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…
Wisconsin
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economy, Foxconn, Government Spending, Mendacity, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC, Wisconsin
Foxconn Roundup: Outside Work and Local Land
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Foxconn’s boosters each day inch closer to a corporate welfare version of Scientology: it doesn’t make any sense, but adherents keep to themselves and repeat a shared list of crackpot claims. The latest news to pierce the cultists’ bubble: Molly Beck and Rick Romell report Wisconsin taxpayers could pay Foxconn for work done outside of Wisconsin,…
City, Culture, Demographics, Development, Economy, Local Government, State Capitalism, Wisconsin
The ‘Real’ Residents
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Emily Badger reports Are Rural Voters the ‘Real’ Voters? Wisconsin Republicans Seem to Think So: In much of Wisconsin, “Madison and Milwaukee” are code words (to some, dog whistles) for the parts of the state that are nonwhite, elite, different: The cities are where people don’t have to work hard with their hands, because they’re collecting…
Politics, State Government, Television, Tony Evers, Wisconsin
Governor-Elect Evers on 12.9.18 Meet The Press
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Tony Evers, Wisconsin
Governor-Elect Evers on CNN
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Gov. Walker, Politics, Wisconsin
The Incredible Shrinking Man
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
How very odd, truly, that even now Gov. Walker feels compelled to retweet a story from the MacIver Institute praising his tenure. (That organization’s motto – ‘the free market voice for Wisconsin’ – is incredible: they’ve spent years boosting Walker’s corporate welfare and crony capitalism. Walker’s shown no understanding of, or respect for, free-market economics.)…
Health, Walworth County, Wisconsin
Walworth County Average or Below Average in Health of Residents, Influences Contributing to Health
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Most of Whitewater sits within Walworth County, a county that ranks in Wisconsin’s bottom half for the overall health of its residents (‘ length and quality of people’s lives’) and average for the influences on health (‘individual health behaviors, social and economic conditions, access to healthcare and the quality of the physical environment’). Malia Jones of WisContext asks Which Counties Rank Best For Health? Here’s how Walworth County ranks:
(Jefferson County, in which a smaller part of Whitewater is situated, ranks far better, at 12 of 72 for health outcomes and 14 of 72 for health factors.)
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 • • Comments
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 • • Comments
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.…
Crime, Elections, Law, Wisconsin
For Wisconsin, it’s been Long Enough
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economy, Foxconn, Free Markets, Government Spending, Local Government, Mendacity, Open Government, Politics, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Tony Evers, WEDC, Wisconsin
The Walker Cabinet Officers’ Open Letter
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Four cabinet secretaries of the Walker Administration have come forward to criticize the governor, and three of them have co-written an open letter against Walker’s relentless emphasis on political gain over sound policies. One of the signatories of the letter is Paul Jadin, who was Walker’s first Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation leader. It says all…
Crime, Law, Wisconsin
Josh Kaul for Wisconsin Attorney General: Better
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
CDA, City, Economy, Local Government, Poetry, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Walworth County, WEDC, Wisconsin
Majority of Walworth County’s Renters are Rent-Burdened
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
A new study, Paying the Rent, from the Wisconsin Policy Forum finds that a majority of Walworth County’s renters are rent-burdened, placing the county in the top five most distressed in the state by that measurement. (There are, of course, 72 counties in Wisconsin, so Walworth County is among the weakest of a very large…
CDA, City, Economy, Local Government, Poverty, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Walworth County, WEDC, Wisconsin
Walworth County’s Working Poor
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In Whitewater and throughout Walworth County, huge numbers of residents are “asset limited, income constrained [yet] employed” (ALICE®). A report from the United Way of Wisconsin, entitled ALICE® ASSET LIMITED, INCOME CONSTRAINED, EMPLOYED WISCONSIN, reveals the truth about many in our community. Walworth County measures slightly worse than the already-disappointing state average. The talk of…