Wisconsin Democrats have set their sites squarely on Mitt Romney in advance of the Republican presidential primary in the Badger State on April 3.
Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who is running for Herb Kohl's (D-Wis.) open Senate seat, repeatedly tied Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) controversial budget proposal to Romney, a position in line with the Obama reelection campaign.
"Just this week Mitt Romney rushed to embrace my colleague Paul Ryan’s budget with such force that it is now the Romney-Ryan budget," Baldwin said in a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon.
Romney came out in support of the Ryan budget last week, according to Politico.
"It's a bold and exciting effort on his part and on the part of the Republicans, and it's very much consistent with what I put out earlier ... I applaud it. It's an excellent piece of work and very much needed," Romney said.
Throughout a conference call with Baldwin and Wisconsin Democratic Chair Mike Tate, both used the phrase Romney-Ryan budget to describe the bill despite the fact that Newt Gingrich called Ryan's plan "courageous," and Rick Santorum said it is "a great blueprint." The Obama campaign started using the same phrase nationally this weekend.
In fact, none of the three other Republican presidential candidates was mentioned during the call. When asked if that meant that Baldwin and Tate thought Romney was the presumptive nominee, Tate said he's never professed to be able to predict the outcome of Republican primary races.
He added, "I mean, look, I think that the reason we are talking about Mitt Romney is because he’s been one of the most egregious candidates to change his positions."
Romney currently holds a 13 point lead over Santourm in Wisconsin, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports poll.