Someone's Knocking At The Door!

By Jeff Simpson

A post I saw Facebook lately have had me thinking about how the times have changed in politics.  

Here it is(names have been changed):

1.(in the context of Joe Jakubowski walking free)  Jane Doe:  To add to this worry, I had a man ring my doorbell this morning- wearing a baseball cap, with longer shaggy hair.,driving a red Buick sedan- I've never seen this man before. And was not expecting anyone at my house. I'm ultra freaked.  Yes. Oak street. I'm calling Dane county non emergency   

 Jane Smith: I'm on woodview dr not too far from you! I will not be opening up my doors today that's for sure. 

The question is, how many people actually answer their doors these days?  How many people are going to drop what they are doing to answer the door, and if they do actually engage with you to get your message across?  How many times do politicians and their supporters, get the police called on them or threatened?   Would someone spending a minute or two at your door, actually get you to vote for them? 

When was the last time you read a piece of lit that was dropped off at your house?  Or mailed to you?   Can you name the last piece that came to you by candidate and issue?  

We can say that we need to get volunteers to do doors but does that make a difference?   I know Christine Welcher worked doors hard in the 32nd Assembly district, while her opponent Tyler August is not only incompetent but I would be surprised if he did a single door.     Unfortunately the 32nd district has decided to not be represented by Mr. August for another two years.   

Same with numerous politicians, heck Paul Ryan was invisible in his district for his re-election but won handily against a far superior opponent.   

The 2016 election was a turning point in political campaigns moving forward.  Everything that we knew on how to win elections, we know longer know.   We need to adapt and adapt quickly to the new way to do things and we need to figure out what exactly that was is and figure it out yesterday.  

Where would reaching out to YOU have the biggest impact on YOU?     

I have some ideas but want to hear from others first!  

Christine Welcher: The 2016 election is over – where do we go from here?

This Blog was posted on Blogging Blue recently and written by our friend Christine Welcher.   I thought it was worth sharing in its entirety!

The election is over. My mind is slowly coming out of its frozen, numb state. I’m beginning to do some deep soul searching as to what happened on Tuesday. While many are mourning over Trump’s election, my tears have been for the State of Wisconsin. Dems did not pick up any seats, in fact we lost some. Russ, our progressive leader, lost to a do-nothing candidate. I lost to an even worse do-nothing candidate. How could this have happened?

I declared my candidacy for Representative to Wisconsin’s 32nd Assembly District in December of 2015. We knew we needed time to build our reputation and get the word out about our campaign and our message of bi-partisan reform. From the very beginning I found myself fighting with the state party and the local, county party over resources, access to the VAN and training. I finally realized none would be coming and I honestly think that’s what saved my sanity through the next 10 months.

We formed a grassroots movement made up of fabulous letter writers, activists and volunteers willing to knock doors and make phone calls and people willing to make videos for us and design websites, flyers and banners. We held listening sessions starting in February. We attended community events and fundraisers. We knocked doors every weekend and even during the week, all while I worked 40+ hours farming and teaching at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute. During the last 2 months we upped our game. Wednesday and Friday we held signs and waved at busy intersections throughout the district as people were coming home. Thurs, Sat and Sun we knocked doors to build relationships and let our neighbors know we were going to be there, right by their side, until things improved. Whenever I got a few minutes I worked on my call list of targeted possible Trump Supporters. You see, we knew the stats and reality. Dems can’t win in these districts by only getting out the Dem vote. WI isn’t the 5th worst gerrymandered state in history because of unwillingness to vote. It’s the 5th worst because they (the GOP) did a damn fine job making sure they would never lose a seat.

Even with all of this, I lost. The silver lining is we did do better than both Hillary and Russ in our district so we know we are on to something. This year the anti-establishment craze was so strong, no one even remotely connected to it was safe. My sin was I had a “D” behind my name. Hillary Clinton has 30+ years of ties to Washington and government. While in most years that would be seen as an impressive resume, this year it was the cement shoes that sunk us all. Of course hindsight is 20/20, but some of us have been saying this from the beginning.

I know this will ruffle some feathers, but I don’t blame the people who voted for Trump. I blame the DNC and the DPW. I especially blame the DPW because we all knew how much we needed to pick up some seats in both the Assembly and Senate. There was no mention or support for Assembly or Senate races in the Monday Messages, or the weekly Chair’s Report. Nothing! At the county level, things are so disorganized and short staffed the parties just stood back and let the coordinated campaign take over. Somehow with their fancy “science” and numbers they (The Coordinated Campaign – CC) was able to convince local people, who know the breakdown of D vs R, that it’s ok to just target Dems because, “When people turn out, Dems win!” YAY!!!! Except that didn’t happen. Not only did that not happen, but somehow the GOP got the majority of new voters to come out and vote against someone, instead of for someone, for the first time in a long time.

There were not voter registration drives in my area. There were no listening sessions or town halls to try to spread a message of empowerment and togetherness. Hell, we didn’t even try to talk to people on “the other side” because it was seen as “a waste of time.” A waste of time??? A waste of time to try and pitch your side? To try and see where they are coming from and give them a better option? I was pretty much blown over when I got that response from my local CC organizer. That’s the day I stopped coming into the county office and decided I was officially 100% independent of the party and their support.

Where exactly does the blame lie? I don’t know. I’ll be honest; I don’t know how this whole party thing works. I was naive enough to think if you put yourself out there and sacrificed a year of your life Dems would support you as best as they could. Turns out you have to be in the “inner circle” or a “sure thing” in order to get support and that’s really sad. I honestly don’t know what we could have done differently. We worked our butts off and my opponent literally did nothing.

That’s been the hardest pill to swallow. The fact that an incumbent can have a reputation for not attending district meetings, not responding to citizens’ concerns, and then not even attempt to campaign and still be elected by 20+ points. The reputation of the Democratic Party is so tarnished in the rural areas that a good candidate with an amazing team can’t even have a shot at winning. Where do we go from here?

1) Stronger County Parties
In my experience, county party boards last for a few years, get burnt out and then everyone quits. There are so few volunteers or members the same handful of people gets stuck doing everything. When they do quit there’s no records or continuity so the whole county has to start over. This is the same for candidates who try to run. No notes on where to leave signs, who’s willing to organize, make calls, knock doors, etc. Even though I declared in December of last year, it really wasn’t until July/August that we finally got things semi-figured out and organized. That’s a lot of wasted time.

The state party needs to re-allocate their budget. All counties should be able to apply for grants and assistance to keep an office open all year, every year. Parties and party members should get involved in the community on off years by volunteering, helping with community fundraisers or holiday meals, you name it. The more active the party is with their community the more support and resources they get from the state. We need our neighbors to see we value them every day, not just 2 months every 4 years.

2) More resources for training and outreach
We need a new message. We need big ideas and we need the courage to stand behind them. This is going to take a whole new approach to messaging, outreach, and basic community building. We need our neighbors to know we are just like them. We, too, want a brighter future for our kids, roads that don’t send our cars to the shop for alignment problems, better paying jobs.

We need monthly workshops on communicating with other viewpoints, on messaging and organizing. We need committees for aspiring writers who can channel their pain and anger into letters to the editor or opinion pieces. We need small subgroups to keep people involved, engage and active. I don’t know about other areas but we go from 200 members in an election year to 80 members a year later. This has to stop. We have to keep our members and continue to grow our county parties, especially with younger blood! (Sorry, not sorry!)

3) Whole New Approach to Elections
We cannot continue to pander to people for their vote. We need to start building relationships, lasting relationships. Not just to get through the presidential elections. We also need to change our focus from top of the ticket to bottom of the ticket! We need the majority of resources going to local and state races. The presidential candidates can raise their own money and can pay for their own volunteers. We are going to keep ours!

We live in this state. We don’t get to move back to some other area once the election is lost. Start investing in Wisconsin! Start emphasizing the importance of local candidates, assembly candidates, senate candidates. These are the people who are responsible for the majority of legislation that affects our daily lives. Once we turn the focus to local elections and make people understand how important they are, we don’t have to worry about low voter turnout in mid-term years. Every year is important!

This might be a good place to start, but the important thing is we start. If the state party won’t listen, we do it ourselves. What happened on Tuesday can never happen again! Democrats either need to become the Party of We, the People, or we need to replace them with a party who will. I have to say at this point I’m fine with both options. I’m done talking and thinking and “let’s see-ing.” I want change and I want it now.

Christine Welcher
East Troy, WI

Walworth County State Assembly Endorsements for 2016 Election!

By Joshua Skolnick

It's way past time we take this thing off the blocks, take the engine out of mothballs, and take 'er for another spin. Stay tuned for another  We are reviving Sustainable Walworth with our 2016 State Assembly endorsements, which the local paid media wouldn't bother to print. And let's not talk falsely now for the hour is getting late - therefore up on our blog. MAKE SURE YOU VOTE TOMORROW.

Elect Christine Welcher and Clinton Anderson for our Environment.

The quality of the environment in Walworth County is critical to our county’s tourism based economy. Without healthy clear lakes, forests, and rolling farmland for future generations, the county will lose much of its economic base and jobs. From Lake Geneva to the Kettle Moraine, our county has irreplaceable environmental resources that must be protected, and not exploited by a select few  and the politicians who want to enable them.  Clean water, clean air and clean local food benefit everyone and shouldn’t be a partisan issue.

In the not so distant past, protecting the environment was a priority in Wisconsin for everyone including both major political parties. Wisconsin was once an innovator and a pioneer in environmental protection, nurturing such thinkers and doers as John Muir, Aldo Leopold, John Curtis and Gaylord Nelson. Wisconsin had such firsts as holistic scientific wildlife management to protect entire ecosystems, restoring prairie, and heightening ecological awareness through Earth Day. As recently as 2001, a Republican governor, Scott McCallum, signed bipartisan legislation to increase the protection of isolated wetlands, left unprotected under Federal law.

Unfortunately, the environment has now become a partisan issue, thanks to the advent of single party rule in Madison.  Walworth County’s  incumbent state Assembly representatives, Tyler August (District 32) and Amy Loudenbeck (District 31), have backed an agenda that is failing our environment. In recent legislative sessions they  both voted to allow privatization of municipal water supplies, reduce the ability of local governments to protect their unique resources which has allowed developers and resource extractors free reign to exploit sensitive lands, allowed lake bottom dredging on public trust property by private property owners, and finally weakened shoreland zoning protections, which degrades the crown jewels of our local economy, our clear and clean lakes and their unique natural buffers.  Much of this  anti environmental legislation approved by the incumbents was rammed through quickly with little public debate in the course of a week in Madison.  I witnessed that opaque process.

This anti-environmental voting record in the 2016 state legislative session earned both August and Loudenbeck the dubious distinction of a zero rating from the non-partisan Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters.  However we can make a change on  November 8, 2016 to protect our environment by electing Christine Welcher to our 32nd Assembly District and Clinton Anderson to the 31st.  Christine and Clinton understand environmental protection and have been endorsed by state and local environmental groups. Christine is an organic farmer who understands the importance of protecting our food and water supply, and restoring local control so that the units of government closest to the people, can protect local lakes, farms, and forests.  Similarly Clinton realizes that we have a common interest in protecting environmental resources that benefit everybody,  instead of exploited for the gain of out of state resource industries such as Aqua America which benefit from privatizing water supplies for profit, and which provide canned legislation to the incumbents on their behalf.

To learn more here are our candidate's web sites:

http://welcherforassembly.com/

http://clintonforassembly.wixsite.com/electclintonanderson/about

Also of interest, great candidates who have some overlap along the boundaries of the county. We endorse all of these folks:

http://andymitchellforassembly.com/  Andy Mitchell (63rd Assembly District Burlington, along the east/northeast edge of Walworth)

http://ameejanus.com/ Amee Janus - along south/east edge of Walworth, 61st Assembly District (Kenosha County)

https://www.donvruwinkforassembly.com/ Don Vruwink, 43rd Assembly, including a bit of the northwest corner of Walworth County and town of Whitewater.

https://www.facebook.com/Brandon-White-for-State-Assembly-33rd-District-459871994219650/Brandon White, Assembly District 33, parts of the extreme northcentral and northeast parts of Walworth County.

The #ALEC apparatchik Greedy One Party rule needs to come to an end in Madison, beginning now.  Good luck tomorrow to all these folks, who are ready to make Wisconsin a pioneer in environmental sustainability once again! 

Tyler August Running Scared

By Jeff Simpson

What happens when a man of privilege,feels he deserves to be in an elected office for life and gets challenged by a strong, intelligent woman?

I think we all know the answer to that.   The man feels threatened and so the threats begin.

This cycle has been playing out for ages in our country and it played out again in the 32nd District.   Tyler August is the current placeholder and thanks to some unethical gerrymandering, he feels this is his seat for life.

Christine Welcher has other ideas and the people of the 32nd are taking notice.   Christine's success and positive message, coupled with Tyler August's /laziness and record of pettiness, has caused Mr. August to fear for his job.

Mr. August losing his job, is unacceptable to many people in the state, who we learned through #walkerdocs rely on non thinking yes men, to  pass their regressive agenda.

They then decided to do what they do best....intimidate(or at least try too)!

During what's been contentious election season so far, Lake Geneva police are now investigating vandalism hitting a cluster of campaign signs.
The signs were put up by the Walworth County Democrats along Baker Street in the city. The vandalism happened sometime before Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
Investigators currently do not have any leads in the case.
On Tuesday the fingers of Bob Cole poke through a Russ Feingold sign. He usually just installs them for the Walworth County Democrats - but armed with masking tape and another round of zip-ties - now he's doing rehab.
The most work needs to be done on a campaign sign for Christine Welcher who's running for the assembly seat for the 32nd District.
Someone forced multiple holes into her poster directly on the eye and mouth.
"They only way they could be is someone kicked 'em, beat 'em, chop 'em, cut 'em or something," Cole said.
"To me this looks like hate. Somebody, you know, they go for their face to hurt 'em," Cole said.

Yes it is definitely hate.  When you have a Governor whose main policy is this:

When hate is the one product Walker is pedaling, hate is what we get.   Unfortunately for him and his crew, Christine Welcher is unintimidated!  

That is the kind of person that the people of the 32nd district, and the people of Wisconsin needs fighting for them.

While I doubt Mr. August had anything to do with the blatant hate and vandalism, he has been extremely quiet.  A call from him to stop the crimes would be appreciated but do not expect it to come.   He has relied on these kind of actions to get elected, and remain in power, so do not expect him to denounce them.

The best way to do that is to vote for Christine Welcher.  That is the best message to send these vandals and Mr. August!  

Here is her website and her Facebook page.   Let's help her become our new Representative.   You will not regret it!  

Tyler August Deserves A New Job

By Jeff Simpson 

Tyler August, speaker pro tem of the Republican party of Wisconsin is running for re-election.  As Dave Zweifel put it, Mr. August has a reputation of not being the hardest worker.

State Rep. Tyler August, a 31-year-old Republican from Lake Geneva, is this year's poster boy for why Wisconsin needs to return to the days of a part-time Legislature.
August, who isn't exactly known as one of the Legislature's more productive members, became incensed earlier in the week after reading a story that Madison police had used a sting operation to nab two guys for violating the city's taxicab regulations and fined them each $1,317.
What do our full-time legislators do in their free time when they become incensed? They call their full-time and well-compensated staffs and order them to put together a press release, of course. What better way to keep your name before the public during an election year, especially if you can say something that many might consider outlandish?
Outlandish is exactly how August sounded, if not a bit stupid.

August has a pretty good gig, for not working very hard.

 Since then he's been receiving $49,943 a year plus $133 per diem for the days he's in Madison, mileage to drive back and forth from Lake Geneva, health insurance and pension coverage and a bunch of other perks, not to mention full-time staffers (August has two) to put together press releases and handle letters to constituents.

 Of course that isn't enough for Mr August  because a quick look at his campaign finance reports and you see he likes to supplement his income with your money.  He has reimbursed himself well over $2000 for "expenses" such as mileage, steak dinner at the Tornado rooms and a nice summer stay at a waterpark in the Dells(PS: The Tornado room and Dells are not in his district).

Another fun tidbit from his campaign finance reports he was reimbursed $900 for a trip to the ALEC conference,      I guess $900 is not much to pay to have someone do your thinking for you

To end the reign of gerry mandered districts, lazy reps with no independent thoughts and rubber stamps for a corrupt Governor.

The people of the 32nd district deserve a hardworking woman who will go to Madison to represent you, like you deserve to be represented.

Christine Welcher is a farmer and educator and proud alumni of UW-Madison and will make a difference for all Wisconsinites when you send her there.

Send Christine a few bucks or go help her out for a few hours.  She can win this with our help!

Let's show Tyler August how hard it is to get a good job with excellent benefits in The right to work world of Fitzwalkerstan!


By the way....a little fun fact: Our old friend Scott Tyre sent Tyler August $500!

I'm With Her, Her and Her!

By Jeff Simpson

One lesson that this election season has taught us is that the Democratic Party is not with us.  From the DNC stacking the deck to give us the candidate with the most negatives ever to run for President(who gets less popular by the day), to the progressive disaster yesterday in Florida to right here in Wisconsin where after Bernie's overwhelming victory, Democratic Party chairwoman Martha Laning moved the goalposts to make sure Hillary had WI support, to how poorly the WISDEMS treated public school advocate Mandela Barnes in his campaign.

The other lesson we have yet to learn, but that we easily can, is that we do not need the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to be successful  As a matter of fact, the best bet for WI is to not rely on them and work to get local progressive candidates elected.    In the year where we will probably have the first woman elected, how ever poor of a candidate she is, we have it within our power to elect Wisconsin women who are real progressive champions.

The first amazing woman I will direct you to, is one of my all time favorite Wisconsin legislators - Mandy Wright,  Mandy is a former/current teacher and a true champion of public schools.   We have sung her praises here before, and you can help her by going to her facebook page and her website(send her a few bucks or go volunteer).





Next up is someone we have also profiled here, Christine Welcher.  Christine is on facebook here and her website is located here,  .  Christine is going to retire Tyler August in November, with our help!  Christine's interview with Wisconsin Eye is here.



Finally, one more progressive woman I want to introduce to you - Sarah Lloyd.  Ms. Lloyd has taken the challenge of running against one of Wisconsin;s craziest natives - Glenn Grothman   Glenn Grothman used to be counted on to give crazy quotes on an almost daily basis, but since he won a primary to take over for Tom Petrie, the Republican Party has not allowed him much freedom or daylight to be caught saying something dumb that disqualifies him from being at the adult table.

Sarah is a farmer, advocate and will be a great representative for the 6th Congressional District and not embarrass the great State of Wisconsin.....if we help her get to Washington DC.

Sarah can be found on facebook here and her wesbsite is here!

Here is an interview that Ms. Lloyd gave to WPR, give it a listen.




Let's show the Nation that Wisconsin is back on the map an sending intelligent, progressive, amazing women to represent us and be a model to the Nation again!

Share their sites, talk to your neighbors and friends and family members all over WI and tell them, how ever they feel about the top of the ballot, the bottom of the ballot is what will steer the ship in the coming years for our state and our nation.  Send them a few dollars if you can, and when you get the DNC fundraising emails, and letters, remember that while we are not enemies, we really are not on the same side at this point.

Let's win these races and then re evaluate how we work with the party going forward after the elections!

Christine Welcher For Wisconsin (32nd District)

By Jeff Simpson

Now that the spring elections are over and the Presidential Primary is winding down, time to focus on the races that truly matter to our everyday lives!   The local ones - Wisconsin Senate and Assembly!

We will try and bring you information on as many of these as we can and the 32nd is just as good a place as any to start!

Christine Welcher is running against Tyler August!  

Christine was inspired to join the revolution and take back our state by listening to Mike McCabe and his Blue Jeans Nation speech about getting the money out of politics!  

That would go a long way to solving many of our problems, but the ONLY way that can possibly happen is with your help.  If we elect people like Christine who runs on this platform, then hold her accountable when she is in...that's how change happens.   If we you think unlimited dark money is ok, then stick with your normal guy(who you probably would not know his name had I not said so) who likes to fear monger about guns.  

Here is a bit more on Christine!

Local Farmer Wants to Bring True Representation Back to Walworth County 

Walworth County resident, Christine Welcher, said she will seek the 32nd District Assembly seat in the November election. Her goals are to strengthen rural communities, revitalize local economies and return true representation to the people of the 32nd District.

"As a farmer, and former small business owner, I understand the issues and struggles of my neighbors. We are tired of career politicians spending time, and taxpayer money, developing and passing legislation that no one has asked for and that doesn’t benefit the people of this state. It’s time for us to shed our political labels and come together, as the hard working men and women we are, in order to take back our democracy. We need a return to a government for the People, by the People and of the People,” said Christine Welcher about her desire to run for Assembly.

Welcher has already begun visiting with people across the 32nd District, listening to their issues and concerns.

“The hard working people of our district are feeling politically homeless and forgotten,” said Welcher. “It would be my honor to give them a voice again. I want to remind them that their voices, and their votes, do matter. Once elected I will listen to my constituents, not out-of-state, private interests and dark money.”

Prior to farming Christine Welcher was in international travel, specializing in customized tours to Scandinavia, for over 10 years and a supervisor for a national retailer. She is currently the Student Program and Gardens Manager at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in East Troy, WI, where each summer she teaches students from around the world the benefits of small scale agriculture and the importance of financial sustainability.

Please check out her website (www.WelcherforAssembly.com) and follow her on Facebook (www.facebook.com/christinewelcherforassembly).

Contact: Christine Welcher Welcher for Assembly 608-279-2733 Christine@WelcherforAssembly.com
www.WelcherforAssembly.com