No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for the 'Politics – Wisconsin' Category

September 22, 2010

PolitiCrap – The “Maverick” Label

by @ 15:57. Tags:
Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

The second edition PolitiCrap is now up. This time, George Mitchell looks at a story that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel a few days ago that characterized Feingold’s voting record as breaking to both the left and the right. Here’s the close of the analysis and the rating:

In radio promos for Journal Sentinel political coverage, Gilbert says the paper wants to give readers the information they need to evaluate statements by candidates. But in this case, the paper effectively has recast one candidate’s main claim. To Feingold’s advantage, Gilbert’s story reframes the major concern Johnson has with the maverick label.

Rating
Blended.
Blended

Wednesday Hot Read – The first PolitiCrap fact-check

by @ 11:01. Tags:
Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

WTMJ-AM’s Charlie Sykes and several of Wisconsin’s best right-of-center bloggers have launched a new fact-checking feature called PolitiCrap after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel showed typical liberal bias in the first several runs of its PolitiFact Wisconsin feature (done in conjunction with the St. Petersburg Times, which is consistently liberal in its “fact-checks”). In keeping with the theme from the (Almost-Somewhat-Not-Quite-Deep-Enough) Deep Tunnel Awards Charlie does every Friday just after the bottom of the 11 o’clock hour (or just past the middle of Part 3 of the podcast for those of you who can’t listen live), there are 4 classifications possible:



All graphics courtesy David Lunde of Lundesigns

Things are starting off with a bang, with a look at Tom Barrett’s pension comparo commercial suggested by Patrick from Badger Blogger. The cold-hard facts (emphasis in the original):

In the spring of 2009, Milwaukee County issued $400 million in Pension Obligation Bonds (POB’s). Before the bonds were issued, Milwaukee County had been paying off its pension liability over a 30-year period of time with an 8% interest rate.

In contrast the new pension bonds will be paid over a 25-year period of time with a 6.2% interest rate. This switch saved taxpayers $237 million. (Which may be why the plan was embraced not only by Walker, but also by many of Barrett’s own buddies on the County Board.)

Don’t just take our word (or Walker’s) for it: Moody’s, the bond ratings agency said that without the issuance of the pension bonds, the county’s unfunded liability could approach $1 billion, in just four years.

This will be a daily feature because there is so much material out there, not just from the campaigns, but from the media (some of whom act as though they’re part of certain campaigns).

Interview with Republican State Treasurer nominee Kurt Schuller

by @ 10:23. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Yesterday, I was able to interview the Republican candidate for state treasurer, Kurt Schuller. We discussed what the treasurer’s office does, why he is running, how he was able to win a three-way race against someone who worked in the treasurer’s office when Jack Voight was treasurer and someone who worked the immediate Milwaukee area rather hard with very few resources, and what, beyond working toward a state constitutional amendment to eliminate the position, he would do if he were elected. Even before I got to the question raised by the Waukesha Freeman regarding Schuller’s future plans in its pre-primary story on the primary, he addressed them (of course, he knew I had reservations based on the Freeman’s characterization).

Click for the interview.

One thing we discussed while the recorder was off was how different the attitudes of the vast majority of Wisconsin’s Republicans and conservatives are than the attitudes of some other states’ Republicans and conservatives.

I thank Schuller for making time to be interviewed, and he has my full support against Dawn Marie Sass in the general election for state treasurer.

September 19, 2010

Post-primary poll-a-copia, gubernatorial edition

by @ 10:02. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

As surely as rain follows an early-morning rainbow here in Wisconsin, Rasmussen Reports has released its post-primary gubernatorial poll shortly after it released its Senate one, and Scott Walker now leads Tom Barrett 51%-43% with leaners included (for the first time in the cycle) and 50%-43% without leaners. That was a significant improvement over the 47%-44% lead Walker had at the end of August.

Normally, that would be attributed to a post-primary bounce for Walker, who actually had a semi-competitive primary against Mark Neumann (with Scott Paterick doing essentially nothing) while Barrett had only token opposition from Tim John. However, given the ease with which Walker won the primary and the history of 7-to-9-point leads Walker enjoyed throughout the year, Rasmussen Reports decided to restore the “Leans Republican” status the race had prior to the end of August. They did not do a similar move in the Wisconsin Senate race despite the first significant lead for Ron Johnson.

On the favorability front, both Walker and Barrett improved from late-August. Walker’s favorables are now 58% favorable (up 2 points)/36% unfavorable (unchanged)/Favorability Index (strong favorable less strong unfavorable) +12 (up 4 points). Barrett’s favorables are now 52% favorable (up 7 points)/43% unfavorable (down 4 points)/Favorability Index +2 (up 7 points, and the first positive since mid-July).

There is a statistic those warring over the results of the Delaware Senate primary should take note of – he holds 96% of Republicans in this poll back Walker, compared to a “high 80s” in late August. In fact, that is the major source of Walker’s gain; he holds a 24-point lead among independents (roughly equal to late-August and maybe a bit higher), and Barrett holds 86% of the Democrats (again, roughly equal to late-August and maybe a bit lower).

September 17, 2010

Post-primary poll-a-copia, Senate edition

by @ 10:26. Filed under Politics - National, Politics - Wisconsin.

Rasmussen Reports is the first out of the gate with a post-primary poll of the Senate race between Republican nominee Ron Johnson and Democrat incumbent Russ Feingold taken on Wednesday, and it is shocking. For the first time, Johnson cracked the 50% mark, pulling ahead of Feingold 51%-44% with the leaners included (for the first time in Rasmussen polls), and 50%-43% without leaners. The last several Rasmussen polls had given Johnson a 1-to-2-point lead over Feingold, with Feingold stuck at a consistent 46%.

Where did the sudden Johnson surge come from? Back in the end of August, Johnson had 89% of Republicans and a 10-point lead among independents, while Feingold had 86% of Democrats. Now, Johnson has 94% of Republicans and a 2-to-1 lead among independents, with Feingold continuing to hold onto 86% of Democrats.

On the favorability front, Johnson improved from 53% favorable/36% unfavorable/+6 Favorability Index (strong favorable less strong unfavorable) to 61% favorable/33% unfavorable/+10 Favorability Index. Feingold’s favorables dipped slightly from 55% favorable/44% unfavorable to 51% favorable/46% unfavorable, though his Favorability Index improved from -1 to +4.

Rasmussen suggests that this is a temporary post-primary bump for Johnson. Given the ease with which Johnson won the primary, and his unerring focus on Feingold in pre-primary advertising, I think it is more a result of a significant part of pre-primary Dave Westlake-or-bust supporters dropping the “or bust”.

Mary thinks Feingold will redouble his negative attacks on Johnson. While I don’t doubt that he will, that would be a mistake. In the just-concluded gubernatorial primary, Mark Neumann saw his lowest poll numbers while he was in full-negative mode against eventual winner Scott Walker, and saw his best poll numbers when he switched away from the attacks.

September 16, 2010

Thursday Hot Read – Ed Morrissey’s “Sore Loser Party”

by @ 11:45. Filed under Politics - National, Politics - Wisconsin, Tea Party Movement.

Normally, I don’t comment extensively on the Hot Reads. However, Ed Morrissey’s column in today’s Washington Times serves both as something that needs to be taken to heart and as a launching point:

Clearly, though, that public show of support for primaries hides a scorn for the actual idea of voters selecting a candidate for themselves, a scorn exposed by the Tea Party in this cycle. One reason for the growth of Tea Party activism is precisely the kind of disconnected, elitist and condescending attitude toward voters in the Republican Party that results in the selection of candidates like Mike Castle in Delaware. In a midterm cycle where both liberals and establishment figures have as much attraction as big-government proposals like cap-and-trade, the national Republican establishment prompted the liberal Mr. Castle to abandon his safe House seat and run for the open Senate seat left vacant by Joe Biden’s election as vice president. Not only did they hand-select Mr. Castle, whose support of cap-and-trade and the DISCLOSE Act made him particularly suspect, the party then attacked a Republican who dared to challenge him for the seat.

Ed continues over at Hot Air:

The GOP has made the “rules” of primaries clear. The primaries are the manner in which voters hold candidates accountable for their records. After the voters make their choice, though, the debate is supposed to be over. The GOP has demanded loyalty from various constituencies at the end of the process, in which incumbents or anointed candidates such as Castle almost invariably win.

Suddenly, though, those rules don’t apply to the GOP establishment — or at least the establishment seemed ready to reject them yesterday. That’s precisely the same kind of elitist attitude that Americans get from Washington DC, and why the Tea Party exists in the first place. A day later, at least a few Republicans seemed to grasp that, including Senator John Cornyn and Michael Steele. If the rest don’t learn the lesson that DocZero gives in today’s post about bottom-up change instead of top-down diktats, the GOP establishment may be positioning itself for irrelevance in the long run.

So, why was Wisconsin so “different” than Delaware, and Alaska, and Nevada, and Utah? Simple; we already had the Conservative-versus-“Establishment” war in Wisconsin over the last 8 years, and at a significant, if incomplete level, the conservatives and the Republican Party of Wisconsin have figured out that they are by necessity complimentary. Still, both the article and the actions on the ground should serve as a stark warning against a return to the bad old days here in Wisconsin.

For the benefit of those who didn’t live through that 8-year war, allow me to walk back through that history, with the first stop at the very-brief Scott McCallum era. McCallum took a look at the direction of state finances and realized that the gravy train of state spending was headed off the tracks. His proposed reforms, which included ending shared revenue with localities (which allows municipalities and counties to spend wildly while claiming to be holding the line on property taxes) and a property tax freeze so riled up the bipartisan members of the Party-In-Government that even the supposedly-fiscally-conservative Republican majority in the state Assembly ran away from it.

At the same time, news of an unconscionable pension grab by the Milwaukee County leadership at the time, including 6- and 7-figure lump-sum payments on top of per-annum payments that essentially equalled the last-year salary broke. It was anger over that which propelled Scott Walker from his Assembly seat to the County Executive office on a pledge to fix the damage from the pension mess and other damage done by the free-spending government without raising taxes from the previous year.

While the sudden entry of Ed Thompson, the brother of former governor Tommy Thompson, whose appointment to head the federal Health and Human Services gave McCallum the governorship, may or may not have been a calculated move by the old-guard RPW leadership to take out McCallum, it had the effect of doing so, and that saddled us with Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale) as governor.

Discontent over taxation didn’t go away, however, and in a special election in the 21st Assembly District (full disclosure; that is my Assembly district) in 2003, Republican Mark Hondael used that discontent to win a seat that had been held by the Democrats for 80 years. Meanwhile, some in the Assembly got it through their minds that something along the lines of Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights needed to get into the state Constitution. That died a rather noisy death in the Senate in the spring of 2004 when “Republican” Majority Leader Mary Panzer refused to take it up. She suddenly found herself in a primary against one of the Assembly sponsors of the amendment, Glenn Grothman, which ended in an 80%-20% removal of the sitting Senate Majority Leader.

In the same election cycle, staunch conservative Tim Michels upset the establishment candidate, moderate car dealer Russ Darrow, for the right to face Russ Feingold. The support from both the state party and the NRSC that had been promised to their establishment candidate immediately evaporated to the point Michels was “encouraged” to not appear at any multi-“Repubican”-candidate appearances, and we were saddled with another 6 years of Feingold.

Somehow, even though President Bush lost Wisconsin to John Kerry, there were still enough coattails to keep both houses of the Legislature in Republican hands and actually extend the margins. A majority of the 19 Senate “Republicans”, in a clear sign they were unwilling to change their P-I-G ways, chose Dale Schultz (“R”-“There’s no talk radio around here”) as their leader. The 60 Assembly Republicans, left looking for a speaker after Scott Jensen went down in the caucus “scandal”, chose a moderate from northeast Wisconsin, John Gard. At the end of the session, the Assembly chose to whip together a weak-tea version of what was renamed the Taxpayer Protection Amendment as they rejected a strong version that resembled the previous Taxpayer Bill of Rights. The Senate once again refused to even take it up.

Meanwhile, the establishment made it crystal clear that then-Congressman Mark Green (out of Green Bay) was the anointed candidate for governor because they thought that, like previous candidates who built up sizable federal campaign war chests, he would be able to transfer that entire amount to a state campaign fund. The message was sent so strongly, Scott Walker put away the campaign stuff and didn’t circulate nomination papers. Unfortunately, Doyle used a Democrat/Libertarian majority on the former State Elections Board to neuter that strategy. Predictably, the Senate fell to the Democrats in 2006, flipping from a 19-14 R advantage to a 18-15 D one, Doyle picked up another term, and the Assembly Republicans saw their majority drop from 60-39 to 52-47. The ugliest part was the tale of Senator Tom Reynolds, a staunch conservative opposed by both the general tax-and-spenders and specifically the road-builders for his vendetta against pork. Both the Democrats and the Schultz wing of the GOP targeted him for destruction, and they succeeded.

After that, the Senate Republicans started to wise up and ousted Schultz as their leader, replacing him with Scott Fitzgerald. To a person (and yes, even Schultz), they voted against both the Senate Democrat-drafted version of the 2007 DemoBudget, which included a state takeover of the health-insurance industry, and the final Joint Finance Committee/Doyle-negotiated version. On the Assembly side, since Gard had left in an unsuccessful attempt to succeed Green in Congress, they chose Mike Huebsch as speaker, another moderate who, like Schultz, came from an area devoid of talk radio. The leadership joined virtually every Democrat in voting for the final version of the 2007 DemoBudget.

Meanwhile, the state party underwent a bit of a rebellion, as Rick Graber departed the chairman’s seat and Reince Priebus became chairman. In 2008, while the Republicans lost the Assembly, they held their ground in the Senate.

Priebus recognized early on that there was something to the Tea Party Movement. The RPW provided shuttle buses between Madison’s Alliant Energy Center and the Capitol for the 2009 Tax Day Tea Party (never mind there were far more people than anybody anticipated, and those buses were still bringing people in halfway through the event). Over in the Assembly, Republicans tossed Huebsch out of his leadership role and completed the Brothers of Fitzgerald tag-team in Legislative leadership by picking Jeff Fitzgerald (yes, they are brothers). Meanwhile, Walker began his gubernatorial campaign in earnest, courting both the Tea Party and the party grassroots with his proven-conservative-beacon-in-the-liberal-wilderness message.

When Mark Neumann finally decided to enter the campaign the middle of 2009, it wasn’t as a Tea Party candidate. In fact, his major backers were those who last publicly wielded power a decade earlier. It wasn’t until the nationally-focused Tea Party Express rolled into town that he even began to seriously reach out to elements of the Tea Party movement.

That is not to say that there is a complete convergence between the RPW and the Tea Party movement. Despite a lack of an endorsement in the lieutenant governor’s race at the 2010 RPW Convention (or even a majority on the 4th and last ballot), many elected Republicans, including those who honestly should have known better, endorsed Brett Davis. Don’t get me wrong; Davis isn’t a bad guy, and like every major Republican candidate, he reached out to the Tea Party, but his record in the Assembly wasn’t exactly conservative.

Even in that instance where there was a serious divergence, with Rebecca Kleefisch ultimately winning the lieutenant governor’s race going away, there was a recognition that once the primary battle was fought, it was time to get behind the winner. WisPolitics interviewed him after he conceded:

“I’m proud of the campaign I ran,” said Davis shortly after conceding. “Rebecca Kleefisch ran a teriffic campaign, and we’re very close friends. Joel and I have been close friends and will continue to be.”

“The most important thing tonight is we unify tonight in the common purpose of November,” Davis said.

The bottom line is that the Democrats must be defeated, and with the primary season over, the only way to do that is to unify against the winner. I wish I could remember which Hot Air commenter first voiced this thought yesterday so I could give the person proper credit and a full quoting – If at this point you’re not going to back the winner of the Republican primary, you’re not a RINO; you’re a Democrat regardless of the designation behind your name.

September 15, 2010

Primary thoughs – the night after

by @ 22:28. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Well, 24 hours have passed since the primaries have ended (at least when I started typing this), and Wisconsin Republicans and conservatives seem to be avoiding the Hell that has broken loose over the Delaware Senate results that has pitted former friend against former friend after a background-challenged conservative beat a voting-record-challenged Democrat-In-All-But-Affiliation backed by the DC/Delaware Establishment. With the county-level results available from the AP (via JSOnline), a proper analysis can actually be made. Of course, there isn’t a pro handy when I need one, so I’m going to have to do it myself.

Governor race

Whether one likes it or not, southeast Wisconsin is the heart of the GOP. The 5-county Milwaukee metro area (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee and Racine Counties) provided 38% of all the votes in the primary and both of the major candidates in the race. The extended 11-county Milwaukee media market (which also includes Kenosha, Walworth, Jefferson, Dodge, Fond du Lac and Sheboygan Counties) provided over 51% of all the votes in the primary. Scott Walker took over 75% of the vote in the Milwaukee metro area and almost 72% of the vote in the Milwaukee media market, earning almost as many votes in just those 11 counties as Neumann earned statewide.

The lesson of the day is that those who can credibly fuse the Tea Party Movement grassroots and the GOP grassroots will have no problem with the anti-incumbent mood out there.

There is an interesting dynamic in the county-by-county map compiled by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – one can tell what counties are in what media markets by which candidate won which county. I have but ancedotal evidence, but in media markets where there was parity betwen Walker and Neumann, Walker carried the day, while in media markets where Neumann dominated the airwaves, he carried the day. The other dynamic is that the four counties where the hometown candidates tied themselves to Walker (Waukesha with Rebecca Kleefisch, Dane with Brett Davis, Douglas with Dave Ross and Ashland with Sean Duffy), Walker carried the day.

The bad news for the Democrats is that because they chose the mayor of Milwaukee, they can’t take advantage of the built-in anti-Milwaukee bias outstate.

Lieutenant governor

The ease with which Rebecca Kleefisch won the primary is possibly the most-surprising development out of Wisconsin yesterday. The “Establishment” was rather solidly behind Brett Davis, despite his failure to get the party endorsement (or even a majority in the endorsement vote). Dave Ross was postioned as the outstate candidate, and after finishing second in the endorsement vote, had been winning straw poll after straw poll. Kleefisch redoubled her efforts over the last few months, connected with the actual voters, and used the Southeast Wisconsin Factor to run away with the nomination.

On the Democrat side, they chose geographical balance over skin-tone balance. Honestly, I can’t blame them because there is one thing more reviled in outstate Wisconsin than a Milwaukee Republican – a Milwaukee Democrat, and a ticket with two Miwaukee Democrats is a recipe for disaster even in a year that is favorable to Democrats, which this year is definitely not.

Senate race

Honestly, there is very little to say about Ron Johnson’s 75-point drubbing of Dave Westlake. A couple million dollars and a conservative message delivered in mass media crushes a few dozen ten-thousand dollars and the same message delivered to a few dozen people at a time in a Republican primary every day of the week and twice on Tuesdays. It does, however, lead into this….

Operation Revenge Chaos

We on the right learned the lesson in 2008 when the Rush Limbaugh-led Operation Chaos failed to derail the Barack Obama campaign late in the primary season. Now, the left has learned that it just doesn’t work. In fact, given Walker’s 20-point and Johnson’s 75-point wins, I wonder if it was merely bluster on the part of the left half of the Cheddarsphere, or if they really are that ineffective outside a single state Senate district (more on that in a bit).

State treasurer race

What is it about the last 2 cycles that has attracted the crazies to the race? First, we got a part-time Boston Store clerk who rode the Democrat tide to oust Jack Voight; now we got a male ex-Kelly Girl failing to oust Dawn Marie Sass in the Democrat primary, and a goof who wants to ride the notoriety of benig the last treasurer ever into a career as a politician winning the Republican primary. Where is my Facepalmolive?

The Congressional races

The set-up for potential-to-likely flips to the GOP is now complete, with Dan Kapanke winning in the 3rd, Sean Duffy winning in the 7th, and Reid Ribble winning in the 8th. Ben Froland has a message for the bitter-enders that supported Terri McCormick in the 8th (who notably refused to endorse Ribble last night) that also applies to the bitter-enders that supported Dan Mielke in the 7th – “The bottom line is: If you don’t vote for the perceived lesser of two evils, the greater of two evils will always win and the result is greater evil. Period.”

I wish Chad Lee in the 2nd and Dan Sebring in the 4th all the luck in the world. They don’t have a chance in two of the safest Democrat districts in the country, but it still is necessary to hammer the stone; one never knows when it will crack like it did in the 7th.

Milwaukee County Democrat Party Purification

The one bright spot for the lefties is that they easily claimed the scalp of state Senator Jeff Plale as Chris Larson won by 22 points. Those who were paying attention should have known this was coming since 2006, when a “Democrat who (would) vote like a Democrat” who was forced to withdraw from the race a couple weeks from the election because he, well, voted twice like a Democrat got 26% of the vote. I don’t know if they really wanted to do it this cycle, because if there ever was an election where a non-Democrat could win in the 7th Senate District, this is the one. That is still a pipe dream, but on January 1, 2010, a non-Democrat holding the Senate seat occupied by Ted Kennedy and Dave Obey being scared into retirement were as much pipe dreams.

As successful as they were at purging Plale, they were equally unsuccessful at purging Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. It will be very interesting to see the ward-by-ward results for the entire county (if they ever become available, that is) to see how and where they failed to pull that off.

September 14, 2010

Instant react – 2010 Wisconsin partisan primary edition

by @ 23:13. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

The gang at Drinking Right has all-but-broken up after everything of consequence has been called. However, putting an instant reaction up calls, and since I still have some bandwidth on the semi-smartphone, and I brought the laptop, I may as well break through the alcohol-induced fog and whip out a quick instant take.

The topline is that Operation Revenge Chaos failed miserably. At last check, with 62% of the vote in and the races called by the media, Scott Walker took the gubernatorial nomination 58%-39% (with about 67% reporting) over Mark Neumann, and Ron Johnson crushed Dave Westlake 85%-10%. I knew I should have listened to Wiggy when he told me that it wouldn’t have an effect.

The two races taken together means – money without message or consituency cannot buy an election, and message without money gets one crushed when a candidate with both message and money enters the race. While things did get a bit heated, especially in the gubernatorial race, I’m glad we didn’t have a Delaware situation, where there were two fatally-flawed candidates, and the establishment doesn’t exactly seem willing to accept a Christine O’Donnell whipping of Mike Castle (shades of 2004, when Tim Michels upset the establishment candidate Russ Darrow in the Senate primary and both the NRSC and the then-moderate RPW let him twist in the wind).

In the lieutenant governor race, as I type with 67% reporting, it appears Rebecca Kleefisch survived a three-and-change-way dance, taking a 46% plurality over Brett Davis’ 26% and Dave Ross’ 16%. Guess the voters don’t like career politicians after all. On the Democrat side, Spencer Coggs will not be the first Wisconsinite of African descent to win a statewide election – the Democrats value geographical diversity more than racial diversity.

As for the Milwaukee County Democrat Party Purification, they went 1-for-2. County-wide, Sheriff David Clarke proved too popular, while in the 7th Senate District, the draw of electing someone often in legal trouble but ideologically “pure” was more than enough to overcome whatever old-line-union sentiment remains in the Democrat Party as Chris Larson easily beat Jeff Plale.”

There still is nip-and-tuck races to be this year’s sacrifical lamb in the 2nd Congressional (that would be Madison and points south and west for those of you outside Wisconsin) and for state treasurer, where the spring-boarder-wannabe Kurt Schuller and the pro Scott Feldt are running neck-and-neck.

Beyond that, things are pretty much settled. Congratulations to Walker, Kleefisch, Dan Kapanke in the 3rd Congressional (as if that was in doubt), Sean Duffy in the 7th Congressional, Reid Ribble in the 8th Congressional, and the rest of the Republicans who made it out of the primary.

Revisions/extensions (9:00 am 9/15/2010) – Chad Lee ended up with the nomination in the 2nd Congressional 53%-47%, and both halves of the treasurer’s race will be a circus as Schuller pulled it out over Feldt 37%-36%.

Jeff Plale robocalls

by @ 17:39. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Mark Belling reported several people in southeast Milwaukee County have received robocalls from Meyer Teleservices telling them that, since Scott Walker had the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the bag, they should instead vote to save Jeff Plale’s job in the 7th Senate District Democrat primary. He did not know who paid for the calls.

While I received a similar call from the outfit, the version that ended up on my answering machine did not include any reference to the Republican primaries. It also had only a vague reference to the Plale campaign via a plea to call “the campaign” (unnamed) at the campaign’s phone number, and did not contain who paid for the call. The transcript (click the transcript to hear the audio):

Hi. I’m just calling to remind today is election day. If you have not voted already, I encourage you to make it out to the polls and vote for Jeff Plale for state Senate in the Democratic primary. Polls are open until 8 o’clock. If you have any questions, need a ride to the polls, or need to know where your polling location is, please call the campaign at (414) 762-2740. Thank you.

Egg’s Wisconsin primary ballot

by @ 8:30. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Thanks to WordPress’ post-scheduling feature, by the time this hits the blog, I will be in line to vote. I know; I may be a bit late with this, but that’s the way it is. Since I will be participating in the Republican side, I won’t be able to help save Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke or prevent Chris “Sticky Fingers” Larson from being the Democrat nominee (and likely general election winner) in my state Senate district (the 7th) because of the current bout of Democrat Party Purification going on in Milwaukee County. In any case, here’s my picks:

  • Governor – Scott Walker – Walker has governed as a conservative and won elections (the latest by a landslide) in probably the toughest environment possible in Wisconsin for a conservative to win and govern. How tough has it been? Never has Walker had enough of the Milwaukee County Board to even reliably uphold his vetoes; yet he consistently submitted no-levy-increase budgets, and vetoes to Board-passed budgets that restored them, knowing a signifcant number of those vetoes would be overridden.

    Mark Neumann also has a rather-impressive fiscal conservative pedigree. However, his record of electoral success isn’t exactly as good, and by the end of his time in Washington, he was trading pork for fundraisers.

    The third candidate, Scott Paterick, simply hasn’t done anything to show he can win in November.

  • Lieutenant Governor – Dave Ross – This one is a process of elimination, as the three major candidates (Ross, Brett Davis and Rebecca Kleefisch) have actively courted both the “less-than-fully-affiliated” grassroots (aka the Tea Party Movement) and the party establishment with varying degrees of success. Davis lost me with his vote for the 2007 version of the DemoBudget in exchange for a subsidy for a soybean crusher (which, if memory serves, was line-itemed out of the budget), his lead in Wisconsin’s ethanol mandates, and his opposition to a meaningful version of the Taxpayer Protection Amendment (thanks, Owen). He is, however, rather strong on education issues.

    The two minor candidates in the race are Robert Gerald Lorge and Nick Voegeli. As Owen put it yesterday, Lorge is, well, Lorge. Voegeli has been pretty much nonexistent in the race, and in a race where other candidates have been visible, invisibility is not a winning strategy.

    Rebecca Kleefisch is a very interesting candidate, and I know most of those I follow on the right end of the Cheddarsphere have endorsed her. She has said all the right things, but in a situation where the lieutenant governor may well become governor in early 2013, having nothing more substantial than campaign positions and a marketing background isn’t going to work, especially if there are still significant elements of the Republican half of the bipartisan Party-In-Government remaining (see McCallum, Scott, and I am a charter member of the 2-member McCallum Fan Club along with Christian Schneider).

    Ross has done as Superior’s mayor pretty much what Walker has done in Milwaukee County, and he stemmed the growth of government in the lesser-known of the Twin Ports. He also would bring geographical balance to the ticket regardless of who the gubernatorial nominee is, which can’t be underestimated given outstate voters’ dislike of southeast Wisconsin and the Milwaukee name in particular. I am a bit leery of his push to compromise on the 2007 DemoBudget, but it is hard to argue against fiscal conservative results.

  • US Senate – Ron Johnson – The bottom line is to beat Russ Feingold in November. Stephen Finn has been so invisible, I didn’t even know he was running.

    Dave Westlake is a great guy who is solid on the issues. The bad news is he has run his campaign as though he were running for an oustate county office rather than in a statewide race where the general-election opponent will spend somewhere north of $5 million to save his seat. He first got overshadowed by Terrence Wall, who, despite his rather-ugly donation record, understood that one needed to actually spend and fundraise (the former significantly, the latter not-so-successfully), then by the Favre-esque (non-)campaign of Tommy Thompson (which also hurt Wall’s fundraising efforts), and finally Johnson.

    From the moment Johnson jumped into the campaign, he has been a contender because he has been willing to spend toe-to-toe with Feingold. Even though Johnson has, by-and-large self-funded his campaign, he raised more money in his first 2 months as a candidate than all the other Republican contenders and ex-candidates did in their entire campaigns combined through the end of June.

    Some bloggers have derided Johnson as merely a “gut” conservative because he misspoke a couple times early on the campaign trail. Johnson has learned from those gaffes, and honestly, I trust someone whose gut is in the right place and is willing to work past the campaign gaffes.

  • State treasurer – Scott Feldt – One has to look at what the treasurer does – sign checks, return unclaimed property, and manage EdVest, all with a staff of 14, and does not do – anything else, to understand this choice.

    Kurt Schuller told the Waukesha Freeman that he would use his term as what he hopes to be the last state treasurer ever to springboard into a career as a politician. I don’t think so.

    Jim Sanfilippo’s heart is in the right place as he would criticize bad budgeting decisions and push for zero-based budgeting (for those of you not familiar; zero-based budgeting assumes that the state starts with $0.00 to spend, while current practice assumes every program must continue with at least as much spending as the previous budget), but the other third of his platform, get the treasurer’s office to audit state finances, would necessarily entail an enlarging of the office and would duplicate the efforts of, among other agencies, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

    Feldt knows what needs to be done in the office, as he served as an aide to former treasurer Jack Voight, and his emphasis is on streamlining the operations of what the treasurer’s office is charged with doing.

In the other Congressional Districts where there are Republican primaries, I would go with Peter Theron in the 2nd, Sean Duffy in the 7th, and Reid Ribble in the 8th.

September 10, 2010

Friday Hot Read Part 2 – Dick Leinenkugel’s and Bill McCoshen’s “Understanding how industrial revenue bonds work”

by @ 8:14. Filed under Economy, Politics - Wisconsin.

Two former Wisconsin Secretaries of Commerce, serving under both Republican and Democrat governors, opened Economics 201 over at WisOpinion with an explanation of how Industrial Revenue Bonds work. For those late to the party, that has become an issue in the Senate race because Pacur, which is owned by Republican front-runner Ron Johnson, utilized IRBs to expand its business. Let’s go to the bottom line:

Bottom line is IRBs are a smart financing tool for manufacturers considering construction, expansion and or the purchase of equipment, something that Ron Johnson and his company has been doing while providing more than one hundred and twenty jobs in Wisconsin for over 30 years. Taxpayers benefit from IRBs through new jobs in the community and additional tax base. There is no government guarantee and taxpayers have no risk in an IRB loan because private lenders and the company itself assume the risk.

Friday Hot Read – The Barrett “I Got Beat Up” ad explained

by @ 6:31. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

You will have to go to the fourth comment on the Boots and Sabers post discussing the “Bea…er, Stand Up” ad released by Tom Barrett, but Publius nailed the long-range thinking that is behind the ad that featured Barrett’s bloody face, received after he attempted to defuse a domestic dispute last year:

4.This ad has NOTHING to do with introducing Tom and his heroism to the world.

It has everything to do with evoking an emotional reaction from the viewer, so that when the political “punches” start flying, said viewer will react something to the effect of, “Well, how nasty of that GOP to attack…, Tom Barrett has suffered enough.” or something along those lines.

Kids, this is ACT 2. Act 1 was feigning outrage over Scott Walker’s boxing gloves….

One can never be too cynical.

September 8, 2010

Presenting the Sgt. Schultz administration, rail edition

by @ 21:35. Filed under Choo-choos, Politics - Wisconsin.

The MacIver Institute is looking into the sudden disappearance of Oconomowoc from the list of the Milwaukee-Madison car-speed rail line stops after the locals started questioning the train. They filed a pair of Open Records requests with the governor’s office and the Department of Transportation asking for all records of discussions about that station between July 1 and August 16, when the plug was pulled.

The DOT hasn’t responded yet, but the Sgt. Schult…er, Doyle administration responded thusly:

We conducted a search for records related to your request and found no responsive records in the custody of the Governor’s Office.

That leaves three probabilities:

  • The Cleaners have been working overtime in the governor’s mansion.
  • They never intended on having any stops between Milwaukee and Madison to make the ramming process that much faster.
  • Doyle really believes he’s above the law.

The overseas betting lines are now open. I hear “none of the above” will get you 1,000,000-1.

Doyle weasels around campaign finance laws again

by @ 13:43. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/T – Owen)

A short 4 years after Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale) coerced the former State Elections Board to take the unprecedented step of disallowing the bulk of a planned transfer of funds from former Rep. Mark Green’s federal campaign fund to his state gubernatorial campaign fund, he has found another way around the limitations on political donations in Wisconsin. MacIver News Service reports:

According to the most recent filings by Doyle for Wisconsin, the Governor’s campaign account had a cash balance of $1,826,791.21 in July.

The Greater Wisconsin Committee’s Political Action Committee’s report filed this week indicates that account has since been depleted by more than half.

The Governor’s campaign committee made million dollar the donation in two $500,000 disbursements, dated August 2nd and August 18th.

See the campaign finance report, here.

The Greater Wisconsin Committee PAC has been running television ads in markets across the state critical of Republican Gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker….

That’s right – even though no campaign committee can donate more than $43,128 (or 4% of what a gubernatorial campaign that accepts public financing can spend) to a gubernatorial campaign, and lesser amounts to other campaigns in Wisconsin, in an election cycle, that same committee can donate an unlimited amount of money to a PAC. That Doyle chose to give the lion’s share to the sleaziest operation in Wisconsin so they could slime Walker speaks volumes.

Given almost the entirety of GWC’s warchest came from Doyle, with just $251,000 over the first 8 months of 2010 coming from other sources, perhaps their ads should have as the disclaimer, “Paid for by Doyle for Wisconsin”. The ugly news is they still have $594,000 in the bank waiting for the winner of the GOP nomination, which would give the Barrett team over $3 million to work with on September 15.

Revisions/extensions (2:25 pm 9/8/2010) – Christian Schneider reminds us that Doyle could have given the money to the Common School Fund, but decided getting a third term by proxy was more important than helping the children.

Operation Revenge Chaos is ON

by @ 8:37. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/T – Charlie Sykes)

Damn if I didn’t call this one back in April when Kevin Binversie noticed the Democrats were busy trying to “deconflict” the one “major” primary they had going, their lieutenant governor race. Uppity Wisconsin made the effort to get Mark Neumann selected as the Republican nominee for governor official, noting he would be “a weak general election gubernatorial candidate.”

To set up for this, they even managed to quash any serious competition in the suddenly-opened 7th Congressional race out despite Senate Democrat leader Russ Decker’s decades-long lusting after the seat. The bad news, at least for them, is they didn’t quite finish “deconflicting” their lieutenant governor race by “encouraging” State Senator Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee) to drop out the way they did Milwaukee Alderman Tony Zielinski, which would have cleared the field for outstate Assemblyman Tom Nelson. Worse, for everybody involved, the Milwaukee Democrats are insisting on party purity in both the Sheriff’s office and the 7th Senate District, so the biggest potential “Astro-swell” for Neumann is effectively out of play.

Ask Egg – Duelling Ads edition

by @ 8:03. Filed under Ask Egg, Politics - Wisconsin.

It’s time to break out another edition of Ask Egg and offer some free advice to both halves of the Republican gubernatorial campaign that they really should have taken.

Dear Egg,

My opponent, who has been seeking office longer than I’ve been in politics, has been getting a lot of traction by pointing out I’ve been in politics 16 years. Our oppo research found a couple of votes that, if made public, could blow holes in both his “outsider” claim and his “tax-cutter” image. We’re thinking about amping it up to the max. What say you?

-Wobbling in Wauwatosa

Dear Wobbling,

Voting records are always fair game, especially since this is his 6th bite at elective office in 18 years. Pointing out he voted for $9 billion in pork in a bill that was, at the time, roundly criticized for containing the pork, and voted against ending the marriage penalty, are winners, especially since your ultimate opponent voted against the pork, and support for the pork in the opposition party was greater than the support in your party.

Taking it to the next level by invoking the name of the current leader of the opposition party in that body, especially since she has nothing to do with Wisconsin, would be a mistake.

-Egg

Dear Egg,

I finally took your advice, focused on what I would do as governor, and started to make the opinion shift in my favor. The bad news is, I went back to the negativity well by emphasizing how long my opponent has been in politics every chance I can get, and my latter-period voting record came back to bite me. That’s not fair because it’s supposed to be the second person to open fire that gets it. I know you’re for him, but you’ve been fairer to me than some others. How can I reverse the reversal?

-Wiggling in Nashota

Dear Wiggling,

I did warn you that those walls weren’t exactly made of brick I do, however, sympathize with your anger over the comparison to San Fran Nan; that was a cheap shot. Going back to the more-distant past isn’t an option; too many people still know 1995 came before 1998. I would point out how you’re not like her in the here and now and go back to what brought your campaign out of the July blahs.

One more bit of free advice – remember what happened to John McCain the moment he locked up the nomination in 2008.

-Egg

September 7, 2010

This ad could’ve been even more effective

by @ 11:33. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

After taking months of shots from the Mark Neumann campaign, the Scott Walker campaign hit back with the final House vote on the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century Neumann made back in 1998, which came complete with $9 billion in pork roundly slammed by entities ranging from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to The Heritage Foundation.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8J1v64mMII[/youtube]

Instead of tying Neumann to Nancy Pelosi, they should have contrasted Neumann’s support of that pork with Tom Barrett’s opposition to it. That’s right; Barrett voted against the final version of the bill.

For his part, Neumann flubbed his response by simply saying many other Republicans voted for it too.

Alternate headline, Neumann campaign finance edition

by @ 8:14. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

If this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about Mark Neumann not accepting a lot of special-interest money had been written 8 days from now, here’s how the headline would have appeared:

Neumann campaign fails to report PAC money; significant percentage of donations came from special interests

At least half of that would be true, as the Neumann campaign failed to report a $1,000 donation from the Wisconsin Dental Association PAC. Side note; that failed reporting merited only a parenthetical mention a week before the primary against the main target of the Journal Sentinel this election cycle, Scott Walker. Who here believes that Walker would have received the same benefit of the doubt had it been his campaign that failed to report the donation, and who believes that the ex-Spice Boy would have been sicced on the campaign to produce a banner-headline story?

On the other end of the headline, Neumann’s campaign has not received a significant portion of its donations from special interests. As of the end of June, Neumann raised $565,623 from donors. The story notes that he received $12,925 in “conduit” donations, which together with the $1,000 PAC donation, inexplicably omitted from the totals despite being dug up, meant that just under 2.5% of the donations came from special interests. That is still below the 11.5% the Walker campaign received and the 22% the Tom Barrett campaign received from special interests.

August 30, 2010

MOVE Act and Wisconsin

by @ 13:38. Filed under Elections, Politics - Wisconsin.

I see the federal government has rejected Wisconsin’s request for a one-time exemption from the new-for-2010 45-day window for sending out federal absentee ballots to overseas and military voters while I was away. Since Wisconsin’s primary election is 49 days before the general election, on September 14, it would be logistically impossible to comply with the requirement that absentee ballots be available to overseas and military voters by September 18, 45 days before the general election.

Before I get to the “Who the hell screwed up and how?” question, I first must clarify what the new requirement is. From page 133 of the National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2010’’, which is amending the states’ requirements under the Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act:

(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 102 of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (42 U.S.C. 1973ff–1(a)(1)), as amended by sections 577 and 578, is amended—
(1) in subsection (a)—
(A) in paragraph (6), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; (B) in paragraph (7), by striking the period at the end and inserting a semicolon; and
(C) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
‘‘(8) transmit a validly requested absentee ballot to an absent uniformed services voter or overseas voter—
‘‘(A) except as provided in subsection (g), in the case in which the request is received at least 45 days before an election for Federal office, not later than 45 days before the election; and
‘‘(B) in the case in which the request is received less than 45 days before an election for Federal office—
‘‘(i) in accordance with State law; and
‘‘(ii) if practicable and as determined appropriate by the State, in a manner that expedites the transmission of such absentee ballot.’’;

The first part is going to be blown because Wisconsin takes 19 days to certify the primary results and get the ballots printed. However, the second part won’t be a problem becuase Wisconsin already allows military/overseas absentee ballots to be sent out if the request comes in 30 days prior to the election, and as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel pointed out, somewhere less than 4% of the military/overseas ballots were rejected in the 2008 general election for all reasons, not just for being late.

So, what is the consequence of not having the absentee ballots out 45 days prior to the election? That is covered by 42 USC § 1973ff–4, which gives the US Attorney General the power to seek federal judicial relief. The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, which handles those lawsuits, says in their FAQ on the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act:

If a county is late in mailing absentee ballots to soldiers, what can the Department of Justice do?

Under Section 105 of UOCAVA, the Attorney General is authorized to bring civil actions to enforce UOCAVA requirements. When states have failed to make sure that ballots are sent to qualified servicemembers in a timely manner, the Department of Justice has successfully obtained court orders and consent decrees. Many of these have required states to extend their deadlines for receiving these ballots and to count the late-mailed ballots, even when they arrived after Election Day. In some cases, the states were required to make permanent changes to their laws or procedures to make sure the problems are not repeated in future elections. Through these cases brought to enforce the federal law, the Department has ensured that qualified servicemembers were able to cast their ballots, and know that they were counted.

In short, we may not know who won the Senate race on 11/3 (the day after the election), or even on 11/11, when military ballots postmarked by the day of the election can arrive and still be counted under current state law.

Now, for who screwed up. As much as I dislike the Government Accountability Board, the date of the election and the timing of certification is really out of their hands. That is all set by state statute, with the final state certification due on the third Wednesday after the primary. Indeed, because state law (under the direction of federal law) requires military ballots postmarked by the day of the primary to be counted if they arrive up to 7 days after the primary, they cannot certify a federal election in the 4 days between September 14 and September 18.

The ball falls squarely on the Legislature and Gov. Jim Doyle. The MOVE Act became law on 10/29/2009. While the Legislature was in session at the time, I’ll give them a pass for not dealing with it in that particular floorperiod because that ended on 11/5/2009. However, they had three more floorperiods to deal with it – 1/19/2010-1/28/2010, 2/16/2010-3/4/2010, and 4/13/2010-4/22/2010. The Legislature didn’t even attempt to deal with any part of complying with the MOVE Act until the last session possible, and then rolled a very-partial attempt into the “Driver/Voter” bill that would have automatically registered everybody who receives a driver’s license, given the information to ACORN’s successors, and in general would have made vote fraud even easier to accomplish. Notably, they didn’t even attempt to change the date of the primary in that bill. From the Legislative Reference Bureau’s summary of the version that went the farthest along the legislative process (AB895, Assembly Substitute Amendment 1):

Under current federal law, states are required to transmit absentee ballots to military and overseas electors no later than 45 days before each federal election at which the electors are entitled to vote, if the electors have requested their ballots by that time. However, a state may request a hardship waiver from the federal government, for a single election only, if the state’s primary election date does not permit compliance with this requirement and the state takes other actions to ensure expeditious delivery of absentee ballots to military and overseas electors. This substitute amendment directs GAB to report to the appropriate standing committees of the legislature no later than January 1, 2011, concerning GAB’s recommended method for compliance with the federal timeline for the absentee voting process. To achieve compliance, this state will likely need to advance the date of the September primary, beginning in 2012.

Even after the last day of the general floorperiod of the Legislature passed without so much as a token effort to comply with just a part of the MOVE Act passing the Legislature, Doyle could have called the Legislature back into session to ensure compliance with something their fellow Democrats in DC wrote. I guess that lack of desire to do anything without further encouraging vote fraud by the Wisconsin Democrats trumps all else.

August 27, 2010

Poll-a-copia – end-of-August edition

by @ 11:52. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Once again, Rasmussen Reports has done a general-election-level look at the Wisconsin Senate and gubernatorial races, and the story line from the Tuesday poll is the underdogs are closing up.

First, the Senate race, where the top line continues to be a Ron Johnson lead of 47%-46% over Russ Feingold. On the “undercard”, Dave Westlake is now within 7 points, down 47%-40%. That is as close as he’s been since the end of June.

The favorables are also rather interesting. There was little change in Johnson’s favorables (53% favorable/36% unfavorable/Approval Index of +6). Westlake’s favorables improved to 38% favorable/33% unfavorable/Approval Index of -5, mostly on the strength of an improvement of the strongly-favor to 7%.

The big move was Feingold; people either like him or really hate him. While his favorables are 53% favorable/44% unfavorable, his Approval Index is -1 and just 12% have a “somewhat unfavorable” view of him.

I briefly spoke with Westlake at the Stop Spending stop in Waukesha on Wednesday. He said he was quite happy with some internal polling his campaign had done on the primary race, but he didn’t go into any specifics on that.

On the gubernatorial side, Mark Neumann actually had the better head-to-head matchup against Tom Barrett. He was up 48%-44%, his biggest lead since the end of June. Scott Walker’s lead over Barrett shrunk to 47%-44%, his lowest lead since April.

The favorables don’t explain Walker’s slide in the head-to-head matchup. Walker’s favorables improved to 55% favorable/36% unfavorable/Approval Index of +8 (roughly equal to July, when he had a 50%-43% lead on Barrett), while Barrett’s slipped slightly to 45% favorable/47% unfavorable/Approval Index of -5 (signifcantly worse than July).

The big news on the favorability front is Neumann’s continued improvement as a result of focusing on his ideas rather than attacking Walker. His ratings improved to 54% favorable/34% unfavorable/Approval Index of +3. The last is the first positive number in qute a while. The bad news is Neumann went back on the attack the other day.

I guess it’s time for Rasmussen to do primary polling to see where things really are in the primaries.

August 25, 2010

Doyle – no free IDs to law-abiding citizens, but free drivers’ licences to inmates

by @ 12:22. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Charlie Sykes posted a press release from Rep. Brett Davis (“R”-Oregon) revealing that we the taxpayers are now on the hook for the full cost of drivers’ licenses and ID cards for inmates:

Madison) – Lieutenant Governor candidate and State Representative Brett Davis has learned that the Wisconsin Department of Corrections is now using state dollars to pay for driver’s licenses and state-issued identification cards for prison inmates. Davis learned the policy change went into effect on July 1 of this year. Previously, inmates were charged for the licenses and ID Cards.

“As families across Wisconsin struggle to make ends meet, it makes no sense for the taxpayers to pick up the tab for driver’s licenses for inmates,” said Davis. “Governor Doyle should immediately end this ill-advised program. We shouldn’t be giving special privileges to prisoners.”

Obtaining a new driver’s license cost $43 including costs associated with the driving skills test, which, under the new policy, the state will also pay.

“Rather than giving an inmate a $43 break, why not help out a law abiding taxpayer, or use the money to balance the budget,” asked Davis. “These absurd spending programs continue to show Governor Doyle to be hopelessly tone deaf to the will of the people of Wisconsin.”

Davis also expressed concerns about the immigration implications of issuing State ID cards to prisoners.
“As the Doyle Administration not only issues but pays for ID cards for prisoners, I hope they are at least ensuring they are not giving a state ID card to a criminal immigrant who should not be allowed to stay in our state once they’ve shown they are unwilling to follow our laws,” said Davis.

Remember when Republicans, as part of their push for a requirement for picture ID at the polls, wanted to give those who couldn’t afford the then-$10 fee for a state ID card one for free, and the Democrats refused? Now, we get to pay $28 for a felon’s ID card/renewal driver’s licsense and $43 for a felon who needs to take a road test.

Revisions/extensions (10:38 pm 8/25/2010) – Commenter WestSideGuy over at Sykes’ place pointed out that the seeds of this were planted in the 2007 DemoBudget that Davis voted for. Let’s review Wis. Statute. Sec. 301.286, which was created by said DemoBudget (see page 1279):

Before an individual is released from prison upon completion of his or her sentence or to parole or extended supervision, the department shall determine if the individual has an operator’s license or a state identification card under ch. 343. If the individual has neither, the department shall assist the individual in applying for a state identification card under s. 343.50. The department shall determine if the individual is able to pay all or a portion of the fee under s. 343.50 (5) from the individual’s general fund account. The department shall pay any portion of the fee the individual is unable to pay from the individual’s general fund account.

Give Craps an inch by putting the taxpayers on the hook for the portion of a never-before-issued ID card cost that prison job pay doesn’t cover, he’ll take the mile of putting the taxpayers on the hook for fresh drivers’ licenses.

August 20, 2010

Just got polled

by @ 14:55. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

I wish I could remember the name of the outfit because it was a very-clean poll (no pushing, very short), but the Democrat Party of Wisconsin is doing polling in the 21st Assembly District. The questions (in order):

  • How likely are you to vote in the November election (definitely, likely, not likely, won’t be)?
  • Who do you support for US Senate, Democrat Russ Feingold or Republican Ron Johnson?
  • How strong is your support for (the Senate candidate – very, somewhat)?
  • Who do you support for governor, Democrat Tom Barrett or Republican Scott Walker?
  • How strong is your support for (the gubernatorial candidate)?
  • Who do you support for Assembly, Democrat Tom Michalski or Republican Mark Honadel?
  • How strong is your support for (the Assembly candidate)?
  • How often do you vote for a particular party (always, mostly, 50/50) – note; the pollster did start with the Republicans based on the both the previous answers I gave and the fact I was rushing him through the call.
  • For statistical purposes, what is your age?

The DPW won’t be too happy with my answers, but other than putting their guy first in the order of candidates listed, it was very professionally done. The gentleman doing the poll did mention his firm twice, once at the start of the poll, and again when I asked at the end of the poll, which is when he mentioned the firm he was working for was doing it for the DPW. It will be interesting to see just how much of the poll the DPW will eventually release; if they do release it.

August 12, 2010

Leave a week, polls don’t change (much)

by @ 10:12. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Actually, things did get worse for the Democrats, despite Rasmussen Reports finding a continued lesser dislike for President Obama in Wisconsin as of 8/10 (49% approve/50% disapprove/Approval Index of -11) than nationally (45% approve/54% disapprove/Approval Index of -20). Even that was a worsening of things, as Obama was actually in positive overall territory in Wisconsin at the end of last month (51% approve/48% disapprove/Approval Index of -13).

Similarly, soon-to-be-ex-governor Jim Doyle had a slight drop in approval, going from 38% approve/60% disapprove/Approval Index of -28 to 38% approve/60% disapprove/Approval Index of -29.

First up, the Senate race. Both the Cook Report (via John McCormack at The Weekly Standard) and the Rothenberg Political Report moved the race to a pure toss-up while I was gone.

Meanwhile, Rasmussen released a fresh poll showing essentially no change over the last 2 weeks. While Ron Johnson’s lead over Russ Feingold dropped from a rounded 48%-46% to a rounded 47%-46% (with no rounded change in either “other” or “not sure”), Feingold’s favorables moved from 52% favorable/44% unfavorable/”Passion” Index of 0 to 50% favorable/47% unfavorable/”Passion” Index of +3. Indeed, Feingold’s attacks on Johnson are backfiring, as Johnson’s favorables improved from 51% favorable/36% unfavorable/”Passion” Index of +6 to 51% favorable/33% unfavorable/”Passion” Index of +8.

On the gubernatorial side, all the news has come from Rasmussen. In the freshest poll Scott Walker maintained a healthy lead over Tom Barrett (49%-41% versus 50%-43% at the end of July), while Mark Neumann has his first lead over Barrett (45%-43%) since the end of June, mostly on the strength of a renewed focus on what he would do as governor. Based on that, they have joined Real Clear Politics in placing Wisconsin as a “Leans Republican” state.

Walker continues to be the most-popular of the candidates, maintaining favorables of 49% favorable/38% unfavorable/”Passion” Index of +6. While that is down from late-July’s 55% favorable/36% unfavorable/”Passion” Index of +9, he has the support of 90% of Republicans and over 50% of independents against Barrett. In fact, the Walker campaign just sent over a press release saying Walker is up 8 points on Barrett among independents, and 7 points better than Neumann among conservatives against Barrett.

Neumann’s focus on what he would do as governor also paid dividends beyond the lead against Barrett. His favorables improved from 47% favorable/44% unfavorable/”Passion” Index of -7 to 50% favorable/35% unfavorable/”Passion” Index of -3, and he has the support of 81% of Republicans and over 50% of independents against Barrett.

There is a bit of an oddity among the 38% plurality that strongly oppose (49% overall) the PlaceboCare insurance mandate. Despite Neumann’s early laser-like focus on opposing PlaceboCare, Walker has greater support among those that strongly oppose the insurance mandate in the matchups against Barrett, getting the support of 85% versus Neumann’s 75% support.

Meanwhile, Barrett’s favorabilities have begun to slide much like Obama’s and Doyle’s approval. It’s down from 50% favorable/43% unfavorable/”Passion” Index of -4 to 46% favorable/44% unfavorable/”Passion” Index of -5.

August 1, 2010

From the “high road” to the Slimeroad

by @ 8:34. Filed under Politics - National, Politics - Wisconsin.

During a visit to his Hudson campaign office last week, Sen. Russ Feingold (or perhaps I should go back to using Slimeroad) uttered the following in the presence of a Hudson Star-Observer reporter:

Johnson, he said, talks “like public employees are evil.”

“When his house is burning down he doesn’t consider a public employee evil. We saved the jobs of firefighters. When somebody robs one of his kids and they call the police he doesn’t think a public employee is evil. We saved the jobs of many police in this state.”

What, exactly, does Feingold mean by “when”? To the best of my knowledge, Ron Johnson’s house hasn’t been burned down and his kids haven’t been robbed. Is Feingold inviting some of his more-“enthusiastic” supporters to target Johnson for criminal activity?

Back in 1992, Feingold actually took the high road. In 1998, that became a hollow claim as many “independent” supporters of Feingold went straight into the gutter against Mark Neumann. Now, Feingold isn’t even pretending that he isn’t throwing the slime.

July 28, 2010

Only in government, MPS edition

by @ 12:26. Filed under Education, Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/T – Charlie Sykes)

Milwaukee Magazine‘s NewsBuzz reports on an employment situation that can only happen in government. First, the setup: Milwaukee Public Schools has, for the past several years, scheduled an in-school school-day district-wide taking of the ACT college admission examination in order to facilitate the participation of every high school junior. For this coming school year, they scheduled it for Wednesday, April 27, 2011.

Somebody in the district offices forgot to tell those who negotiated the 2010-2011 school calendar with the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association that 4/27/2011 is the Wednesday after Easter. The tentative agreement, reached in early June, had spring break at its traditional Good Friday-through-Friday after Easter slot.

The MPS board caught this potential problem at the June 24 meeting, during which the final ratification of the school calendar was supposed to take place. Rather than attempting to reschedule the date of the ACT test, asking high-school juniors who want to take the test come in during spring break, or asking those juniors to take the test on one of the several Saturdays and at one of the several locations (some of which are MPS facilities) suburban and private-school students take the test, they told the negotiators to move spring break to accomodate the 4/27 ACT test date, and decided to hold off on agreeing to the school calendar until that was done.

On July 9, MPS and MTEA reached a pair of agreements regarding spring break. First, they agreed to move spring break to the week before Easter plus the Monday following Easter. That in itself is not at all controversial – it is the same number of weekdays, and it encompasses Easter.

However, the second part is something only a union would demand and only a government entity would grant – a chance, at the board’s discretion, of reimbursement for any and all expenses on an altered or cancelled vacation during the week after Easter that are non-refundable, non-reimbursable, or penalties generated by an alteration or cancellation.

Yes, you read that right – MPS will in all likelyhood pay for the assumptions made by employees based on an unofficial and never-ratified schedule. In the private sector, especially in a non-union shop, the employer would have told the employees, in so many words, “Tough luck.” In fact, that same sentiment would have been given had the vacation been forced to be altered or cancelled at the last minute.

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