U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, spoke to Assembly Democrats and supporters about midterm election strategy at an event in Madison Friday, highlighting his hopes for the Democrats to take control of Congress in November.
Some of Madison's Democratic representatives—Mark Pocan, Terese Berceau and Joe Parisi—as well as many Democratic challengers in the upcoming midterms from around the state, attended the event held at the Zor Temple, 575 Zor Shrine Place.
After receiving an award for his defense of civil liberties and honor him for his work campaigning for fellow Democratic candidates, Feingold took the opportunity to speak about his party's strategy in the midterm elections, on both a local and national level, and rally his base.
In the wake of the Mark Foley scandal, Feingold pushed a national election plan for Democratic Representatives reminiscent of the 1994 Republican Contract with America, credited for spurring the Republican takeover of Congress. The Republicans have focused on individual local elections rather than a combined national policy this year.
""I do agree with Howard Dean in a 50-state strategy, all fifty states. Democrats should not concede in Alabama, or Montana or any other state and it begins here at home—in Wisconsin, Feingold said,
""where frankly, the worst thing we've got going is the very extreme Republican-dominated state Legislature. That's the biggest problem we've got in Wisconsin, otherwise we're doing all right.
He also stressed the importance of local races and talked about his past week in which he has been campaigning for Democrats around both the state and the country.
""You can have a national strategy for the Democratic party, but if you forget the lesson the Republicans actually taught us, and that is you've got to win at the local level and you've got to have strength at the state level too,"" Feingold said.
Despite rumors surrounding a possible run for president in 2008, Feingold did not comment on his future political ambitions. Earlier in the month, a poll conducted by Strategic Vision indicated 53 percent of Wisconsinites would like to see Feingold run for president in the next election.
