Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Monday, February 25, 2008
Green Bay increasingly important on national-politics stage
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Green Bay isn’t just a football town anymore.
With its changing demographics and diverse political bent, the region is becoming a mandatory whistle-stop for political candidates of every stripe.
“It is a swing area but still leans a little Republican,” said Paul Gigot, a Green Bay native and editorial page editor and vice president of The Wall Street Journal. “You’ve got a heavy Catholic area, and Catholics nationwide are the ultimate swing group.”
Ken Goldstein, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agreed, calling the northeastern Wisconsin region “the most evenly divided area in the most evenly divided state.”
National campaign strategists are certainly aware of how pivotal the area’s support can be. During the 2004 presidential campaign, both President Bush and Democratic opponent John Kerry made stops here.
That’s not surprising, said Wendy Scattergood, a political scientist at St. Norbert College. The region is one of the fast-growing areas in the state and remains politically diverse despite its general conservative nature, she said.
Residents’ attitudes fall somewhere between the standard profiles of a red state and blue state, Scattergood added.
“We’re kind of purple,” she said.
Between 12 percent and 15 percent of people in the Fox River Valley identify themselves as independents in twice-yearly opinion polls she conducts, Scattergood said.
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