Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, officially announced plans to run for Herb Kohl's open U.S. Senate seat on a conservative talk radio show Tuesday.
""Over the past nine months I've been on the front lines of trying to change the face of Wisconsin,"" Fitzgerald told commentator Charlie Sykes on his midday program. ""I think I'm going to take that fight to Washington D.C. as well.""
Fitzgerald, who served as Speaker of the Assembly during the tumultuous statewide Budget Repair Bill debate last spring, described himself to Sykes as ""battle-tested.""
""[Voters] know what they're getting with me,"" Fitzgerald said. ""They're not getting a lot of promises from me and not delivering.""
Fitzgerald joins former Wisconsin congressman Mark Neumann as the only two declared Republican candidates. The GOP primary race will also likely include presumed candidates Sen. Frank Lasee, R-De Pere, and former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson.
On the Sykes show, Fitzgerald said he is ""no stranger to statewide politics"" and intends to differentiate himself from his Republican primary competitors by establishing a ""bottom-up,"" grassroots campaign.
But to College Democrats Chair Jordan Weibel, Fitzgerald's entrance into the ""congested"" Senate race only helps the solitary democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin.
""I think it really only benefits Democrats as [Republicans] will be taking each other down a notch throughout that whole primary process,"" Weibel said.
Fitzgerald also represents the ""really conservative side"" of the Republican Party entering the race, said Weibel.
But Fitzgerald said he believes last spring's polarizing collective bargaining legislation ""isn't as controversial as it first was,"" and will not impede his candidacy.
""We've seen the reforms and seen them working,"" he said. ""We face the same things in Washington D.C. right now … we need to take this country in a different direction.""
