Kaul’s Catch 22

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced yesterday that he won’t run for governor after all. This makes him the best qualified candidate.

Kaul had been widely expected to be the heir apparent to Gov. Tony Evers who is not seeking a third term. Now, it’s true that his heirness wasn’t all that apparent as Kaul has been a low-profile attorney general. Nonetheless, he’s won two statewide races and being the state’s top law enforcement officer is always a good place to start a run for governor.

But Kaul decided that, with two young sons, he didn’t want to take on the campaign and possibly the new high pressure job at this point in his and their lives. From everything I’ve heard that’s not a cover story for some other problem. He really was concerned about his family.

He’s still a young guy, but 2026 should be a good year for Democrats with Trump in the White House and the out party almost always doing well in the mid terms. To pass on this opportunity is no small deal. Politics is all about timing and there’s no assurance he’ll get another shot.

All of which is to say that I respect Kaul for having his priorities in order… which makes me think he’d be a fine governor. There’s a fine line in politics. You need to have self-confidence that borders on delusion to run for office at this level. You need to have ambition that flirts with megalomania. Go over those lines and you’re Donald Trump.

And the current environment makes things so much worse. Campaigns used to have three phases. You’d introduce yourself to voters. Then you’d talk about issues. Sometimes, but not always, you’d “draw a contrast” with your opponent. That could be negative campaigning, but more often than not you attacked your opponent based on policy, not personality. And then you finished the campaign on a positive note, summing up your case.

Now a campaign is wall-to-wall attack ads. You attack in the most personal of ways and your opponent responds in kind and you do that for at least two and a half months. If the primary gets nasty, you do that for almost a year. And when you’re not hurling mud at your opponent or defending your reputation you’re on the phone begging for money. What sane person would want to do this?

We should want a sane person to be governor. But you’d have to be nuts to run for the job. Josh Kaul doesn’t meet the qualification to be a candidate, which makes him perfect for the actual job. And there’s the problem with politics today.