Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Melissa Sargent: Another One Of Those Uppity Women!

Even though it's 2012 for the rest of the world, there are still some in Fitzwalkerstan who think it's still 1912. Just ask Melissa Agard Sargent:
For her supporters and detractors alike, Sargent's children loom large. A resident in her district once told her she was a bad mother for campaigning instead of spending time with them. This sentiment is voiced more often than you might think, says Sargent, who cites women's rights as one of her issues, and who started knocking on doors in her campaign for county supervisor with her newborn son slung in a carrier on her chest. No male candidate or elected official has ever been questioned about doing this work instead of staying home with the kids, she notes, which "makes it a fundamentally flawed question.
But then there's this:
But she is driven to public life as well. "I love Wisconsin and care so much about my community. I want to be able to be proud of Wisconsin again," she says.

She says her constituents want elected officials who act with integrity and pursue policies based on middle-class values. These include "decent, solid quality education on all levels, clean air and water, open spaces for recreation, land conservation and resource protection."

Looking to her work in the state Assembly, Sargent says Wisconsin needs jobs that support families and offer health care coverage.

"We need to concentrate on job creation, as [Gov. Scott] Walker says from his throne," she says. "But we are the most job-losing state in the country. We need to invest in small- and medium-size companies, not huge corporations."
I had written about her adventures with the Capitol Police when the protests were going strong in early 2011, but I didn't fully recognize what an amazing person Sargent is.

Read for yourself.

3 comments:

  1. Melissa rocks and will be a welcome addition to the State Assembly!

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  2. Susan Engleleiter, who long had served in our state legislature, faced the same cr*p from constituents -- and from media -- when she ran for Senate in Wisconsin. Kohl, a "bachelor," and the Dems exploited his gender to win.

    So Engleleiter (and her spouse) left Wisconsin, which lost as moderate a Republican as could be elected from Waukesha County, and we got their crazies ever since.

    And many Dems have joined in gendered snipes at many of their own candidates who were mothers and ran for office, including for the Senate and the House since the 1920s in this state.

    This is among the reasons that Wisconsin finally may catch up with most of the country and send a woman to Senate. If Baldwin had a family, you'd be seeing this sniping again, including from some Dems.

    Let's hope that this cr*p disappears from public discourse by the 22nd century in Wisconsin, still one of the worst states for women seeking public office.

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  3. Anon 10:52

    I’m old enough to remember Susan Engleleiter, It was one of the first elections I voted in. At the time I remember being very excited about her. She had everything going for her. She was a woman, moderate Conservative (For the time), well spoken, decent ideas, and more. The tipping point for me though was in a debate with Kohl. Engleleiter got up in front of everyone with a $2 coffe cake she had bought from Kohls grocery store and claimed that Herb was selling it to the US government for $50 each. (I don’t remember the exact cost but you get the idea)

    Turned out that a company Kohl was an owner of WAS selling coffee cakes to the US Army and it WAS for $50 each BUT…….. each of these coffee cakes were about 20 lbs each and had a shelf life that was comparable to Uranium. Susan deliberatly lied during the debate.

    Kohl, as can be expected, was not aware of every single product from every single one of his companies and was flabergasted during the debate. But when it came out that Engleleiter dilberately tried to mislead or lie to voters, her numbers plummeted within days. She certianly lost my vote because of it.

    THAT’S why she lost and not because the Dems bashed her gender. Although truth be told that happened too. I just remember Engleleiter trying to make a bigger deal out of her gender than most everyone else.

    Sort of like what Sargent is doing now.

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