Kathleen Falk: Unsafe at Any Speed

Until Falk's reckless stunt with her TV ads last weekend, I was planning to keep my support for Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager a private matter.  The problem is that Falk does not have the demeanor or commitment to manage progressive government.

Anyone familiar with the Madison 2003 mayoral race would know that I was not likely to support Falk, but it all goes back much earlier than that.

In 2001 and 2002 "environmentalist" Falk capitulated to Tommy Thompson leading to the demise of the Dane County Regional Plan Commission (RPC) creating more sprawl in Dane County, especially away from Madison.*

When contemplating her run for Governor in 2002, she could not make up her mind if she was a Republican or a Democrat.

Despite warnings of an ineffective structure, Falk first pushed for a merged city of Madison - Dane County Health Department, and then when it occurred failed to supervise and manage it.**

Despite growing gang problems in Madison, the town of Madison and Fitchburg in the early years of this decade, problems that were clearly spilling over in to the rest of Dane County, Falk did nothing. Finally in May of this year, she appointed a task force to look into the problem. As of this date, the task force has met once. There are no recommendations despite the extensive talent on the task force, and all Dane County schools suffer.

Update 12:19pm : Folkbum endorsed Peg this morning.

And, one of the comments below reminded me of one of Falk's most disappointing decisions, to endorse the casino for Dane County.  So desperate for funds to balance the budget, she struck out on her own consulting no one, not even the mayor of Madison.  As I said at the time, "Support for the casino was purchased, and it was purchased cheap."

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*In 2002 the right-wing won a forty year battle to kill the Dane County Regional Plan Commission (RPC).  First attacked as an instrument of communism, the RPC was a essential tool in bringing sound land use planning to Dane County.  For years progressives had defended the RPC, a critical element in maintaining compact growth.

In 2000***, conservative forces were successful in getting Governor Tommy Thompson to support legislation to dismantle the RPC. Federal law governing transportation funds required local approval in establishing Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO), which required the state to negotiate with the city and the county. 

Madison Mayor Sue Baumann, with no stomach for a political battle, stayed out of the fray and ducked.  The federal law would allow Madison to form its own MPO; Madison, along with any adjacent communities that wished to join the Capital City, were immunized against anything the state did.

That left Falk to deal with Thompson.

As word got out of the pending capitulation, I called Dane County Executive Falk. I asked her to stand firm on behalf on Dane County and its cities and villages.  She replied that it was difficult to do so without the mayor of Madison at her side.  I acknowledged that and said, "That is why Dane County progressives have to rely on you.  When the mayor of Madison fails us, you have to be there to stop Thompson and the Towns Association"

Falk responded saying that she was unwilling to continue the battle.  I read that as not wanting to expend political capital.  In either case, the RPC came to an end, and with it, much of the influence in controlling sprawl around Dane County cities and villages. 

The irony of all this is that the damaged party was not the city of Madison but Sun Prairie, Stoughton, and the smaller Dane County cities and villages.  The so-called environmentalist sold out only 20% of the county population, but it was 80% of the land.

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**The city of Madison Health Department responded to every public works and environmental problem confronting the city over the past thirty years.  Most notably in in the early 1990's when city landfills were under DNR orders for remediation, the matter was not left solely in the hands of the Water Utility and Public Works. 

Just as it played a key role in the ice storm of 1976, various toxic spills, and combating gangs, the City Health Department responded effectively to make sure that health issues were addressed in cleaning up the landfills.

Under Falk, the merged health department was out of sight and out of mind when the city of Madison fiddled for two years with reports of manganese in the drinking water.

***Date corrected per comment below.  Thanks.

Comments

[antpoppa]

I must admit that your attack on Falk was better researched than most of the hack bullet points that prevail, that attack Falk’s ‘bad manners’, in presenting Pegs’ adventure. However I disagree that the gang problem is the sole purview of the County Executive, nor is the now solved manganese problem.
Peg is a great Attorney General who consistently seems to take the side of the Wisconsin people against large corporate interests. Kathy is a great Dane County Executive who has taken the side of her constituents against large corporate interests and has background in the Attorney General’s office. I believe the office would be better served by Fauk because of her administrative skills.

[Paul]

1. The gang problem is not solely a county problem. It is a major county problem and the response is slow and ineffective. It was not and is still not being managed.
2. The manganese 'problem' is not addressed. The management and structural problem still exists. If you want another example, look at the participation of the public health nurses in the Neighborhood Resource Teams (NRT). The nurses were a critical element in NRT activities to stop gangs and provide healthy alternative life choices for young people. Their participation in this effective program is virtually non-existent. As predicted, Falk used these resources to 'balance the budget..' The nurses were pulled away from the NRTs and are now covering other areas so there would not have to be a budget problem. This is as right-wing a strategy as they come.

[Dan Sebald]

I wouldn't characterize what Mr. Soglin has said as a attack on County Exec Falk, at least not in the pejorative. Anyway, issues are bigger than any one person and frankly discussing them is what politics is about. It's for the health of the community, region, state, and country.

I haven't discounted Ms. Falk's desire to run for any office or even so much her right to discuss a drunk driving incident as part of a campaign. Feel free, fine. (Not a smart move, however, just as her support for a casino was a bad move... don't take that as a vote against Native Americans' rights to run casinos.) I've not been a fan of Ms. Falk's politics, for the reasons Paul points out.

I always wondered how she acquired the reputation of being an environmentalist. Where was the substance? I think that came about because all politicians say they are for the environment (and everything else) when running for office, but in this case the conservatives also used that phrase to characterize Kathleen Falk because "jobs" ruled the day at the time an environmentalist was, and still is, bad somehow. One can always tell when a politician is passionate on an issue when they eventually show some stubbornness on it, or talk about it so much it becomes annoying. (But a good annoying.)

But the proof is in the tasting of the pudding for me. Look around. With the new interstate-like East Wash/151 Sun Prairie now looks like a Chicago suburb. (If you want to control sprawl, don't accommodate cars' ability to zoom in and out of the city.) West side development has shunned bicyclists who have been recreating on those roads for decades, and the city will now want to build a school after the fact of having built the financial skeleton for a tax base and more revenue. (BTW, riding on Range Trail the other day I saw what looks like construction of a trophy home, where just this spring I passed listening to the cacophony of frogs. I wonder what the Paoli bicycle route will look like in five years.) Patrick Marsh now has a business park to the West. (Hey, a Budweiser distribution point is more important, isn't it? Anyway, Sun Prairies business park was already so sprawling that one could easily have squeeze more buildings in between existing buildings.) Governor Doyle, seeing it is an election year, gave a handout to Cottage Grove to build more roads in its business park, the better to complete the dream of the 94 Corridor of Business (fanfare), and watch prime, rich farmland go up in smoke along with it. Consequently, Willy Street has become a sort of "inner beltway". Every hill crest in the county will have a home perched atop it in not too long. The Baraboo area and the drumlin area? I'm crying inside just thinking about what that will look like. I could go on and on, you might guess.

Kathleen Falk has proposed a rather complex (for politics) farmers development rights structure, which frankly I even question the legality of once the property changes hands a couple times, and it has the effect of delaying any action on the matter of sprawl. The control mechanism of political office is the property, gasoline, etc. tax ("fee" seems to be the coming word) system. As Paul has advocated in the case of Madison, it may be time to use it.

The county exec seems to have spent most time, in my opinion, on budgetary issues. I personally don't think that is what Dane County or the state needs right now.

[Ben Masel]

For Lautenshlager: The Doyle/Lautenschlager fued began when the story of wisconsin's involvement in Jeb Bush's Matrix datamining program surfaced. This was the replacement for the Pentagon's Total Information awareness which was 'killed' by the congress, so the busheviks moved it to a multiState operation, managed by a private firm with close ties to Jeb. When peg became AG, none of the Doyle holdovers briefed her on the deal Doyle had signed in to. It was only when the Utah Governor resigned to take Tommy's spot at HHS, and the new Utah governor pulled out, and mentioned the other States in the program that Peg learned of our sharing personal records with Matrix.

Against Falk: Censorship of electronic music at the Facility formerly known as the Dane County Coliseum.

[Charlie]

You wrote: "In 2002, conservative forces were successful in getting Governor Tommy Thompson to support legislation to dismantle the RPC."

I'm not doubting you, but you must have your dates wrong. Thompson left the governor's office in 2001.

[tosavoter]

Kathleen Falk may be the things you described above but what she is not is a convicted drunken driver who ran her State issued car into a ditch and staggered around like a drunken boxer. Say what you will about Falk, but she certainly has better judgement then Peg and for that reason will get my vote.

[theresa severson]

Paul soglin's remarks regarding Kathleen Falk are amazing.I have to agree with him.

[jim rowen]

Holy sh*t. I'm glad I moved away from there in 1983.

[AJ]

To tosavoter:

The drunk driving thing has been played to death. What most media has not been talking about, however, is that Lautenschlager is a breast cancer survivor, and that she was diagnosed around the same time she got arrested.

I'm willing to give Peg the benefit of the doubt. She's obviously a strong woman who has had to deal with some very difficult challenges, got through them, and moved on to bigger things.

[templarlawyer]

You guys just don't get it. Peg simply cannot win the general election, regardless what else happens statewide. Why? The drunk driving arrest and the shenanigans over her improper use of a state car. If we Dems nominate her on the 12th we lose the office. It's that simple. The republican candidate, whoever it is, will beat her campaign to death with those incidents, and it will work. I don't care if she is a breast cancer survivor. My mother survived the same disease, twice. Doesn't mean she would have made a good attorney general candidate, and it has nothing to do with Peg's qualifications either. In my opinion Peg gave up the office the night she got behind the wheel drunk.

[tosavoter]

Jim, I respect your views in general but must disagree with you on this race. Try telling someone whose family member has been killed by a drunk driver that it is okay that the AG drives drunk and is not held accountable. I'm sorry but this is such an egregious offense that i'll vote for the GOP candidate over Peg in the general if she happens to win.

[jody]

Peg.
Totally. She was right there with a problem some citizens were having in a small community like Chippewa Falls (back when I lived there). Not only that (which is enough) but when I approached her to thank her at a large Democratic Party fund-raising event over a year later - she remembered the issue, she made a remark that showed she'd given it her full atetntion at the time, and she did not treat me in that fakey way "important" people treat voters. 's all I need.

[WatchdogMilwaukeeJd]

Paul,

Very interested to read the plan commission details, but it sounds as though Sue Baldwin was more to blame for that. I'd note that current Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has endorsed Kathleen.

Jody -- At the Laborfest parade in Milwaukee, my 14-year-old daughter shook hands with Russ Feingold, Gov. Doyle and Kathleen Falk. Afterward, all she could talk about was Falk, who asked her about her school, her activities and interests, and her neighborhood. Walk for Falk - it's the right thing to do this fall.

[Raymond Zit]

Ms. Falk is the worst talking head of ALL talking heads. The cutesy smile
hides the darkness within her persona, she's wound tight to the degree that
she is unpredictable and by skipping the debate with her opponant she's
also demonstrated her lack of concern and trustworthyness. In my book this adds up to a big ZERO, to say nothing concerning the fact that she hasn't the talent or experience to handle the AT's job.

[Raymond Zit]

"It's the AG " NOT ' the AT a thousand pardons.

Merci!!!!!!