With the election tomorrow (7 am-8 pm in Wisconsin, check with your local election officials for times and poll locations), it’s as good a time as any to tell you who I’ll be voting for and who I would be voting for if I were in various districts other than my own:
Races I will be voting on
- Wisconsin governor/lieutenant governor – Scott Walker/Rebecca Kleefisch – In case you missed that little graphic on your right (or you’re viewing this place on a mobile phone), I’ve been an early backer of Scott Walker. Do I really need to repeat what I said in September?
- US Senator from Wisconsin – Ron Johnson – Going back to the September ballot explanation, I said that I trust someone whose “gut” was in the right place. Johnson has learned how effectively voice his “gut conservatism”, and how to avoid the types of mistakes that other first-timers have made.
- 1st Congressional District – Paul Ryan – There is a runaway fiscal train coming down the tracks, and despite what certain “libertarians” think, Ryan is one of the few willing to work on rerouting the train away from the derailing curve at the bottom of the hill.
- Attorney General – J.B. Van Hollen – There is a reason Van Hollen was the only Republican to win a major statewide/Congressional office held by a Democrat in 2006; he is a law-and-order type who runs a lean department.
- State treasurer – Kurt Schuller – Schuller sold me on his candidacy in an interview he did shortly after the primary. I’m still not entirely convinced that the state treasurer’s office should go away entirely, but until/unless it does, he will fill the job in a fiscally- and constitutionally-responsible manner.
- Secretary of state – David King – I’ll go back to an interview he did back at the RPW convention.
- Milwaukee County Sheriff – David Clarke – Simple; he has professionalized the Sheriff’s office while streamlining the costs.
- 7th Senate District – Jess Ripp – The Milwaukee Democrats made a big mistake in removing Jeff Plale in the primary in favor of someone who, if elected, would be the most-liberal Senator in the next session of the Legislature. Ripp, and my fellow voters, are just the people to explain to them just how big.
- 21st Assembly District – Mark Honadel – Honadel took a district that had been a Democrat stronghold for 80 years during southeast Wisconsin’s precursor to the TEA Party. Now that he’s about to finally be in a government-limiting majority, it’s time to make sure he’s there to make it happen.
Races I wish I could be voting on
- 5th Senate District – Leah Vukmir – She is, simply, one of the brightest people who ever went into the Capitol to serve, and the Capitol hasn’t corrupted her.
- 21st Senate District – Van Wanggaard
- 31st Senate District – Ed Thompson
- 6 of the other 7 Congressional races – Chad Lee (2nd), Dan Kapanke (3rd), Dan Sebring (4th), Jim Sensenbrenner (5th), Sean Duffy (7th) and Reid Ribble (8th) – It’s about the spending. Sensenbrenner is a proven spendthrift, and the other 5 are running as the same. A couple of them won’t win just because the districts (2nd and 4th) are just that rigged for Democrats, but this time last year, everybody thought Dave Obey was safe in the 7th. In case you were wondering where Tom Petri is, see the open.
- 25th Assembly District – Bob Ziegelbauer – Sink the other part of the Democrat Party Purification to bear at least some fruit this cycle. The Democrats and AFSCME went so far as to insert a faux “Republican” into the race (finally succeeding after some nomination signatures were found well after the deadline and after the Government “Accountability” Board threw out enough signatures to deny the stalking horse a ballot spot); don’t let them oust the last moderate Dem to see where the party is headed.
- Racine County advisory referendum on new taxes for KRM – No – KRM should be dead and buried in the new year, but it’s best to drive this stake through it.
