Brad White no longer youngest party chairman in nation
Mike Tate is the whiz kid of Wisconsin Democratic Party politics.
He got his start at age 9, when he convinced enough fellow fourth-graders to back Michael Dukakis over George Bush to flip a straw poll for the 1988 presidential election.
“We swung the election from 11 votes down in a class of 30 to 7 votes up,” Tate recalls. “I was not a normal child.”
Two decades and many campaigns later, Tate is set to become the youngest state chair in the nation of either party when Wisconsin Democratic Party activists elect him to a two-year term Saturday during their convention in Green Bay.
Tate, who turned 30 in March, will surpass Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan (34) and Mississippi GOP Chairman Brad White (32) as the youngest, according to spokespersons for both parties. He does not face any opposition.
Tate will be in charge of hiring staff, raising money, defending Democratic policies and attacking Republicans. His goal in 2010 is to help U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold and Gov. Jim Doyle win re-election and keep the party in control of both houses of the Legislature.
AP
6/9/9
