GREAT SCOTT, SEEMS THESE RIVALS HAVE GOT PLENTY IN COMMON

But Foes Might Not See It As All That Jim-Dandy

Jim Doyle and Scott McCallum would probably never admit it, but they
actually have quite a few things in common. We took a look behind the
rhetoric of the candidates for governor and found all sorts of interesting
tidbits about their personal histories, likes and dislikes.

The key similarities?

Both inhaled a certain drug in the 1960s: Doyle said he smoked marijuana
twice while in college. McCallum, when asked if he inhaled the stuff on
campus, said, "At Macalester, the only way around it was to not breathe."

Both opposed the Vietnam War: "I did not think government was listening to
the public," McCallum said. Doyle was far more stinging, once calling it an
immoral war and accusing former President Lyndon Johnson of "behaving
criminally."

Neither served in Vietnam: Doyle was deferred because he served two years
in the Peace Corps and later received a college student deferment. McCallum
received a student deferment in undergraduate and graduate school, and then
got a high lottery number (based on a drawing of birth dates, he got No.
298), which effectively meant he wouldn't be drafted.

Both are basketball fiends: The candidates have even played on pickup teams
against each other.

McCallum on Doyle: "He likes to shoot." Did McCallum notice any other skill
of Doyle's? "He likes to shoot."

Doyle on McCallum: "He's a good player. Strong, tenacious."

Former McCallum aide George Dreckmann on who would win: "I don't think
either would back down. Doyle would beat him at horse. But McCallum has a
better inside game. McCallum would beat him in a one-on-one game."

Both candidates ran afoul of animals: In his campaign against Democratic
U.S. Sen. William Proxmire in 1982, McCallum came up with the gimmick of
awarding Proxmire a series of "Silver Turkey" awards for gobbling up
government resources. Badger voters chose Proxmire anyway.

Running for re-election as Dane County district attorney in 1978, Doyle
faced a 12-year-old palomino named Sundowner. The write-in candidate was
entered by its owner, Gordon Sussman, as a protest action against Doyle.
Doyle was now in a real horse race, wags noted. Oddly, even Sussman forgot
to vote for his nag, so, as it turned out, there wasn't one neigh vote
against Doyle.

Both married brains and beauty: Laurie McCallum was a fourth runner-up for
Miss Minnesota and a National Merit Scholar who received her law degree and
now is a commissioner on the state Labor and Industry Review Commission.

Jessica Doyle was homecoming queen at Madison West, where Jim Doyle was a
basketball star. She was "smart, incredibly friendly, incredibly caring and
gorgeous," according to classmate Fred Barbash. He dated her before Doyle,
so Barbash should know. Jessica has been a learning coordinator at
Madison's Cherokee Middle School for many years.

Both are near teetotalers: Doyle said he rarely drinks alcohol, and that's
been true for 20 years. McCallum seldom drinks; mostly, an occasional glass
of wine.

Both have advocated tougher sanctions against drunken drivers. McCallum
supported revoking the license and seizing the cars of three-time
offenders. Doyle once made a citizen's arrest of a drunken driver who
backed into a car at Camp Randall stadium and tried to get away.

One observer said the police who arrived saved Doyle from "a good whupping"
from the driver's irate friend. On the contrary, Doyle joked, "I like to
think there would have been a reasonably equal fight."

Both oppose gambling: McCallum opposed the lottery, dog racing, you name
it. Doyle has decried the social costs of gambling and once charged that
the lottery's get-something-for-free messages had encouraged and increased
crimes by scam artists in Wisconsin.

Both are sports nuts as fathers: McCallum has coached every soccer and
basketball team his three children have played on. Doyle's son, Gus,
starred on Madison West's state champion basketball team, and his father
would attend the games and videotape them. Dad would watch the tape two and
three times at home.

Both came from Democratic families: McCallum's parents "leaned Democratic,"
said Laurie McCallum, while Scott said his father was a Democrat and union
representative. Doyle's father was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for
governor in 1954 and a federal judge appointed by Johnson, and his mother
served as a Democrat in the state Assembly. We'd guess McCallum's parents
will be voting Republican in this election.

Both took on their own party: Doyle's political career began with a victory
against an incumbent Democrat, Dane County District Attorney Humphrey
Lynch. McCallum's first victory was a squeaker against GOP state Sen.
Walter Hollandale.

McCallum won only after a dramatic recount. In Hollandale's hometown of
Rosendale, a polling worker had bundled the 90 votes with blank ballots.
McCallum's lawyer argued that since some voters may have intended to turn
in a blank ballot, the first 90 ballots of any kind had to be counted. The
judge agreed, Hollandale got no votes from Rosendale, and McCallum won by
just 83 votes.

Both get help buying their clothes: Of course, the shoppers are their
wives, though McCallum has a more formidable team of consultants. In recent
years, he's also gotten help from his 20-year-old son Zachary.

Both like the state teachers union: Doyle has been endorsed by the union
and wants to end the spending caps and qualified economic offer, which help
constrain teacher salaries. McCallum has been tight with former teachers
union head Morrie Andrews for many years, won the union's endorsement in
1982 against Proxmire (it is near heresy for the union to oppose a
Democrat), declared there would be no cuts in education funding to solve
the last budget crisis and also has said he wants to end the QEO.

Those are the key similarities between the candidates. Any differences?

Favorite food

Doyle likes spaghetti or burritos; McCallum favors cheeseburgers. Doyle
likes Italian or Mexican restaurants, while McCallum loves Dairy Queens and
their ice cream "Blizzards."

As lieutenant governor, McCallum kept a map in his office pinpointing the
location of every Dairy Queen in the state. "If they had an egg-and-bacon
blizzard, I'd probably get one for breakfast," he once said. Bacon-flavored
ice cream?

Taste in movies

McCallum liked "Braveheart" and "The Rock." "His absolute favorite movie in
the world is 'Hoosiers,' " his wife said. He watched it so often "We went
through two videotapes," she added.

"Jessica and I probably go to a movie a week," Doyle said.

He likes movies like "Monsoon Wedding" and "Cookie's Fortune." His favorite
all-time movie: "The Shawshank Redemption."

Taste in books

Doyle is a prolific reader of both novels and non-fiction. His favorite
all-time novel is "Tender Is the Night."

McCallum "reads his briefing books at night," Laurie said. She said
McCallum and their son Zachary kid her about her book club. "They say
they're in a book club, too. They read one book a year," she said with a laugh.

TV fare

McCallum mostly watches sports. Doyle's favorite all-time show is
"Seinfeld." "Cheers" and "Taxi" were other favorites.

Basketball on TV

McCallum likes to watch college basketball. Doyle likes "basketball at any
level. To me, it's the greatest game ever created," he said.

Cooking at home

"Scott makes breakfasts on Sundays and does all the grilling," Laurie said.
Doyle doesn't cook; apparently he's too busy reading those books.

Mischief-making

When Doyle was a lad, he was caught playing with matches and dragged to the
fire station for a lecture on what happens to little pyromaniacs. "It
scared the hell out of him," his late father once recalled. No one can
recall any such mischief for McCallum, though he's been known to get
"goofy" and play practical jokes on his kids, Laurie said.

Ethnic heritage

Doyle is Irish on his father's side and German on his mother's (maiden name
Bachhuber). McCallum once described his heritage this way: "I'm
three-quarters German, which gives me the organization and discipline that
you need. The Scottish part makes me very . . . I say thrifty with the tax
dollar. My wife would use another word. Cheap."