Wisconsin’s spring general election is over, and a quick discussion follows. For unofficial results, see the pages for Walworth, Jefferson, and Rock counties.
Wisconsin Supreme Court. This was a close election, but for supporters of Lisa Neubauer (as I am), it’s a disappointing result. Neubauer performed not as well overall as Rebecca Dallet last year, despite expectations that she would do well statewide.
It’s heartening that Neubauer carried the City of Whitewater easily, but the city is not the state, and it’s the state that elects justices to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Whitewater Unified School Board. Whitewater returned one incumbent and selected one newcomer; two newcomers would have been a better outcome. The politics of the board are unlikely to change with this outcome, but to my mind it’s an obvious, missed opportunity.
District 3. Incumbents seldom lose in Whitewater, but challenger Brienne Diebolt-Brown defeated incumbent Chris Grady by a significant margin.
Municipal Court. Whitewater was assured a new municipal judge, and in a close race, it now seems that Patrick Taylor has edged Chad Buehler.
A Losing Issue. Just before the election, the Whitewater Community Development Authority’s executive director, Dave Carlson, spoke to the Gazette about the CDA’s “strong possibility” of bringing a publicly-subsidized outside grocer to Whitewater.
The interview, to the extent it had any influence, was probably a mistake. The CDA’s small-town market meddling by businessmen picking their idea of winners is simply a bad joke. They’ve showered hundreds of thousands – millions over the years – on junk projects. That the CDA looks like nothing so much as a public body under the sway of a local landlord’s business league doesn’t help.
As a public relations effort, it’s foolish (1) to talk but say nothing, (2) to confuse the audience for a Janesville newspaper with the voters in this city, and (3) to think that boosting crap somehow looks like harvesting caviar.
As with the WEDC and Foxconn, the local CDA’s ‘development’ is bad economics and bad fiscal policy. No number of interviews can disguise the obvious failures of their method. Indeed, the more these gentlemen talk, the worse they look. See Local Elections 2019: City Council (Part 3 of 4) and Really, Really Urgent CDA Announcement!
Previously:
Local Elections 2019: The Limits of Local (Part 1 of 4), Local Elections 2019: School Board (Part 2 of 4) Local Elections 2019: City Council (Part 3 of 4), and Local Elections 2019: Municipal Court (Part 4 of 4).
Good assessment of these races.
The grocery interview was a debacle. These guys know how they sound to each other but they do not know how they sound to other people in town.
Jim Allen won close race last year with a proCDA/proTIF platform but a lot has changed. Foxconn looks stupid to anyone who hasn’t slurped the KoolAid. Mini WEDC ideas get eyed suspiciously. He would have trouble winning that way again.
The hotel is a TOTAL JOKE. Yeah, right, we all want a FAIRFIELD INN.
School board may turn out to have a lot to do but who knows.
There is no desire for change in the schools.This vote shows that voters stayed as close to the same.After two referendums the district needs some stability.Admittedly it is a bad sign that the superintendent wants to leave.No one seems to know why however.At least we are not Palmyra-Eagle.That’s a disaster.
Whitewater has wanted a grocery to replace Sentry for 2-3 years. Most people who still live in town want anything that will offer a Walmart alternative. If that was the only development topic under discussion, then I don’t think there would be much dispute.
Where there is a problem is a divergence between the city’s economy and local ambitions. From campus, anyone can see that the city isn’t doing well. Most of my colleagues live in other cities, not Whitewater. There is not a single solitary thing the city hall economics team is doing that would bring anyone back. Any reasons to come back have nothing to do with what’s happening at city hall. (On campus, they talk about the whole region’s towns because there is so little confidence in this town’s solutions.)
However many doubts I have about “private marketplace” solutions, there is no doubt that Whitewater city hall’s ideas have not stopped economic erosion. 99/100 times a critique of that approach will turn out to be right. I’m not even sure why they bother to convince people.
The grocery issue is a specific one that city hall CAN sell to the city, but the bigger problem is one they CANNOT fix.
Think of it this way. they’re talking about what they can do to keep a boat afloat right now, but you are talking about their generic lack of seaworthiness. Seaworthiness is the bigger issue by far but it takes a toll slowly.
Thanks for all these comments.
It’s often easier to buy something than to maintain that same thing. In any event, if all these years of boosterism had led to something positive, there would be a sound, sustainable local economy suitable for wholly private investment.
It’s a measure of ignorance (or shamelessness) that well-fed men claim to play the role of venture capitalists with public money.
The city would be better off shutting down something like the capital catalyst fund rather than wasting money on laughable ideas so that a few entitled men can pretend to be wheeler-dealers.
Vanity projects make for poor public policy.