Matt Pommer: Badger State loves its booze


And politicians have long been known to tour taverns and greet the seemingly captive audience. Former Gov. Tommy Thompson, who worked as a bartender in college, would quip that tavern regulars were a factor in his first election to the Legislature.

Thompson said his father gave him $10 a day to campaign. Going into a small town, Thompson explained, he would stop at a bar early in the day and buy a drink for the town drunk.

"He'd be there all day telling others what a great guy I was."