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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker addresses a manufacturing association in Milwaukee a day after Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett won a Democratic primary for the right to challenge the Republican governor in a recall election on June 5. (Dinesh Ramde / AP Photo / May 9 , 2012 ) |
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MADISON, Wis. — When Tim Cullen returned to the Wisconsin state
Senate after an absence of 24 years, he might have been an ideal
bridge between the state's warring parties.
A former three-term Democratic Senate majority leader, Cullen had left the Legislature in 1987 to become an influential Cabinet secretary under then-Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican. He won his election in 2010 with significant support from both parties, representing one of the state's bellwether regions.
In his earlier terms in office, Cullen said recently in an interview, "it wasn't hard to find a political center around here" in which officials from both parties could maneuver. But now, he said, "there's no center."
As Wisconsin hurtles toward a June 5 recall election for its governor — only the third such contest in U.S. history — "there's no center" has become a refrain from voters and elected officials alike. The state has been buried under the weight of the forces that have reshaped politics nationwide — the influx of ideologically motivated money, the sharpened divide between the parties, the intolerance of heterodox views.
A former three-term Democratic Senate majority leader, Cullen had left the Legislature in 1987 to become an influential Cabinet secretary under then-Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican. He won his election in 2010 with significant support from both parties, representing one of the state's bellwether regions.
In his earlier terms in office, Cullen said recently in an interview, "it wasn't hard to find a political center around here" in which officials from both parties could maneuver. But now, he said, "there's no center."
As Wisconsin hurtles toward a June 5 recall election for its governor — only the third such contest in U.S. history — "there's no center" has become a refrain from voters and elected officials alike. The state has been buried under the weight of the forces that have reshaped politics nationwide — the influx of ideologically motivated money, the sharpened divide between the parties, the intolerance of heterodox views.
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