LEINENKUGEL ON BID FOR GOVERNOR: "DO YOU THINK I SHOULD?"

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld

By Michael Horne


And The Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team 

Just as Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton was announcing her withdrawal from the race to succeed Governor Jim Doyle yesterday, Monday, October 26th, 2009, Commerce Secretary Richard "Dick" Leinenkugel was asked by the Milwaukee World Hound Dog whether he planned to run for governor himself.
"Do you think I should?" Leinenkugel asked in return. "I'm flattered to be mentioned," he added.
Leinenkugel was in Milwaukee at the time, giving the keynote speech at the Great Lakes Craft Brewers and Water Conservation Conference at the Pilot House at Pier Wisconsin. [Leinenkugel and the Hound Dog Team, were unaware of Lawton's announcement at the time. -- Ed.]
Leinenkugel began his address with his account of how he became Secretary of Commerce. It may provide a foreshadowing of how he might approach a run for the state's top executive office.
LLeinenkugel is a Marine, after all, and the Semper Fi set is not one to dilly-dally when it comes to making decisions. 
"I had heard on the news of the resignation of the Commerce Secretary [Mary Burke, on November 1st, 2007]. I told my wife and kids and then I called my brother Jake [President of Jacob Leinenkugel Brewery]. I told him I wanted to be commerce secretary, and he said, 'You must be blanking me!'"
No blank, Leinenkugel decided to call Gov. Doyle (whom he said he didn't know, and hadn't met and said he wanted to be commerce secretary.
Doyle appointed him to the position on September 5th, 2008.
Leinenkugel told the brewers in Milwaukee, "When I started the job, unemployment in Wisconsin was 4.4%. Then it quickly rose to 9.9%. Jake told me, 'it's not like beer sales where you get credit when it goes up.'"
Later, during a question-and-answer session, Leinenkugel was asked to identify the oldest piece of working equipment at the family brewery.
His answer: "My brother Jake." The secretary then amended his response, citing a pasteurizer that has been in service at the Chippewa Falls brewery since 1950.
Later that evening, Jake Leinenkugel addressed the conference and got a little revenge on his brother when he pointed out that he had convinced parent company MillerCoors to replace the aging pasteurizer. He also added, without referring to a possible gubernatorial bid by his brother, that Dick had nonetheless been interested in politics since a very early age, and that his taking the commerce job in fact, was not entirely a surprise.
Dick Leinenkugel has already served in elective office as a Waukesha County Supervisor representing the village of Menomonee Falls from 1997 - 2000. An election as governor would be one of the largest political leaps since Russ Feingold swapped his State Senate seat for one in the United States Senate in 1992.
His sister Kate Bugher is married to Mark Bugher, a politically connected Republican who served as Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Revenue and Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration during the Tommy Thompson administration. This has led to concern among observers like Madison's Scott Milfred that Leinenkugel might not be sufficiently Democratic to please party insiders.

FUN FACT:
Barbara Lawton said she was withdrawing from the race for "very personal reasons." Maybe it's because she used a Madison address when she got busted for speeding in Kewaunee County earlier this year instead of her legal address of 440 Lower Lasalle Rd., Algoma.
--Michael Horne