Eric Hovde speaks to Milwaukee Press Club

MILWAUKEE -- Republican Eric Hovde, the fifth and final candidate for Wisconsin's open U.S. Senate seat made an appearance Tuesday, April 24th at the Milwaukee Press Club, and once again, the economy took center stage.

Four Republicans and one Democrat make up the candidate field in Wisconsin's U.S. Senate race. Republicans Tommy Thompson, Jeff Fitzgerald and Mark Neumann, along with Democrat Tammy Baldwin have all had their chance to impress the Brew City's media.

Tuesday, it was Republican Eric Hovde's turn. Hovde focused his attention on the nation's economy, during his speech to the Milwaukee Press Club. His platform includes cutting the corporate tax rate and shrinking the federal government, minimizing regulations, reforming the financial sector and adjusting social security. "The government doesn't create jobs. The private sector does. We have to stop spending. If a bank is too big to fail, it's too big to exist. If you're over the age of 50, we're not going to touch your social security. If you're under the age of 50, I think the social security age should be moved up by two years," Hovde said.

Democrats pointed out Hovde has spent a lot of time outside of Wisconsin. They say he's an upper class candidate with no connection to the average Wisconsinite. Tuesday, they pounced when Hovde said the federal jobs numbers were much worse than they appeared - numbers Republican Governor Scott Walker has been touting.

"Life has been very good to him. He's been very fortunate. It doesn't look like he cares about those less fortunate. He says that he's giving up his nice bottles of wine to campaign but hedge fund managers like him don't really understand the economic pain that a lot of people are going through right now in Wisconsin," Zielinski said.

"I'm just trying to say that the way the government calculates these numbers, and the governor gets them from the federal government, is, there's distortions," Hovde said.

"Wisconsin led the nation in job loses. It stands to reason that he believes that Scott Walker has been even more of a jobs failure than he actually has been," Zielinski said.

Hovde will face off with Thompson, Fitzgerald and Neumann August 14th in the Republican primary election. The winner goes on to face the lone Democrat in the race - Tammy Baldwin, for the Senate seat in November's general election.

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