Yesterday, Rep. Don Pridemore’s Arizona-syle immigration legislation received a numerical designation: Assembly Bill 173. The full text of the bill is online at the Legislature’s website. The bill has the following initial sponsors: “Representatives Pridemore, Wynn, LeMahieu, Kleefisch, Steineke and Jacque; Cosponsored by Senator Lasee.” One could have expected Wynn to support this measure. His…
Wisconsin
Politics, Wisconsin
Sen. Scott Fitzgerald’s Nixonian Plan
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s fuss — but there shouldn’t be surprise — that the WISGOP and Sen. Majority leader Fitzgerald have schemed to run fake Democrats against real Democrats in recall races. Their goal is to force recall primaries, before recall general elections against GOP senators, to buy the GOP candidates an additional month to fund raise, etc.…
Politics, Wisconsin
WisconsinWatch.org: The Money Trails of Sen. Kohl’s Possible Replacements
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, in connection with MapLight Wisconsin, has a data-rich story on the political contributions to Sen Kohl’s would-be successors. It’s a list of eight politicians: Baldwin, Erpenbach, Feingold, Fitzgerald (Scott), Kind, Neumann, Thompson, Van Hollen. (Although any of them might run, some are much stronger than others. Of the Democrats,…
City, Laws/Regulations, Liberty, Politics, Walworth County, Wisconsin
Emily’s Post: ‘Welcome to Wisconsin, Jim Crow’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Emily Mills writes about Assembly Bill 7, sure to become law: This bill is, at its core, a rollback of the right to vote that impacts the most vulnerable and already disenfranchised populations in this state. It spits in the faces of those who’ve come before and fought (and sometimes died) to see this most…
City, Laws/Regulations, Politics, Wisconsin
A Freshman Legislator’s Unusual Choice
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s an AP story over at Walworth County Today entitled, Rep. Wynn pushes for earlier alcohol sales as a convenience to tailgaters. Rep. Evan Wynn is the freshman assemblyman representing the 43rd Assembly District, a district that includes Whitewater. I’m opposed to most restrictions on alcohol, but it’s easy to see that this is an…
Law, Politics, Wisconsin
Of JoAnne Kloppenburg
by JOHN ADAMS •
On the Saturday before the April election, JoAnne Kloppenburg visited Whitewater, and I went out to see her. Like most people, I’d never seen her in person, and wanted to hear her talk. (Justice Prosser’s had a more public career, in the legislature and more recently on the court; many people have run into him,…
City, Politics, Walworth County, Wisconsin
Post-Election Day in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ll take the topics from yesterday’s election preview post in reverse order. Wisconsin. Justice Prosser did far better than I guessed; Asst. A.G. Kloppenburg certainly didn’t win comfortably. I would have thought Kloppenburg by 2-3 percent, outside the range of a recount. There will be a recount, with results now showing Kloppenburg with 739,589 and…
City, Politics, Walworth County, Wisconsin
Election Day Curiosities
by JOHN ADAMS •
Before the polls close, a few questions of note about the spring election for the City of Whitewater, Walworth County, and Wisconsin. City of Whitewater What’s Whitewater’s turnout today? Assuming that JoAnnne Kloppenburg carries Whitewater, by what margin will she do so? (If she can’t carry places like the City of Whitewater, she’s likely in…
Freedom of Speech, Liberty, Politics, Wisconsin
Scenes from a Janesville Protest, 3.29.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Wisconsin
Consensus, Compromise, and Opposition
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here, in America’s Dairyland, a place of astonishing beauty, one finds a political preference for consensus, leading to frequent and sensible compromises, but occasionally requiring opposition. That’s true in Whitewater, too. Consensus. Of all America, I know of no place that favors consensus more than Wisconsin does. There’s speculation of how she has come to…
Government Spending, Wisconsin
The 2 Reasons Muni Investors Should Be Terrified By What’s Going On In Wisconsin – Yahoo! Finance
by JOHN ADAMS •
The unexpected, and why it might be worrisome, regardless of the politics of today’s protests (and I think parts of Wisconsin’s controversy are separate from controlling costs) — For muni investors, there are two reasons to worry. The first is that nobody had Wisconsin on its list of big states to worry about going into the new…
Wisconsin
Texans Trying to Pronounce Wisconsin City Names
by JOHN ADAMS •
Science/Nature, Wisconsin
Snowy Day
by JOHN ADAMS •
The National Weather Service offers statistics to put the present snowstorm into perspective. The current record for a day in February for Madison snowfall is 11.9 inches (on 2.6.2008) and for Milwaukee snowfall it’s 16.7 inches (2.10.1960). We’ll see a great deal of snow over the next day, but there have been snowy days before.…
City, Wisconsin
Daily Wisconsin
by JOHN ADAMS •
Earlier last month, I mentioned the upcoming launch of a second website, devoted mainly to Wisconsin and national stories. It’s up and running (at least, learning to walk) this morning. DailyWisconsin.com will offer news — and commentary — on events and the stories about them from across the state. In the end, every selection —…