Madison Mayor Paul Soglin said he was encouraged back in December to think about running for guv, but his answer was no.
Since then, however, he’s giving the idea more consideration.
“It’s something to think about,” Soglin said about a run for guv next year.
Soglin said he had long agreed with the notion a Dane County liberal — particularly, he says, one as far left as he is — could not win statewide. But Soglin said each month he goes outside Dane County with his wife to eat at supper clubs. And he would hear the same thing from patrons there that he did from people in the city he represents, that he should consider running for guv.
Soglin is in his third stint as mayor, first winning office in 1973. Now 72, he acknowledged he’s done some things in the past others have considered controversial. That includes traveling to Cuba three times during his first term as mayor, twice meeting with Fidel Castro.
But he shrugged off the possibility that would sway voters.
“In terms of the final decision, people don’t give a damn what you did in the past, good or bad,” Soglin said. “They want to know what you’re going to do for the future.”
