Thoughts on the 11.4.14 Election

Whitewater will not see an election so big as last night’s for another two years’ time. There’s much to consider about the results. A few remarks appear below, along with a table using preliminary, unofficial data from Walworth, Rock, and Jefferson Counties with results for the referendum and gubernatorial questions.

COUNTY	COMMUNITY		REFERENDUM YES	REFERENDUM NO	WALKER	BURKE
WALWORTH	LA GRANGE 1-3		162	138	824	344
WALWORTH	RICHMOND 1-3		317	330	540	340
WALWORTH	SUGAR CREEK 1-5		35	42	1169	606
WALWORTH	T WHITEWATER 1, 2		383	313	445	276
WALWORTH	T WHITEWATER 3		28	30	38	21
WALWORTH	WHITEWATER 1, 2		565	301	414	482
WALWORTH	WHITEWATER 3, 4		517	168	319	391
WALWORTH	WHITEWATER 5, 6		799	263	492	615
WALWORTH	WHITEWATER 7-9		683	199	479	484
WALWORTH	SUBTOTAL		3,489	1,784	4,720	3,559
JEFFERSON	COLD SPRING		185	150	259	131
JEFFERSON	KOSHKONONG 1-5		22	23	969	624
JEFFERSON	WHITEWATER 10, 11		230	86	167	159
JEFFERSON	WHITEWATER 12		242	79	205	61
JEFFERSON	SUBTOTAL		679	338	1,600	975
ROCK	T JOHNSTON		44	39	208	159
ROCK	T LIMA 1, 2		185	202	292	242
ROCK	SUBTOTAL		229	241	500	401
TRI-COUNTY	CITY OF WHITEWATER		3,036	1,096	2,076	2,192
GUBERNATORIAL	TOTAL				6,820	4,935
REFERENDUM	TOTAL		4,397	2,363

NOTE: For towns outside the city, not all residents within a town are within the Whitewater Unified School District. For example, in Koshkonong and Spring Creek, the school district voters are only a portion of all the wards in those communities casting votes for governor. The gubernatorial totals as the counties record them look much larger than the referendum totals, but those big differences are not undervotes – it’s that not all people in those towns are also within the school district.

1. Burke barely won the City of Whitewater.

That’s underperformance – one would have expected a Democrat to do much better in the overall city vote. This was a poor showing.

2. Walker did well in Whitewater’s campus-area wards.

A sharp reader pointed this out to me today (thank you – much appreciated), and one can see the point clearly in the data. Burke had a harder time in campus-area wards (or Walker a better time) than one would have thought. Pres. Obama did better in those areas of the city in his races against John McCain & Mitt Romney than Mary Burke did against Scott Walker.

3. The referendum won easily.

It won in the city by so large a margin that if not a single additional vote outside the city had been in favor it still would have won. The city vote decided the question without the need for additional, affirmative votes in nearby towns

4. The referendum won the district easily; Scott Walker won the area easily.

Many Walker supporters voted for the referendum; there’s no other way to understand the results. I’m a libertarian, but I’d ask this question of Republican supporters of Gov. Walker: Doesn’t this suggest that school referenda are an implicit modification or repeal of some of Act 10’s provisions?

If Act 10 had balanced restrictions on union activity with reductions in spending more nicely, why would there have been a need for an operational referendum? I’m opposed to central planning (from Madison or Washington), and I’d offer that Act 10 combined with state education cuts had planning consequences that communities now find undesirable.

The result is a move toward referenda to overcome parts of the Walker Administration’s budgeting. There must have been many voters who support Gov. Walker but have used educational referenda to soften parts of his program that they don’t like. (Follow-up question: if there had been no provision under law to offer a referendum, wouldn’t voters have faced a starker choice that would have been less to the GOP’s liking?)

5. Other local races.

Rep. Andy Jorgensen was re-elected in the 43rd Assembly District, Rep. Steve Nass will become State Sen. Nass of the 11th Senate District, and Rep. Janis Ringhand will become State Sen. Ringhand of the 15th Sen. District.

6. Less on budgeting.

The Whitewater Schools still look to have a budget shortfall, but it’s nothing like the scramble they would have faced (1) to consider a spring referendum question asking for somewhat less, (2) to make deeper budget cuts, and (3) with a much shorter window of budgetary decision-making after an April 2015 referendum.

7. A discussion on learning, one way or another.

I’m sure that district officials are relieved at the outcome for the referendum, but then so am I – perhaps just as much. Less time putting the budget front-and-center will give more time to consider subjects and their teaching.

It has never been, and will never be, to the advancement of education – of schooling or lifelong learning – to hawk test scores like cheap projects at a bazaar. It’s hard to overstate how infuriating it’s been to see individual standardized scores misused as a public-relations selling point for a business lobby.

Gandhi was right that means matter more than ends: “They say, ‘means are, after all, means.’ I would say, ‘means are, after all, everything’. As the means so the end…”

There’s no reason to forgo a better discussion because others would prefer a worse one. I believe strongly in good schools and proper schooling; I’ll not shy from that better discussion.

8. How soon until the 2016 race begins?

About as soon as our Walmart opening a Christmas display even before Halloween was over. That next political season is already here…