Thompson Plans WI Senate Run

Politico reports:

Tommy Thompson, the Republican former Wisconsin governor and George W. Bush’s first secretary of Health and Human Services, has told friends he plans to run for the open Senate seat in Wisconsin, according to top Wisconsin sources.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) said Friday that he won’t seek a fifth term in 2012.

Thompson would give Republicans a popular former four-term governor to seriously challenge for this toss-up seat, which could prove the difference as Senate Democrats struggle to defend their majority with now eight retirements.

Thompson’s entry would even further intensify a race that already seems destined to be one of the most watched in the nation: Wisconsin has been at the center of the national political discussion since Gov. Scott Walker’s showdown with unions over collective bargaining in February that prompted weeks of protests at the state capitol in Madison. In the months since, even what would have almost certainly otherwise been a sleepy race for a state supreme court seat turned into a pitched battle, now in its third week of the recount.

Click here to read more.