WMC on Sidelines for Supreme Court Race. What Next?

With all  the changes and shifts, including the appointment of seven new board members at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), one friend wrote last week, "What do your tea-leaf readers and Kremlinologists tell you about these?"

Good question, damn good question.

While I mulled it over, we got word that WMC will not participate in an effort to unseat Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson in the April Supreme Court race.

Here is what we know about recent activities at the WMC fortress on East Washington Ave:

• Moderates were upset. Despite protestations and denials to the contrary, WMC was racked with internal dissension from last spring through the summer. (Clouds Gather Over East Washington Avenue, March 19, 2008)
• Moderates get upper hand.The hardliners, mostly manufacturers and industrialists, finally capitulated to the moderates, mostly retailers, and the organization maintained a low profile in last November's elections. 
• New WMC Plan. A shift in direction was announced with a plan, What Will It Take, (December 5, 2008) designed to engage Wisconsin business, labor and academic leaders in setting the organization's agenda. 
• Soglin-Haney Summit. Student government foes from 1965 lunch at Madison Club.

Yes, there was the summit invitation, personally extend to me by WMC President Jim Haney, for lunch at the Madison Club.  Jim and I broke bread. We have been acquaintances, almost friends, in our aging careers for forty-four years, since I defeated him in a student government race in 1965.

We discussed old times, mutual friends, and the future of Wisconsin.

Put all of this together and here are the conclusions:

• The changes in board membership signify a moderate shift to the center. It is hard to make a judgment without knowing the politics of the new appointees, but given the industry groups and the role of the departing members,  the replacements are more centrist.
• In addition, given the upheaval over the departure of Cullen Construction and TDS Telecommunications from the board, the new members from the retail sector would not have accepted appointment without assurances that things will be toned down.
• The jury is still out on the legislative agenda. Over the past three years WMC positions on everything from TABOR to the 'Hospital Tax' were as right-wing as they come. Democrats controlling both legislative houses will end the TABOR sideshows  but we have yet to see what WMC will do when the chips are down on legislation that ranges from environmental protections to restructuring the funding of public education.
• The WMC role in future elections is uncertain. The announced absence from the Supreme Court race is probably a temporary response to the bad publicity.

The Supreme Court Race
I have not found the link to the report on WMC sitting on the sidelines for the Supreme Court race, but you will find the document below. 

As repeatedly predicted, the right-wing effort to control the Wisconsin Supreme Court, directed by WMC, will shift to other front organizations. As I wrote last December, WMC - Repackaging the Outfit , "Through a 'lend lease' program of money and talent, let surrogates like All Children Matter do the hatchet job on Democrats like Trish O'Neil in the November elections."

WMC will be replaced in the Supreme Court race by All Children Matter, Americans for Prosperity and other right-wing groups. Probably 80% of money to purchase the television ads to unseat Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson will come from out of state. The surrogates will hire the same professional writers and producers that authored WMC-produced TV spots trashing Louis Butler and Linda Clifford.

The WMC logo and influence will be absent making the attacks, making them slightly less effective, but it will be brutal.

The report on WMC and the Supreme Court race from Wispolitics.com:

WMC sitting out Supreme Court race

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the biggest spender in the previous two Supreme Court campaigns, will sit out this spring's race between Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Jefferson County Judge Randy Koschnick.....

Comments

[atticusfinch]

Perhaps the reason the WMC is sitting out this SC race is that they can. They have already secured a right-tilting majority. Their work is done. They can sit on the sidelines & maintain a low profile-for now.