Jay Weber Show transcript 4-19-22 6:40am
So- Tommy Thompson has also decided against launching a late campaign for Governor-which doesn’t really surprise me-
And so, that leaves businessman Tim Michel’s as the last ‘unknown’, or question mark, looming over this GOP primary field.
I knew tommy was going to make his decision ‘known’ to some top GOP insiders, yesterday. I wasn’t certain that he was going to issue a statement-as he did-
But my sources have been impeccable, all along, and suggest to me that Michel’s is also likely to make an announcement soon, perhaps before the end of the week.
Greg, do i get any credit for being so far ahead of everyone else on all of this?
I was the first to report that Reince Priebus was considering it.
I was first to report that Donald Trump, himself, was trying to lure Sean Duffy into the race with a promise of a Trump endorsement-and even campaign stops here- on Duffy’s behalf.
I was the first to report Duffy was ‘out’. He broke the news on this show.
I was the first to report that there is still ‘three other heavyweights’ considering it: Thompson, Eric Hovde, and Tim Michel’s.
I was first to report that Hovde was out. He made the announcement on my show.
And I was right about all of that. I was told that Michel’s and his wife were dead serious about entering this race-a few months ago-as they started looking at it-
He is the one person out of all of these we have talked about who I have-no bead-or insider connection to, and so, any Tim Michel’s prediction by me is now conjecture- and working off of third or fourth-hand sources.
But I want to predict that ‘he’s in’. I’m admitting that-in this instance- I do not have rock solid ‘sourcing’ as I had on all that other stuff. This is just-making a prediction-
And we’ll see if it plays out.
We know that Thompson and Michel’s spoke before Tommy made his announcement, and the hot rumor was that they decided only one of them would run. Not both.
And since Tommy’s out-that would leave the avenue open for Michel’s to get in- and yes-it’s late, but he can ‘self-fund’, and so being behind on the fundraising wouldn’t be a big deal-
Nor would be being behind on name recognition. He could launch a multi-million dollar ‘re-introduction campaign’ around the state and catch up to Kleefisch and Nicholson quickly.
And of course-the big curve ball- the big question would be- would he enter with Donald Trump’s endorsement?
Michels HAS met with Donald Trump. The meeting was down in Mar-a-Lago about 2 weeks ago. Michels should soon announce whether he is entering the GOP primary.
This is all- just a fun prediction-and a storyline that would shake up a gop primary race that promised to have more twists and turns than it did: Rebecca Kleefisch-to her credit- got out on the campaign trail very early and worked as hard as I have ever seen a candidate work-except for Scott Walker- to get this nomination.
And Nicholson’s last internal survey allegedly showed he has closed the yawning gap that initially separated the two...but the gap was still significant.
And if this is the field: Kleefisch, Nicholson, and Ramthun, well then- the showdown is going to kick into high gear once we get a ‘yeah’ or ‘nay’ from Michels on whether he’s in.
After that-this field should finally be ‘set’ for the final primary showdown.
story and photo credit: Fox 6 News/Milwaukee