Uppity Wisconsin

The latest Republican Governors Association spot says Tom Barrett has raised Milwaukee’s taxes “every single year,” increased spending by $300 million and seen the city lose dozens of businesses during his time as mayor.

“Tom Barrett more taxes, less jobs. Just like Jim Doyle, only worse,” the RGA spots say.

Here's the thing: Barrett's city budgets may have gone up $300-million, but Scott Walker's county budgets have gone up $396-million.

The city may have lost dozens of businesses, but the county (which includes the city) has no doubt lost even more. And even more jobs.

Scott Walker, more taxes fewer* jobs. Just like Jim Doyle and Tom Barrett, only worse.

Pretty catchy message, huh?

(*Can we fix the grammar, RGA, while we're at it? Fewer, not less.)

The Capital Times:

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's approval rating has hit a new low.

The University of Wisconsin Survey Center's Badger Poll released on Friday shows the two-term governor's approval rating at just 38 percent. That is down from a high of 52 percent in June 2007. Just seven months ago his approval was at 46 percent.

 

Based on the Badger poll's other results,  they probably found the other 62 per cent didn't have any opinion or had never heard of Doyle.

Worthless.

I'm not sure whether I feel surprised by this or not (or even if it's true) but Politico is reporting that Jm Doyle will not run for re-election next term.  The fact that Doyle has been so non-committal to a re-election run has been more than a little surprising to us here at the farm, and I gave it 50/50.  I think it's a little higher now.

Doyle's office has just released a statement that there will be an announcement of some sort from his office on Monday.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has told associates he will announce this week that he won’t seek a third term in 2010, POLITICO has learned.

 

By deciding against a run, Doyle, a Democrat, sets off what could be one of the most competitive gubernatorial races in the country next year.

 

The governor has been coy for months about his intentions, stockpiling money but at the same time not saying publicly whether he would run for re-election.

Two Democrats think Doyle's not running.

That's not quite as intriguing a headline as the Journal Sentinel's state convention story on Sunday, "Some state Democrats think Doyle won't seek re-election."

If you read the fine print, you'll discover that the number is two.

More than 800 delegates attended the session in Green Bay. A JS reporter talked to 12 of them. And 2 of the 12 said they think Doyle won't run for a third term next year.

That's what we call a small sample -- a miniscule sample. But even if surveying 12 of 800 delegates were a valid way to operate (hard to write that straight), 83% of the people interviewed expect Doyle to run again.

Good grief!

When state Republicans met a few weeks ago, 93% of those who participated in a straw poll supported him to be the nominee. By these new standards, the headline should have been, "Some Republilcans don't support Walker for governor," rather than the one they used, "Walker gets strong support at GOP convention."

A lot of people, of course, only read the headline or skim the first paragraph.

A few quick videos from the convention this evening (in famous Uppity Wisconsin Shakey-Vision):

Governor Doyle has for years supported the idea of an independent DNR secretary.  This system served Wisconsin well for many years, until the Thompson administration, which changed the DNR secretary from being chosen by the DNR board to being chosen by the Governor. Yet, now that for the first time there is a real chance for the bill to move the secretary back to being appointed by the DNR board, Doyle has magically reversed his position.  The position that he has held for most of his term in office.  The position he has campaigned on. The position on which he possibly could now win.  Yet - this week he explained to conservationists around the state that he has changed his mind, and that a governor-appointed secretary serves the state best. 

This is ironic, as it was only last week that I and over 600 other Wisconsinites went to Madison for Conservation Lobby Day - at which one of the primary agenda items was to lobby to pass the bill currently under consideration to put the DNR secretary back under control of the board. Doyle's response to this lobbying effort was to send an email saying that he had changed his mind (letter attached below). 

Update: See A Dose of Reality on the ACORN Hysteria.
Face it Republicans, you are going to lose and you are going to lose big.

But not without a lot of whining and lying first.

Brad Friedman eviscerates the GOP voter fraud lie aimed at the group ACORN, the Association for Community Organisations for Reform Now.

The crimes of ACORN are as Friedman writes in The Guardian:

... that Acorn managed to register some 1.3 (million) low-income (read: Democratic-leaning) voters over the past two years. The rest is, pretty much, just made up. ... Despite the screaming wall-to-wall coverage of 'Democratic voter fraud in 11 swing states' as seen on Fox News and even the once-respectable CNN, none of it's true.

Nothing reveals the pathology of power so much as the monumental harm that we intentionally bequeath our children.

A $9 trillion debt, a government thrown into fiscal crisis, corruption, war; these are the Bush-Cheney endowments to future generations.

Gov. Doyle deserves recognition for one small step in the right direction on care-taking the environment.

Reports Bill Novak at the Cap Times (Wisconsin Gov says no to coal for state power plants): 

Using coal at state-owned heating plants is not an option that should be considered as a fuel source, according to a directive issued Friday by Gov. Jim Doyle.

The directive to move away from coal is in line with recommendations made by the governor's task force on global warming.

One right-wing blogger has even started a poll about whether Doyle should donate the money to flood relief.

So, what was the unannounced Republican candidate for governor doing on Tuesday? Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker was in Hayward and Rhinelander, raising money for a GOP State Senate candidate, Tom Tiffany -- and collecting some political IOUs for his campaign for gov.

Tuesday's calendar from WisPolitics:

Lunch with 12th SD candidate Tom Tiffany 6/10/2008 12 p.m. Lumberjack Steakhouse, 15860 T-Bone Lane, Hayward. County Executive Scott Walker $25 suggested minimum contribution PAC Accepted

Reception with 12th SD candidate Tom Tiffany 6/10/2008 5 p.m. Wisconsin River Cruises, 913 W. Kemp St., Rhinelander. Special Guest: County Executive Scott Walker $25 suggested minimum contribution PAC Accepted

Once again, the story is what you don't know if you rely on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

You undoubtedly know that Wisconsin ranks high among the 50 states in how much taxes its citizens pay. The media, including the JS, have been reporting it for years.

So when there's what qualifies as at least a minor man-bites-dog story -- or at least man-growls-at-dog story -- on the same topic, you'd expect to read it.

Guess again. We'll let Bruce Murphy of Milwaukee Magazine take it from here:

On May 27, the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance did a new report showing Wisconsin dropped out of the ranks of the 10 highest-taxed states for the first time in more than 25 years. Indeed, going all the way back to 1963, when the state first adopted a sales tax, Wisconsin has ranked in the top 10 every year except 1980 and 1968.

As recently as 1999, when Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson was near the end of his long tenure, Wisconsin ranked as the third-highest taxed state. Today, Wisconsin has dropped to 11th-highest. That’s quite a change, and it got extensive coverage in the Wisconsin State Journal . The story was picked up by other newspapers statewide.