EAU CLAIRE, Wis. -- The Chippewa Valley area of western Wisconsin is experiencing something of a high-tech economic boom and support of that industry for some companies is a swing issue this election season.

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Some people call Eau Claire and nearby Chippewa Falls is some call it the "Silicon Valley" of the Midwest. The picturesque landscape of the Chippewa Valley leaves you with the feeling it would be a good place to grow crops or a family but instead, they grow supercomputers.

"Cray is known as the supercomputer company. We build very high performance computers to solve challenging national security, environmental, science manufacturing sorts of problems," said Steve Scott, chief technical officer of Cray Inc.

Cray Incorporated traces its roots back to Cray Research founded in the 1970's by Chippewa Falls resident Semour Cray.

The company now makes computers for NASA and the Department of Defense among others.

"Federal funding for the advancement of science high end technology is very important for Cray today and moving forward," said Dave Kiefer, customer development executive for Cray.

Just down the road, another company who used to own Cray Research now creates computers not only for problem-solving but for companies to design other amazing advances like the first down line you see on Sundays in football or the design of the new Olympic swimsuit.

"Basically we're in the business of conceiving designing, developing manufacturing and supporting high performance computing, visualization and storage systems," said Rick Chapek, vice president of engineering for SGI.

Ultimately, computers and data are the business of both companies. And they want candidates to be talking about what will help make technology the future for Wisconsin's economy.

"The main thing we need is an appreciation by the federal government that high performance computing is important to the nation both in terms of its support for scientific advancement and the support of national defense," said Scott.

"There are tremendous markets opening up worldwide for our type of equipment and while I think it's important that we keep the engineering jobs at home and the intellectual property at home, I think we do need to be an enabler for the rest of the world to solve some of the world's toughest problems," said Chapek.

Funding for supercomputing projects and export controls some swing issues these companies believe will help them continue to flourish in what one calls the "silicon pasture" of Wisconsin.

"Typically you don't find this type of technology development in the middle of such a pristine environment and we all know every day how fortunate we are to be in this part of the country doing these types of jobs," said Chapek.

Chippewa Valley is home to a number of other high-tech companies many of them followed Cray Research to the area and make products that are used in the supercomputers.

There are some other surprising issues important to them as well.

Federal funding for their projects is paramount but also immigration policy they said was an issue they say scientists who are trained in the United States often have to return because of visa policies and they'd like many of the world's brilliant minds working for them and with their products rather than the competition.

Note: This story is part of an ongoing series of stories during the Democratic and Republican conventions. WISC-TV's political reporter Jessica Arp is hitting the road, traveling statewide and taking WISC-TV's campaign coverage in depth. After stopping in Kimberly, Merrill and Beloit last week and La Crosse Tuesday, she headed to the Chippewa Valley on Wednesday.