Wisconsin voters can expect to see both presidential candidates and their running mates frequently between now and the November election as campaigns attempt to attract voters in a key battleground state, party officials said.
Matt Lehrich, deputy communications director for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's, D-Ill., campaign in Wisconsin, said the state was won by the Democrats by less than one percent of the total vote in both 2000 and 2004.
Wisconsin is a state that as a Democrat you have to win if you want to be president,"" he said.
Kirsten Kukowski, communications director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said Wisconsin is definitely a targeted state for U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
""It's a swing state, and we have enough delegates in the state that if we do win that would significantly improve Sen. McCain's chances of winning the presidency,"" she said.
Charles Franklin, a UW-Madison political science professor, said both campaigns have used numerous resources over the past year to sway Wisconsin voters and will continue to do so through November.
""Both campaigns have spent time visiting the state, both have opened local offices, and the amount of advertising we've been getting in the state puts us in the top four states nationally for advertising,"" he said.
Kukowski said one ad in particular is being used by the McCain campaign to target undecided voters in Wisconsin, especially independents and supporters of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. The ad features Deb Bartoshevich, a former Clinton supporter and a Democratic delegate from Racine, who was ""kicked out of [the ranks]"" of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin for supporting McCain.
""As you can imagine, after seeing how Deb was treated in the state, there is a little bit of hesitation that we've seen for Democrats to actually come out publicly and show their support for Sen. McCain. So that ad is something the campaign is using to fix that and to help that,"" she said.
The Republican Party is also using coalition-building processes and voter contact programs to reach independents in the state.
Lehrich said the Obama campaign is using Obama's ability to inspire citizens to help build their campaign at the local level.
""Senator Obama has been inspiring young people, and people of all ages and all backgrounds, to get involved in the political process in a way that they haven't necessarily.""
