Consider how the Tea Partiers are often stereotyped (via our local CapTimes):

 “An angry bunch of Americans have taken to the streets to protest government spending and the direction of the nation.  And judging from the massive media coverage, it’s as if we have been invaded by a foreign entity…”

It’s also not uncommon to read or hear them referred to as ‘racist’.  Perhaps the single, most damning piece of evidence I can offer to the contrary is the fact that there was such a movement on the left to plant folks into the Tea Party rallies in order to discredit the events.  If the Tea Party is so completely racist, angry, and uneducated then why plant folks within the rally to act racist, angry, and stupid?  It would seem if the former were true then there would be no need to do the latter. 

Now contrast this to the actual actions of protestors during and after the passage of a new law enforcing existing immigration laws in Arizona.   One example: 

“...opponents used refried beans to smear swastikas on the state Capitol, civil rights leaders and other demanded a boycott of the state, a petition drive began to put the measure to a public vote and the Obama administration weighed a possible legal challenge.”

Nowhere have I found any credible coverage of Tea Partiers defacing public property.  In fact, I’ve found more information suggesting they left the grounds generally clean and in more or less the same condition it was when they arrived.  Would it be fair to say we have an angry bunch of Arizonans or perhaps illegal immigrants protesting in Arizona?  Ironically in this case it would seem to be much more accurate to suggest there is a foreign entity invading - I wonder if we’ll see that on CNN or in the CapTimes?

In her most recent newsletter, Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts touts the passage of Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) reform and laments:

“Unfortunately, alcohol use seems to be an ingrained part of the Wisconsin culture, and until this culture changes, strengthening Wisconsin’s operating while intoxicated (OWI) laws will not be easy”

If you just read her newsletter, perhaps you would be struck by her tough stance on drunk driving and her bold, resolute determination to make a difference.  She can talk the talk but when it comes to walking the walk…well that’s another matter entirely.

Rep. Pope-Roberts had the opportunity to make a real stand on principles this last week with the vote on the expulsion of Rep. Wood.  Rep. Wood as you may recall is the representative currently facing multiple (three in just the last year alone) counts of OWI and was facing expulsion for those charges.  However, instead of standing on principle, Sondy chose to flip-flop and stand on party line.  This amounted to giving Woods a simple slap on the wrist, called censure, which carries no practical penalties.

I’m left with one of two conclusions:

1) She feels that OWI laws and that whole ‘culture of alcohol use’ thing applies to just us mere mortals but not for members of the political class like her and her colleague. 

2) She’s a career politician who will say whatever she feels she needs to say to look good in front of her constituents but do the opposite when it suits her or her party leadership tells her.

Either way, it’s time for a change. 

Representative Brett Davis put forth legislation recently to simply require that before the state spends millions on ‘car-speed’ rail from Milwaukee to Madison that the State Legislature sign off on the expense.  Also, in a novel twist sure to drive Madison progressives up the wall, the legislation further asks for the approval before the money is spent.    

Why is this important?  For me personally the biggest issue is that we simply don’t have the money to spend on this boondoggle.  Folks that want trains at any cost will claim “hey, this is federal money!” – never mind the fact that federal money is still our money and the feds aren’t in any shape to be giving money to anyone either.  Remember your parents telling you that money doesn’t grow on trees?  I guess some people never learned that lesson.

The other argument you’ll hear is that if we don’t take the money then some other state will.  The problem with that is two-fold.  First of all, the money we get covers only a portion of the construction and doesn’t cover the ongoing operating expenses to keep this train moving (and by moving we mean just barely moving faster that your car, hardly ‘high-speed’ moving).  Second, remember your mom also asking you ‘if Jimmy jumped off a bridge would you too?’  Just because someone else might take the money doesn’t make it right for Wisconsin to take the money and all the strings attached.  That’s called standing on principle.   

If you want to learn more about this legislation, sign the petition, or e-mail your own representative about this bill then check out the web site www.stopthetrainwisconsin.org. 

Much like their counterparts in Washington D.C. the Dems in Madison are fast at work to pass as much as they can while they still hold control.  After all, come November chances are very good they won’t hold the majority they now hold or the governorship. 

So what do you do when think you may not win the coming elections?  If you’re the Dems, change the rules of course – and fast!  So fast in fact that AB 895/SB 640 were made public on March 24th, had public hearings on April 1st (that should tell you something) and immediately passed out of committee on a party line vote.  Floor votes could be as early as next week.

So what’s in these bills?  Here’s just a sampling:

Please call or write your representatives to know that they need to slow down and not ram this legislation down our throats. 

As it turns out, it was a huge night for incumbents and not so good of a night for challengers.  Voter turnout overall was horrible which is sad since local elections can have such a direct impact on our lives in terms of taxes, transportation, and public safety.  Moderate and/or conservative voters picked up two seats on the board though – short of what we had hoped to accomplish but still something to build upon.

It is no secret that I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the last several months helping candidates with their races so I was invested in the outcome on a personal level too.  Did all that work pay off?  I think so.  Could it have paid off a bit better?  Certainly.  I’m not complaining though, for two reasons.

The first is that two seats were won on the County Board!  That is important and don’t let Kathleen ‘people like my 7.9% tax increase and I still have a majority’ Falk mislead you.  These seats were won because of those particular candidates as well as the strong group that ran as a whole this time.   Consider if there hadn’t been as many strong candidates spread over the entire district.  Where would the money and resources gone from the Dane Dems and Progressive Dane as they openly supported candidates in this non-partisan race?  Without the entire ‘team’ of candidates it’s quite possible none of the seats would changed and seats could have been lost. 

The second reason is that I had the opportunity to meet a large number of great people in the process – both inside and outside of the campaign.  I will miss the weekly campaign meetings and the energy at them.   For me, it was fantastic to be able to meet so many new people both in my little corner of the county and from across the county as a whole.   

So what’s next?  It’s time to take stock of what worked, what didn’t, and what we can do better the next time.  This is most definitely something to build upon.