past votes in the legislature, especially on abortion and blocking spending on some Democratic initiatives. And Habush Sinykin says she shares her party's goals for major changes, like expansion of the state's Medicaid program. But winning at doors is only part of the story in this state Senate race. The candidates and outside groups have spent $2.5 million, a record for the Wisconsin legislature. A lot of that money is on negative TV ads, but also one where Stroebel wears a helmet, steers a beat-up car and talks about his hobby of driving in demolition derbies. He says there are similarities with politics.
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STROEBEL: Loud noises, grandstanding. Someone's always overheating.
QUIRMBACH: This isn't the only U.S. legislative contest where the crash of ideas is expensive. National campaign committees hope to raise about $100 million to try and affect who's elected to statehouses on Tuesday.
For NPR News, I'm Chuck Quirmbach in Milwaukee.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOUR TET'S "MOMA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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