U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold is an all-but-announced candidate for re-election in 2010, and the three-term senator has an announced Republican opponent: Watertown small-businessman Dave Westlake.

Westlake, a Christian conservative who highlights his enthusiasm for "pro-life issues and traditional marriage" and "faith-based organizations," has been campaigning hard around the state. But national Republican strategists and fund raisers, who have not targeted the Feingold race as a high priority, have been slow to rally to his candidacy.

It is no secret that GOP insiders would like to see someone with more money and a higher profile enter the race.

And they might get their wish.

Madison developer Terrence Wall, an economic conservative who has resources and a penchant for political infighting honed on the tough turf of heavily Democratic Dane County, has made a number of moves that position him as a possible Republican contender.

Wall is not talking publicly about a Senate run yet.

But the buzz in the state's political community is that he has conducted at least one poll and making calls that indicate an interest in making a Republican bid.

John "Sly" Sylvester, the politically-connected WTDY talk radio host who is one of Feingold's most enthusiastic boosters, says: "I'm hearing from all over the place that Terrence Wall wants to be a senator."

"His name surfaced several weeks ago," said a Democratic insider who has been tracking developments in the Senate race. "We've heard he has been polling and that an announcement could come in a couple of weeks."

Republican operatives confirmed the reports, according to a www.wispolitics.com report that says simply: "his name has been circulating recently as a potential candidate."

If Wall runs, he will bring a conservative take on economics to the race.

As a columnist for "In Business" magazine and the author of political commentaries on the website of his firm, T. Wall Properties, Wall has positioned himself as a sharp critic of the Obama administration's economic strategies.

"(We) would have been seeing a recovery around this time if the government would have stayed out of this mess, but now the country is in a terrible catch-22; massive government spending falsely marketed as stimulus is going to come back and require similarly massive taxation (or monetizing the debt by printing money) that in turn would sink any recovery. The only alternative is to cut taxes significantly to jump start the economy and produce the necessary tax revenue to pay off those deficits," wrote the developer in his latest "Wall Report" column.

Driving home the point, Wall concluded, "Continuing down the present path will only lead to another crisis.

What is needed is Reagan style tax cuts, targeted tax credits and a whole host of other fixes that put money back into the hands of consumers and investors so that they can create jobs."

That's a message that positions Wall to challenge Feingold, who cast a reluctant vote in favor of the stimulus package promoted earlier this year by the president.

Wall's columns also suggest that he has deep differences with the incumbent on a host of other economic issues, including trade policy.

Over the years, Wall has contributed to some Democrats, including Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk. But most of his recent donations have been to Republicans, including the campaigns of George W. Bush, the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the Republican National Committee.

Wall was a donor, as well, to the campaign of 2008 Republican presidential contender John McCain. In fact, while the developer gave just $500 to Bush's 2004 campaign, he was gave a "maxed out" donation of $4,600 to McCain in 2008 -- after having initially donated $1,000 to the Republican presidential run of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

McCain, of course, has been Feingold's frequent ally on campaign finance and ethics reform initiatives. Indeed, because the pair have sponsored so many McCain-Feingold bills, the Arizona senator used to joke people thought Feingold's first name was McCain.

With an intense national competition for Senate seats shaping up in 2010, McCain is expected to hit the road for Republican candidates.

If Wall runs, and if his campaign were to spark enthusiasm among national Republican strategists, there would be much speculation about whether McCain would come to Wisconsin to back his enthusiastic supporter, Wall, or avoid taking his legislative ally, Feingold, to task.

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