A Dane County supervisor announced last week he is considering a run against Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin in the Second Congressional District in 2010.
Supervisor Dave de Felice, District 16, a former journalist, released a statement last week saying he is making an exploratory committee to conduct a campaign against Baldwin for the Democratic nomination in the race.?
According to de Felice, he has been traveling extensively and returned Sunday from a trip to assemble a campaign team and create awareness of his candidacy and platform.
“Because it is a rather large district, it takes a lot of driving and a lot of face-to-face time to meet with people,” de Felice said.
He added he is running because Democrats have gone astray from their values due to outside interests and contributions, and he especially disagrees with the health care reform bill narrowly passed by the House of Representatives Saturday in a 220-215 vote.
“This bill is just a gift to insurance companies … and that’s going in the wrong direction,” de Felice said. “I hope the Senate rejects it and starts from scratch.”
De Felice said proper health care reform would take costs off employers and policy holders instead of giving taxpayer dollars to insurance companies.
De Felice is currently a third-term member of the Dane County Board of Supervisors.
Baldwin was first elected to Congress in 1999 and has been reelected five times. She was also a member of the Wisconsin state Assembly from 1993 to 1999, serving as one of the representatives for Madison.
Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin, said de Felice has a lot of work to do in order to unseat Baldwin.
“Incumbents are very hard to beat, period, and upsetting one in a party primary happens when the incumbent has upset the party faithful,” Franklin said.
Franklin also said he personally has not seen any actions from Baldwin that would upset her base.
“If [de Felice] can raise substantial doubts about her, then that’s what it would take to oust her,” Franklin said. “It’s an uphill battle for sure.”
