Michels takes aim at Feingold With his wife Barbara looking on, Tim Michels announces his bid for the U.S. Senate during a stop at the Brown County Courthouse in Green Bay Monday (photo by H. Marc Larson). The Republican Senate candidate ignores his two party rivals By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle Businessman Tim Michels announced his U.S. Senate run in Green Bay on Monday with plenty of blasts for incumbent Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold but hardly anything to say about his two Republican primary foes. Michels, 41, vice president of the family-owned Michels Corporation in Brownsville, toured the state Monday repeating his official announcement of his candidacy. He has been raising funds since last fall and said Jan. 9 he has more than $1 million in his campaign fund, about half of it his own money. Michels told about 25 supporters in the rotunda of the Brown County Courthouse that he would provide "new leadership" to replace that of Feingold, who is seeking his third term in the Senate. Michels says his conservative views are closer to those of state voters than those of Feingold, whom Michels attacked for voting against eliminating the "death tax," the Department of Homeland Security, the Patriot Act and pay raises for the military while "promoting fringe liberal issues like gay marriage" and government takeover of health care. "If we had gone along with Russ Feingold, we wouldn't be seeing the beginning of the economic recovery we've seen over the last two months," Michels said. But when asked by reporters about any policy differences with State Sen. Robert Welch and businessman Russ Darrow, the other GOP candidates, Michels preferred to talk personalities instead of policy, emphasizing his background. "I'm not a professional politician; I'm a guy who's done a lot of things well," Michels said. "Our family's in the utility construction business, so I understand things like the energy blackout that they had in New York and Ontario and Ohio last August. I understand what happened at WorldCom and Enron; we used to do work for them." "At the end, they're going to see that I have a broader and deeper message," he said. Along with his family business, Michels emphasizes his 12 years of active duty service as an airborne Army Ranger (he wears the Ranger pin on the lapel of his suit) and his continuing service in the reserves. "I'm a conservative guy and conservative candidate because of the way I was raised, because of the things I've done like be on active duty for 12 years, and it's because I work in construction as a family business owner," he said. The only comparison of Michels and the other two Republicans came from 2000 GOP Senate candidate John Gillespie, who introduced Michels on Monday. "Bob Welch is a good friend of mine, asked me to serve on his campaign," Gillespie said, "but I just don't believe that Bob can beat Russ Feingold. Plus he's already run for the Senate. Russ (Darrow) is a successful auto dealer, but that's the extent of Russ's experience. "Tim Michels is the candidate with the best-balanced background." Michels has run for office once before, a 1998 run for state Assembly that was hampered by the illness and death of his father, limiting Michels' campaign time. He is a graduate of St. Norbert College, which he called "a great foundation" for him. "Coming out of little Brownsville, down near Fond du Lac, when I came to St. Norbert it really helped me grow as a person," he said.