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“There is no daylight between my opponent and the policies of George Bush,” Kagen tells a debate crowd, mindful of the president’s low approval ratings.
But the challenger, John Gard, a career politician who served nearly 20 years in the state Assembly, says the real boogeyman for voters is the Democrat-controlled Congress and Kagen’s votes in helping launch the financial and economic turmoil rocking the country.
“Just ask yourself, ‘Are you better off now than you were two years ago?’” Gard says. “I believe the president made mistakes. But I am not running against President Bush. I am running against Mr. Kagen. He needs to be held accountable just like everyone else on Wall Street.”
Gard, 45, portrays himself as the outsider this time, blasting the institution he wants to join. “What has happened in the last two years in this Congress is irresponsible and unforgivable,” he said.
Two years ago, Kagen, a 58-year-old millionaire doctor from Appleton making his first run for public office, defeated Gard by fewer than 6,000 votes. The District 8 seat opened when the incumbent — Republican Mark Green — ran unsuccessfully for governor.
Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney campaigned in Wisconsin for Gard, who had served in the state Assembly since 1987, rose to the powerful post of speaker and touted himself as an experienced conservative whose values most closely represented the district.
At the time, violence raged in Iraq. Stay the course, Gard said. The country needed a new direction, countered Kagen, whose win helped Democrats take majority control of the House.
Republicans have represented the 14-county district that includes loggers in Forest County and business executives in Green Bay and Appleton for most of the past three decades. Bush easily won there in 2000 and 2004.
Scott Furlong, a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay political science professor, said Gard has tried to portray himself as more populist in this campaign, raising the issue of high gasoline prices earlier this summer and linking them to Kagen and Democrats for refusing to allow offshore drilling.
“I am not sure that is particularly effective,” Furlong said. “I haven’t heard much about the Republican line or the George Bush line.”
Furlong said he hasn’t observed anything “blatant” suggesting Kagen has lost a lot of support in the district.
“He does travel around the district a lot and make quite a number of appearances,” the professor said. “In that way he has been effective.”
No official polls have been done on the race.
As of Sept. 30, Kagen had raised $1.8 million, and Gard $1.3 million, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
In a district where hunting is widespread, Kagen was endorsed for re-election by the National Rifle Association.
Randy Soletski, 64, of Oconto Falls, thinks Kagen, the doctor who two years ago promised to work to reform health care, deserves re-election. “He’s knowledgeable,” the retired purchasing agent said. “Health care is going to take time. You have to go in there and keep pushing.”
Paul Hahn, a 55-year-old building inspector from Shawano, isn’t bothered by Gard’s close links to Bush. “His approval ratings are higher than Congress,” Hahn said about the president. “To me, it isn’t a negative.”
Gard doesn’t want to talk about Bush this time around.
“We are moving forward. I am asking to serve with a new president,” he said. “We can make a lot of fundamental reforms in this country. Some people want to live in the past. We want to look forward. That is what the voters I think are looking for.”
He told a crowd at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay on Tuesday that Kagen and Bush are linked, too. Kagen supported changes to the mortgage giant Fannie Mae that contributed to the country’s financial system mess and the president signed them into law, the Republican said.
“Mr. Kagen and President Bush were getting along great on those things,” Gard said. “When you look at the economic meltdown in America today, Congress was at the front of the parade in deregulation. It didn’t happen before he got there. It happened while he was there with his support and it is costing you a lot of money.”
Kagen doesn’t see the problem the same way — and looming over his version is Bush.
“We got here because of the policies John endorsed in the Bush administration,” Kagen said. “These policies called borrow and spend and borrow and spend and the failure to regulate. It was deregulation that was promoted by the Bush Administration that helped to create this mess along with his losing economic policies.”
