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Mention that the Wisconsin primary is Tuesday and the 28-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student’s eyes get wide.
“I actually didn’t even know about it,” she said.
Yes, there’s an election Tuesday. But it looks like most voters either don’t know about it or don’t care. With no statewide candidates running, no burning issues and presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama dominating the nation’s political consciousness, state election officials predict only about 15 percent of Wisconsin’s eligible voters will go to the polls.
But the primary isn’t meaningless. Voters will choose who wins a number of open legislative seats, whether a handful of incumbents keep their jobs — at least for another two months — as well as who deserves party support and who faces who in the fight for state Assembly control come November.
“They’re the semifinals. This is the conference league championship before the Super Bowl,” said University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee political scientist Mordecai Lee, a former Democratic state senator.
Primary elections take place when more than one candidate from a single party run for the same office. The winner earns the right to face opponents from other parties in the general election.
Thirty-four of the state Assembly’s 99 districts feature a primary. Eleven incumbents face a primary challenger. Eight contests are for vacant seats, where the winner will win the seat outright.
“In many districts, this is the general election,” Lee said.
The results of those races will help solidify the field as Democrats look to wrest Assembly control from Republicans in the Nov. 4 general election. The GOP holds a 51-47 edge in the chamber.
Democrats already control the state Senate. Gov. Jim Doyle is a Democrat, and if the party can hold onto the Senate and take over the Assembly it will be able to advance its agenda at will.
“For us it’s big,” said Jim Smith, Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee director. “We’ll be watching numbers all through the night on Tuesday.”
On the congressional side, four of the state’s eight districts feature a primary. One incumbent, U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Brookfield, in the 5th District, faces a primary challenge.
Still not exactly a compelling slate, said University of Wisconsin-La Crosse political scientist Joe Heim. Primary turnout is typically low, he said, especially now, with no high-profile races like governor or attorney general or pressing issues of statewide importance.
Even the parties themselves don’t seem to be playing up the primary, instead waiting to see who emerges before putting money behind candidates, said University of Wisconsin-Green Bay communications professor Tim Meyer, who studies political advertising.
State GOP executive director Mark Jefferson said candidates have targeted advertising at potential primary voters, but said the party has limited resources. The GOP is waiting to bestow race-specific strategies and funding on primary winners, he said.
“You’ve got to get behind the ones who show their electability by getting through the primary,” Jefferson said.
If nothing else, the primary at least offers voters a chance to sift through the candidates and pick the best ones, rather than sitting back and complaining in November no good people are running, Meyer said.
“If people paid attention in the primaries, and really turned out in the primaries, you’d have a choice between two real quality candidates,” Meyer said.
Polls are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. statewide.
