Doyle and Lawton Not Close

I’m amused by the mental image of Lawton quizzing Doyle staffers in the hall to find out what’s going on.

Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton was elected to office with Gov. Jim Doyle in 2002. Her office is at 19 East in the Capitol, just about directly below the governor’s at 115 East. According to Ben Nuckels, her chief of staff: “Governor Doyle’s style of governance doesn’t include daily meetings with Lieutenant Governor Lawton, but the Lieutenant Governor ensures she is indeed abreast of what is going on, out front and behind the scenes at the State Capitol and around the state.”

But, do they talk?

“I would direct further questions to him,” said Nuckels.

Their co-named Web site, http://www.doylelawton.com has n,ot been updated since 2006. The two politicians have gone separate ways on some issues: Last January, Doyle endorsed candidate Barack Obama and Lawton backed Hillary Clinton. Most recently, the two sparred over a controversial tax credit program for filmmakers who come to Wisconsin to make movies.

An Associated Press story last November, following Obama’s election, noted the pair’s sometime feuding, attributing to UW-Milwaukee political scientist Mordecai Lee the notion that “by most accounts, they do not have a close relationship and Doyle may be reluctant to hand over the office to her.”