“Let’s face it, for too long the president and his advisers got bogged down with White House politics and they failed to communicate with the American people,’’ said Wisconsin state Sen. Bob Jauch, a Democrat from the northwest corner of the state who barely won re-election in November with 51 percent of the vote.

The public mood was sour heading into the election, said Jauch, a state senator for 23 years. But he believes spirits are reviving, and that Obama will be warmly welcomed to the small city on the shores of Lake Michigan known best as the place where a 20-pound chunk of the Russian satellite Sputnik crashed in 1962.

“I think it’s like he’s coming here for the first time,’’ Jauch said.

Wisconsin’s Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus said he’s not surprised Obama is back in Wisconsin despite the snub in November. Wisconsin was one of 28 states Obama carried in the 2008 presidential election, winning by 14 percentage points, and Democrats would be hard pressed to hold the White House in 2012 without its support. Until last fall, the state had been trending Democratic.

But no matter how much Obama talks up the economic recovery, Wisconsin voters showed last year where they stand now, said Priebus, who was elevated to Republican National Committee chairman after the Wisconsin sweep.