Contact: WisPolitics.com Editor JR Ross, 608-669-8418

MIDDLETON — More than a third of Democratic Party of Wisconsin conventioneers voting in a WisPolitics.com straw poll favored state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout for the party’s 2018 gubernatorial nomination.

Vinehout, of Alma, was favored by 184, or 38 percent, of the 489 delegates, alternates and registered guests who voted in the straw poll. State Rep. Dana Wachs, of Eau Claire, was backed by 61, or 13 percent.

Bob Harlow, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in California last year, is the only announced Democratic candidate for governor. He received less than 1 percent of the vote.

Vinehout also won the WisPolitics.com straw poll at the 2015 convention. The party blocked WisPolitics.com’s efforts to conduct a straw poll at last year’s event.

Vinehout, in her third term as a state senator from western Wisconsin, was weighing a 2014 bid for governor when she was involved in a car crash and decided against a run as she recovered from her injuries. She also sought the party’s nomination in the 2012 recall attempt of Gov. Scott Walker, finishing a distant third in the Democratic primary with 4 percent of the vote.

State Dem officials said 1,298 delegates, alternates and registered guests attended the convention.

See complete coverage of the straw poll and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin convention in the WisPolitics.com Convention Blog: www.wispolitics.com/category/dem-convos/

WisPolitics.com, started in 2000, is a nonpartisan online news organization based in Madison that operates an email news service in addition to the free sites WisPolitics.com and WisBusiness.com. WisPolitics.com also conducted a straw poll at the state GOP convention in the Wisconsin Dells last month.

**2017 Dem convention straw poll results**

Total valid ballots: 489

If the 2018 Democratic primary for governor were held today, whom would you support?

Kathleen Vinehout 184 37.6%
Dana Wachs 61 12.5%
Mike McCabe 42 8.6%
Jon Erpenbach 36 7.4%
Andy Gronik 34 7.0%
Mahlon Mitchell 29 5.9%
Matt Flynn 18 3.7%
Gordon Hintz 16 3.3%
Susan Happ 16 3.3%
Paul Soglin 6 1.2%
Bob Harlow 4 0.8%
Daniel Speckhard 2 0.4%


Write-in votes

Jennifer Shilling 6 1.2%
Russ Feingold 5 1.0%
Pat Kreitlow 4 0.8%
Chris Larson 3 0.6%
Tom Nelson 3 0.6%
Evan Goyke 2 0.4%
Katrina Shankland 2 0.4%
Kevin Conroy 2 0.4%
Mark Pocan 2 0.4%
Brett Hulsey 1 0.2%
Craig Culver 1 0.2%
Doug LaFollette 1 0.2%
Gwen Moore 1 0.2%
Janet Bewley 1 0.2%
Jeff Wright 1 0.2%
JoAnne Kloppenburg 1 0.2%
Joe Donald 1 0.2%
Joe Parisi 1 0.2%
Mandela Barnes 1 0.2%
Ron Kind 1 0.2%
Tony Evers 1 0.2%

 

 

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