Mark Neumann, who was defeated in 2010 in the Republican gubernatorial election by Gov. Scott Walker, announced today that he is going to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl, according to various news reports.

"We really appreciate all the encouragement we've received to run for the United States Senate," Neumann said on his Facebook profile. "Today we made it official that we are entering the race. Thanks again for all the support!"

Neumann, 57, of Nashotah, was a U.S. congressman from 1995 to 1998. Fox 6 is reporting that the Wisconsin politician is the first to run in the 2012 election.

Neumann was on the Charlie Sykes show to make the announcement this morning, according to Neumann’s Twitter account.

"I'm running for Senate because the $14 trillion debt is destroying our country,” Neumann said in a news release. “This debt not only hurts our economy in the near term, but also threatens to end the American Dream. The day of reckoning isn’t in 50 years, it’s coming now. We see it already in our credit rating downgrade. That won't be the last one without getting the debt under control. Poor credit ratings mean high interest rates, high unemployment, lower housing values, and a fundamentally altered America."

Wisconsin has been a stronghold for Democratic senators until 2010 when Republican Sen. Ron Johnson defeated former Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat. Republicans have been eyeing Kohl’s seat, which is up for election in 2012. Kohl has already decided to not seek re-election.

"With today's announcement from former Congressman Neumann, we kick-off an exciting election season that will provide Wisconsin voters an opportunity to elect a second conservative Wisconsin senator focused on job creation and fixing our nation's economy,” said Brad Courtney, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, in a news release. “We expect an impressive primary field of Republican candidates prepared to debate the merits of a fiscally conservative agenda versus the out-of control spending of Barack Obama and Harry Reid that has driven up America's unemployment and sent our economy on a downward spiral."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin fired off with a feisty statement calling Neumann a “’Tea Party’ extremist.”

"Answering the groundswell apparently occurring only in the far corners of Scott Walker's radical 'Tea Party' movement in Wisconsin, Mark Neumann has once-more embarked on another losing candidacy,” said Mike Tate, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, in the news release. “Time and again, Badger voters have rejected Neumann, and by enormous margins. Outside of his family, his only base of support seems instead to be the Scott Walker and Paul Ryan Tea Party zealots who seek tax breaks for billionaires financed by the end of Medicare and Social Security.

“It's no wonder Neumann would announce his candidacy to a rabid partisan like Charlie Sykes, and shows that his first priority is service to right-wing talk show hosts and their Tea Party audience – not Wisconsin's middle class families.
 
“The embarrassing fact is not that Wisconsin has rejected Neumann time-and-again because they don't know about Neumann and his radical 'Tea Party' ideas. Wisconsin has rejected him and will do so again precisely because they do."