A house divided

By Candace Doyle

A winner in the Grothman-Panzer election has already been declared: the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

So says the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, anyway.

Even recognizing it's a biased source, the DPW makes a good point: Rep. Glenn Grothman's decision to challenge Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer in the fall GOP primary indicates an ideological split in the state's Republican Party.

"I think it shows a big rift in the party," said DPW Communications Director Seth Boffeli.

Challenging a sitting member of your own party is virtually unheard of, Boffeli said. And a member of the Assembly taking on the Senate leader is even stranger yet.

"The closest thing I can remember is in 2002, when Tom Reynolds defeated sitting Sen. Peggy Rosenzweig," he said of the Sept. 10 5th District Senate GOP primary.

"But Reynolds wasn't an Assembly member."

And the reason Grothman gives — that Panzer isn't conservative enough — Boffeli called "alarming," considering both West Bend politicians, first elected in 1993, supported many of the same measures; they both voted in favor of permitting citizens to carry concealed weapons, prohibiting same-sex marriage and a conscience clause, which would have allowed medical professionals to refuse to perform certain procedures because of their moral or religious beliefs.

"Mary Panzer has pushed a very conservative agenda," said Boffeli. "From where I sit, that's the most shocking thing about this — Panzer is a conservative."

Yet he said the "conservative vs. more conservative" debate within the Republican Party has been played out before elsewhere. At a March meeting of the Clark County Republican Party, for instance, he said, police were called to intercede after several members quit over ideological differences.

"This isn't something that's just going on in West Bend," said Boffeli, who added that nationally, too, the party is "going very far to the right to energize its base."

"I think it extends beyond this race."

For sure, it will hurt the state Republican Party, he said, as Panzer now has to spend her time until the Sept. 14 primary defending her record rather than helping other GOP hopefuls — and maintaining the GOP's majority in the Senate. The GOP controls the Senate 18 to 15 and has four open seats in this election.

"The main losers are moderate Republicans," said Boffeli.

But in an unopposed general election, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin said, the Senate race is a win-win for the state GOP.

"The only comment we would have is that both Sen. Mary Panzer and Rep. Glenn Grothman are strong candidates," said Communications Director Chris Lato. "The Republican Party of Wisconsin will support the eventual primary winner."