All eyes are on Iowa right now, but presidential candidates can't ignore Wisconsin forever.
Despite all the political excitement in neighboring Iowa, not many Wisconsinites are making the trek to caucus central to stomp for their candidate of choice, not since former Governor Tommy Thompson dropped out of the race. State Republican Party Executive Director Mark Jefferson is confident presidential hopefuls will need to spend time here, as many of us are still undecided.
"If they want to get support in Wisconsin which I think is going to be a pretty important state come February 19 th they need to come here. We haven't seen a lot of time devoted to Wisconsin from the key presidential candidates at this point, but I think that's going to change in the weeks ahead."
Not much groundwork is being laid in our state right now, as Jefferson puts it, because candidates are putting all their political eggs into the early baskets in Iowa. But, he says, they can only stay away for so long.
"But once that's (Iowa caucus) behind them and assuming there is not a nominee I think you're going to see a lot of scrambling by all the campaigns here in Wisconsin to get their message out; and I think a lot of voters are going to be making up their minds in those final two weeks before the primary."
Jefferson says some of the frontrunners we see in the Hawkeye state aren't necessarily the frontrunners with voters in the Badger state, citing the popularity of Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani in Wisconsin, unlike Iowa. The state GOP is not officially endorsing a candidate, but Jefferson says they'll get behind the eventual nominee. Wisconsin's primary is February 19th.