Dem14 Sen. Jon Erpenbach talks with MisLeading Wisconsin

Senator Jon Erpenbach spoke with me tonight (Fri.) before a Recall Glenn Grothman rally in West Bend.  Sen. Erpenbach (D-Middleton) is known to Wisconsin workers as one of the courageous Wisconsin Dem14 Senators who went to Illinois to deny a quorum and stop a too-hasty passage of Walker's budget repair bill on Feb. 17.  The italics are the questions I asked him in our short interview.

Do you have any regrets about leaving for Illinois?  "Not at all. It was the only way to slow things down.  It was the only way to give people a chance to see what was in (the budget repair bill)."  The Senator added that it was expected the Republicans would consolidate power, "but not in only one guy's hands."

"They went way too far."

Do you think the time in Illinois had any affect on some changes in Republican stances on current budget issues? Erpenbach nodded.  "Take Senior Care.  91,000 people depend on Senior Care and it's a wonderful program, a program that runs a surplus."

And is there any hope for teachers?  "Yes, there is.  More than not, people want friends and neighbors teaching their kids, not corporations."

Erpenbach expounded on several points during his speech, including his time in Illinois.  "They said to come home and we can have the debate--by the way, which is not negotiable.  We were offering proposals, they were taking away our paychecks, our parking spaces...they sent the State Patrol to our homes."

Regarding the non-re-passage of the budget repair bill: "We haven't been called back because they either don't want to put Glenn through that vote again, or they don't have the votes."

"This whole issue, it's not a right/left thing or a liberal/conservative thing, it's a right and a wrong thing. "

A crowd of 200-300 filled the pavilion in Regner Park, with a handful of Grothman supporters ringing the perimeter.  Supporters cheered "Thank you, thank you" to Sen. Erpenbach as well as another speaker, local television personality Gus Gnorski, whose employer Fox 6 News, said he could either speak at such union rallies or keep doing reports for the station.  Gnorski said goodbye to television and chose to speak at union rallies instead.  His hit-the-mark points included the hypocrisy of Grothman's mantra "I share your values," and the realization that jobs in the state need to be added jobs, not just those moved from place to place.

Also sharing the dais, were Tanya Lohr, the local high school teacher heading up the Grothman recall campaign in Washington County,  Rick Aaron, Democratic candidate for the 60th State Assembly District--now, suddenly with a chance to make a race of it in his Republican-heavy district-- and local columnist Waring Fincke.

Grothman petitions will be collected by 9 PM Sunday night.  The committee is still shy of the 20,061 signatures needed to trigger the recall.  If you haven't signed, check out the website here.

WISGOP says Do You Like Me Now?

Like a big brother that beats you up and then bribes you so he won't get in trouble, Wisconsin's fine Republican legislators are offering crumbs, really, now that their recall butts are on the line.  After the merciless pounding the Walker-run legislature gave worker rights in this state (rights, Walker finally admitted under oath , had no direct fiscal bearing on the budget, but rather were union-busting), Republican legislators are saying--all of the sudden now that recall papers have been served up-- "Hey, you know what?  Um, maybe this part of the budget could be changed, after all."

If the Democrats had not delayed the quorum for the budget-repair bill, and got people thinking about and actually reading things, for goodness sakes, the Republicans would have passed the 2011-2013 budget, no questions asked  (Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester gushed about it), as they would have budget-repair.

So now GOP legislators, even those that are--surprise--up for recall, are "breaking" with Walker and making nice with Wisconsinites through lip-service against budget items including Walker's removing income limits for school voucher families, splitting UW from the UW system, removing recycling, and using general funds for transportation.  

But really it's just b.s. window-dressing.  The non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau says there are still "more than 40 non-fiscal policy items in the governor's budget...proposals that aren’t absolutely essential to balancing the books,"  something that Walker campaigned against doing (Superior Telegram, 4/27).  And there are still numerous, equally-vile budget items remaining (drastic cuts to education and communities, for instance).  Oh, yeah, and Republicans may insert the court-stalled, anti-collective bargaining bill into the budget, as well.

Make sure your friends and neighbors don't fall for these little bribes to win back public favor.

The damages the Republican legislature has inflicted, and will inflict, on this state are far too serious to let them buy us off.

Grothman's gotta go

If there's anyone who thinks State Senator Glenn Grothman  (R-West Bend) speaks for Wisconsin, we should be very afraid for Wisconsin.  During the politics of the last few months, Grothman has shown disdain for Wisconsinites that have dissented with him by calling them names such as "smelly" and "slobs" , and labeling an obviously cognitively-challenged man as "a socially-inappropriate lefty."

Even his political moves for his own district are questionable, at best, as is shown in how the Walker budget cuts Grothman's been championing will be more severe for his home district.

But it's Grothman's ideas, the way he thinks, the vision he has for our America--a country built on freedom and equality--that should make the stoutest American truly shudder.  In a little video at an August Tea Party Rally he espouses how our country's "committing suicide" through "gals" having kids out of wedlock (because it's financially advantageous to not marry), through immigrants walking around on with a "chip on their shoulder" waiting for government handouts, and how big companies are routinely promoting women over more qualified men (what Grothman calls the "war on men").

This sounds like a parody of Wisconsin's infamous 1950's,communist-hunting, Senator Joseph McCarthy, or a skit from SNL, but it's not.  It's my State Senator in 2011. 

It would be nice to think he'd be justly recalled, but in this very conservative district, it must be he's preaching to the choir (in 2008, he pulled in over 80% of the vote).  However, there are recall petition events set up and great sites such as the Glenn Grothman Watch (aka, What did GG get wrong this week?) to stay on top of this guy. 

Hopefully, it will do some good.

Educational misstatements from Walker?

Walker's projections about school district savings under his budget were incorrect in more than 99% of districts, according to Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts (D-Middleton) in a column published today.  Pope-Roberts has been in the WI State Assembly since 2002, and is current ranking member of the Assembly Committee on Education. (biography here)

Pope-Roberts presented evidence to Walker in a hand-delivered letter that shows significant differences in Walker's numbers compared to those projected by the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (click here for access to the Pope-Roberts "Comprehensive Chart" spreadsheet).  Pope-Roberts found numbers that showed Walker overestimated district savings by an average of $129,000, with Milwaukee's savings overestimated in Walker's numbers by $12.5 million dollars (click here).  According to the analysis of the Pope-Roberts "Comprehensive Chart" spreadsheet, Walker "correctly projected savings for just three of the state’s 424 districts."  The official release from the office of Pope-Roberts even includes the serious declaration of the figures being "public education budget numbers invented by Governor Walker." (my emphasis). 

This comes in the face of $834 million in budget cuts to public schools, with Walker's proposals to allow unlimited increases in the number of charter and "virtual" schools, and removing the income requirements for private school vouchers, in essence, promoting payments to even wealthy residents to attend private schools.  Some consider this a direct attack on public schools.  Aside from merely the fiscal ramifications which Walker apparently misjudged (as compared to the numbers from Legislative Fiscal Bureau), Walker has proposed that districts would no longer need reading specialists, and, believe it or not, teachers would no longer need to obtain teaching licenses.  JS Online 

So, again, are we to trust educational reform to a Governor with an obvious agenda and a penchant for misstatements? 

Hell, no.

And that's not a misstatement.

Education reform from a college drop-out

I'm a teacher.  I actually find it offensive--and scary--to realize the driving force behind education reform in my state is being masterminded by a college drop-out.  As such, I thought I'd present my proposal to reform government, using some of pretty much the same headings the Governor uses in his education plan.

1. Recruit, Retain, and Reward Great Legislators:
Base the wages of legislators on how many bills they personally write and get passed. It makes no difference if the bills are viable or how they'd affect the community, just get them passed.  The higher the percentage, the better the legislator.

Retaining of legislators will be at the sole discretion of the governor.

Do not recruit  legislators by calling those in their profession slobs, lazy, or thugs.

2. More Choices for the Governed: 
Lift the caps on private government and reduce regulatory restrictions.  Allow people to form their own "choice and charter" governmental units. They can make rules and govern their areas free from current laws and regulations.   Or, better yet, we will allow people to govern themselves using their computer monitors and call it "virtual government."

Make good government accessible to everyone by encouraging wealthier constituents (through payments) to leave their public governance area to join a private one.

3. Cross Your Fingers:
Hope like heck it works, even though recent studies show that in things such as school systems, "choice" doesn't always mean better.

Seriously, though, kudos to those Wisconsin legislators who see the wisdom in keeping income restrictions for the state voucher program.  The whole purpose of this program, after all, is to provide more opportunity and hope for those that may not have much of either.

Hopefully, all our legislators someday see the light that this kind of reform, with no input from those familiar with education, is merely change, not reform at all.

Things Learned From Scott Walker

I don't usually just list a link, but this letter to the editor in the Appleton Post-Crescent says it all pretty well. Click here.

WHO are the thugs?

Supporters of Republican recall-bound Senator Luther Olsen "forced" their way into a private Democratic function--a Thursday night rally for Baraboo Democratic Rep. Fred Clark, who will be taking on Olsen in the recall election.  The GOP backers who burst uninvited into the room, held signs and reportedly shouted at Clark, who was addressing his supporters during a non-public meeting in a room rented by the Sauk County Democratic Party. 

The GOP'ers said the disturbance was the Democrats' fault, not the fault of those who crashed the event. "This gang is very good at instigating events and then pointing fingers the other way,"  said Sauk County Republican Party Chair Tim McCumber, speaking of the Democrats.  McCumber, believe it or not, was actually one of the event crashers.  More info here and here.

As party chair, McCumber says on the party website that his group believes in "the right to American liberties as established by the US Constitution."  He may want to look up the First Amendment part about the right of the people peaceably to assemble.

Could this have been foreseen?  The slogan for McCumber's unsuccessful bid for the 47th Assembly District in 2010 appears to have been, "Already fighting for the 47th." 

Now it appears he's fighting for the entire Republican Party.