I had the privilege of attending the 2^nd Congressional District Caucus for the Republican Party of Wisconsin earlier today.  It was wonderful to see and hear from so many fine candidates in one location.  The caucus was well done – candidates for Governor gave their platforms and answered a couple questions, candidates for Lt. Governor participated in a ‘Lightening Round’ where each answered a the same question, and then candidates for Federal offices had a town hall/debate where they each had a chance to speak.  In addition several candidates who have unopposed primaries were given a chance to speak and introduce themselves to the group.

One interesting thing from the morning is that I learned a lot about the candidates for Lt. Governor.  The race for Governor gets a lot of press and with all that is going on in Washington it seems I’ve heard a lot about the Federal candidates also.  Lt. Governor on the other hand is an often overlooked office in the state and this was the first time I personally had the opportunity to hear from all the Republican candidates for that office.  My impressions of them (alphabetical order, along with their websites):

Ben Collins (www.votebencollins.com) – Ben is a veteran and former Special Forces officer.  Like the others, he handled himself well and made some good points.  He spoke especially eloquently about leadership and the role of a leader in not necessarily being the expert but rather as someone who makes the most out of the experts he has.     

State Rep. Brett Davis (www.votebrettdavis.com) – Brett is the current representative for District 80 in the State Assembly.  That experience and knowledge of current issues was evident.  Brett also has experience in the private sector that I don’t mean to downplay but where the other candidates spoke of what they might do or would like to do, in many cases Brett was able to quote specific legislation or similar efforts he’s already spearheading in the State Assembly.

Rebecca Kleefisch (www.rebeccaforreal.com) – As a former newswoman, Rebecca was clearly at ease in front of a group (although to be fair no one looked uncomfortable).  In fact it was this experience that she seemed to particularly emphasize as key to her candidacy.  She emphasized that the Lt. Governor should promote and market the state and that as a former member of the media she was particularly well suited to handle that role.  That however seems at odds with a recent article I read regarding her in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel which doesn’t bode well for her relationship with the media (particularly since information on the Lt. Governor race is so sparse).

Mayor Dave Ross (www.friendsofdaveross.com) – Dave has been the Mayor of Superior since 2003.  The theme he drove home was the fact that he has kept campaign promises as Mayor and would keep his campaign promises as Lt. Governor.  One thing that impressed me about Dave was that through a fluke in seating he answered every question thrown to the group first and didn’t look the least bit worse for it. 

Fascinating little tidbit about Progressive Dane – apparently they are not responsible for the content posted on their website.  Recently I made some comments regarding “An Ambitious Plan” which was posted (the plan that is, not my comments) on the front page of the Progressive Dane website.  As a quick recap, this is a plan for the RTA in Dane County with a major emphasis on building a train.  While rational people can debate whether those points represent an ordered list (most important to least) or just a list of equally important points, the conversation took a turn for the weird when I was informed that the content on their site doesn’t truly represent PD’s views.

So I’m in a quandary.  Do I accept the information posted on the PD site as representative of their group?  After all it is quite clearly written as a statement of Progressive Dane’s beliefs.  Do I accept the folks that post here as representatives of PD?  They certainly sound like they were involved in the aforementioned piece.  What about the individual that claims he has the inside scope to the ‘real’ PD people?  What a dilemma.  And they say the Democrat Party is in disarray…

You can view the website in its original form here, which I’ve saved for the historical record, and make your own call.  This is not a Facebook-like site where just anyone can post to your wall or Madison.com where you can comment freely on articles but rather what appears to a rather locked down web site representing a political party here in the county (thier website claims they are a political party in Dane County anyway, I feel like I can't trust anything I read on the internet now).  Bummer if we can’t count on the information posted on their site as being an accurate representation of their beliefs.     

Time will tell if there are some updates to the PD site to suppress all this talk about the train.  Regardless of the outcome of that, I wish them luck in figuring out how to manage their web site.  Perhaps they could look to the Dane County Republicans (www.danegop.org), recently of Isthmus front page fame, for some website pointers.*

*Disclaimer: Until someone from the Dane County Republicans informs me otherwise, I will assume that the material and information posted on their website belongs to them. 

In honor of the first meeting of the appointed RTA board last week I thought I would kick off my first post of the month related to that subject.  Before that though, I have to say that it is embarrassing that I haven’t had time to write nearly as much as I would have liked recently.  However, I am happily volunteering that time instead to help with the upcoming County Board Supervisor elections on April 6^th.  There are a great number of good candidates running in districts all across the county and I had hoped to write more about them here – but I digress.

Back to that unelected, appointed RTA board.  In addition to the first meeting of the unelected, appointed RTA board, what also got my interest peaked in this issue again was a post on the Progressive Dane website (www.prodane.org).  They’ve got their eyes on the unelected, appointed RTA board as well.  Remember how we’ve been told the RTA isn’t just about putting a train across Madison?  If Progressive Dane had their way it would be the first and foremost thing this appointed board does.  Next priority?  More bike paths so people can ride their bikes to… wait for it… the train.  In their words, these are two very important characteristics of what makes “fully functioning RTA”.  Important enough to make these points the first two things they mention.  Trains and bikes.  Bus service is mentioned too but way down at the fourth position (after we make sure we subsidize riding the train). 

Interestingly, the very last point, which seems like it was added as an afterthought to me, says it would be nice if the RTA could help people get to places employment too.  Consider how upside down those priorities are.  First, we need a train and the train must go from A to B to C.  Next we need to build bike paths so people can get to the train.  Next let’s make sure we subsidize people riding the train.  Lastly, if we must, let’s figure out if the train and bike paths actually meet some realistic, useful, functional use for the citizens of the county.  This reveals a lot about what is driving the desire to build the train.  It’s not about serving the people's needs – it is ideology plain and simple.