Even though UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said the field is "wide open" for a Democratic contender to face Gov. Scott Walker in a recall election, he asserts that no potential candidate stands out.
Despite popular opinion from supporters, former Sen. Russ Feingold has reiterated that he will not run should the recall bid prove successful.
"Because [Feingold] is not there and [Milwaukee Mayor] Tom Barrett is not making obvious signals about what he's going to do, there are a lot of Democrats toying with the idea [of running]," Burden said.
Several potential challengers, including state Sens. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, Tim Cullen, D-Janesville, former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and others, have expressed interest in running, but none have officially announced their candidacies.
Cullen, who Burden said is "known for working with politicians on both sides of the aisle," told the Janesville Gazette Friday he hopes to be the Democratic candidate if there is a recall election based on his credentials.
Another potential candidate, Erpenbach, has positives and negatives according to Burden, who described him as a "hero" to Democrats and union leaders, skilled with the media, but too partisan and lacking name recognition outside of Madison.
But all potential challengers seem to lack the necessary characteristics to pull ahead as a frontrunner.
"None of them feel like the strongest possible candidate. Many of them don't have statewide recognition," Burden said. "They don't have the range of experiences they would like them to have, beyond the legislature say, in seeking the governor's office."
United Wisconsin announced they gathered approximately 300,000 of the 540,208 signatures necessary to prompt a recall election of Walker, whose policies on collective bargaining of public employees decisively split the state politically last February.
