GOP Rep. Sean Duffy’s re-election campaign quickly claimed to have seized the momentum in his competitive race for re-election following Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) easy victory in Tuesday’s gubernatorial recall election.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the Democrat who opposed Walker in the recall, won only three of the 26 counties in the 7th district, according to a Wednesday memo from the Duffy campaign. Voters in the counties that make up the district picked Walker over Barrett by a 17-point margin.

The Duffy campaign sought to tie the policies of former state Sen. Pat Kreitlow, Duffy’s expected Democratic opponent in November, to those of Barrett.

“Kreitlow’s message and record of higher taxes, more spending and bigger government is a mirror image of Tom Barrett’s, and it proved to be a failure with 7th Congressional District voters,”  the memo from Duffy strategist Darrin Schmitz said.

The Kreitlow campaign offered a different interpretation of the recall results.

“Governor Walker’s margin of victory shows that there are still well over a million Wisconsin residents who believe our leaders should represent regular Wisconsinites and not corporate special interests,” Kreitlow said in a statement.

Roll Call rates the race as Leans Republican.