Get ready for an interesting Senate race in Wisconsin. Representative Tammy Baldwin, the progressive Democrat from the Second Congressional district, is gearing up to run for the Senate seat that Herb Kohl is vacating.

Friday morning, Sen. Kohl announced that he was leaving at the end of his fourth term next November.

“I’ve always believed it’s better to leave a job a little too early than a little too late,” said the 76-year-old Senator.

Kohl, a go-along Democrat, served quietly in the Senate but did a lot for children, the elderly, and dairy farmers.

He also was an exceptionally kind boss. One of my former colleagues, Keenen Peck, worked for Sen. Kohl and had nothing but the highest praise for him.

Kohl’s announcement has already led to much speculation about who might run for his seat. The names being tossed around include Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee, Rep. Ron Kind, former Sen. Russ Feingold, and Baldwin.

I doubt Barrett will run. He played Hamlet for months before deciding to run against Scott Walker for governor, and he was lackluster on the trail.

Kind may run but I doubt he’d win, since there is no groundswell of enthusiasm for him, and he barely won reelection last November.

I suspect Feingold was tired of being a senator, though some progressive Dems nationwide are already pushing him to return to Washington.

But here in Wisconsin, there is a bigger groundswell for Feingold to run against Walker if there is a recall election next spring.

Which leaves Baldwin.

People close to her say she’s likely to run, and I have it on good authority that the odds on her running are very high.

After Kohl, Baldwin can boast of being the most popular elected Democrat in the state. She’s been in Congress since 1999, and she won reelection in 2008 by a whopping 69%-31% margin. In the 2010 bloodbath for Democrats in Wisconsin, she escaped unscathed, winning 62-38.

A staunch supporter of universal health care, the first out-lesbian to win election to the House of Representatives, a huge defender of public workers, a courageous and independent voice on foreign policy, Baldwin would galvanize the progressive base in Wisconsin.

The darling on the Republican side is Representative Paul Ryan, but he’d have to face withering criticism of his proposal to slash Medicare and Medicaid.

Other Republicans include former Rep. Mark Neumann, who lost to Walker in the gubernatorial primary last year and previously lost to Feingold, and the brothers Fitzgerald, who have been railroading Walker’s rightwing agenda through the legislature.

Against any of these candidates, Tammy Baldwin would stand a good chance.

If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his story "Obama in El Paso: Sympathy, but No Change in Policy."

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