KOHL SCORES EASY VICTORY OVER MASEL

MILWAUKEE - In words that an owner of a professional basketball team
would understand, it was a slam-dunk.

U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl began his bid for re-election to a fourth
consecutive term by trouncing a longtime liberal activist from
Madison in Tuesday's Democratic primary.

The 71-year-old millionaire - and owner of the Milwaukee Bucks -
promised a campaign this fall of "fighting for progress" by
protecting good-paying jobs, strengthening investments in education,
ensuring all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care
and adopting a smarter foreign policy.

Kohl received 85 percent of the vote Tuesday in defeating Ben Masel,
who's best known for organizing pro-marijuana rallies called
Weedstock in rural areas north of Madison.

"I am so honored to have earned the support of Wisconsin voters,"
Kohl said in a statement. "It has been my great privilege to serve as
a voice for Wisconsin in Congress and I am eager to continue to work
hard on the values and priorities shared by the people of our great state."

Kohl heads toward the November election with no big-name challengers
gunning for him. He faces Republican Robert G. Lorge, a farmer and
lawyer from Bear Creek, and Green Party candidate Rae Vogeler of
Oregon in November.

The GOP had tried to coax Tommy Thompson, the former governor and
secretary of U.S. Health and Human Services during President Bush's
first term, into the race. He declined to run, as did Tim Michels,
the businessman who lost to Democratic U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold in 2004.

Masel, 51, said he was proud of the way his campaign reached out to
younger voters with issues like restricting cell phone tracking.
Masel said he spent much of his time campaigning on myspace.com in a
move designed to attract young people to care about politics.

Masel said it was too early to decide whether he would campaign for
Kohl this fall. But he said he was happy with what he called the
senator's changing position on the Iraq war.

"He has been inching away from his earlier support. Let's hope these
inches turn into feet and then yards," Masel said.

Masel disagreed with Kohl, whose family founded Kohl's grocery and
department stores, because the senator supported the Iraq war and the
Patriot Act.

Kohl's money advantage over Masel was staggering. Kohl had $1.61
million in the bank as of Aug. 23 after spending $3.2 million of
mostly his own money campaigning as "nobody's senator but yours,"
according to Federal Election Commission reports.

Masel ran for governor as a Republican in 1990, for Dane County
sheriff as a Democrat in 1994 and for Congress as a Libertarian in
1996. He had not filed a campaign finance report but said he had $902
as of Aug. 25.