Now that I’ve had a few hours to let the scope of our near-total victory over AB15 (the bad-gas bill), as well as some celebratory ethanol, sink in, it’s time to thank some of the people that helped drive it into the coffin known as “indefinite postponement”.
- First, we have the 17 Senators that voted for the postponement –
- Roger Breske (D-Town of Elderon in the northeast part of the state)
- Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee), who believed his constituents and his gas gauge rather than ADM
- Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay)
- Alberta Darling (R-River Hills)
- Mike Ellis (R-Neenah)
- Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), though this is VERY qualified – more in a bit
- Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend)
- Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay), who believed his constituents and the prices of gasoline in his district instead of ADM
- Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield)
- Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn)
- Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin)
- Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan)
- Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee), my Senator
- Tom Reynolds (R-West Allis), glad he saw that his vote was needed
- Carol Roessler (R-Oshkosh), who took a VERY long time to finally come down on the right side
- Cathy Stepp (R-Sturtevant), our first convert in the Senate
- Bob Wirch (D-Kenosha)
Yes, at least one of these people really wanted to pass AB15, and a few more did a lot of hemming-and-hawing, but for the moment, it’s the result that matters.
- Everybody who called their Senator to oppose AB15. We got no less than 4 Senators to come down against AB15 – Stepp, Carpenter, Hansen and Roessler – after they either announced support or didn’t announce either way.
- The talk radio trifecta of Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and Jeff Wagner. It sure is good to have a 50,000-watt antenna to amplify your voice.
- The Cheddarsphere. I can’t thank James enough for being our whip on this issue, Jib for staying on top of the ethanol price spike, and countless others for bringing the message to the electron universe.
- Scott Walker, who once again jumped into this with both feet.
- A back-handed thanks to Rep. Stephen Freese (ADM-Hazel Green) and the 5 members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Insurance who unwittingly gave us Fitzgerald when they decided to act like ‘Rats and kowtow to the Sierra Club. Without this, Fitzie would have been vote #16 in favor of corn-a-hole, and I’d bet the farm that Luther Olsen would have ignored his self-imposed abstention to be vote #17 to enrich the family business.
