Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompsontold a radio program that he has already filed fundraising paperwork with the state, a first step in running for Democrat Herb Kohl’s soon-to-be vacated Senate seat in 2012. Thompson told Milwaukee’s WTMJ that he was running for Senate “because the country is in terrible shape.” Thompson has taken heat from conservative groups like the Club for Growth, who say Thompson isn’t conservative enough. “The truth of the matter is I was the original conservative,” Thompson said on the radio show. “I was the one who carried the state of Wisconsin four times, when Republicans and Republicanism was the not de rigueurof the state, and we were able to change the state of Wisconsin, not to a red state, but a purple state.”
“„“I’m not as conservative as I once was. … You grow on your job. … It’s much better to use pragmatic common sense than be so rigidly tied to one ideology you can’t see the forest for the trees.”