Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Congratulations, Governor Barrett And Other Election News

The results of the races are still coming in at the time I write this, but several of the races, especially the bigger ones, have already been called.

For the race for governor, Tom Barrett was the first declared winner. In all likelihood, the Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor will be Tom Nelson. (Any guesses on how long it is before some wag on the right side will say "We'll beat the Tom-Toms like a drum" or some such nonsense?)

On the Republican side, they nominated Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch for their ticket. Oh, this will be delicious.

On one hand, you have two moderate Democrats. Barrett has a balanced budget and the 2011 budget looks like it will be mostly harmless to his campaign. He also has a solid record on bringing jobs to the area and the ability to make tough decisions. The city is in pretty good shape and he is a genuinely likable person who actually listens to the people. Barrett also has a pretty decently sized war chest amassed.

I can't say I know much about Nelson, except that he is from the Fox Valley area and has held office for six years, working his way up to Majority Leader last year. For a Democrat to win so many elections in GOP country shows that there is a vulnerability for the Walker/Kleefisch ticket in their own heartland.

On the Republican side, you have Walker with enough baggage to fill every car on the high speed rail that is coming. There is the O'Donnell Park tragedy, the other county buildings crumbling, the horrors at the mental health complex, borrowing $400 million and still not fixing the pension problems, the gaping hole in this year's budget, a gaping hole in next year's budget, diminished transit services costing tens of thousands of jobs, losing control of the income maintenance program, losing control of the Private Industry Council (because he doesn't know how to create jobs), and that's just the stuff out there now. There are also investigations going on with at least two of his staffers and other stuff that he is trying to squelch until after the election, when it will be too late for the state.

On top of all that, Walker had to go through a boatload of cash to win the primary by a much narrower margin than he was hoping. And let's not forget his campaign staff, who is almost as damaging to his campaign as his track record.

To further bog Walker down, he gets saddled with Rebecca Kleefisch, Wisconsin's own Sarah Palin wannabe, as his Lt. Governor. She's the one that lives in a house worth a third of a million dollars, is married to a state legislator, and is claiming to be just like us. She also has said that she would go by her religious teaching as opposed to things like the Constitution or the law.

Like I said, this will be delicious. And you know I will be writing more on this race in the next six weeks.

Also, congratulations goes out to Senator Feingold for his re-election, since the Republicans have chosen to go with Ron "Sunspot" Johnson. I firmly believe the only reason he won is because his opponent, Dave Westlake, couldn't match RoJo's $15 milllion, and thus was drowned out by all the ads and other nonsense.

In other news, Chris Larson and his amazing staff has put an end to Plale's ineffectiveness in Madison. Although it will be a great blow for Milwaukee County, perhaps we can find another person who can step up to keep Walker from trashing it in his vainglorious pursuit of the governor's chair. I just wonder who it could be. Jason?

Also winning their primaries was Elizabeth Coggs and JoCasta Zamarripa. Congratulations to both of them.

On the down side, Chris Moews failed to oust David Clarke. Clarke had the edge with a much war chest 30 times the size of Moews' and the name recognition. It looks like I'll be voting for Steven Duckhorn. If I have to vote for a Republican, I'll vote for the honest one. I just hope he has his site fixed.

The other bad news is that Scot Dettman didn't oust the job-killing Peggy Krusick. Aw, well. I might just be skipping that one in November, or doing a write in.

8 comments:

  1. Yes and liberals are stuck with Tom Barrett. Why would the Republicans be scared of a tax and spend liberal. Heck he can't even run Milwaukee. What a disaster it would be to have a Doyle clone in Madison.

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  2. What is it like living in a fantasy land all the time? Get out of Milwaukee once in awhile you will find a lot of people are not socialists like you. You know in your heart of hearts that Nov is going to be a blood bath for your side. And if you cannot see that it is sad you are so delusional

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  3. I suspect your predictions of future results will equal the same percentage of accuracy that the voters provided for you on election night; mostly wrong.

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  4. Hey, capper. Just a quick note from a regular reader to say thanks for all your great work here. I watched Barrett's victory speech last night and damn if it wasn't good to see he's fired up to win this race. He's going to tear Walker to shreds.

    The not-widely-known truth about Walker, of course, is that he's almost a insane as the rest of the Republican teabagger types on ballots across the country this fall. How is he going to keep it from view when he badly needs the nutjob vote to win? Should be fun to watch.

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  5. What do you mean Walker doesn't know how to create jobs?

    It's easy. All you have to do is eliminate a bunch of government employees earning a living wage and replace them with a bunch of private contractors paying their employees much closer to minimum wage with few if any benefits. Oh, and they don't even have to do the same amount of work as the people that they replaced. Just look at the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

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  6. Hmm, I could have swore someone here said Walker would lose the primary. I cannot seem to remember who that was. Hmm, capper, who would that be? Help an old man with his memory.

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  7. "Beat the Tom-Toms," goodness Chris only you would be foolish enough to think that would be the conservative line attacking Barrett and Nelson.

    No, I'm sure it will be the question of many people -- regardless of political ideology -- who will ask the following: "So, will Barrett keep Nelson in the shed with the rest of his tools?"

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  8. Dan: I'm someone that said Wisconsin Republicans might come to their senses in the primary. Neuman would have been a little harder for Barrett to beat; not much, but a little.

    Sad to say, for Republicans, they went with the closest thing to a Palinite, winger Republican on the ballot. Just like crazed out-of-their-minds teabaggers nationwide have this election season.

    Happy to say, Barrett's going to have a much easier time winning on November 2nd.

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