UNDATE (WSAU) The Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor is four weeks from today. Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk will become the first candidate to run her own statewide ad today. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett plans to file his nomination papers in Madison Tuesday morning. And he announced a key endorsement yesterday from former Congressman Dave Obey, who had said he would run if Barrett or retiring U-S Senator Herb Kohl didn’t. G-O-P state Senate leader Scott Fitzgerald said Republicans might vote for Falk in the May 8th Democratic primary, because she doesn’t do as well as Barrett in head-to-head polls against Governor Scott Walker. Wisconsin has open primaries in which voters don’t have to declare their parties, and Fitzgerald said quote, “There’s nothing to keep the Republicans from messing around.”

The state G-O-P also put up Gladys Huber to run as a fake Democrat for governor. Spokesman Ben Sparks says it’s an insurance policy to make sure the Democrats don’t coalesce behind one candidate to try and push the general election up to May 8th – which would happen if there’s not a primary. Republicans also put up fake Democrats for lieutenant governor and all four Senate contests, to make sure the general elections all take place on June 5th.

Democratic attorney Jeremy Levinson said last week the fake Democrats violate election laws, because candidates must declare that they’re representing a particular party. But yesterday, state Attorney General J-B Van Hollen said there’s no law against putting up fake candidates.