Following is the statement of Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate in response to news that Rep. Howard Marklein would mount a Republican primary challenge to Sen. Dale Schultz.
“Dale Schultz will not continue to serve in the Senate if he continues to caucus with the extremist Republican Party that is seeking to eliminate him.
“There is no room in Scott Walker’s Republican Party for people like Dale Schultz. He has opposed Walker’s policies of radical division that have drug Wisconsin from 11th in job creation to 44th and for his reward, the Walker Republicans are pushing him out..
“Schultz now will face the vengeful anger of a shrinking Party that will rely on great rivers of out-of-state corporate cash that he himself will be denied. Schultz stood up to the Club for Growth and the Koch Brothers, and now they come to return the favor.
“The good news is double for Democrats-not only will we be able to defeat Howard Marklein in a general Senate election, his Assembly seat in a Democratic-majority District now is ours for the taking as well.
“There is a way, of course, that Schultz could retain his seat in a District won by President Obama with 56 percent of the vote in November: We would welcome him to caucus with Democrats and the leadership that surely is coming our way in 2014 with this news.”
