This story ran 5/2/2012 on Dane101.com

It’s hard to tell sometimes that there are four Democrats running for governor against Scott Walker. Read Salon, the Washington Post, or even Isthmus, for example, and the race boils down to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett versus former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, with little or no mention of State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout or Secretary of State Doug La Follette. Stories about debates, even when they include the two, often run with headlines like, “Barrett, Falk verb some nouns.”

Aside from standalone pieces about an individual candidate visit to a city, features introducing or summarizing each candidate to a paper’s readers, or coverage of events such as forums where each of the four is quoted (but even there the coverage can skew noticeably toward Barrett and Falk), Vinehout and La Follette just don’t get as much coverage outside the opinion pages.

Meanwhile, the other two get attention far more easily: Barrett, not yet an official candidate, has harsh words about Walker’s use of the mortgage settlement? Story. AFSCME says something possibly incorrect about him? Story. A new big name endorsement for Barrett? Story. A new ad from the Falk campaign? Story. Falk reacts to a recent piece of news? Story. Barrett reacts to a recent piece of news? Story. Kathleen Falk says she’ll do X number of debates compared to Barrett’s Y number? Story. Falk and Barrett raise hundreds of thousands of dollars? Where that money came from is a story. And so on.

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