Democratic Attorney General Jim Doyle defeated incumbent Republican Gov. Scott McCallum in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial election Nov. 5.

Doyle finished with 45 percent of the vote against McCallum’s 42 percent. Libertarian candidate Ed Thompson took votes from both Doyle and McCallum, claiming 10 percent of the vote.

Doyle and McCallum’s campaigns both focused heavily on decreasing the state budget deficit, which has been estimated to be as high as $6 billion over the next two-year budget cycle.

Doyle will become the first Democratic governor in 16 years, while Republicans will retain control of the state Legislature.

U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin defeated Republican challenger Ron Greer in the race for Wisconsin’s Second Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Baldwin and Greer debated on the University of Wisconsin campus and campaigned on Library Mall to win student votes.

So what’s next?

Doyle will officially take office in January, when he will be expected to challenge a daunting budget crisis.

Doyle and the newly elected Republican-led Legislature remain optimistic about working across partisan lines to fix the budget without raising taxes. Doyle attended the Republican’s caucus-leadership elections and stood arm-in-arm with the next state assembly speaker, Rep. John Gard, R-Peshtigo, as a show of good faith in working together in the next legislative session.

“Wisconsin is a great and proud state that has fallen on some bad and disreputable times,” Doyle said. “We’re going to change the way we do business in Madison.”

Doyle has announced a series of six public forums to hear the public’s ideas on fixing the budget.

“I believe these budget outreach hearings will be an important first step in setting a new tone in state government and reforming the way the budget is crafted,” Doyle said.