If only one vote in each ward had been reversed in 2000, Wisconsin would have gone red.

It is that razor thin margin — only 5,708 votes — that claimed Wisconsin a blue state for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, awarding him all of the Wisconsin delegates’ electoral votes.

But after a high-stakes legal battle in Florida that included everything from charges of voter fraud to the issue of hanging chads, Bush finally emerged as the Electoral College’s winner when the Supreme Court ruled against a recount in the state. The outcome in Florida meant Gore’s victory in Wisconsin was not enough to secure him the Presidency in the end.

“A lot of Democrats still have that bitter taste in their mouth,” said Seth Boffeli, Wisconsin Democratic Party communications director. “After the Supreme Court decision came down, they vowed not to let [Bush win] again.”

The Democratic campaign has come out strong this fall, pouring tremendous amounts of money and grassroots manpower into Wisconsin in the hopes of winning the state again, as well as winning the Electoral College that so eluded them in the 2000 election.

A plethora of liberal interest groups, including MoveOn and the Media Fund, have joined the ranks in Wisconsin as well, working to elect Kerry independent of the Democratic campaign and airing ads in the state that are not subject to campaign finance regulations.

But left-wingers are not alone. Republicans are trying to make their presence equally known in order to tip last election’s voting balance and win the state for Bush this fall.

“The Bush campaign believes this is a winnable state for them,” said Chris Lato, Wisconsin Republican Party communications director. “Otherwise they wouldn’t be campaigning so hard here.”

The relatively equal split between republican and democratic voters in Wisconsin combined with the state’s 10 delegates–a precious commodity in this year’s tight race–has made Wisconsin one of the nation’s most sought after swing states.

The sheer volume of advertisements aired in the state establishes Wisconsin as one of the top four targeted markets since the Democratic National Convention. As such, prospective voters should expect to be inundated by advertisements this fall as each side pours money into TV spots in hopes of countering the effect of their opponents’ ads.

“There is an arms race going on,” said Joel Rivlin, Deputy Director of the Nielsen Monitor-Plus and the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project. “One side goes in and the other side tries to top it…it escalates, escalates and escalates.”

Indeed, both sides have labeled the political activity and energy devoted to the state as “unprecedented,” particularly because of its intensity at such an early stage in the campaign.

As of yet, however, neither side has gained a clear advantage over the other in Wisconsin. A recent Los Angeles Times poll reveals that the candidates fall within a margin of error of four percent, as Bush edges out Kerry 48 to 44.

Many experts expect the close numbers in Wisconsin to remain stable throughout the course of the election, promising a tight finish come Nov. 2.

But more than anything, the tight race means both campaigns will continue fighting tooth and nail to create any kind of edge over each other, especially in the swing states.

“The amount of money that has been spent here since March, the amount of candidate visits…I mean, my God, they are going to Superior,” said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin Political Science professor.

Indeed, Wisconsin has been visited by both campaigns a number of times in the past few months. John Kerry and John Edwards visited Green Bay and Milwaukee respectively in the middle of August, while President Bush plans to make a stop in Milwaukee Friday after he receives the official Republican nomination. Bush also visited the northwestern town of Hudson a few days prior to the Democrats’ visits, declaring Wisconsin “W” country.

And the President could be right. Although Wisconsin voted democratic last time around, recent local politics in the state that put a conservative majority in the state legislature signal Wisconsinites as a whole are becoming increasingly conservative.

“The fact is, these days, this is a pretty Republican state,” Franklin alleged, noting areas such as the Fox River Valley and Waukesha comprise a strong republican base the Bush campaign can tap into for votes.

According to Franklin, the election will most likely be a “referendum” on the current administration’s track record. Bush’s tax breaks, coupled with a post 9/11 national security record, could resonate with an increasingly conservative Wisconsin electorate.

Yet many Democrats feel it is exactly Bush’s record, one they claim has polarized much of the American public, that will ensure a Kerry victory.

“I think [the election] might be a statement by the American people that America can do better,” Boffeli said.

But Franklin said Democrats will have to prove to independents Kerry is the man for the job rather than running an “anyone but Bush” campaign. Many liberals, however, feel Kerry already has.

They point to the Green Party, once a major force on the political radar in 2000 but who have since taken a lower profile, as evidence Kerry is appealing to independents.

“A big part of Ralph Nader’s base is simply not going to be there anymore,” Boffeli said, adding it is particularly the case since Nader is not running on the Green Party ticket this election.

Many former Greens have come out in support of Kerry, blatantly urging former Nader supporters to vote Democratic. Groups like Greens for Kerry have set up a number of websites, such as notnader.com, to urge people to deny the Green nominee David Cobb or Nader any votes on election day.

Yet not all Greens have defected from their party ranks. Some feel Kerry is running a negative campaign against the Republicans on a platform that emphasizes only his opposition to Bush’s policies rather than a promotion of his own. They also argue Democrats are misleading independents into believing that the Kerry-Edwards ticket will bring real change to the White House when many third party members allege Democrats and Republicans essentially belong to the same party.

“I think they have a strategy,” Juscha Robinson, co-chair of the Madison Green Party Elections committee, said of Democrats’ effort to capture independent and third party voters. ” I think that it is either a short-term strategy [that won’t work] or people are going to be pissed off come Nov. 3.”

Whether Democrats convince independents to cast their ballot with Kerry or not, they will continue to target those not yet sure if Kerry or Bush is their candidate. That may be a difficult task, however, as there are not many undecides left to convince.

In fact, the tremendous amount of money both campaigns are pouring into the state might only influence the mere 10 percent of the electorate that remain undecided.

“There is good evidence that more voters are paying attention earlier, and, ironically, are less open to persuasion,” Franklin said.

And so, on a Wisconsin campaign battleground overrun this year by million dollar political machines, history may show the election’s result hinged upon the independent thinker more than anything else.