Two prominent Republicans have sided with a Middleton businessman in his bid for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

Terrence Wall, a University of Wisconsin graduate and founder of the development agency T. Wall Properties, announced Monday that Republican leader Jim Klauser and Republican National Committeewoman for Wisconsin Mary Buestrin will co-chair his election campaign against incumbent Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.

Feingold, who is also a UW alum and Middleton resident, was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1993 and has never lost re-election.

Ryan Murray, spokesperson for the Wall campaign, said Wall has been reaching out to both citizens and Republican officials, and is pleased Klauser and Buestrin will head his campaign.

“[Wall] has known Mary for a long time, and Jim less long, but they seem eager to help,” Murray said. “He asked and they agreed.”

Klauser is an attorney who was formerly secretary of administration under former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson and also chaired Thompson’s re-election campaigns. Klauser also co-chaired the Wisconsin branches of several Republican presidential campaigns.

Thompson has been rumored to be considering a run for Feingold’s Senate seat but has not publicly declared his plans as of yet.

“Terrence’s experience building a business from the ground up and creating thousands of jobs is exactly what we need more of in Washington,” Klauser said in the statement. “Career politicians got us into this mess. Job-creating, common sense solutions is what will get us out of it.”

Buestrin was formerly the president of the Wisconsin Federation of Republican Women and is a volunteer coordinator for national Republican campaigns in Wisconsin, in addition to being an RNC committeewoman.

“With Jim and Mary joining our team, the momentum is building behind our efforts to get our country back on track,” Wall said in the statement. “Our campaign will be about the ideas and solutions that will get people back to work, ending Washington’s spending binge and lowering health care costs for all Americans.”

Dave Westlake, a small businessman from Watertown and another Republican vying for Feingold’s Senate seat, said he was surprised at the announcement.

“It’s news to me. Jim has always been a supporter of our campaign, but if he is changing, so be it,” Westlake said.

Murray said the Wall campaign was not aware of that situation, as Klauser did not discuss any involvement with Westlake’s campaign.

Westlake said the announcement does not change how he will approach the campaign, which will focus on garnering a lot of citizen support.

“We are still going to rely on something nontraditional, which is speaking to people directly and not just trying to buy their hearts and minds,” Westlake said. “We want to truly build grassroots efforts that most candidates don’t do nowadays.”