Political bloggers – left, right, libertarian, etc. – often find themselves critiquing the ill-considered proposals that government, business, labor groups, and a fawning press insist are for everyone’s good. That’s certainly true in Wisconsin – we have an active blogosphere running the whole political spectrum, and united (if in little else) at least in a…
Politics
Elections, Politics
On Vetting Candidates: Be Sure to Check “Social Media.” You Know, on the Inter-Webs
by JOHN ADAMS •
In Wisconsin’s 44th Assembly contest, nineteen-year-old GOP candidate Jacob Dorsey has withdrawn following discovery of his numerous racist and bigoted posts on social media. The episode is now a national story. (Bashing blacks, gays, even Abraham Lincoln…Dorsey kept busy. One additional, much smaller matter: he even suggested in a tweet that Utah was his favorite…
Politics, Poll, School District
The 9.17.14 Marquette Law School Poll (and Our Schools Referendum)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Charles Franklin’s latest Marquette Law School Poll is out today, with polling on the governor’s race, attorney general’s race, and on several key political issues. Although the Wisconsin gubernatorial election is a huge topic within the state, there’s not much polling on it beyond the Marquette Poll. The poll has its critics, too. Democrat Ed…
Police, Politics, Press, University
The Politics of Informants at UW-Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
In a well-ordered community, there should be an accord between good policy and good politics. That’s not yet Whitewater, and this post will address the political implications of using confidential informants. (For a review of policy, please see yesterday’s How Rural Wisconsin Campuses Coerce Students into Becoming Drug Informants.) 1. Police Leadership. There’s almost no…
Culture, Development, Marketing, Politics
The Bad Bet Placed on an Eternal 2004
by JOHN ADAMS •
Some local proposals, in Whitewater or nearby places, look like they were designed by someone from 2004. Some in that year assumed that local residents would support public funding for any designated purpose, that claims of job-creation would be swallowed whole, that the press would support those claims relentlessly, that press support would make a…
Marketing, Planning, Politics
The ‘Paris Women’ Problem
by JOHN ADAMS •
A benign but drunk man sits in a bar, and the tavern’s waitress keeps ignoring him. He tells fellow patrons that the waitress cannot be from Paris, as she’s claimed, because that’s not how ‘Paris women’ would treat someone. That’s the scene from part of The Sure Thing, a 1985 film starring John Cusack. The…
Corporate Welfare, Politics, WEDC
WEDC Board Offers Millions to Subsidize Job Cuts
by JOHN ADAMS •
The next time Chancellor Telfer, City Manager Clapper, and CDA Chairman Jeff Knight host Reed Hall of the WEDC in Whitewater, they might wish to ask him a few questions about use of public money, job creation, and community development: The board overseeing the state’s flagship job-creation agency has quietly approved a $6 million tax credit…
Elections, Politics
August 12 Primary Questions
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here are a few results I’ll be looking at tonight, in the August primary: 1. Governor’s Race. How do Walker, Burke (and even Hulsey, Burke’s eccentric challenger) fare in Whitewater? Statewide and locally, how many votes do they get in a summer primary? 2. The 15th Senate District Primary. For the Democrats, will it be…
15th Senate District, Campaign Ads, Elections, Politics
When Even Other Democrats Complain About a Democratic Candidate
by JOHN ADAMS •
Mike Sheridan’s running in the 15th District Senate primary against two other Democrats, as Sen. Cullen is retiring. It’s not common for others within one’s party to be so critical of a candidate against whom they’re not running, but former colleagues of Mr. Sheridan (when he was in the Assembly) have strong criticisms of his…
Elections, Politics, State Government
The Importance of Skills
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at the Gazette, there’s a letter to the editor that touts Mike Sheridan, candidate for the 15th Senate District, as skillful: Your Views: Mike Sheridan has skills, ability to serve state Senate district (subscription req’d). I’ve written about Sheridan’s public career before; for those readers who are Democrats, and will vote in the primary,…
City, Politics
How Conservatives Ruined Conservatism in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are plenty of conservatives in the City of Whitewater, a small rural town, that’s home to a medium-sized campus within the city limits, and is principally located in conservative Walworth County. In many ways, this rural town should be mostly conservative, mostly Republican, campus notwithstanding. After all, Walworth County is hardly a liberal place.…
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Local Government, Politics, WEDC
WEDC Update
by JOHN ADAMS •
Anyone betting locally on the supposed prestige and success of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has placed a bad bet. That corrupt and incompetent agency is in the news yet again for its failures and lies: WEDC award recipients outsourced Wisconsin jobs to foreign countries — WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports…
Politics
‘There’s Somebody for Everybody’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Former Sen. Neal Kedzie, a Republican from Elkhorn, will become the new president of the Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association on July 1. The move to the commercial motor carriers association had been rumored since Kedzie resigned from the Senate earlier this month. Kedzie, 58, in April told his constituents he would run for re-election, but…
City, Politics
Looking to Rehabilitate Someone Politically? You’re Going to Need a Better Patient
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve written previously of one of my favorite political quotes, from Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt was asked if, somehow, Herbert Hoover might play a role after Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt accurately assessed the impossibility of political rehabilitation: Not even the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor could bring Hoover back into the mainstream of official Washington, D.C. Within…