Mandy Wright Under Attack

 

By Jeff Simpson

I told you before that Mandy Wright was under attack by Scott Jensen.   Two years ago, Jensen spent about $150,000 smearing Ms. Wright and was able to beat her by 86 votes.   The nameless stooge that Jensen bought into office decided not to run again so now they are running former, very small market right wing radio host - Patty Snyder.




Scott Jensen got less than he bargained for and because he found such a weak candidate, he has to spend more money   This year Mr. Jensen has spent well over $200,000 of the Michigander's DeVos family money, to send their employee to Madison.

In a district that has been devastated by lay offs at places such as Wausau Papers, Federal Mogul Wausau Insurance, SNE Enterprises etc... and Scott Jensen is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to smear Ms. Wright so they can tap even more into public education funds.  

Formerly convicted felon, Scott Jensen, actually leads the organization American Federation For Children (AFC) even though he would not be qualified to work in any public school district in Wisconsin.  In other words, the guy who many people are trusting to decide what we do with our public education money, is not qualified to work with our children.  

Not only is Mr. Jensen not professionally qualified, he is not intellectually qualified either.  The ad that he is running(trust me no one spends his money without his approval) is written in his best Trumpesque, 7th grade neener neener, pee wee herman like text that, would earn a 6th grader a D-, you need to do better from any teacher in America.  

“My mom and dad taught me to always keep my promises. They say I have to if I want people to trust me. I heard them say this teacher, Mandy Wright, wants to get elected, but she doesn’t keep her promises. My mom said she promised to help schools, but she voted against giving them $300 million dollars. My dad said she promised to help veterans, like him, but she said no to extra money to help them too. They also say Mandy Wright promised to take care of old people, like my grandma and grandpa, but she said no to helping them with their medicine. And she got a fine for lying. She called in sick at her school, so the kids had no teacher, but she wasn’t even sick! So if Mandy Wright broke all these promises, I don’t think I can trust her. I bet that’s why she lost the last election. Why would anyone want to vote for Mandy Wright in this election?”

Seriously, overlooking that there is zero truth anywhere in the ad (except that Mandy Wright is a teacher), it looks like it was written by someone who lost a writing contest at Liberty University.

While the whole thing is absurd, I want to focus on one line:

She called in sick at her school, so the kids had no teacher, but she wasn’t even sick! 

I was not aware that Pat Snyder, Scott Jensen, Scott Walker etc... had their medical degrees and are able to diagnose sickness, especially from afar ( I am curious if they ever complained about Scott Walker's 3 months of drunkenness on the taxpayer dollar last summer. but that is another post).  

If anyone has ever attended Milwaukee brewers opening day, they would know that 40,000 + people are all together trying to recover from the illness they called in sick for.   Anyone that has a clue on how our schools work, know that when a teacher calls in sick, the school district calls in a sub so never in a child's school career do they "have no teacher".

It is a disgusting, childish, ridiculous ad, and anyone that would run such a commercial, does not deserve your vote for anything, but maybe a "most corrupt politician" reality TV show.  

Please, our friends in the 85th Assembly district, please send Mandy Wright back to Madison!  The rest of the state is counting on you!

Here is Mandy Wrights website and like her Facebook page, check her out, give her a few bucks, knock some doors for her and/or call your friends in the district.

Every vote counts!  

Big Bad Mandy Wright!

By Jeff Simpson

One of my favorite WI Legislators(and regular readers know I do not have many) is Representative Mandy Wright.   Mandy Wright is a former teacher who in 2012 took the legislature by storm.  She was a first term-er, who not only represented the 85th assembly well, but truly represented Wisconsin.

Mandy Wright is an educator and involved citizen focused on empowering her 
community.  As a wife, parent of three beautiful daughters, teacher, and volunteer, Mandy has deep roots in Central Wisconsin.Born and raised in Wausau, Mandy grew up exploring the woods and Wisconsin River near her childhood home north of Wausau.  She attended Riverview Elementary and earned Varsity letters as a cross-country ski captain, goalie and captain of the girls’ soccer team, and the football kicker.  After graduating from Wausau East, she studied English and Norwegian, receiving her B.A. from St. Olaf College.  She worked for the Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and as an after-school coordinator at Jefferson Elementary organizing many community programs and events.  In 2000, Mandy organized a Food Camp for children focused on local, sustainable food production.  Her family is a member of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  The Wrights also frequent local farmer’s markets and make a point to shop locally.  Mandy and her husband volunteer to teach religious education at their church.  With an MA in Education from Viterbo University, Mandy worked for four years as an English and English Language Learner teacher at Wausau West.  After her third child was born, she took a year to be a stay-at-home mom and taught evening classes for Upper Iowa University.  She taught sixth grade and was coaching soccer at Horace Mann Middle School prior to her election in 2012.  Since serving, she has worked as the State Policy Coordinator for the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service and as a High School English teacher in the Mosinee School District.

Mandy was one of the biggest, loudest and best voices advocating for public schools and our children which did not go unnoticed.   American Federation for (profiting off of) Children(AFC) had no time for anyone who stood in their way of squeezing profits from our childrens classrooms.   

AFC, with the Devos family billions backing them, and unethical, formerly convicted felon Scott Jensen running the ground game in WI, attacked Ms. Wright Mercilessly.  They shelled out over $110,000 of trackable money to smear her during the election season, and less than $40,000 promoting her opponent.  

In case you missed that, reread that sentence again, slowly!  

 They shelled out over $110,000 of trackable money to smear her during the election season, and less than $40,000 promoting her opponent.    

AFC and Scotty Jensen did not care who was running, which shows how little they care for the kids, they could have run a box of rocks(and apparently they did as Mr. Heaton announced his retirement after a year and a half of his two year term).   

Their main objective was to privatize schools and Mandy Wright stood in their way.

Unfortunately, they won that round, by a whopping 86 votes.  That works out to $1744 per vote they needed.  Next time your school has an operating referendum to keep the lights on, remember that the billionaires pay Scott Jensen over $200,000/yr to take money away from your schools.   

The 86 votes though was too close for the owners liking, so they demoted Mr. Jensen and brought in Americans for (their own) Prosperity (AFP-WI).  AFP recently opened an office in the 85th Assembly district so they could have (well paid)boots on the ground daily to try and keep Ms. Wright out of Madison!  

Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin field director and Wausau area resident Jim Joyce had the following comment:
“Having an Americans for Prosperity office in Wausau is a real game changer. I have spent years fighting for freedom in central Wisconsin and now activists will have a permanent space to work. I cannot wait to see what we will accomplish here.”

If the name James Joyce sounds familiar, it is because it IS remarkably familiar to Rep. Bob Kulp's Treasurer Jim Joyce.    Not that I am accusing AFP-Wi with coordinating with campaigns or anything---- O hell, of course I am accusing AFP-WI of coordinating with these campaigns.    

To be fair though, in Wisconsin with such a strong reliance on WMC and ALEC to write their bills and tell them what to do, the Wisconsin Republicans have lost all critical thinking skills(if you dont use it you lose it), so someone needs to think through their campaign for them.  

As Scott Jensen himself said, 

In an interview, Jensen laughs off Heck’s “compliment” but notes that AFC won six of the eight legislative races it targeted. “Our goal was to elect as many school choice supporters as possible, so we focused on races we thought would be close, where our efforts would make a difference,”  he says. 

Do we really want a guy, who is not even qualified to substitute teach in our schools deciding legislative races that effect the quality of education your children receive?   

As for Mandy Wright, luckily for Wisconsinites and the people of the 8th Assembly District, she has decided to throw her hat into the ring again.   

We know that she has so scared the oligarchy, that two dark money orgs, backed by multi billionaires are uniting to attempt to stop her from regaining her seat back!   

If that many out of state billionaires are scared of her, isn't that all the credentials you need to elect her?   Isn't that EXACTLY who you want sticking up for you in the Capitol?  

Here is Mandy's website and Facebook page.   Check them both out, send her a few dollars and by all means give her some of your time!   

Please Send Mandy Wright back to Madison, if anyone will fight for us all, she will!!