so, la follette ran on that. and through the connections he made, throughout the state and speaking, through the data he gathered about who would likely support him, he won that nomination. la follette was opposed by the conservative republicans in the legislature. didn't get the legislation that he wanted. tried again in 1902. was elected governor. he was still being blocked by the stalwart republicans. and in 1904, he went on the campaign trail against members of his own party. he started reading roll calls at these meetings. who voted against regulating the railroads? who voted against the direct primary? 1904 was the tremendous victory for bob la follette because he not only won re-election, he won enough of his progressive supporters in the legislature. the other thing that la follette was successful in doing is he believed in referendum, recall, and initiative. and he was able to get the legislature to agree that a primary bill would be passed but only if it was passed by a referendum. well, la follette whe

the way i think that joe mccarthy beat la follette was partly what you are suggesting, that la follette beat himself. it was almost like he was surrendering. i think he was getting older. he had been in office long enough. his health was a great. i'm not convinced he was sure he really wanted another term, or at least not wanted enough to fight hard and to fight dirty like is going have to do to beat a guy like joe mccarthy. mccarthy raise legitimate issues in the campaign like whether la follette had been captured by the republican establishment, whether he still had the kind of rootedness in wisconsin that voters in any state want to see when they are electing somebody but he also fought dirty and you raise issues like the fact that la follette owned a home in virginia. mccarthy was suggesting that was a mansion and use place la follette really considered home and not wisconsin. and if anybody shouldn't have had to show that they deep roots in the state of wisconsin, it was somebody who's family had given up as much as la follette had and serve the state not just for a long time but r