One typically expects that a longtime incumbent will easily manage a newcomer-challenger. Those conventional expectations were upset last week. Lori Compas matched Scott Fitzgerald in last Wednesday’s candidate debate between the incumbent majority leader and his recall challenger for the 13th Senate District. A libertarian on the ballot, Dr. Terry Virgil, was sadly not invited…
Recall
Campaign Ads, Elections, Recall
Sen. Fitzgerald’s foolish contention that recall challenger Lori Compas isn’t running her own campaign
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
In the 13th district recall battle between Sen. Majority Leader Fitzgerald and challenger Lori Compas, Fitzgerald recently expressed his doubts about Compas’s control of her own campaign: For the record, Fitzgerald said he doesn’t buy Compas’ Pollyanna image. He knows some people are painting the race as a David-vs.-Goliath contest. But Fitzgerald said he thinks…
Elections, Politics, Recall
Video for the Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I posted earlier about the Democrats’ recall forum on 4.25.12 at UW-Whitewater. I’m not a Democrat, but it was an event well-worth attending. All four Democratic candidates for governor, and other office-seekers, were there. For my posts on the evening, see The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater and The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater (Compas…
Elections, Politics, Recall
The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater (Compas and Jorgensen edition)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
I wrote yesterday about the Democrats’ recall forum, focusing on the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor. (See, The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater. ) Below is a summary of two other candidates’ presentations: Lori Compas, running in the 13th Senate District against Sen. Maj. Leader Scott Fitzgerald, and Rep. Andy Jorgensen, now representing the…
Elections, Recall
The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Below are remarks originally published on 4.30.12 at Daily Adams. I’ll post separately with remarks on other candidates who attended, but are not seeking statewide office. On Wednesday night, 4.25.12, Wisconsin’s Democratic candidates for governor and lieutenant governor (and a few other Democratic candidates) attended a forum at UW-Whitewater, in Whitewater, Wisconsin. I’m a resident…
Elections, Recall, Unions
The Wisconsin Unions’ Doomed Primary Pick
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Kathleen Falk, the choice of every Big Labor board in Wisconsin, received fewer than half the votes in a Democrats’ straw poll in her home base of Dane County. It’s hard to overestimate how telling this is: union leaders are sure she’s the best candidate to take on Walker, but even Democrats she knows aren’t…
Daily Adams, Politics, Recall
The Wisconsin Democrats’ Recall Strategy
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Here in the land of recall primaries and recall general elections (5.8.12 and 6.5.12 respectively), the WisDems have a strategy that’s light on collective bargaining, but big on education, legislative issues perceived to be affecting women disproportionately, and Walker’s honesty & candor. Writing in Mother Jones, Andy Kroll describes the tack the Dems plan to…
Daily Adams, Elections, Recall
Are Kathleen Falk’s union backers the best thing that ever happened to rival Tom Barrett?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In the Wisconsin recall battle, could Tom Barrett have any better asset than the unions who favor Kathleen Falk over him? Nietzsche would say no: Any union criticism of theirs that doesn’t kill him actually makes him stronger. Falk trails the late-entering Barrett for the race to challenge Scott Walker, and she’s desperately willing to…
Gov. Walker, Politics, Recall
Republican Betting on Walker’s Recall Opponent
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Republican Governors Association expects Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to be a candidate in the recall race against Gov. Walker (Barrett’s promised to announce his intentions between 3.30 and 4.3). Most people expect him to be a candidate. (I’d guess that, should he run, he’d beat candidates Kathleen Falk and Kathleen Vinehout in recall primary).…
Elections, Recall
Recall Organizer Lori Compas’s Declaration Speech
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Embedded below is a video of recall-organizer-turned-candidate Lori Compas declaring against Sen. Majority Leader Fitzgerald in Wisconsin’s 13th District. Despite Sen. Fitzgerald’s numerous challenges to petition signatures, I’d guess a recall election in his district will happen. (It’s a partisan video, from SSWIDTMS. Compas’s remarks are my only interest; the origin of the video isn’t…
Elections, Recall
Assessing Walker and Barrett as Debaters
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Among the Democrats who might challenge Gov. Walker is one who challenged him in 2010. Milwaukee’s Mayor Tom Barrett ran and lost in a 1,128,941 to 1,004,303 tally. Barrett may run against Walker in a recall, so here’s an assessment of Barrett and Walker as debaters in the 2010 campaign. There’s more to write, another…
Elections, Recall
Lori Compas Declares Recall Candidacy Against Sen. Majority Leader Fitzgerald
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Compas led a recall petition drive against Sen. Fitzgerald, and she’s now declared her candidacy for the13th Sen. District. I’ve no idea how the race will go, but it will be worth following. (I’ve written a bit about Compas & Fitzgerald previously. See, Sen. Majority Leader Fitzgerald’s 12.19.11 Open Office.) The always-solid Mary Spicuzza reports…
Elections, Politics, Recall, Uncategorized
Assessing the (Current) Recall Challengers’ Public Speaking
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
As I write, there are three declared challengers to Gov. Walker, should there be (as there will be, really) a gubernatorial recall race. More will enter, but for now it’s Kathleen Falk, Hari Trevedi, and Kathleen Vinehout. I’ll consider their presentations at the challenger-friendly Fourth Annual Grassroots Fest Candidate Forum held February 18, 2012 in…
Elections, Politics, Recall
Reviewing Kathleen Vinehout’s Initial Campaign Steps in a Recall Race
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Many Wisconsinites have never heard of Kathleen Vinehout, a Democratic state senator representing western Wisconsin’s 31st Senate District. (Vinehout lives in tiny Alma, population 781.) She, like all her partisan senate colleagues, left the state in 2010 to prevent a quorum. She was not, and is not, as well-known as some of those who left…