WSJ: Hulsey v. Manski

County Board supervisor and environmental consultant Brett Hulsey declared victory Tuesday night for the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Rep. Spencer Black in the 77th Assembly District on Madison's West Side.

Though the seat has been considered a Democratic lock in recent decades — Black has held the seat for 26 years — Hulsey faces a credible challenger in Green Party candidate Ben Manski, who has already picked up an endorsement from Madison Teachers Inc.

"I think the goal right now is to bring Democrats together to elect Tom Barrett governor, Russ Feingold, Tammy Baldwin and other Democrats," Hulsey said.

Hulsey survived a weekend barrage of negative mailers from his closest Democratic rival and fellow County Board Sup. Dianne Hesselbein, who attacked his efforts to site a coal plant in Cassville for Alliant Energy.

Hesselbein called Hulsey to congratulate him just before 9 p.m. Tuesday based on her own campaign's exit polling. Official results were not yet available. Hesselbein said she has not made an endorsement decision yet.
Hulsey has said his voting record on the County Board demonstrates his commitment to environmentalism, one of Black's signature issues.

Black did not offer his own endorsement Tuesday night but said he would announce his preference in advance of the general election. He said voters should not infer that his decision to wait on endorsing a candidate means he is considering endorsing Manski.

"Ben is a significant candidate," Black said. "But looking at recent history, no one other than a Democrat or Republican has been elected to the Legislature since 1944 (when Sen. Fred Risser's father, Fred, won a third term on the Progressive ticket)."

Manski, 36, a public interest attorney and former co-chairman of the National Green Party, said his top issue is democratic reform, including instant-runoff voting and public financing of elections.

Hulsey cast himself as the "true progressive" in the Democratic race, but Manski said there are significant differences between himself and Hulsey both "in terms of policy position" and "in terms of credibility."

"This election will be a test of whether this is a progressive district, or whether it's simply a partisan district," Manski said.

Also on the ballot in November will be Republican David Redick and Constitution Party candidate David Olson.