W.O.W. Election Results

On Tuesday, Wisconsin held another election for State Supreme Court. Although non-partisan in name, the election was anything but. Michael Screnock was the hand-picked candidate of Scott Walker, WMC, the NRA, the Bradley Foundation, and the state GOP. He was a point man for defending some of the state GOP's worst abuses of power, including Act 10 and the horrific gerrymandering of legislative districts. He was endorsed by David Prosser, Leah Vukmir, and Wisconsin Right to Life.

Rebecca Dallet was by far the more progressive candidate. For example, she appeared at the 2017 Democratic State Convention, 2017 Fighting BobFest, and last month's Milwaukee March for Our Lives. She was endorsed by Tammy Baldwin, Planned Parenthood, the AFL-CIO, and Shepherd Express.

By any measure, this Supreme Court election was a conservative vs progressive contest. Rebecca Dallet won by a surprising statewide margin of 55.8 to 44.2%. This caused Walker and the state GOP much gnashing of teeth and browning of shorts. These results bode well for future election success for progressive candidates in our state.

How did the election turn-out in the W.O.W. counties? Certainly, the tri-county Ring of Fire lived-up to its reputation as a Republican bastion. Out of all 72 Wisconsin counties, Washington County provided Screnock's largest margin (69.3% of votes went for Screnock). Waukesha was his second-best county (64.5% for Screnock). Ozaukee was his sixth best county (58.7%). Altogether, Screnock harvested 64.5% of the W.O.W. vote.

The three W.O.W. counties constituted 14.2% of the total statewide electorate for the two SC candidates. Because W.O.W. turn-out is generally higher than the state as a whole, this is several percent higher than the 12.4% portion of total statewide registered voters that we represent.

We gave Screnock 20.7 % of his statewide total vote (90,914 of 440,235). On the positive side, we contributed 9.0% of Dallet's statewide vote (50,016 of 555,196). W.O.W. counties are crucially important for Republicans, but Democrats cannot afford to neglect us.

Voter turn-out for Spring elections is generally anemic compared to higher profile partisan elections. What about this year? Statewide, fully 32.5% of registered voters voted in the SC election (995,431 of 3,058,349). This compares with a 36.2% turn-out in Washington Co., 36.5% in Waukesha Co., and a whopping 41.5% in Ozaukee Co.

Both the statewide and W.O.W.-county turn-out this year were high compared to previous Spring Supreme Court races. In 2017, Justice Ziegler was reelected without a challenger. The 2016 election was anomalous because it was held concurrently with the hotly-contested presidential primaries.

In the April 2015 election (Ann Walsh Bradley v. James Daley), W.O.W. turn-out was only 24.5% of pre-registered voters (compared to 23.4% statewide). In the April 2013 SC election (Roggensack/Fallone), W.O.W. turn-out was 28.3% (compared to 23.2% statewide). There was considerably higher interest in this year's Supreme Court election than similar past ones.

But even the turn-out for this year's Court race was low compared to Presidential elections. W.O.W. voter turn-out in the Clinton/Trump election of 2016 was 86.6%.

Did this election give us any indication of a blue wave in W.O.W.-land? The right-winger, Screnock, received 64.5% of W.O.W. vote this year. This compares to 65.2% for the conservative candidate in 2015. Trump garnered 61% of the Presidential vote in the tri-county region. So, there is no clear evidence of a blue shift in the ring of fire.

So what are the take-aways? Washington and Waukesha Counties retain their shameful titles as the reddest and second reddest counties in the state. As shown by statewide turn-out, this Supreme Court election generated much more voter interest than other recent ones. W.O.W. counties still outperform the rest of Wisconsin with respect to voter turn-out and so have a disproportionate influence on state elections. This election gave no indication of a massive shift from red-to-blue in the Milwaukee ring-suburbs. Any positive political shift in this region will require patience, hard work, and investment of resources by progressive organizations and activists.

A Positive Vision for Wisconsin

The Wisconsin right-wing media machine got their panties in a twist last week. The focus of their conniption is proposed legislation to guarantee rights to all Wisconsin citizens. The plan would also institute safeguards to check government corruption. It would guarantee a good public school education to every Wisconsin child. It would promote clean air and water for us all.

Spear-headed by Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison), the proposed Joint Resolution would amend the state Constitution in a number of ways. It would reverse some of the worst GOP power-grabs of the last seven years. The boys at MacIver so-called "Institute" are freaking-out. Right White Wisconsin did a hysterical hatchet-job on the proposal. Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin called the document an "Outrageous Power Grab by Leftwing Special Interests".

What has the right's propaganda machine so agitated? You can read the proposal for yourself here. The document is early in the legislative process, so it is likely subject to change. However, here are some of the main points:

Cleaner Government- Once a paragon of clean government, Wisconsin laws have been systematically dismantled to entrench the GOP in power. Taylor's proposal codifies and strengthens state ethics laws so that once again, we will have a state government we can to be proud of. This includes:

• Re-establishing a non-partisan government ethics and elections Board (GAB).
• Providing for a non-partisan process to draw legislative district boundaries.
• Strengthening open meetings laws and the right to access public records.
• Establishing rational recusal guidelines for judges.

Rights of Citizens- Since 2011, many of the rights of Wisconsin citizens have come under attack by the Republican majority. The proposed legislation pushes back on this assault by codifying into state law basic rights such as:

• The right to access quality, affordable health care services.
• The right to privacy, including the right to marry and exercise reproductive rights.
• The right of every person to a just and fair wage.
• The right to vote without obstruction.
• The right all public and private employees to organize and collectively bargain.

  

Education- The plan strengthens the independence of the State Superintendent and states that no taxpayer monies will go to fund religious instruction. Statewide standards will be set for school staffing and funding.

Environment- The plan establishes an independent DNR organization and states that "Every person shall have the right to a clean, healthy environment, including the right to access clean, safe drinking water and the right to breathe clean air."

As long as Republicans hold the governorship and legislative majorities, there is little chance that this proposal will see the light of day. After all, the reforms outlined would undo much of the GOP-induced damage imposed on our state over the past seven years. 

It is no wonder that Republican propaganda arms like White Wisconsin and MacIver are so vehemently opposed. AFP-Wisconsin is so threatened that it promised to "mobilize its base to ...ensure this resolution is soundly defeated". Personal rights, cleaner government, good schools, and a healthy environment are evidently anathema to conservatives.

However, there is a good chance that progressives will regain state power during November's elections. Rep. Taylor's proposal is a well-reasoned and positive road-map for how Democrats can re-make Wisconsin. With luck and hard work, we can make this vision a reality.

Get People to Vote !

During the 2016 US presidential election, only 55.7% of those of us eligible to vote actually did so. This mediocre turn-out puts us at a miserable 27th out of 34 advanced countries.

Yet, many politicians want to suppress our vote even further. In states like Wisconsin, a battery of laws have been enacted to aggressively cut the number of people going to the polls. Restrictive voter ID laws, cuts to early voting, voter-roll purges, restrictions on voter registration policies, and longer residency requirements have all done their part to make it more difficult to cast our ballots. In just 2017 alone, 99 bills were introduced in thirty-one states to restrict our right to vote.

These voter suppression laws have been pretty effective. A UW-Madison study indicated that Wisconsin's restrictive voter-ID laws deterred at least 16,800 Wisconsin citizens from voting in 2016 in Madison and Milwaukee alone. (In the interest of full disclosure, I worked at the Germantown polls for several years, but ended my service when the state's new ID law went into effect. I had volunteered to help people vote, not to keep them from voting!)

However, not all is grim. Unlike Wisconsin, a growing number of states are actually making it easier for people to vote. Ten states and DC have enacted laws to automatically register citizens to vote when they obtain or renew a driver's license. The few who, for some reason, do not want to be on the voter rolls can opt-out of registration.

Oregon led the nation by implementing the first automatic registration in March 2015. California followed close behind in October 2015. In 2016, West Virginia, Vermont, Alaska, Connecticut, Georgia, and DC jumped on the bandwagon. In 2017, Colorado, Rhode Island, and Illinois implemented the idea. Just last week, automatic voter registration passed both houses of the Washington state legislature, and their Governor is expected to sign it into law. Many other states are on the verge of passing automatic registration.

Automatic registration is different than the national "Motor-Voter" law that went into effect in 1995. That law states that eligible people must be provided with an opportunity to register to vote when they apply for or renew a driver's license or apply for public assistance. (Because Wisconsin has same-day registration, we are one of the few states to be exempted from this law). Motor-voter allows a convenient way to register, but people must opt-in to register. By contrast, automatic registration registers everyone who does not opt-out.

Wisconsin could have been a leader in this election reform. As early as 2010, automatic voter registration legislation was considered by our legislature, but did not pass.

Another automatic voter registration bill was introduced in 2015 by Reps.Genrich and Berceau and Sen. Hansen. Based on the consistent actions by the Wisconsin Republican Majority to repress the vote, it is highly unlikely that such a common-sense reform could ever make it past those currently in charge.

A 2017 House Bill to bring automatic registration nationwide was co-sponsored by Representatives Ron Kind, Mark Pocan, and Gwen Moore. The bill has gone to committee limbo, where it will likely stay until we again get a Democratic majority.

Automatic voter registration has been an astounding success in states where it has been implemented. If passed in every state, automatic voter registration would add as many as 50 million additional voters to the rolls. 

If automatic registration is combined with other common-sense reforms like mail-in ballots, abolition of voter-ID, shorter voting wait times, and nationwide suffrage for ex-felons, the poor voting turn-outs we see in American can be fixed. The more people who participate in our elections, the stronger our democracy will be.

AG Schimel is Coming for Your Heathcare

The national GOP has moved-on from their unpopular attempts to strip healthcare from millions of Americans. Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel evidently did not get the memo. On Tuesday, he announced that he was spending your state tax money in yet another attempt to kill the Affordable Care Act.

Along with the AG of Texas, Schimel is leading the charge to destroy our healthcare system. If he succeeds, anyone with a pre-existing condition can be denied insurance. The sale of useless junk insurance will once again be legal. Kids under 26 could be thrown off of their parents' coverage. There will be no limits on how much more you can be charged if you are older, or sicker, or a woman. Insurance prices will skyrocket due to hordes of newly-uninsured descending on hospitals and clinics.

Appearing on Fox (of course) on Tuesday, Schimel boasted about his new suit against the Federal Government to declare the ACA unconstitutional. Schimel's weak legal argument is based on Congress's recent ending of the penalty on individuals who decide to go without insurance. The abolition of the penalty was one tiny aspect of the huge tax-cut for the rich that was jammed-through Congress late last year.

According to Schimel's bizarre logic, without a financial penalty for going without insurance, the personal mandate built into the ACA is not constitutional. Further, without the the mandate, the entire Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. As Schimel gleefully told his Fox interviewer, "If this falls, the whole thing is gone."

This is not Schimel's first attempt to use your state tax dollars to sue the US government (which is ironically supported with your federal tax dollars) over the ACA. In your name, he entered into three other national lawsuits to fight various ACA provisions.

Where is all of the money coming from to advance Schimel's far-right agenda? I thought that Wisconsin was broke! At a time when our university system, roads, public schools, and the DNR have undergone drastic cuts, the DOJ keeps getting more and more money. Walker gave the DOJ a hefty 5.2% increase in funding between 2014 and 2017. The DOJ got another 2.5% increase in the new 2017-19 budget.

What are Wisconsinites getting for all of that increased legal spending? Schimel has built himself quite the little empire. He formed a Solicitor-General office in the DOJ and staffed it with at least six new hires. According to a spokesperson, the group's ominous mandate is to "counter the multiple overreaches by the federal government".

In addition to his multiple suits fighting the ACA, Schimel has many more GOP-fantasy cases in his large portfolio. He has entered into federal cases to protect polluters, punish workers, support partisan gerrymanders, end reproductive freedom, deport the Dreamers, and fight trans bathroom rights.

Wisconsin Attorney General, Brad Schimel has taken gross GOP partisanship to an unprecedented level. Hardworking Wisconsin taxpayers are footing the bill for his spree of lawsuits against the federal government. 

Many of us rely on the ACA to survive. We don't need our elected officials working to end it. We need an Attorney General whose first obligation is to the people, not to his extreme ideology.

A New Year's Resolution

 

From http://www.woodyguthrie.org/

With the beginning of a new year, most of us are making resolutions. Like the denizens of Sesame Street, we all want to become smarter, stronger, and kinder in 2018. New Year's Resolutions are nothing new. Historians have traced the practice back at least 4,000 years, to the ancient Babylonians

I recently became aware of a list of New Year's Resolutions written by one of my heroes, folksinger Woody Guthrie. This icon in the battle for economic justice and equality wasn't highly-educated. However, he was very smart. The two pages pictured above were written by Guthrie as "New Years Rulin's" on January 1, 1943, while living in New York City:

1. Work more and better                    18. Stay glad 
2. Work by a schedule                       19. Keep hoping machine running  
3. Wash teeth if any                           20. Dream good
4. Shave                                             21. Bank all extra money
5. Take bath                                       22. Save dough 
6. Eat good (fruit, vegetables, milk)   23. Have company but don't waste time 
7. Drink very scant if any                   24. Send Mary and kids money
8. Write a song a day                         25. Play and sing good  
9. Wear clean clothes - look good      26. Dance better
10. Shine shoes                                  27. Help win war - beat fascism  
11. Change socks                               28. Love mama  
12. Change bed clothes often             29. Love papa  
13. Read lots good books                   30. Love Pete  
14. Listen to radio a lot                       31. Love everybody
15. Learn people better                       32. Make up your mind                                    
16. Keep rancho clean                        33. Wake up and fight 
17. Don't get lonesome                      
 
Many of Guthrie's folksy resolutions concern person hygiene (such as take bath, shave, change socks, and wash teeth-if any). Some are aimed at improving his personal relationships (love mama & papa, learn people better). Others try to improve his finances (save dough, bank all extra money) or his psyche (read lots good books, dream good, keep hoping machine running). All of us could stand some improvement in these areas.

But Woody leaves the most important resolution for last-"Wake-up and fight!". Woody certainly followed his own advice. His lifetime was spent fighting for workers, the downtrodden, and the oppressed. This should also be the most important resolution for all progressives in 2018. We must "wake-up and fight". We have huge battles facing us at the local, state, and national levels.

In Wisconsin, we must restore balance to our Supreme Court. We must take back the Governor and Attorney-General offices. Like our Virginian brothers and sisters, we need to contest every legislative election in an attempt to regain progressive majorities in Madison.

If we intend to make Wisconsin a place to be proud of again, we need to help elect people who will make drastic changes in how our state is run. We need common sense gun laws and common sense environmental protections. We need policies that increase workers' salaries instead of cutting them. We need to improve public schools and reject school privatization. We need to defend reproductive rights.

On the national level, we must fight each and every regressive policy coming from the tantrum-prone toddler who occupies the Oval Office. We must return to net neutrality. We must reject a return to harsh marijuana law enforcement. We must push for a sane foreign policy. We must rejoin with the rest of the world to fight global heating.

We must continue to resist the efforts of Congress to steal healthcare from Americans. We must enact DACA into law. We must defend Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. We must stand-up against attacks on unions, the environment, and women.

We can only be successful at the national level if we re-take the House and the Senate. For our part, we have to defend Tammy Baldwin's Senate seat and make progressive gains in Wisconsin's House delegation.

If he was still alive, Woody Guthrie would be with us in our 2018 struggle. After all, he wrote a song in the early 1950's, protesting the discriminatory renting policies of Fred Trump, the Orange Dotard's father. Woody would certainly be leading the resistance against the administration of Fred's racist son.

Like Woody Guthrie, we must keep our "hoping machine" running. 2018 needs a strong effort from each and every one of us. We must all make a resolution to be active in campaigns, donate what we can, march, and call our Congresspeople in 2018. We must all "Wake-up and fight !".

With continued hard work and luck, we will win. If we all resolve to put-in our best efforts in 2018, we will prevail. We will take back our state and our country. As the lyrics to one of Woody's best songs promise, "There's a better world that's a-coming !"

Political Winners and Losers of 2017

Each December, the staff at Radio Free W.O.W. selects the biggest Political Winners and Losers of the past year. 2017 has been an incredibly busy year in the political arena. We had little difficulty in identifying Losers in this Walker/Ryan/Trump era. Winners were a little harder to come by. Here are our nominees:

Losers- The 8,900,000 American children who count on the Children's Health Program (CHIP) to access medical care and the 700,000 Dreamers who face deportation to countries they don't know. All are still waiting on Congress to do something about their situation.

Winners-The children of Wisconsin after Tony Evers won the State Superintendent race with 70% of the vote. The only areas carried by his wack-a-doo opponent, Lowell Holtz, were (sadly) my own Washington County and adjacent Waukesha County.

Loser- Former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. Clarke was a regular fixture at far-right events. Known for a chest full of cereal-box medals, cowboy hat, and deaths at his jail. Clarke gave definition to the term "snowflake" when he had his deputies detain a man who looked at him meanly.

Winners- Lovers of the English language. 2017 politics popularized a number of formerly obscure and interesting terms like emoluments, dotard, collusion, narcissist, the Dunning-Kruger effect, and cofeffe.

Losers-The 58 people killed in October's Las Vegas shooting. The 26 people killed at a church in rural Texas in November. The other 14,683 Americans killed by gun violence in 2017. The 29,893 Americans injured in 2017 by gun violence. Still, Congress only offers thoughts and prayers instead of real solutions.

Winners- Foxconn executives for getting an unsophisticated rube of a governor to give them a cool $3 billion to locate a plant in southeast Wisconsin. This is the largest public subsidy to a foreign company in US history.

Loser- American leadership in world. We alienated our closest allies (Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, Australia) while sucking-up to dictators (Russia, China, Turkey, Philippines). We ceded moral leadership by dropping-out of the Paris Accord. We alienated Arab friends with the move of our embassy to Jerusalem.

Winners- All of the comedians who have given us a bit of comic relief in these trying political times. Special kudos to Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Samantha Bee, Alec Baldwin, Anthony "the Mooch" Scaramucci, Melissa McCarthy, Omorosa Manigault, and Randy Rainbow.

Losers- The tiki-torch-carrying, polo-shirt-wearing Nazi wannabes who marched in Virginia in August. Of course, Trump thinks that some of them are good people.

Winners- Billionaires. The ultra-rich usually win, but their wholesale purchase of Congress is paying-off big-time. They are getting a huge tax break, despite what it will do to the middle class and to the national debt.

Losers- All of the politicians who betrayed the public trust by acting in sexually inappropriate ways. US Senator Al Franken, Senate candidate Roy Moore, Rep. John Conyers, Rep. Blake Farenthold, Rep. Trent Franks, and Rep. Joe Barton are the latest examples to come to light. One of the worst violators still occupies the Oval Office.

Winner-Robert Mueller, for assembling a top-notch team of investigators. They are carrying-out a thorough and impeccably honest investigation of interference in US elections by a hostile foreign government. Four solid indictments down and many more to follow.

Losers-The hardworking taxpayers of Wisconsin who were forced to pay $245 million for school vouchers and another $12 million for tuition tax credits to send other people's children to private, mostly religious, schools.

Winners- Democrats in deep red regions. Whether in W.O.W. counties, Indiana, or Texas, dedicated Democrats everywhere are making a difference. We always have an impact on purple-state statewide races. Sometimes, we can even pull-off an upset, as in the Virginia and Oklahoma legislature elections or the Alabama US Senate race!

Loser- Donald Trump, who showed that he has very weak political influence. His heavily-endorsed gubernatorial candidate in Virginia lost. His heavily-endorsed primary candidate for Alabama Senate lost. His heavily-endorsed general election candidate for Alabama Senate lost. Is there a pattern here?

Winners- The Washington Post, The New York Times, Politico, and the few other media outlets that still conduct investigative reporting. You are needed now, more than ever.

Losers- The 3.5 million people of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands who suffered from September's Hurricane Maria. FEMA's weak response was a national disgrace. The islands did, however, get badly needed paper towels. We also were amazed to discover that they are islands in the middle of the ocean.

Winners- People of the resistance. Millions of American patriots who were awakened by the most granny-starving, hate-filled, rights-restricting agenda the country has ever seen. They raised their voices through the Woman's March, the March for Science, airport rallies, taking a knee during the National Anthem, calling Congressional offices, knocking doors for candidates, and participating in town halls. America is now woke.

Before the Breathing Air Is Gone ...

Wisconsin politicians continue their crusade to endanger your family's health and safety. In October, we reported on the GOP legislators' push to slash training and educational requirements for state-issued professional licenses. In August, Walker signed the so-called REINS Act into law, which allows corrupt politicians to kill critically-needed environmental, safety, and health regulations.

Now, in their latest attempt to make you sicker, Republican legislators are taking a meat cleaver to state air pollution rules. Assembly Bill 587 will repeal any state air pollution standards that go beyond Federal EPA rules.

The Federal standards cover 188 pollutants. That sounds like a lot, but it is only a small fraction of the tens of thousands of hazardous chemicals used or produced in America every day. According to a 2004 Legislative Audit Report, the Wisconsin DNR monitors an additional 293 hazardous air pollutants. If all enforcement of state standards ends, this will constitute a 61% reduction in the number of toxic pollutants monitored in the air you breathe.

The noxious bill has widespread support among the GOP majority. Thirteen Republican Representatives and four State Senators are listed as sponsors. A brief hearing by the Assembly Committee on Federalism and Interstate Relations was held on the bill on November 21. The hearing lasted about an hour and forty-five minutes, with a handful of people testifying. The entire proceedings can be seen on WisconsinEye.

During the hearing, the bill's primary authors, Duey Stroebel (R-Wheezetown) and Jesse Kremer (R-Gasp City), kept repeating that if regulation of a hazardous air pollutant is deemed necessary by DNR scientists, then they could conduct the studies to re-regulate that pollutant. There are three problems with this idea.

First of all, the bill would instantly end state regulation of many state-monitored air pollutants. In order to reinstate a toxic compound on their list, the DNR staff would need to conduct an entirely new set of studies and hearings. This would take a great deal of time, possibly years. During this lengthy process, there would be no monitoring of that air toxin. In the meantime, you might just have to live with the emissions of o-chlorotoluene, dioxins, or hydrogen cyanide in your town.

Secondly, recent budget maneuvering by Walker has led to a much smaller DNR. Department scientists have been especially hard-hit by the staff reductions. A decreased scientific staff will lead to unacceptably long wait periods for reinstatement of noxious compounds on the monitoring list.

Finally, it may simply be politically impossible to reinstate a bad-actor compound on the monitoring list. With the Wisconsin REINS Act now in place, any regulation deemed to cost businesses at least ten million dollars over the entire state must pass through the legislature. If legislative leaders or committee chairs refuse to bring up the regulation for a vote, it will die. Big industry polluters need only "convince" one leadership politician of the righteousness of their cause to kill the DNR monitoring of a hazardous compound.

Wisconsin has long been on the forefront of environmental protection policy. It is sad that our state legislators now want to roll back state rules to the much weaker Federal ones. At the same time, the US EPA is being destroyed from within. The current EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, is a man on a mission to weaken the organization. For example, while Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt sued the EPA fourteen times.

The organizations that have come-out against AB587 include environmental groups like the Sierra Club, Clean Wisconsin, Inc, and the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters. As a defender of public health, the American Lung Association is also against the bill.

Who is for the bill? A pack of polluters and polluting-industry advocates, such as the American Petroleum Institute, Wisconsin Energy Group, Inc., Wisconsin Paper Council, and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). WMC is certainly getting their money's worth with this legislation. On their website, the business lobbying group states as one of their goals -"...conforming Wisconsin regulations to those of corresponding federal laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. "

AB 587 is a brazen GOP attempt to roll-back the quality of Wisconsin's air. Anyone who lives, works, or breathes in our state should be angry about this bill. If we permit it to become law, AB587 will allow more air pollution, thereby endangering our health, and lowering our quality of life.

Why Can't Wisconsin Have Real Referendums ?

In 2011, GOP politicians took over both Wisconsin and Ohio as part of a national wave election. The Republican governors and legislatures soon let their newly-gained power go to their heads. Both states quickly enacted laws to destroy the right of public employees to bargain. Both states saw huge public anger at this gross abuse of power. Hundreds of thousands of outraged citizens descended on Madison and Columbus for weeks of protest.

But the way that the people were able to deal with the crisis was very different between Wisconsin and Ohio. In Wisconsin, nine State Senators faced recall elections in 2011. Scott Walker, along with four more State Senators faced recall in 2012. After all of the dust settled, three Republican State Senators had been replaced by Democratic challengers.

The actions taken in Wisconsin required a great deal of activity by people in the state. Signatures were collected and verified. Candidates were recruited. Expensive primary and general elections were conducted.

The political climate in the state was poisoned during this time, and has never fully recovered. Neighbor turned on neighbor. Friend turned on friend. Kin turned on kin. Political witch-hunts took place in which judges, reporters, office holders, and candidates who signed recall petitions were called-out for public shaming. "Wisconsin Nice" died a tragic death.

But after all of that effort and energy, we are still stuck with the unpopular Act 10. Even today, we are burdened with the poorer schools, lower wages, and residual employee resentment that the Republican law forced on us.

By contrast, Ohio was able to handle the same union-destroying power-grab quite differently. Unlike Wisconsinites, Ohio citizens are able to call a referendum on laws that don't reflect the will of the people. Citizens actually have veto power over unpopular legislation.

Ohio's anti-worker bill, SB 5, was signed into law by John Kasich on March 31, 2011. Ohio citizens have 90 days after a law is signed to submit petition signatures to force a veto referendum onto the ballot. Valid signatures totaling 6% of the vote in the state's prior gubernatorial election are required (amounting to 231,149 names in 2011). At the end of June, over five and a half times that many signatures were proudly submitted to the Ohio Secretary of State.

The referendum was placed on the ballot in November. The good guys won. The anti-worker law was defeated by an overwhelming 62-38% vote. The law was "recalled". It was vetoed by the people. But no politicians lost their jobs. This was a much less divisive, and much more effective, way of overturning the GOP's unpopular scheme.

Wisconsin does have referendums, but they are of very weak types. The people approve any changes to the state Constitution through referendums. We can have an advisory referendum on an issue if the state legislature requests one. We are also allowed to initiate non-binding advisory referendums to voice public opinion on an issue (such as all of the recent local referendums on overturning Citizens United).

Twenty three states have the sort of strong veto referendums used so effectively in Ohio in 2011. People in these states can overturn bad laws and counteract partisan power-grabs. They have much more of a voice in the way they are governed than we do.

Twenty four states have a process by which the people can circumvent a do-nothing legislature or obstinate Governor to enact a new law or constitutional amendment. This sort of referendum was successful in Maine just last week , when voters overruled the five vetoes of Medicaid expansion by crazy Governor Paul LePage. Seventy thousand additional Maine residents will now have access to Medicaid coverage.

The people of Wisconsin need to have a more active and democratic participation in our state government. We should have the chance to over-rule bad laws from our gerrymandered legislature. We should have the opportunity to initiate new laws through binding citizen referendums. We should join with half of the states in the country. We should have meaningful referendum provisions in our state Constitution.
 

Who Will Run Against Tammy?

The November 2018 elections will be the first major referendum on the failed Trump presidency. Every one of the 435 US House seats, and 33 of the 100 Senate seats, are up for grabs. Thirty-six governor offices are at stake. In Wisconsin, our gubernatorial and US Senate races will top the ballot.

Running for reelection in a state that narrowly tilted to Trump in 2016, Tammy Baldwin will be one of the prime targets for right-wing groups that want to retain control of the US Senate. However, considering the traditionally poor showing of the President's party in mid-term elections, the early poll numbers, and the poor quality of announced GOP candidates, you have to like Tammy's chances.

Several early GOP favorites for the Wisconsin Senate race have already dropped out of consideration. In February, "Struggling" Sean Duffy declared that "this is not the right time". The Congressman from up north may have been influenced by an early poll that had him 13 points behind Baldwin. He also may have realized that the public is not ready to elect another low-intelligence reality-TV star to high office.

Fake-Democrat Sheriff David Clarke also dropped out of contention. Milwaukee County's medal-covered snowflake cowboy must have realized that the race would focus attention on the four negligent deaths at his jail. Clarke recently became a national laughing-stock when he publicly announced that he would take a Trump Administration job that was never actually offered to him. (update-Clarke resigned today! Yea !)

With these two Republican heavy hitters out of the picture, legions of other GOPers have flirted with running. Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch has been suggested as a candidate, but she ruled that out in June. Multi-millionaire Nicole Schneider of the Schneider trucking fortune discussed running, but then thought better of it.

As late as March, State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald toyed with running. However, he hasn't made any public moves since. Scott would likely have as much success as brother Jeff did in his own failed 2012 Senate run. State Rep. Dale Kooyenga, (R-Brookfield) had been one of the likeliest of the second-tier candidates to run. However, he announced yesterday that he was not yet ready. I guess that he is too busy with his bizarre quest to change the US Constitution.

A few others have been mentioned as possible GOP candidates. Mike Gallager, the one-term Congressman from WI-8, and Glen Grothman, the two-term Congressman from WI-6 are among the most prominent. State Senator Duey Strobel is listed as a possible candidate in Wikipedia (and I trust Wikipedia implicitly).

However, the three GOP candidates mentioned by most people are investor Eric Hovde, State Senator Leah Vukmir, and the only officially-announced candidate, Kevin Nicholson.

Hovde was a Washington DC hedge-fund banker and real estate developer who came-in second to Tommy Thompson in the 2012 GOP primary. During that race, he expressed his disdain for the poor, saying that he was sick of the "sob stories" of people suffering during the recession. He famously called Tammy Baldwin a commie, saying, "Her philosophy has its roots in Marxism, communism, socialism, extreme liberalism ..."

Leah Vukmir is a 59 year-old Wisconsin State Senator from Tosa. The extreme Vukmir is being bankrolled by anti-worker billionaire, Diane Hendricks, who is acting as her finance co-chair. Vukmir is not only a proud member of the infamous ALEC, but is on their Board of Directors. Among her legislative "accomplishments" is dismantling Wisconsin's non-partisan Government Accountability Board. Most recently, she has advocated for the disastrous Foxconn give-away.

Kevin Nicholson, unlike Leah Vukmir, has no legislative experience. The 39 year-old business consultant has a background that has many righties concerned. He was President of the College Democrats of America and spoke at the 2000 Democratic National Convention (horror of horrors !). There are rumors that he voted in a Democratic Presidential primary as recently as 2008. Nicholson claims to have seen the light and is now a conservative, professing to be pro-life, pro-gun, and pro-voucher. He is being bankrolled in his quest for glory by out-of-state billionaire Richard Uihlein.

Either of the two most likely Republican Senate candidates should be highly vulnerable. Vukmir's 14 year career has included many extreme and unpopular positions. Her deep involvement in the notorious ALEC organization will certainly be part of any campaign discussion. Nicholson's vigorous flip-flopping leads one to believe that he would say anything to be elected.

With the low popularity of Congressional Republicans, as well as the poor quality of probable GOP Senate candidates, Tammy Baldwin has an excellent chance of retaining her Seat. With luck and some hard work by motivated Wisconsin progressives, we will return Tammy to Washington in 2018.