By Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel

Mayor Tom Barrett will announce this weekend that he is running for governor, the Journal Sentinel has learned.

"You would not be inaccurate to write that," said a top adviser to the two-term mayor on Friday.

A second Milwaukee Democrat who has firsthand knowledge of Barrett's plans also confirmed that the mayor has decided to enter the race to try to replace Gov. Jim Doyle, who announced in August that he would not seek a third term.

Barrett is expected to reveal his plans publicly at noon Sunday, ending three months of pondering and speculation.

All week, Barrett had been inching toward a bid for the state's highest office.

Sources close to Barrett said his team has been talking to Wisconsin campaign operatives about what it would take to run and win a statewide gubernatorial campaign, including what would be a realistic budget. Those sources emphasized that Barrett is not interviewing for campaign staff.

By entering the statewide contest, Barrett will become the only major Democrat in the field, boasting a campaign war chest and name recognition that are expected to keep out other candidates.

Since August, several prominent Democrats - including Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton and U.S. Rep. Ron Kind - ultimately opted to sit it out. Another Democrat, businessman Kevin Conroy, has said he won't run if Barrett gets in the race.

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk - who, like Barrett, lost the 2002 Democratic primary to Doyle - also has attracted some speculation as a potential candidate, first for governor and more recently for lieutenant governor, as a potential Barrett running mate.

Barrett's announcement could set up a Milwaukee-centered contest. Polls show County Executive Scott Walker leading former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann in the race for the Republican nomination.

It would then be a choice between Barrett, the cautious consensus-builder, and Walker, who regularly confronts the County Board, county unions and others whose agendas conflict with his no-new-taxes platform. Walker has already said that if Barrett runs, he would contrast their budgeting styles, casting himself as holding the line on taxes and painting Barrett as a heavy spender. But Barrett could point to Public Policy Forum reports that characterize the city as well-managed and fault the county for a lack of realistic and comprehensive fiscal planning.

Walker's campaign declined Friday night to comment on Barrett's planned entry in the race.

"Out of respect to the mayor, we're not going to comment until he makes the announcement himself," Walker spokeswoman Jill Bader said Friday. "Thanks much for the heads up."

Bruce Pfaff, who is managing Neumann's campaign, said the news is not surprising.

"It doesn't really change Mark's strategy," he said.

Neumann, a homebuilder, will bring a businessman's sensibility to the governor's office, Pfaff said.

"We're at a point, to be honest, where people are fed up with career politicians," Pfaff said.

Next year's race will be the first gubernatorial contest in 28 years without an incumbent on the ballot. It has been even longer since a Milwaukee resident has been elected.

Attention after assault

For more than 23 years in public office, Barrett's style has been a patient, low-key and conciliatory approach to solving political problems in Milwaukee, Madison and Washington, D.C.

It was a dramatic departure, then, that he received national recognition for a sudden, violent confrontation on a dark street in West Allis in August. Leaving the State Fair with his family, Barrett came to the aid of a woman calling for help, only to be brutally beaten with a tire iron.

The assault shattered Barrett's right hand and knocked out several of his teeth. His accused assailant, Anthony Peters, has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental defect to multiple charges in the Aug. 15 incident.

As he recovered from his injuries, Barrett was showered with national and local media attention as the "hero mayor" who risked his life for a stranger. That also provided a big boost to his statewide image just as Doyle was announcing he would not seek re-election.

Polls by both sides have put Walker and Barrett neck-and-neck. No polling has been released publicly that puts Neumann in a head-to-head match-up with Barrett.

Top Democrats - including Doyle and President Obama - pushed the mayor to run. But Barrett delayed making a decision on the race as he waited for more information about the condition of his hand and weighed the effects a campaign would have on his wife and four school-age children.

In recent weeks, some top Democrats, led by Doyle, tried to entice Barrett to run with the novel suggestion that he keep his Washington Heights residence - and often work from Milwaukee - if he wins next year. Barrett has warmed to the idea.

"It's safe to say if I were ever to do it and if I were to be successful, there's no way I'm taking kids out of high school," Barrett said earlier this month.

Barrett was elected to an Assembly seat from Milwaukee's northwest side in 1984 and advanced to the state Senate in 1988. Four years later, he won the first of five terms in Congress. In 2002, Barrett lost a bid for governor and returned briefly to practicing law. He was elected mayor in 2004 and again in 2008.

As of this summer, Barrett had about $840,000 in his campaign account and Walker had $1.1 million, according to campaign finance filings. Neumann hasn't had to file a report yet.

Lee Bergquist, Patrick Marley and Larry Sandler of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.