La Crosse Sen. Shilling optimistic, despite no real Democratic candidate for governor

Shilling and Congressman Ron Kind opted
not to challenge Gov. Walker in 2018.

The Wisconsin Democratic party convention was held earlier this month, and kept its current leaders.

The party was slammed for not changing leadership – criticized for keeping Shilling as Senate Minority Leader and Martha Laning as party chair – after losing so many elections in the fall.

But La Crosse’s Shilling dismisses the accusation from Republicans that her party is in “disarray.”

Yet, at this point, 17 months before the next election for governor, Scott Walker has no real big name challengers for getting a third term.

Many of the best-known Democrats in the state, including La Crosse Congressman Ron Kind and Shilling, have declared they won’t run against Walker.

Shilling, however, said her party isn’t throwing in the towel. She’s seeing party members getting excited about the next round of elections. And, that she’s finding many Democrats around the state who are interested in the future, having concerns about how the GOP is running Wisconsin and the country.

“I’ve been to some events where people said, ‘I’ve never attended a fundraiser before,’ (or) ‘I’ve never come to one of these community meetings to talk about the support for health care in the state’ or being supportive of the diversity of our country,” Shilling said. “I am heartened that it’s happening across this state, in communities across Wisconsin.”

Shilling believes that Democrats will recruit strong candidates in Wisconsin for 2018.

So far, the only person to declare a run for governor is Bob Harlow, who was campaigning in La Crosse last weekend.

Back in February, La Crosse Rep. Party chair Bill Feehan said, “You know, I think they’re going to have a really hard time finding somebody that wants to really challenge Scott Walker.” So far, nothing’s changed.