Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker claimed victory Tuesday night in a hard-fought battle against former congressman Mark Neumann.
The Associated Press reported a Walker win by a significant margin. The GOP-endorsed candidate received 58 percent of the vote with an 18-point lead over Neumann.
""On November 2, we, we the people of Wisconsin, can reclaim our rightful place in history. We can put the government back on the side of the people again. We can make this a Wisconsin we can believe in again,"" Walker told supporters.
The two Republicans have engaged in a contentious race, with Walker recently linking Neumann's congressional record to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and Neumann denouncing Walker as a career politician.
However, Neumann showed no bitterness toward his opponent Tuesday night. Immediately following the announcement, Neumann offered Walker his support.
""Tonight I am keeping my word and endorsing Scott Walker,"" he said in a statement. ""I wish him the best in the general election.""
After nearly 14 months of campaigning and sinking about $4 million of his own wealth into the effort, Neumann said he has no regrets.
""I once heard a saying I really believed in and I really believe it's true,"" he told supporters. ""I would much rather have been in the arena and fought the battle for what I believe in and lost, than to have never entered the arena in the first place, and I really believe that.""
In his victory speech, Walker called Neumann ""a good and decent man,"" and implored Neumann's voters to throw their support behind him in the general election.
""We have a lot in common. We each want to put the government back in the hands of the people,"" Walker said.
Neumann said he will send both Barrett and Walker a copy of his book tomorrow in hopes it will ""encourage them to use ideas in the interest of improving the great state for Wisconsin, and if that happens, something good will have come out of this campaign.""
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett garnered 90 percent of the vote for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, easily beating graphics company president and author Tim John.
Barrett's victory speech focused mostly on job creation, and he criticized both Neumann and Walker of caring more about dogma than about raising employment.
""At a time when we have got serious fiscal problems, we have got to come together,"" Barrett said. ""It can't be done with ideological wars. What we've witnessed over the last couple of weeks is two candidates in the Republican party fighting an ideological war to see who can move the other one further and further to the right.""
However, Walker said putting Wisconsin back on the right fiscal track is his top priority, and that this tough primary will prime him for success in the general election.
""Because of this primary we are tested and ready to take on the liberals in Madison,"" he said.
Although both party-backed gubernatorial candidates won their respective races, endorsements counted for nothing in the race for Lt. Governor nominations.
State Sen. Majority Leader Tom Nelson, D-Kaukauna, won the Democratic nomination with 52 percent of the vote, and former TV-reporter Rebecca Kleefisch clinched the Republican nomination with 45 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press.
However, neither Kleefisch nor Nelson had the level of endorsement some of their competitors did.
State Rep. Brett Davis, R-Oregon, was the GOP favorite, but he garnerd 26 percent of the vote, resulting in a 19-point defeat to Kleefisch.
The difference on the other side of the aisle was even more extreme. Madison-based business executive Henry Sanders received overwhelming endorsement by party leaders, but only got nine percent of the vote, and was last among the four candidates up for the position.
In Sanders's base of Dane County, he won 22 percent of the vote. He did not arrive in last place, but he still received less than half of what Nelson received in the primary.
