Election Reflections

(From the Janesville Messenger, 4-15-07)


Some reflections from the April 3 election:

• If there was ever an election that cried out for a “None of the Above” line on the ballot, it was the nasty, disgusting and disheartening Supreme Court Justice race won by Annette Ziegler over Linda Clifford. Just when you thought the bar couldn’t get any lower, this one journeyed to the center of the earth. It had it all - charges of ethics violations, one candidate hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt on the other, and boatloads of special interest money spawning negative ads galore.
• 
  I found an interesting website for a group called the Committee Against Mediocrity in Politics (CAMP). They are advocating an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would place the aforementioned “None of The Above” line on all federal ballots, eliminating the need to vote for the lesser of two evils. I like their style. The group’s website is www.votenoneoftheabove.us.
• 
  Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, which is the de facto state chamber of commerce, has recently taken a more public political slant to the right. They have begun spending oodles of money backing conservative candidates like Ziegler, and were responsible for many of the nasty ads we saw in that race. On top of that, their recent “Business Day” event at Monona Terrace in Madison featured disgraced former House speaker – and potential Republican presidential candidate - Newt Gingrich as its keynote speaker. With a Democratic governor and Senate in place, now isn’t the time to go ultra-partisan if WMC wishes to get any traction in Madison trying to further the interests of the business community. Why make enemies of those you need to work with? By comparison, Forward Janesville doesn’t endorse candidates or have a political action committee, and the organization has succeeded in forming alliances with politicians on both sides of the aisle.
• 
  It sounds like the three victors in the Janesville School Board race are united in their vision to push Madison on school funding reform. Hopefully, they will succeed, as the system has been broken for several years and both the State Legislature and Governor Jim Doyle have avoided the issue like a slug at a salt farm. New school board member Tim Cullen knows this all too well. Cullen was part of a blue ribbon task force appointed by Doyle in 2003 to make recommendations on improving the state’s educational delivery system. Doyle and legislators have largely ignored that group’s final report, which included ways to fix public education funding. Several good ideas have been floating around Madison for years, including one co-authored by former Janesville Rep. Wayne Wood. It’s time for Madison to have some serious discussion about this and prevent the type of blood-letting that Janesville and many other districts had to experience this past year.
• 
  If you think Doyle’s inaction on school funding reform is somewhat surprising, given his obvious affection for the state teachers union (WEAC), think again. Rather than taking the difficult road and fixing the problem, he opted for the easy way out, using his partial veto power (the “Frankenstein veto”) to rewrite portions of the state budget bill in 2005 and place millions of dollars more into public education. Since his Democratic allies in the Legislature recently killed a bill to eliminate the Frankenstein veto, don’t be surprised if he chooses that route again.