Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Paul Soglin Campaign Statement - Mayor of Madison 2011

I love the city of Madison and everything about it…its past, its people, its present and its potential.

I have seen this City from many sides: as a student at the UW and as a member of its faculty…as a City Council member, as your Mayor.

I’ve worked in the private sector as an investment advisor and as a project manager for a major Dane County corporation. I’ve worked on area-wide economic development and housing issues for the State.

I’ve seen what works in Madison and what doesn’t. I’ve been a part of moving Madison forward. I’ve never been shy about suggesting new ideas and advocating for change when I thought we could do better.

This is one of those times.

The Edgewater, the downtown library, Overture...snowplowing …taxes that are too high, a budget that is structurally unsound, the exodus of talented city managers, neighborhood groups whose input is ignored and whose participation is devalued. Good ideas that go nowhere and bad ideas that won’t go away.

Madison isn’t moving forward or working together or getting things done as it should…as it has…as it can. The next Mayor of Madison needs to have the know-how and vision to get Madison working and moving forward together during difficult, complex and challenging times.

That’s what I offer. That’s what I’ve done. And that’s why today, I am announcing my candidacy for Mayor.

Some of the news reports about my candidacy have described me as a “politician.” But let me tell you the truth: I am a lousy politician. I am too forthright. Too honest. Too interested in the nuts and bolts of leading a city. I like the exchange of ideas and the good ideas that come from open debate and discussion and collective reasoning. I like to get things done.

I’m not a politician. I am a Mayor. The inability of the current administration to get things done and to address challenges before they become crises threatens the future of our city. It undermines our ability to come together as Madisonians and focus our considerable talents and energy to collectively solve the issues – big and small – that confront us.

We can do better. During my terms as Mayor, we build the Capitol Centre and Monona Terrace, turned State Street into a bus and pedestrian mall. We laid the foundation for Madison Metro. We had a triple A bond rating recognizing our strong fiscal management. We balanced budgets.

We combined civic pride with civic responsibility. We made things happen.

Together, we can do it again. One of the first things I’ll do as Mayor will be to meet with every member of the city council to get their recommendations for their own and citizen appointments to city committees so we create a committee system that is diverse with people and ideas.

I’ll get governmental, labor, business, and educational partners together and get to work to create opportunistic programs that will expand employment, training, and workforce development for all Madisonians.

We’ll collaborate with County Government, environmentalists, urban planners and neighborhood groups to adopt a Madison Plan that comprehensively addresses our land use and transportation goals in order to create a safe and healthy environment for all Madisonians to live work, study, and play.

I’ll organize a broad based city commission, modeled on the Monona Terrace Commission, that will produce a working solution for Overture.

People from all across Madison and from across the political spectrum urged me to run for mayor. The people of this City value the services their City provides while demanding they get value for their dollars. The people of Madison want their mayor to envision and enact initiatives that ensure a positive, common future for this city, its neighborhoods, its people, its downtown, its suburbs and its parks. They want us to get things done now, for this generation without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

With all the serious challenges we face, Madison is still the best City in this country to live, work and raise a family. We are home to a world class university, great public schools, gorgeous lakes, a thriving bio-tech sector. We are situated in a County distinguished by beautiful and productive farms, miles of bike trails, innovative County government programs and hard working, caring residents.

Being Mayor of Madison is the toughest job I’ve ever loved. I am prepared to focus on nothing else but working with every one of you to make Madison work -- for all its citizens -- once again.

Thank you.

- Paul Soglin

 

Editor's Note: Campaign contributions can be made out to Soglin for Mayor and mailed to PO Box 1228, Madison WI 53701. Please include contact information and whether we can use your name as a supporter.  Let us know if you can volunteer or sponsor a fundraiser. State law requires you to supply employer information (name and address) if your contribution is over $100 in a calendar year. The campaign website at http://www.soglinformayor.com will be is now able to take online contributions very soon, but please feel free to go old school via the US Postal Service if you are old school. in the meanwhile.

 

Paul Soglin For Mayor (Again)? Yes.

Paul Soglin, Waxing America proprietor, proving all rumors aren't wrong, yesterday filed most of the papers necessary to run for Mayor of Madison. The Wisconsin State Journal front-paged the story in the print edition today, and the Capital Times' Kristin Czubkowski had it online yesterday. Emily's Post found hints in past Waxing America posts, and John Nichols was over the moon:

So why does the Soglin prospect so intrigue?

For one thing, he was a brilliant mayor, who saw major projects to completion, made diversity a reality rather than a promise and managed not just to get Madison's bond rating upgraded to AAA status but also to attain national attention, as the city was under his leadership repeatedly rated the most livable in America.

So it is not that hard to understand why people who know Soglin's record are excited by his decision to enter next spring's race.

(Clipped out lots of interesting analysis - go read it yourself.)

...It is not necessary to love or hate the guy to recognize that he has already made the 2011 mayoral race more uncertain and exciting than could any other challenger to Cieslewicz.

Paul Soglin is still what he has always been: the one political figure Madisonians cannot forget, cannot dismiss and cannot avoid thinking might just have one more mayoralty in him.

Today, officially from Melissa Mulliken, Soglin for Mayor campaign manager:

Paul Soglin will hold a press conference on Wednesday, December 22 at 11:00 a.m. at the Warner Park Community Recreation Center, Community Room 1, 1625 Northport Drive to formally announce his candidacy for Mayor of Madison.

Come by tomorrow and show Paul some support.

Stay tuned; much more tomorrow and in the weeks and months to come.

- Barry Orton

 Editor's Note: Campaign contributions can be made out to Soglin for Mayor and mailed to PO Box 1228, Madison WI 53701. Please include contact information and whether we can use your name as a supporter.  Let us know if you can volunteer or sponsor a fundraiser. State law requires you to supply employer information (name and address) if your contribution is over $100 in a calendar year. The campaign website at http://www.soglinformayor.com is now able to take online contributions, but please feel free to go old school via the US Postal Service.

Rose Bowl No Longer On "Free" TV

If you don't have cable, and you don't have a dish, and you don't have decent internet service, and you want to watch Badgers and Horned Frogs tussle in the Rose Bowl for the possibility of being named the third-best football-playing institution conferring batchelor's degrees in the USA, you need to make plans to visit a friend with the right connections or a neighborhood bar with cable. The game isn't on ABC any more.

Deb Ziff of the Wisconsin State Journal found someone who thinks this is just not fair:

"I just thought it was very, very cruel," said Carol Gefke, of Oregon, who works with elderly people, some of whom do not have cable. "It's taking a privilege away from them."

This was news back in 2009:

The Rose Bowl game will move from network television to ESPN for the 2011 game, joining the rest of the BCS on the network.

The 2010 Rose Bowl and BCS National Championship Game -- both in Pasadena, Calif., at the end of the upcoming season -- will be on ABC.

"Having all BCS matchups on one home, especially within ESPN's year-round college football environment, is the very best scenario," ESPN executive vice president of programming and acquisitions John Wildhack said. "Fans will welcome ESPN's all-encompassing approach, and the additional opportunities and value resulting from our multi-platform presentation will benefit the college football community and our business partners."

(Bolding mine.)

Translation of the above: ESPN and the BCS athletic departments, which includes UW-Madison, make more money than if the game was on ABC.

My cynical take: Any fan who bleeds Badger Red should be delighted to pay extra for cable or dish service knowing that it helps Bucky and Barry's teams prosper. It's much the same concept as access to certain football and basketball tickets requiring an additional donation.  And we all know that tickets are never free.

Go Badgers.

(Rev. Lovejoy of The Simpsons claims a degree from TCU.)

- Barry Orton

Making Wisconsin's Winter Roads Safer By Grounding The Amateurs

Yesterday, curmudgeon Tim Morrissey, after driving around the state last weekend, proposed a Wisconsin winter driving test, with those unable to pass never allowed to drive in snow and ice:

The fully winter-qualified drivers would have to pass a winter driving test, to be developed by a panel of experts from the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Wisconsin Transportation Department. To be fully winter-qualified, any driver who wishes to operate a motor vehicle on Wisconsin roads in winter will have to pass a behind-the-wheel test, also to be administered by the state Transportation Department, just like you have to pass a test to get a motorcycle operator license...Fully-qualified winter drivers would be issued a distinctive Wisconsin Drivers License, and would be issued special license plates with a large “W” as the last character of the plate.

(Morrissey's idea)... makes good winter drivers confident that they won’t get run off the road by some rank unqualified amateur; and, with appropriately stiff penalties for failure to qualify, it would be a huge deterrent to the aforementioned amateurs, who have no business on snowy or icy roads.

Indeed.

Probably Morrissey would set "appropriately stiff penalties" for unlicensed winter driving somewhat short of shooting them. But knowing Tim, maybe not.

- Barry Orton

Wisconsin Supreme Court Race: Kloppenburg Challenges Prosser's Cakewalk

Should a candidate for reelection to the legal equivalent of a referee declare in advance that he'll make all his calls for his political hometown team?  

Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg has blasted Supreme Court Justice David Prosser for his campaign manager's recent statement that his job would:

... include building an organization that will return Justice Prosser to the bench, protecting the conservative judicial majority and acting as a common sense complement to both the new administration and Legislature.

Kloppenburg suggests we should be outraged:

The Prosser campaign's suggestion that as a Justice, Prosser sees his role and the work of the Supreme Court as a "complement" to the political and policy agenda of the Governor and a legislature is deeply disturbing.

For a sitting judge to promise that he will work to further the ends of the other two branches of government shows an enormous disregard for the separation of powers and the role of the court as an independent, impartial body that ought to promise just one thing: to decide cases on the law and the facts brought forth in those cases.

She's right, and although challenging Prosser is a very steep uphill climb, a new law allowing public financing, Wisconsin's Impartial Justice Act, provides up to $100,000 in the primary and $300,000 in the spring general election. So Kloppenburg actually has a shot. Candidates must raise between $5,000 and $15,000 in small contributions from at least 1,000 Wisconsin residents to be eligible. If you want to be one of those key folks, clicking here gets you started.

(There are two other candidates challenging Prosser: Joel Winnig, a Madison attorney specializing in divorce and criminal defense, and Marla Stephans, of the Wisconsin Public Defender's Office.)

- Barry Orton

House Energy and Commerce Committee: Is Fred Upton An Improvement Over Joe Barton?

Before the election, Waxing America was worried when Joe Barton (R-Texas A&M) was declaring that he would again become Chairman of the key House Energy and Commerce Committee. Apparently, Barton's passioned defense of BP against its critics didn't play well with other Republicans, not to mention his going against the GOP's own seniority rules.

Instead, the new Chairman will be Michigan's Fred Upton, whose conservatism is somewhat of a more mainstream nature. Are we relieved?  Well, not so much. First, he's on board with all of the main GOP talking points:

"Our challenges are great with near double-digit unemployment and record deficits, but our new majority and leadership team led by Speaker Boehner are ready to deliver," said Upton. "We will stand firm in our fight to repeal Obamacare, cut reckless spending, strip away the countless job-killing regulations, and spur job creation. We must work towards a new era of less government and more jobs -- the administration's rampant spending and unfettered, two-year assault on the health, energy, and telecommunications sectors is now over."

Further, Upton will push back against the administration's feeble efforts to expand broadband:

Upton accused the Obama administration of an “unfettered two-year assault” on the telecommunications sector (along with health and energy) and said that period “is now over.”

Upton is also no friend of Net Neutrality:

"We're going to be like a dog to a Frisbee on [net neutrality]," Upton said last week.

Most telling, AT&T is happy:

“With his extensive knowledge of telecommunications and his unwavering support for policies that foster investment and job growth, Congressman Upton’s leadership will be invaluable in shaping our country’s broadband future,” said AT&T Executive Vice President of Federal Relations Tim McKone in a statement.

Oy gevalt.

- Barry Orton

Baseball Hall of Fame Fails Yet Again: Votes In Management Icon, Not Labor Pioneer

How many times will the Baseball Hall of Fame fail? This week they voted in Pat Gillick, who was the GM for Toronto, Baltimore, Seattle, and Philadelphia, but not Marvin Miller, who led the players union to free agency and made its members rich.  Miller lost by one vote.  It was the fifth time he was not elected. Miller, never at a loss for words, did not take the results quietly:

Many years ago those who control the Hall decided to rewrite history instead of recording it. The aim was to eradicate the history of the tremendous impact of the players' union on the progress and development of the game as a competitive sport, as entertainment and as an industry. The union was the moving force in bringing Major League Baseball from the 19th century to the 21st century. It brought about expansion of the game to cities that had never had a Major League team. It brought about more than a 50 percent increase in the number of people employed as players, coaches, trainers, managers, club presidents, attorneys and other support personnel, employees of concessionaires, stadium maintenance personnel, parking lot attendants, and more. It converted a salary structure from one with a $6,000 a year minimum salary to a $414,000 a year salary from the first day of a player's Major League service. The union was also the moving force for changing the average Major League salary from $19,000 a year to more than $3 million a year, and the top salary from $100,000 to more than $25 million a year. The union was a major factor in increasing the annual revenue of all Major League clubs, combined -- from $50 million a year before the union started in 1966 to this year's almost $7 billion a year. That is a difficult record to eradicate -- and the Hall has failed to do it.

A long time ago, it became apparent that the Hall sought to bury me long before my time, as a metaphor for burying the union and eradicating its real influence. Its failure is exemplified by the fact that I and the union of players have received far more support, publicity, and appreciation from countless fans, former players, writers, scholars, experts in labor management relations, than if the Hall had not embarked on its futile and fraudulent attempt to rewrite history. It is an amusing anomaly that the Hall of Fame has made me famous by keeping me out.

At least they didn't elect George Steinbrenner.

The others that were denied include: Vida Blue, Dave Concepcion, Steve Garvey, Ron Guidry, Tommy John, Billy Martin, Al Oliver, Ted Simmons and Rusty Staub. All the details are here. I could make a case for Concepcion, John, Oliver, and Staub. But first: Marvin Miller, Ron Santo, and Minnie Minoso.

(BTW, info on Santo's funeral and visitation is here.  The funeral should be covered live at 10 am on Friday on WGN radio and TV.)

- Barry Orton

Ron Santo Dies; Baseball Fans Mourn and Shame On The Hall Of Fame

Ron Santo died yesterday after falling into a coma on Wednesday.  He recently suffered from bladder cancer along with the effects of his lifelong case of Type I diabetes. Waxing America has been arguing Santo's case for the Hall of Fame for years, along with that of Minnie Minoso.

Keith Olbermann is pissed:

It should go without saying that the true tragedy is the death of Ron Santo at the age of 70 after a brave and inspirational fight against diabetes and the amputations of both legs it necessitated.

But beyond the mourning of this day, is the shame of this day. The Cubs' great third baseman is not in the Hall of Fame, and symbolizes that all-too-large group of players ranging from 19th Century stars to Gil Hodges to Buck O'Neil to Dale Murphy who are, by any means, considerably better than a huge percentage of those already in Cooperstown, but who are still excluded due to the enduringly searing reality that the Hall has never gone more than two years without one of its groups of electors screwing something up.

Bleed Cubbie Blue proprietor Al Yelon reflects the thoughts of many of us:

...I say with no hesitation that I admired Ron Santo for his play when I was young, and then again for the way he faced life's adversities. The Yiddish word for this kind of person is "mensch." Ron Santo was, without a doubt, a mensch, a wonderful human being.

...There is absolutely no question that Ron Santo should have been inducted into the Hall of Fame a very long time ago. He is one of the five or six best third basemen in baseball history. Santo mentioned many times that he did not want to go into the Hall posthumously, and I hope the Hall voters now respect his wishes.

They ought to be ashamed, every one of them, for not giving this good man and great player this honor while he was still among us.

May Ron Santo's memory be for a blessing to his family, friends and many many fans. He was a mensch.

- Barry Orton

Surprise! NCAA Has No Problem With Auburn and Cam Newton

Charles Pierce lays it all out for us:

Let me see if I understand the NCAA's reasoning here. Cam Newton's father, the Rev. Cecil Newton and yet another guy named Kenny Rogers, were peddling young Cam's services all over the South but, since the NCAA's jurisdiction does not extend either to men of the cloth  or to people who share their names with bad pitchers and mushmouthed country crooners, all's well and it's full speed ahead for the Heisman Trophy and the eventual BCS Championship game.

In other words, we are being asked to believe that a) young Cam himself had no idea that Reverend Grabitall and Not The Gambler were using him as an ambulatory ATM card, and 2) that the team that landed young Cam's services happens to be the one that didn't pay what everyone now seems to agree was the asking price.

And, of course, This Blog is the Tsar of all the Russias.

The BCS system and the NCAA's "rules" make the US Tax Code seem simple, fair, and and totally reasonable.  More reasons to just eliminate the hypocrisy and allow all the BCS football teams to pay their players a reasonable wage considering the real risks to their bodies and brains.  Allow those who really want college degrees to attend for free after their football "careers" end. Today's big-time college football makes dogfighting look fair and less exploitive of its participants.

- Barry Orton

Surprise! Ron Johnson Names Lobbyist As Chief Of Staff

Politico has the story of the appointment of Don Kent, currently a corporate lobbyist and previously a Bush administration legislative aide in the Department of Homeland Security.  Before that Kent was a staffer for Oklahoma Republicans in the Senate and in the House.

Kent counseled corporations and other clients on strategy, policy and communications, particularly on issues related to the Homeland Security Department. He served as a lobbyist for Tyco International, AT&T, Advanced Micro Devices, UPS and other firms, according to Senate records.

Why isn't this surprising?

- Barry Orton