The Whitewater area – the city proper and smaller townships nearby – are jointly part of a unified public school district. These last years have been difficult for Wisconsin educational funding, for the rural economies in this part of the state, and surely for Whitewater in both matters. The district has recently completed both a…
Elections
Elections, Local Government, Trump
Local Elections 2019: The Limits of Local (Part 1 of 4)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater, like other cities in Wisconsin, will hold local elections on Tuesday, April 2nd. Even in difficult times, this state and this country has carried on, and properly so, with local elections. In Whitewater, residents of the city will vote for council members, school board members, and for the city’s next municipal judge. Those races…
Elections, Gerrymandering, Scott Walker, Speaker Vos, State Government, Wisconsin
The Gerrymander Kings
by JOHN ADAMS •
Many of former Gov. Walker’s legislative victories depended on gerrymandering, and Speaker Robin Vos would not be the speaker today without a wildly gerrymandered state. Say what one wants about those men, they’re staying true to their shared dance partner: Walker has joined a GOP group that favors gerrymandered redistricting, and Vos refuses to answer…
Courts, Elections, Law, Wisconsin
Chief Judge Lisa Neubauer for Supreme Court: Fairness. Justice. Equality
by JOHN ADAMS •
Elections, Politics, School District
About That ‘Same Ten People’ Problem…
by JOHN ADAMS •
If Whitewater wants – as some profess – to be free of a ‘same ten people’ problem (where a tiny few remain in office seemingly forever), then the solution is no harder than electing representatives other than from a tiny group of the same ten people. How funny, then, that one finds from among the members…
Courts, Elections, Law, Wisconsin
‘This is not a close decision’: Federal Judge Strikes Down Lame-Duck Changes to Wisconsin Voting Laws
by JOHN ADAMS •
Laurel White reports Federal Judge Strikes Down Lame-Duck Changes To Wisconsin Voting Laws: The restrictions limited early voting in Wisconsin to the two weeks before an election. In recent years, cities including the Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee and Madison have offered several weeks of early voting. Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed the new restrictions into…
City, Elections, Local Government, School District, Walworth County
Elections, Contested or Uncontested
by JOHN ADAMS •
Elections, Gov. Walker, Politics, Tony Evers, Wisconsin
Beyond Milwaukee and Madison: Walker’s ‘erosion of support in diverse set of cities and suburbs’
by JOHN ADAMS •
The WISGOP, under Speaker Vos and Majority Leader Fitzgerald, falsely contends that Scott Walker lost only because of the Dane County & City of Milwaukee vote. A claim like this is myopic, of course: the close election turned as much on where Walker underperformed as where Evers performed well. Craig Gilbert looks at the election data…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, CDA, Conflicts of Interest, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Elections, Gov. Walker, Kakistocracy, Law, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Mendacity, State Capitalism, State Government, Tony Evers, WEDC, Wisconsin
Once a Gerrymanderer…
by JOHN ADAMS •
Wisconsin, with a gerrymandered legislature and a crony capitalist, lame-duck governor, was never going to have an easy transition back to a tradition of democratically representative government and sound economic policy. The men who engineered years of the wrong approach were never going to go gently to the political outer darkness that, deservedly, awaits them.…
Elections, Politics, Wisconsin
Wisconsin 2020
by JOHN ADAMS •
Craig Gilbert writes Wisconsin already expected to be a war zone for the 2020 presidential race: Almost everything about the Nov. 6 midterm election bolstered Wisconsin’s status as a top presidential target in 2020, when this state has no race for governor or U.S. Senate but can expect an all-out war over its 10 electoral votes.…
Elections, Federal Government, Trump
Gains in a Long Conflict
by JOHN ADAMS •
Stanley Greenberg observes Trump Is Beginning to Lose His Grip. There’s much work yet to go, and sure to be painful setbacks ahead, but those of us who are Never Trump (mostly libertarians & conservatives) and so many others (Democrats, independents, former Republicans) have taken back a branch of the government with investigatory authority from a…
Crime, Elections, Law, Wisconsin
For Wisconsin, it’s been Long Enough
by JOHN ADAMS •
43rd Assembly District, Elections, Politics, Trump
Then Why Run as a Republican?
by JOHN ADAMS •
What the Daily Union lacks in journalism it supplies in comedy. Consider a recent story about a 43rd district assembly candidate: Republican Szerlong says he will work for people, not party. Oh, brother. If he’s focused on people over party, then why is he Republican Szerlong? Why not Citizen Szerlong, or Independent Szerlong, or Write-in…
Crime, Elections, Law, Russia
Justice Department Charges Russian National for 2018 Election Meddling
by JOHN ADAMS •
Matt Zapotosky, Rachel Weiner, Ellen Nakashima, and Devlin Barrett report Justice Dept. charges Russian woman with interference in midterm elections: Elena Khusyaynova, 44, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Prosecutors said she managed the finances of “Project Lakhta,” a foreign influence operation they said was designed “to sow discord in the U.S. political system” by…