And the Winners in the Jensen Conviction Are......The Envelope Please....

Scott Jensen and Chuck Chvala were two minor losers in the past year, with ruined careers and the sadness of their families. But the real losers were the people of Wisconsin, indigent families, elderly, workers in need of health insurance, and school children who needed a quality eduction.

Wisconsinites Were Pawns

The biggest losers were the constituents of every member of the legislature, for we were pawns used to coerce and manipulate votes in the Assembly and Senate chambers.  There is more than one legislator still in office who cut out funding or dropped a project in someone else's district as punishment for the latter's independence.

For twenty years, while not always crossing the line into illegality, state legislators ran a pay to play establishment in a house owned by the people of Wisconsin, the State Capitol.

Reason Had No Place In Their World

When I served as mayor from 1989-1997, it was a frustrating experience.  I brought anger towards the city of Madison and enmity upon myself for criticizing the legislators.  They deserved it.

I naively believed that reason and righteousness combined with a will to leave a better legacy for the next generation was sufficient to convince the legislature to do the right thing, not just for Madison but all of Wisconsin. We were continuously rebuffed. Meetings with them failed, and led to press conferences, which led to speeches, and the public speeches led to banners around the Square.

Nothing worked.  Now we know why.

Now We Can Take Back Our State

With the principal players out of the way, and their management disgraced, the people have a chance.

It is now more important than ever that Wisconsin citizens of both parties send a strong message that we intend to take back our government and it is going to stay that way. On June 8, 2002, The Capital Times published my op-ed piece, Sen. Chvala Should Retire. As I said four years ago about Chvala, and it can apply to many of them, which includes those not indicted:

Somewhere along the way Chuck forgot his purpose in the Legislature and the role he should be playing in furthering social and economic justice. There is no question that he plays an important and vital role in ensuring a woman's right to choose and that he works for funding of public education. But those are now minor footnotes to the story of his abuse of power.

The price that will be paid for allowing Chvala to remain in office is too expensive.

Our values as progressives need a champion who can do better than the "you've-got-to-pay-to-play" dealing that has corrupted the Capitol.

Our goals need a defender, not a censor.

Our state needs a leader, not a vindictive potentate.

There was a time when Democrats and in fact most legislators in both houses and both parties welcomed debate and actually measured the value of legislation by the good it did for Wisconsin, not by the good it would do for their efforts to accumulate power -- and campaign contributions.

Debate in the legislature used to focus on values and principles, not on campaign funding or retaliation.

It is hard to believe that the parties of Bob La Follette, Gaylord Nelson and Warren Knowles would sink to such bitter, evil deeds as we have seen exposed over the past year...

...It should be understood that there is nothing new in doling out this kind of punishment (author's note: Senator Erpenbach had the guts to stand up to Chvala and Jensen). This practice has evolved over the last 15 years, during which powerful legislative leaders have used their ability to collect special interest money to force individual members of their caucuses into line, and it has become more and more important in determining the course of public policy.

Legislative leaders like Jensen and Chvala need a system of punishment and rewards to tighten their grip on the legislative process. Without such an iron fist, it is possible that their colleagues might follow the desires of their constituents, other leaders within their respective political parties, or -- horrors -- their conscience...

...Yes, Chuck Chvala may still be the champion of the right to choose for women. But he has no compunctions about reducing traffic safety for the thousands of women who travel roads in Jon Erpenbach's district. Chvala does not hesitate to endanger the health and lives of women -- and men -- in order to punish Erpenbach for having the temerity to speak his mind.

The Chuck Chvala way is not the Wisconsin way. It is not good government. It does not offer good lessons for our children. It is small, petty and petulant.

Chvala's "punishment" of Erpenbach's constituents speaks volumes about the danger Chvala poses to our state.

What I wrote about then, still goes on today. It is not illegal but it is part of the culture of state government. Pay to play is more than the use of public resources for political gain.  The "leaders" need to maintain control and coerce votes. That too must end.

Comments

[Merry Selk]

Congrats on making the national news:

from Eschaton: Atrios.blogspot.com
http://haloscan.com/tb/atrios/114227254961375416

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A former speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, convicted of using state workers as campaign operatives on the taxpayer's dime and now facing up to 15 years in prison for it, announced Monday he would resign his office next week.

A jury convicted state Rep. Scott Jensen on Saturday of three felony misconduct counts and a misdemeanor for using state workers to run Assembly Republican campaigns on state time and with state resources.