Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Soglin Named to Overture Oversight Committee

Yesterday, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz picked members of an ad hoc committee to review the future business plan of the Overture Center, and (surprise!) Waxing America proprietor Paul Soglin made the list. Madison Mistress of All Alternative Media (MAAM) Brenda Konkel has the story and list here.  The City Council must confirm the appointments, which are all local political, business and cultural bigfoots, but I can't imagine much resistance. (I can imagine Mark Bugher trying to run a committee meeting with Paul Soglin and Tim Bruer as members, but I wouldn't want to attend.)

- Barry Orton

Wisconsin SD-07: Chris Larson Challenges "Pay to Plale"

The Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce is bi-partisan.  WMC loves almost every Republican in the legislature plus Senator Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee).  Plale chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Utilities, Energy and Rail and some of his biggest campaign donors are executives from the cable television and energy industries, and from the WMC. Plale has pushed deregulation of nearly every industry his committee oversees, and Xoff calls it "Pay to Plale:"

Do the special interests pour money into Plale's campaign because he agrees with them and has already done things they want to reward? Or do they give so Plale will do nice things for them in the future?

Some people say the legislature works like a vending machine -- put your money and legislation comes out. But sometimes the machine jams and you lose your money, or you have to start over and put money in again.

Some people call it Pay to Play. But that's almost impossible to prove, that there is any quid pro quo involved.

But one thing's for sure. The State Senator from South Milwaukee has some unusual friends. And they're willing to play the game, whatever it is, to keep him in office.

Just call it Pay to Plale.

Milwaukee County Board Supervisor Chris Larson is challenging Plale in the 7th Senatorial District Democratic primary, and has attracted a lot of union and grassroots support so far. It's very difficult to oust a seated Senator in a primary in either party, but it looks like Larson has a decent chance.

- Barry Orton

Madison City Council: So Many Meetings, Surprisingly Few Slackers

Ex-Alder Brenda Konkel is a glutton for punishment. She attends, and often blogs (at This Side of Town/Forward Lookout), more local government meetings than are healthy for anyone. She's stepped up her game recently and become a multi-media mogul, with regular shows on WORT radio and WYOU public access cable TV. The public interest and the public's awareness both benefit from Brenda's obsessive participation in local affairs.

Recently she's been on a mission to create an attendance score for Madison City alders.  The result, a work in progress that Brenda admits is based on flawed and incomplete information, is actually kind of reassuring. In a post titled: "Is Your Alder Doing Their Job?" Brenda provides a preliminary list of Madison alders and their ratio of committee meetings attended:

33% Thuy Pham-Remmele 1/3
38% Brian Solomon 5/13
47% Jed Sanborn 17/36
66% Michael Schumacher 33/50
68% Bridget Maniaci 13/19
72% Joe Claussius 36/50
75% Lauren Cnare 25/33
81% Julia Kerr 13/16
81% Larry Palm 13/16
87% Mike Verveer 36/41
87% Satya Rhodes-Conway 34/39
87% Judy Compton 21/24
88% Mark Clear 38/43
88% Paul Skidmore 23/26
92% Tim Bruer 38/41
95% Chris Schmidt 23/24
96% Shiva Bidar Sielaff 24/25
96% Marsha Rummel 24/25
100% Steve King 7/7
100% Bryon Eagon 26/26

As a career professor, I can't help seeing the numbers in terms of semester grade averages. It's a pretty typical grade distribution for a mid-level undergraduate class. I see 5 alders with clear A+ grades, 6 with A's or very high B+ grades, 2 with B's, 2 got C's, 2 just managed D's, and 3 clearly flunked with F's.  So out of a class of 20, there's three students alders (Pham-Remmele, Solomon, and Sanborn) that either don't belong there at all and have been totally missing in action. Two others (Schumacher and Maniaci) need to party far less and study more, or find a less demanding major.

Too bad this is real important city business and the five slackers are wasting taxpayer dollars, not their own tuition. But on the positive side, 75% of the alders are attending over 70% of their meetings, and 65% are attending over 80%.

Brenda's not done factoring in as many meetings as possible, so there's possible improvements before the grades become final. All whining for extra credit should be directed to Ms. Konkel.

- Barry Orton

No Real Race in Wisconsin AD-76

In the competitive 77th Assembly District, I saw three of the five Democratic candidates campaigning simultaneously at the Westside Community Market last Saturday (Bret Hulsey, Dianne Hesselbein, and Fred Ward) for the seat open due to Spencer Black's retirement. Another candidate, John Imes, has been working the Market for weeks, and I'm told that Green party candidate Ben Manski has also appeared.

In contrast, the 76th AD, where I live, has an excellent incumbent, Rep. Therese Berceau, who is not being seriously challenged by anyone with political experience. But there is an interesting candidate running as an independent, Torrey Jaeckle, who seems to have "Tea Party" positions on school choice, abortion, economics, taxes, and much else. Good old Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman are quoted throughout his positions, and Jaeckle, who helps run a business his grandfather started and his father built, seems to believe all that free market, minimal government and low taxes stuff like his hero Ronald Reagan. Formerly a registered Libertarian, he's for raw milk sales, concealed carriage of guns, and medical marijuana.

We'll see if he shows up at my door or at the Westside Community Market. Let's not tell him yet that he hasn't a prayer of winning.

- Barry Orton

Ron Johnson Tapdances on Great Lakes Oil Drilling; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Applauds His Pirouettes

Question: When does "yeah" at one point mean "no" subsequently? 

Answer: When Ron Johnson, the Republican Party's anointed primary candidate for US Senate, says "yeah" in a response to a WisPolitics question about whether he supported drilling for oil in the Great Lakes, and then issues press releases and TV ads saying he's against it. See Xoff here, here, and here.

Question: How does Johnson get away with it?

Answer: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial page helpfully ignores the "yeah" and selectively quotes Johnson to make his position(s) less contradictory, and then blames both Johnson and Feingold for slinging mud.

Question: When are Lake Erie and Lake Ontario not part of the Great Lakes?

Answer: When Ron Johnson's TV response ads claim that Russ Feingold was the only Great Lakes Senator to vote against banning oil drilling in the Great Lakes, when, in fact, New York's two Senators, Schumer and Clinton, voted no along with Feingold, all three because the bill's Great Lakes protections were too weak.

Question: When Ron Johnson later claims that "he did not think he ever heard the Great Lakes portion of the question," why doesn't the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel or WisPolitics call him on it?

Answer: Johnson's campaign must be supported for its entertainment value until November.  Dave Westlake is too dull and too consistent on conservative issues, and the Tea Party folks seem too willing to go over the cliff with their Republican "kingmakers" and talk radio blowhards.

- Barry Orton

Rod Nilsestuen Will Be Missed

When I first came to Wisconsin in January 1980, one of the first road trips I took was to Whitehall, the Trempealeau County seat. There was a mild snowstorm (6-9 inches), and my new boss, Art Krival, insisted that I needed to go meet some folks who had built a cable television cooperative there and help plan its local access channel structure. The snowstorm would help Art decide whether I had the right stuff to stick at the UW-Extension, and the meeting would give me a sense of what I was getting into. We stayed mostly on the road, and the folks I met included the coop's manager, Rod Moen, later State Senator Rod Moen, and a father and son who had helped to organize the coop, Gerhard and Rod Nilsestuen.

I don't remember adding much to the discussion, but I must have said something useful, because the Trempealeau Cable Coop folks kept asking me for advice and assistance.  I wound up working with Rod Moen on any number of issues over the years, and as Rod Nilsestuen rose to head the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives and later the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, we periodically connected on telecommunications consumer topics and more recently on farmers' market development.  The last three years I worked often with Rod's son Joel, a key aide to Senator Kathleen Vinehout, on cable and telecom legislation. Working with three generations of the same family over 30 years is a privilege one doesn't get too often in a lifetime.

Jane Burns in the Wisconsin State Journal has a good summary story on Rod's tragic accidental death here. Some good tributes to Rod are here, here and here. Update: Bill Berry's Cap Times tribute.

Condolences to his family.  May his memory be for a blessing.

- Barry Orton

Candidates In Crowded 77th Assembly District Primary Seek To Fill Spencer Black's Very Large Shoes

Spencer Black was not my state Representative; I live two blocks south of the 77th District boundary.  However, for many years Spencer's been my go-to guy in the Assembly on any number of issues.  We've worked together to pass good legislation for cable subscribers and to stop legislation that was bad for telephone customers. My Waxing America salute post is here. Barbara Quirk had a nice tribute column in the Cap Times today. Spencer Black's shoes will be very hard to fill.

The Democratic primary is crowded with five serious and connected candidates: Brett Hulsey, Dianne Hesselbein, Doug Zwank, John Imes and Fred Wade.   Hulsey and Hesselbein have County Board service to their credit, Zwank was mayor of Middleton, and Imes and Wade have been active in many local government and community groups. Four of them have been heavily working the Westside Community Market at the Hill Farms DoT parking lot at Segoe and Sheboygan on Saturday mornings, where the highest concentration of 77th District voters can be found, and where I'm a regular volunteer vegetable seller.

At this point who Spencer endorses will be key.

- Barry Orton

Telecom Policy Astroturf Alert

A group of 17 minority-oriented organizations are coming out against moving FCC authority over broadband to a telecommunications/common carrier orientation (Title II) from a less robust information services designation (Title I). We explained the move in May, and its potential impacts on "Net Neutrality".

The Hill's story quotes a letter the groups wrote Congressional leaders seeking legislation over FCC action because:

...we are concerned that the Commission's proposed regulations could be a distraction from efforts to implement the National Broadband Plan.  By injecting uncertainty into the broadband market, we fear that proposed regulations could have detrimental effects on investment, innovation and job creation.

Sounds more like AT&T and Verizon's concerns than those of diversity groups. Unless, of course, the groups are astroturf mouthpieces that echo the positions of their major fund sources, like AT&T and Verizon. 

Closer to home, AT&T-funded Wired Wisconsin's Thad Nation manages to bemoan the fate of the 125 most recently laid-off AT&T workers and at the same time pitch AT&T-sponsored legislation for further deregulation of the phone industry. Nation entreats Wisconsin to follow the lead of Ohio and Illinois, where somehow "legislation passed within just the last few weeks" has already led to "...more than 80 new cellular towers ... due to be built in Illinois" and "roughly $120 million will be invested in upgrading the infrastructure of a wireless services center in Akron." 

Funny how these big capital investment decisions, which usually take many months to plan, happened to be announced just before or just after the Ohio and Illinois deregulation legislation passed, and even with the national "uncertainty" that the diversity group sock-puppets fear. 

- Barry Orton

Wisconsin Republican Poll Deliberately Omits Mention of Neumann and Westlake

I had the privilege yesterday of participating in a telephone poll conducted by the Republican Party of Wisconsin. A live person called my landline and asked me some general questions about my political leanings and my likely votes in the 2010 election for Governor and Senator.  All normal except:

• The wording of basic questions like my opinion of the effectiveness of the stimulus legislation was skewed heavily towards Republican positions.
• I was not asked whether it was likely that I'd vote in the primary or general elections.
• I was not asked any of the normal socio-economic questions that allow the results to be adjusted to account for under-polled groups.
• The question about the Governor's race only mentioned Scott Walker and Tom Barrett, not Mark Neumann.
• The question about the Senate race only mentioned Ron Johnson and Russ Feingold, not Dave Westlake.

If Neumann won't listen to his former backer, Jim "kingmaker" Klauser, and just quit the race and send Klauser back his money, the Republican Party of Wisconsin will simply act as if Neumann does not exist. As for Westlake, a nice, humble guy who actually believes those "tea party" nostrums his supporters spout, for the GOP, politically he really does not exist.

Maybe this is the year that some Wisconsin Democrats decide to participate in the Republican primary.  It might be hard to vote for Neumann given his awful political history, but a vote for Westlake could feel good and send a message to the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

- Barry Orton

Behind the Ron Johnson Website SNAFU: Campaign Used Texas Firm Run By Students

Today everyone in Wisconsin politics had a good laugh at Ron Johnson's latest campaign blunder: for a short time Johnson's website featured a "tourism policy" that was word-for word that of Wyoming Republican governor candidate Colin Simpson, including many references to Wyoming and handing the problem of wolves.

...As governor, I will continue to lead the effort to work with the federal government and to convey the significant economic impact of limiting snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park and carry Wyoming’s argument through both courts of law and public opinion.

...I have the right plan to deal with the wolf problem and bring management of these predators under the control of the people of Wyoming.

The blame quickly fell on Harris Media, a Texas-based firm working for both Simpson and Johnson, as well as several other Republican candidates, such as Rick Scott in Florida and Brian Dubie in Vermont, both running for governor. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel cutely headlined the story "Johnson throws Web vendor to the wolves."  Haas414 showed a bit of the screen capture and wondered "where are Ron Johnson’s web people? Looks like they’re not in Oshkosh, or Wisconsin."

No, they are mostly students at the University of Texas, from the bios on the Harris Media website. The firm's founder, Vincent Harris, was on the online staff of Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign, and then was Internet Director of Texas Senator John Cornyn's re-election campaign. Now Harris is working on a Master's in Government at UT-Austin. Some of the Harris staff are still undergraduates at UT-Austin and elsewhere; others have actual degrees in hand and are working on multiple campaigns. The staff seems spread pretty thin between all the campaign work and their classes, and their other campus activities, such as "College Republicans," "Student Senate," and "Zeta Tau Alpha sorority," so mistakes can happen.

Speaking of mistakes, this week alone Ron Johnson had to reverse himself on drilling for oil in the Great Lakes as well as on wolf management in Wyoming. Let's keep guns out of Johnson's hands for the sake of his feet, and the Senate seat out of his grasp for the sake of all Wisconsin citizens.

- Barry Orton