BREAKING NEWS: Jim Doyle Will Not Run For Re-election

Governor Jim Doyle (D-WI), under pressure from all sides including, of course, right-wing groups, will be announcing any moment now that he's not going to run for re-election (for a third term). Although recent polling has shown Doyle beating both front-runners for the GOP nomination, ex-Congressman Mark Neumann and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, there has been a huge buzz in Madison and in DC that he could well lose in 2010.

He’s had to raise taxes and fees while furloughing state workers to help plug a $6.6 billion budget deficit. In doing so, his approval numbers have fallen below 40 percent. And just this week, he faced the embarrassment of seeing his legal counsel quit because she hadn’t passed the state bar.

If Obama appoints Doyle to a federal job, Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton would run as an incumbent. A more reactionary Democrat, Rep. Ron Kind, also wants to run, as do Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and state Senator Joe Erpenbach.

Doyle dropping out could also prompt Wisconsin's most ambitious politician, Congressman Paul Ryan to make a bid to move up the pecking order. Ryan is the worst corporate shill in the state and one who national conservatives see as a potential nominee for president in the future. Blue America has a n ActBlue site, StopPaulRyan, that is determined to help-- for the short term, the middle term and the long term, to end Paul Ryan's political career. If you can, please help out.