Illinoisans in general, and Chicagoans in particular, like to think that their political environment, like each of their sport teams, is somehow unique, distinctive and utterly fascinating -- especially when contrasted with that of "Cheesehead" Wisconsin, the land of lakes, cows and little else.

But Wisconsinites think otherwise. They exult in the fact that the Green Bay Packers kick the Chicago Bears' butts with monotonous regularity, and they're convinced that their politics are more uproarious, entertaining and convoluted than Illinois'.

Consider these recent Wisconsin developments:

* There is an enormous amount of racial polarization in Milwaukee, where a white former congressman, Tom Barrett, just beat the acting black mayor after a nasty campaign, which ensued the resignation of the white mayor. The loser's wife stated that "racism is alive and well" in the city.

* The state may soon have two gay U.S. representatives. Already, the congressional district centered on Madison is represented by a lesbian, and an open Milwaukee-area district may be won by a gay man.

* The mayor of Milwaukee resigned after settling for $350,000 a sexual harassment suit brought by his former staff aide and mistress, Marilyn Figueroa. That mayor, John Norquist, was elected in 1988, succeeding Henry Maier, who had been mayor since 1960 - an astounding 28 years.

* The black Democratic Milwaukee County sheriff may soon switch to the Republicans and run for attorney general in 2006 against a Democratic incumbent, Peg Lautenschlager, who was just convicted of drunken driving and who has been charged with "ethics" violations for misuse of her state-owned car.

* Reaganism is still flourishing, and the Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature. The new Democratic governor, Jim Doyle, who ran on a platform of cutting 9,000 state jobs and saving $1 billion, has changed his tune and is battling the Republicans on the issue of state spending and lifting tax caps. Doyle's 2003 budget cut just 2,900 jobs, raised university tuition, and is still in deficit.

 The former Republican governor, Tommy Thompson, is currently secretary of Health and Human Services in the Bush Administration. He had been Wisconsin's chief executive from 1986 to 2000, and he was enormously popular. Thompson initiated many creative innovations, including welfare reform and school vouchers, long before they entered the national discourse.

* Two self-funding millionaire Republican businessmen and the 1994 Senate loser are competing to take on a maverick Democratic U.S. senator. One Republican has accused the incumbent, Russ Feingold, of being "un-American."

* And even though the open Milwaukee congressional seat is traditionally Democratic, two noteworthy Republicans are competing: a black conservative former Thompson Administration staffer in Wisconsin who became the Health and Human Services Midwest regional director when Thompson moved to Washington and a white attorney affiliated with the law firm of his father, who defended serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Here's a look at specific races:

Milwaukee: The 2004 mayoral race, while big news in Wisconsin, was widely ignored in Illinois. For Chicagoans, that contest would have evoked expressions of "been there, done that." Marvin Pratt was a black Milwaukee alderman who became acting mayor after Norquist resigned in January. Sounds a lot like then-Alderman Gene Sawyer's elevation in 1987. Pratt had two principal opponents in the nonpartisan contest to succeed him: Tom Barrett, a white former congressman who lost a bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2002, and county Sheriff David Clarke, a black who was appointed to the post by a Republican governor in March 2002. Clarke refused to join the Democratic Party, and he had a fund raiser in December 2003 which featured J.C. Watts, a black former Republican congressman from Oklahoma.

Milwaukee has a population of 596,974, which is nearly 35 percent is black, who traditionally live on the city's North Side. Like Chicago, the inner core of Milwaukee, along the lake, is being redeveloped and condominiumized, with many "empty nest" suburban couples moving into the city. Milwaukee has an upscale "East Side," which is akin to Chicago's Michigan Avenue "Gold Coast."

The white South Side used to be heavily Polish, along with a large number of Germans, but, like Chicago, the children of these ethnics have moved to the blue-collar suburbs of West Allis, West Milwaukee, Saint Francis, South Milwaukee and Cudahy. The South Side is now populated in large part by aging whites, with a mix of Hispanics. The North Side is almost entirely black.

Pratt led the field in the initial 2004 primary, getting 51,653 votes (38 percent), to Barrett's 44,342 (33 percent) and Clarke's 23,185 (17 percent). Six other candidates split the remaining 12 percent.

In the runoff, Barrett pounded Pratt for the fact that he had been the subject of two FBI investigations into City Hall corruption, although he was never charged with wrongdoing; several aldermen were indicted and convicted. Then, 2 weeks before the election, the white Milwaukee County district attorney, Mike McCann, brought forth a civil indictment charging Pratt with violating state campaign expenditure laws by allegedly not reporting campaign-related expenses from a personal account and by allegedly making large payments to himself from a campaign account.

The indictment was devastating, and Pratt's response was lame, blaming his lawyers and accountants for the oversights. Barrett had been a congressman from the North Side Milwaukee district for 10 years, until it was merged into one district in 2002, so he had the support of East Side and North Side white voters, and he ran up huge margins on the South Side. The result, in a runoff turnout of 160,854 -- up 25,000 over the primary -- was 86,493 (54 percent) for Barrett and 74,361 for Pratt.

If Pratt resolves his legal problems, he'll run again for mayor in 2008. If not, some other black candidate certainly will.

4th U.S. House District: Like Chicago, ethnic voters in the South Side district tend to elect their congressman at a youthful age and keep him there forever. Since 1948 the district has had only two congressmen, both Polish-Americans: Clement Zablocki (1948-82), who rose to be chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and who was a Vietnam War hawk, and Gerald Kleczka (1982-2004), who is retiring this year. Wisconsin's lack of population growth cost them a U.S. House seat in the 2000 census, and now Milwaukee has only one congressional district, which takes in the city and some surrounding suburbs in Milwaukee County.

The Democratic candidates in the September primary include Tim Carpenter, a gay state representative from the South Side, Gwen Moore, a black state senator from the North Side, Matt Flynn, a corporate lawyer and former state Democratic chairman from the East Side, and Shirley Krug, a state representative from a racially mixed Northwest Side district who is the current Wisconsin House minority leader. All the candidates are fervently liberal and outspokenly anti-George Bush. Unlike Kleczka, who was anti-abortion, all the Democrats are pro-choice. With three white candidates, Moore is the early favorite.

The Republican primary is between Corey Hoze, Thompson's protege from the suburb of Saint Francis, who is black, and Gerald Boyle Jr., the son and law partner of a prominent criminal defense attorney. Hoze already has been endorsed by two prominent black Democrats, former Milwaukee school superintendent Howard Fuller and Milwaukee Brewers president Ulice Payne. Hoze will win the primary.

The outlook: Hoze is well positioned for the election. If Moore wins, white voters could opt for Hoze as the least liberal black candidate. If Carpenter wins, blacks could vote heavily for Hoze, even though he is a Republican. Even so, the likelihood of a Republican congressional win is, at best, remote.

U.S. Senator (2004): Feingold received a huge amount of national publicity as the author of the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law, which eliminated the use of "soft money" donations. Feingold is a conventional liberal, but he did vote, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, to approve a number of Bush nominees for federal judgeships. Wisconsin likes mavericks. The state kept the quirky, fiscally stingy Democrat William Proxmire in the Senate from 1957 to 1988.

The consensus is that the best chance to beat Feingold, first elected in 1992, has already passed. In 1998, against Republican U.S. Representative Mark Neumann, Feingold won by a narrow 37,857-vote margin, barely topping 51 percent of the vote. In 1992 he had upset incumbent Republican Bob Kasten by 161,063 votes, getting 53 percent of the total.

The Republican primary features two self-funding millionaires: auto dealer Russ Darrow and businessman Tim Michels. Also running are Bob Welch, a state senator who lost a 1994 U.S. Senate race, and attorney Bob Lorge. Darrow got some publicity, most of it negative, when he blasted Feingold as "cowardly" and "un-American" because he voted against the USA Patriot Act.

The outlook: Welch is the best candidate, but he has the least money, and Darrow is the worst candidate, but with the most money. Expect Feingold to win another term.

Governor (2006): Republicans are hoping that Thompson, age 62, will come back and run against Doyle for governor in 2006. If not, their candidate likely will be Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker.