Almanac Home Browse By State Browse By Name State of Wisconsin Gov. Thompson (R) Sen. Kohl (D) Sen. Feingold (D) Rep. Neumann (R-01) Rep. Klug (R-02) Rep. Kind (D-03) Rep. Kleczka (D-04) Rep. Barrett (D-05) Rep. Petri (R-06) Rep. Obey (D-07) Rep. Johnson (D-08) Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-09)

On a narrow isthmus between Lakes Mendota and Monona is the center of Madison and, in many ways, the center of Wisconsin. Here the state Capitol rises at the one end of State Street; at the other end of several commercial blocks is the main campus of the University of Wisconsin, on a beautiful, parklike, sometimes windswept setting above Lake Mendota. For most of this century, Wisconsin politics was dominated by the Madison-based LaFollettes and their liberal Democratic successors. And the traffic on State Street was two-way, with university faculty devoted to Bob LaFollette's "Wisconsin idea" of an apolitical bureaucracy, his Wisconsin Tax Commission and workmen's compensation law -- both firsts in the nation. Now there is more division, with the liberal campus at odds with the welfare reform and school choices reforms of Governor Tommy Thompson. But there is a steady debate carried on here between the liberal Madison Capital-Times and its Republican rival, the Wisconsin State Journal, with a much larger circulation; the two newspapers practice the kind of partisan journalism still seen in only a few major cities and state capitals (Nashville, Sacramento, Boston, Detroit). Meanwhile, Madison's varied economy is thriving, with unemployment in 1996 hovering around 1.5%.

Madison is the center of Wisconsin's 2d Congressional District, and with surrounding Dane County casts about 70% of the district's votes. The rest are in several rural dairy counties which are more Republican and conservative; they include such picturesque Wisconsin scenes as Frank Lloyd Wright's home, Taliesin, the Swiss-settled town of New Glarus, and the headquarters of Lands' End in Dodgeville. Madison was LaFollette country for the first half of the century, and very liberal and Democratic for most of the second, enough so that despite the Republican leanings of the rural counties, the 2d District voted for George McGovern in 1972 and Walter Mondale in 1984. It also spawned an activist and sometimes violent student movement (during the Vietnam war, a graduate student was killed in a laboratory by a bomb set off by a protester) and a permanent postgraduate proletariat. But there has been some mellowing out. Grad students stuck in the sixties may have left, but there are now plenty of Republicans as well as Democrats among undergraduates. And Madison has even been known to vote Republican, for Governor Tommy Thompson in 1994 and in the 2d District House race in the 1990s.

The congressman from the 2d District is Scott Klug, a Republican elected in 1990. Klug grew up in Wisconsin, and after college went to work as an investigative TV reporter in Washington. In 1988 he returned to Madison to work as an anchor at Channel 27. In 1990 he ran against Congressman Robert Kastenmeier, one of the most liberal members of the House, first elected in 1958. Klug's campaign was deft. He treated Kastenmeier respectfully but said his ideas were "stuck in the '60s" and he ran as his campaign logo the number 32 in a circle with a line drawn through it (indicating 32 years in Congress is enough). He showed candor in calling for means-testing Social Security and moderation in calling for early intervention programs for at-risk children. Klug lost Madison's Dane County by only 52%-48% and won 63% in the smaller counties, for a 53%-47% victory, slightly ahead of Republican Governor Tommy Thompson's strong showing there.

Klug has had a moderate, even liberal voting record, and at the same time has cooperated with Republican reformers and often the leadership. In his first term he was part of the freshman "Gang of Seven" who insisted on full disclosure of House bank overdrafts. He joined the Porkbusters' Coalition identifying $1 billion in recommended cuts. But he also worked on preserving details of federal dairy programs, tried to restrict cheese imports, boosted ethanol fuels and supported University of Wisconsin Chancellor Donna Shalala as Bill Clinton's secretary of Health and Human Services. He got a law changed so that U.S. soldiers killed by friendly fire can receive the Purple Heart.

In his second term he successfully sponsored amendments to kill the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (passed 379-43) and against experiments that he referred to as "pigs in space" (333-98). He opposed the Haiti invasion and called for lifting the Bosnian arms embargo. He opposed the Clinton vaccine program and supported the healthcare plan sponsored by Tennessee Representative Jim Cooper, working with a bipartisan group of House members on the issue. With Oregon's Ron Wyden, he proposed a national data bank on medical malpractice. He also bucked most of his party by supporting the assault weapons ban and the 1994 crime bill. He got new regulations to protect against the ticket fraud that many Wisconsin fans complained about at the Rose Bowl in 1994.

After the 1994 election Klug found himself in the majority, and still sometimes at odds with his party. He was one of Speaker Newt Gingrich's main liaisons with moderate Republicans. On the Commerce Committee he worked on the Telecommunications Act. He tried to zero out the Appalachian Regional Commission. "Appalachia needed help. My friends, 30 years of help is enough," he said sarcastically. He also took an assignment from Gingrich to head the House Republicans' effort to identify federal programs that are ripe for privatization -- from the Government Printing Office to public power agencies. One juicy target was the Tennessee Valley Authority, which will soon compete with private utilities, enjoys tax advantages and in the Clinton budget was to get $140 million a year in federal money. Klug tried to zero that out in July 1995 and was beaten badly. But he predicted at the time, "Money will get so tight there will be no way to defend TVA." In January 1997 TVA head Craven Crowell, a longtime staffer for former Tennessee Senator Jim Sasser, proposed zeroing out TVA's federal subsidy and spinning off TVA's navigation and flood control functions to the Army Corps of Engineers or local agencies, leaving TVA free to compete in the about-to-be-deregulated electricity market.

Klug has been reelected handily three times. In 1992 he faced Ada Deer, a Menominee Indian organizer. She said she was not sure if she would have voted for declaring war against Germany and Japan in 1941 and held a fundraiser at an abortion clinic with a basket of condoms next to her bumper stickers. Klug won 63%-37%, with 60% of the vote in Dane County. In 1994 even the Cap Times endorsed Klug, and he won 69%-29%, with 66% in Dane County. In 1996 he faced the avatar of 1960s student liberalism, Paul Soglin, elected to the Madison Council in 1968 and mayor from 1973-79 and from 1989 on. Soglin criticized Wisconsin's welfare reform and said it would leave people "dying in the streets"; he said Klug voted with Newt Gingrich 84% of the time and, desperate for coattails, ended a TV ad with "Clinton Soglin." Klug ran an ad campaign with a picture that morphed from a black-and-white Gingrich to an in-color Klug, ticking off how he differed from Gingrich on defense, environment, corporate welfare and education. He attacked Soglin's financial record as mayor and defended his own votes on student loans. Klug spent well over $1 million and won 57%-41%, carrying Dane County with 53%.

Klug began his fourth term by voting "present" on the ballot for speaker. In February 1997 he announced that he would not run for reelection in 1998. While his own vote-getting record shows a Republican can win, the 2d District seems likely to elect a Democrat to replace him. The Democrats could have a crowded field as former Dane County Executive Rick Phelps and state legislators Joe Wineke and Tammy Baldwin will probably run in the primary.

Update: November 1998
Democratic state Representative Tammy Baldwin defeated Republican Josephine Musser for Klug's old seat. Click here for a profile of Baldwin.

The People: Pop. 1990: 543,625; 36% rural; 11% age 65+; 95% White; 2% Black; 2% Asian; 1% Hispanic origin. Households: 55% married couple families; 26% married couple fams. w. children; 53% college educ.; median household income: $30,625; per capita income: $14,319; median gross rent: $441; median house value: $69,800.

1996 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 146,819 (55%) Dole (R) 88,072 (33%) Perot (I) 21,682 (8%) Other 12,743 (5%)

1992 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 149,340 (50%) Bush (R) 94,368 (32%) Perot (I) 52,552 (18%)

Rep. Scott Klug (R)

Elected 1990; b. Jan. 16, 1953, Milwaukee; home, Madison; Lawrence U., B.A. 1975, Northwestern U., M.S.J. 1976, U. of WI, M.B.A. 1990; Catholic; married (Theresa).

Career: Investigative reporter, WJLA-TV Washington, D.C., 1976-88; News anchor, WKOW-TV Madison, 1988-90.

DC Office: 2331 RHOB 20515, 202-225-2906; Fax: 202-225-6942; e-mail: badger02@hr.house.gov.

District Offices: Madison, 608-257-9200.

Committees: Commerce (12th of 28 R): Finance & Hazardous Materials; Health & the Environment; Telecommunications, Trade & Consumer Protection.

Group Ratings
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CFA	CON	NFIB	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
1996	40	25	17	54	69	99	92	81	75	81	73
1995	25	--	--	19	62	100	--	88	72	--	--

National Journal Ratings
	1995 LIB	--	1995 CONS		1996 LIB	--	1996 CONS
Economic	49%	--	49%		51%	--	48%
Social	57%	--	42%		59%	--	40%
Foreign	56%	--	43%		67%	--	31%

Key Votes of the 104th Congress
1. Reduce Medicare Growth $ Y 2. Ovrd. Product Liab. Veto Y 3. Increase Min. Wage N 4. Welfare Reform Y 5. Flag Amendment Y 6. Drop EPA Limits Y		7. Repeal Assault-Weap. Ban N 8. Ovrd. Part. Birth Veto Y 9. Cuban Embargo Y 10. Bar Bosnia Troop $ Y 11. Cut Anti-Missile Defense N 12. Bar U.N. Uniforms Y

Election Results
1996 gen.	Scott Klug (R)	154,557	(57%)	($1,261,546)
	Paul R. Soglin (D)	110,467	(41%)	($506,513)
	Others	4,350	(2%)
1996 prim.	Scott Klug (R)	unopposed
1994 gen.	Scott Klug (R)	133,734	(69%)	($689,215)
	Thomas C. Hecht (D)	55,406	(29%)	($281,783)
	Others	4,109	(2%)

Back To Top