Fairly Conservative

I am curious. Anyone with inside info?

That’s short for “disrespect” in case you haven’t lived with teens lately.

Russ Feingold won’t be around when President Obama is here stumping for Tom Barrett.

I’d venture a guess that’s not Russ Feingold’s idea.

Update – Wow. Maybe this has something to do with it all.

That’s a seriously nasty situation.

It was all the Walker supporters falling to their knees after seeing this photo of the Mark Neumann Freedom Forum at Concordia in Mequon. On a Thursday morning!

So are you sticking to your party on September 14th?

You know, Wisconsin makes primary season more fun than about any state I’ve ever studied. We have an open primary. That means you can walk in undeclared and vote for whichever side you’d like. There’s no registration by party on our voter rolls like there is in many states. In Oklahoma for example, one must register as a Republican if one hopes to vote in the Republican primary. An Independent registration means you don’t get to vote until the final election.

By the way the very best explanation of how to manage a Wisconsin ballot is provided by the Dane County League of Women Voters:

Voters in the fall partisan primary do not need to declare their party affiliation when they appear to vote or register to vote. However, the voter must choose a political party or choose to vote for independent candidates in the voting booth. The voter must cast votes for individual candidates within the chosen political party or vote for independent candidates. As stated on the ballot, “An elector may cast a ballot in the primary of only one political party or for independent candidates.”

One need not mark the blank indicating party preference. However, if candidates from more than one political party are marked, or if political party candidates and independent candidates are marked, the entire ballot will be invalidated if a party preference is not selected. If a party preference is selected, the votes for candidates in that party will be counted, but those in the other parties will not.

Got that? Once you vote on the Republican side of the ballot, all your votes need to stay in that party or your vote won’t count. (That was the simple paraphrase.)

And that’s where the upcoming primary gets really fun.

Democrats are not fond of the WISGOP candidate Scott Walker. Not only do they fear he has (had?) a better chance of winning over Tom Barrett, his policies implemented as Milwaukee County Executive are despised among many of the union members in the state. Ordinarily, I would expect Milwaukee County Democrats to cross over, vote the Republican side of the ballot, and tromp Walker.

But, Milwaukee County Democrats really dislike Democratic Sheriff David Clarke. They think primary challenger Chris Moews is the one who could take Clarke out. In short, Milwaukee County Democrats will be voting the Democrat side of the primary ballot.

It could be a very different story in Dane County. When you look at the list of candidates for that county, only Assembly District 77 has a Democratic primary challenge. (Thanks again to the Dane Co. League for the fabulous list.) That means the rest of the county’s Democratic stronghold can vote the Republican ticket without consequence. Milwaukee County will secure Tom Barrett’s nomination for that party. Dane County Democrats can vote for Republican Mark Neumann.

I don’t know if anyone has properly defined the importance to the Wisconsin Democratic Party of defeating Republican Scott Walker in the primary. Not only will WISGOP be humiliated for backing the losing primary candidate, but Reince Priebus, the Wisconsin chair, has hustled his way to the National GOP level in the last coupled of years. If Walker goes down Dems get to do a happy dance all across the nation. (Ahem, and something tells me they will be looking for a reason to be happy this election season.)

This dosey doe is but another reason I think Mark Neumann will be the Republican primary winner. Consider the Dane County scenario playing out across the state. When you realize primaries are usually well-informed political-type voters, the possibility of Democrats voting the Republican side of the primary ballot increases.

After all, I voted for Hillary Clinton.

August 14 must have been a slow news day for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. In an article titled, “Neumann stops blasting Walker,” their reporter used 30 column inches to infer that the primary election to be held September 14 had already been decided in Walker’s favor.

The Journal-Sentinel bolsters its opinion by credible sources such as Joe Heim, a political scientist at UW-Lacrosse; Jennifer Duffy, an editor of the Cook Political Report; Keith Gilkes, Walker’s campaign manager; and Republican strategist, Mark Graul. (Graul ran the unsuccessful campaign of Mark Green against Jim Doyle.)

The problem with all of this speculation is that it leads voters to stay away from the polls. Why bother if the campaign is already over? I am sure that it will be followed by the obligatory editorial shortly before the election urging people to vote.

Having served 12 years as the first Fond du Lac County Executive, 9 years as a county supervisor, and 1 year on the City Council, I am fairly familiar with the political arena. That arena would be significantly improved if the media would concentrate on the records of each candidate, their experience in the public and private sector, their education, and their plans for governing the state if they are elected, not in in the words of their campaign managers , but in their own words – direct quotations which tell us how they think, and whether or not we might agree with their priorities.

(August 29, Journal-Sentinel) This time it’s 75 column inches of rehash.

Instead of concentrating on the similarities of the candidates’ promises, reporters would do the public a real service if they concentrated on what the record indicates on how well they have managed their jobs in the past. Records don’t lie. Gimmicks don’t serve any purpose except to muddy the water. Who cares what the governor eats for lunch?

Ninety percent of the people in Wisconsin live outside Milwaukee County so they probably are not aware of the series of events in Milwaukee County government which testify to its mismanagement by Scott Walker, the County Executive. Even the Journal-Sentinel in an editorial (August 27) said, “Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker needs to clean house at the county’s Mental Health Complex to protect patients. His actions so far have been inadequate.” “Inadequate” is a charitable description considering that the problem goes back at least three years. Now the county is paying a high-priced attorney to try to limit the lawsuits. Add the $300,000 backlog in maintenance and the cost of the engineering firm which has been hired to inspect the buildings for safety and you have a pretty good illustration of how Scott Walker has managed Milwaukee County.

On the campaign trail, Walker has boasted about how he has “reformed” Milwaukee County. If he were our county executive, I’d be circulating a petition for his recall.

As an independent fiscal conservative who votes for the person, not the party, I plan to vote for Mark Neumann, whom I consider the best qualified candidate for governor because of his management skills in both the public and private sectors. It is my opinion that professional politicians got us into this mess.

Whichever candidate you prefer, remember to vote in this very important primary election September 14. The people’s choice is what democracy is all about. If we don’t vote, we deserve what we get.

M. Anita Anderegg

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(From Cindy) Obviously, the experts might be mistaken.

I don’t intend to vote for Lt. Governor. Whoever makes it is just fine with me.

And I’m sorry to say, but the company who built this video for Kleefisch did the dear woman absolutely no favors:

As I said, I’m sorry, but look at that still! There’s a reason you won’t catch me running for anything else as long as I live. You’ve just had a hint.

Time to talk about it. If you feel strongly one way or another, sway me now.

At least that’s what the phone call said.

I guess details will follow.

Biden?

His boxing advert has taken some heat. Via Gawker:

Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker has released a new ad in which he wears boxing gloves and says he’ll whoop the likely Democratic nominee, Tom Barrett. Is this insensitive, though, considering Tom Barrett was “viciously beaten” last year?

Here’s the YouTube in case you missed it.

This release struck me as odd. For one thing, it abandoned the Brown Bag campaign to which Walker has attached himself. Also, it was out a day after the news he’s lost momentum to primary opponent Mark Neumann. And now there’s news Gawker isn’t impressed.

Uh oh.

I have a high school acquaintance who is awaiting word from her son that he’s ok. His battalion was was hit in Afghanistan. Five died. That’s all she knows.

That’s right. I dare you to get on with your day.

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Update 4:00 p.m. – All is well. For her son, at least.

God be with all those who serve.

The primary is two weeks from today. If you are one to vote in primaries, it’s time to start thinking of your ballot. Here’s a way to see your options that still holds. I checked mine out early last week.

And that reminds me. There’s some hay to be made in this primary. I’ll try to get to it tomorrow.

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Someone must have mentioned Bill Clinton and the housing bubble again today because the blog is getting hits. I’ll try to get to that one, too. It needs to be discussed again given that two years have passed.

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I just ignored a call from “Friends of Scott Walker.” They’ve begun in earnest. If you live in my 98th Wisconsin State Assembly district, expect a couple soon from candidate Tom Schellinger. It’s his favorite toy. (But I swear I’m going to vote for him this time. Who can ignore a man so fiscally conservative that he still uses signs from his first campaign?)

Which reminds me, I need to write something that came up about last week about Paul Farrow, another candidate.

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It’s that time of year. I still greatly envy those who campaign in this season instead of the non-partisan February and April elections. It’s the most wonderful summer I remember in a dozen years.

Be sure you enjoy it to the very end.

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Update: 2:30 p.m. I just received my first Schellinger for Assembly phone call. Am I good or what?