Doyle's political roots
The son of a political family (his late father, a former federal judge, helped resurrect the state Democratic Party after World War II; his mother served in the Assembly), Doyle has deep roots in state and local politics, many of which stretch across party lines.

Those ties have been strengthened over six years as Dane County district attorney and 12 years as the state's attorney general, a job that required him to work with Republican legislators.

Doyle was loathed by Thompson, who considered Doyle his Democratic nemesis, but Doyle's relations with other state Republicans are largely untested - but holding, so far.

Rep. John Gard of Peshtigo, the GOP's Assembly speaker-elect, and newly installed Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer of West Bend both describe a cordial relationship with Doyle.

"There are some clear policy differences between them, but there are a wide variety of issues they agree on," said Andy Cohn, Doyle's former executive assistant and legislative liaison, now a lobbyist and spokesman for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Doyle also has avoided making any major missteps in his Cabinet appointments, sticking mainly to nonpoliticians who are experts in their fields. That has earned him praise from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Since November, he has been running an exceedingly tight ship, keeping a lid on news leaks and limiting media contact to carefully scripted events.

Tony Earl appeared weak
That's in contrast with the last Democrat to occupy the East Wing of the Capitol, Tony Earl, said Ed Huck, executive director of the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities since 1984 and a longtime Capitol observer.

"One of the reasons why Earl was not re-elected (in 1986) was that his agencies and his people were out there pretty much flying on their own and sometimes they would be in conflict with what the governor was saying," Huck said. "It made the governor look unorganized and weak at the time."

Thompson took advantage of that, unseating Earl and imposing strict discipline over his people. Doyle seems to have learned from his predecessor, Huck said, perhaps better than Thompson would prefer.

Of course, the main reason Earl wasn't re-elected was a highly unpopular decision to sign legislation raising the sales tax and imposing a brief income tax surcharge. There again, it appears Doyle was taking notes.

At virtually every opportunity during the fall campaign, Doyle vowed not to raise taxes, a pledge he has repeated many times since being elected, despite a projected $2.6 billion budget deficit.

Yet, just weeks before he must introduce his budget, Doyle has still not said what programs he would cut or how he plans to restructure state spending. Until he shows those cards at least, the honeymoon appears likely to continue.

"I look at what Jim Doyle said during the campaign. He said he wasn't going to raise taxes. He wasn't going to do a lot of things that were going to impact our industry," said GOP strategist Scholz, the president of the Wisconsin Grocers Association.

"They've been given every opportunity to open the door a little bit (to raising taxes). So far they haven't done it. And as long as they stick to their guns, that means Jim Doyle's keeping his promises."