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Few Wis. candidates take political courage test

MADISON, Wis. (AP) None of Wisconsin's congressmen returned a political courage test sent by the nonpartisan Project Vote Smart.

Not many of their opponents did either.

Only 22 percent of congressional candidates and 21 percent of candidates for the state Legislature returned the survey asking them about the budget, taxes, environment, health care and other issues.

Project Vote Smart said Friday the return rate for congressional candidates in the state has fallen from 51 percent in 1992.

Of the 43 candidates for the Legislature who returned the test, only six were incumbents.

Results of the test can be found at www.votesmart.org.

Republican and Democratic party leaders and consultants have advised candidates since 2000 not to respond to the survey because it limits their ability to control their message and gives their opponents information that can be used against them, Project Vote Smart said.

Even so, political party leaders helped write questions on the test along with journalists and political scientists.

Only four of 18 candidates running for Congress in Wisconsin returned the survey. They were Republicans Paul Stark and Dan Mielke, Libertarian Joseph Kexel and Independent Michael LaForest. Kexel is running against U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican from Janesville, and Democrat Marge Krupp.

Stark is running against U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, a Democrat from La Crosse, and Libertarian Kevin Barrett.

LaForest is running against U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, a Democrat from Milwaukee. And Mielke is running against U.S. Rep. Dave Obey, a Democrat from Wausau.

Other incumbents who did not return the survey were Democrats Tammy Baldwin of Madison and Steve Kagen from Appleton and Republicans Jim Sensenbrenner of Menomonee Falls and Tom Petri of Fond du Lac.

None of their opponents answered the questionnaire either.

In the state Legislature, only six incumbents and 37 challengers out of 202 total candidates returned the survey.

The incumbents who answered the test were Democratic state Reps. Pedro Colon and Fred Kessler, both from Milwaukee and both unopposed. Republicans who returned it were Steven Kestell of Elkhart Lake, Scott Suder of Abbottsford and Scott Gunderson of Waterford.

Gunderson's opponent, Democrat Aaron Robertson also filled out the test. However, Kestell and Suder's opponents, Bob Cox and Tim Swiggum, did not.

The only incumbent state senator who filled it out was Bob Cowles, a Republican from Green Bay who is unopposed this year.