Wisconsin Democrats are thinking blue this winter, as Gov. Jim Doyle kicked off his run for the November 2006 gubernatorial race Wednesday at the Madison Concourse Hotel.

Doyle held the kickoff rally to drum up support for his campaign and was joined by several prominent state and local public officials and politicians.

"This evening shows Wisconsin at its best," Doyle said. "It's cold outside, but warm in here."

Touting his initiatives to promote job and economic growth, Doyle said he will continue to fight to keep graduates in Wisconsin.

"I will do this so when you get out of college, there are jobs here so you can remain right here where you want to be with your families," Doyle said.

The restoration of $34 million to the UW System budget after Republicans had slashed the funding was another accomplishment Doyle said he was proud to credit to his current term.

Doyle also noted his veto of the human-cloning-ban legislation, which he said would have stifled stem-cell research in the state if written into law.

"We're going to go beyond keeping the door open (to stem-cell research)," Doyle said. "We're going to make sure stem-cell research — and other kinds of biomedical research — continue to thrive in Wisconsin," Doyle said.

State Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, said Wisconsin has become a "gem in the Midwest" over the past three years under Doyle's leadership, despite the fact Doyle inherited a state facing a record deficit plagued by 16 years of "fiscal mismanagement." Pocan lauded Doyle's policies concerning health care and job growth and added he would like to see continued progress in the state.

"Hopefully, at some point, we'll be able to change the legislative majority," Pocan said. "The governor has been extremely good at vetoing really bad bills and has continually renewed his commitment to education and the UW."

Recent legislative actions were a hot topic at Doyle's rally, and his running mate, incumbent Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, said Republican measures will not be taken lightly by state Democrats.

"We won't let the hate that has boiled up in the right wing to put our LGBT community back in the closet or let it put women back in the kitchen," Lawton, who has been known as a champion of women's issues in the state, said.

Doyle's chances of winning reelection look favorable, Brian Shactman, chair of College Democrats of Madison, said, because Doyle is ahead of his closest competitors — U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis., and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker — in many public statewide polls.

Green campaign manager Mark Graul said Doyle has failed the state on many issues.

"I think Gov. Doyle, in his first three years in office, has shown he doesn't share Wisconsin values and he has done nothing to get us out of the tax hell we're in," Graul said.

However, Lawton spoke of the many legislative actions Doyle has vetoed, including the voter photo-identification bill, budget cuts to education and the state's universities and previous bills allowing the carry of concealed weapons.

"We've been down in the trenches, wrestling and muscling Republicans who fight against what's good for the state, to move us straight into the 21st century," Lawton said.