Evers V Walker - What to Expect

By Jeff Simpson

Labor day is typically the home stretch for election season and baseball season.  Unfortunately in Wisconsin, we have too much election season and not enough baseball. 

While I believe the Milwaukee Brewers will end up in the wild card game, lets focus on the election season and what to expect. 

The race between Tony Evers and Scott Walker will steal most of the headlines, with just a few left over for the Tammy V Leah race. 

While every election is close, I believe that Tammy will win rather easily because her opponent stands for absolutely nothing. 

The race that will be the most interesting is the Governors race.  I truly believe, at this moment, that this race can go either way. 

Let us take a look at what to expect.

*  Why Scott Walker can win:

Typically the incumbent always has the best chance to win.  Walker is a two term incumbent and a career politician. 

While not having many, one of his strengths is to perpetually stay on message and never stray.   Walker has the ability to speak and speak without ever saying anything and the incredible ability to say things that are patently false without ever breaking a sweat. 

Walker has also learned how to play the media.  After 8 years as Governor, he knows that they will print anything he wants them to print, no questions or fact checks asked. 

Walker also has a humongous advantage in money.   When you add the "Friends of Scott Walker", Club for Growth, Republican Governors Association, WISGOP, and countless other PACS, SuperPACS, out of state billionaires, slimy casino owners, etc... all spending money hand over fist to make sure their employee continues running the state. 

The right wing echo chamber.  While Chuck Sykes isgone from the radio and an imbecile is running his old website, there is still a right wing echo chamber pushing hate, ignorance and racism that too many people listen to.   The Mark Bellings, Vicki Mckennas and Dan O'Donnells of the world are still there whipping up the fear to far too many people. 

Finally, apathy.  Wisconsin has been stuck in perpetual election season, and now that we are in the final stretch, the negative and disgusting ads will be flying non stop.  They are meant strictly to turn people off from voting and getting involved.  If they did not work, they would not spend millions running them.  Voter apathy has helped many a crappy politician continue in their careers. 

* Why Scott Walker can lose: 

Scott Walker is a career politician and people are sick of career politicians. So sick of career politicians that they have started electing reality TV "stars".

Walker, has been on the state stage for 8 years (and on the national stage for 8 seconds) and people know him.   To know Scott Walker is not to love him.   You realize that once you see beyond the incredible ambition that there is no there there.  An empty husk that stands only for Scott Walker and what is best for Scott Walker, Wisconsin and its citizens are not even in his radar. 

Public employees, and unions.   Scott Walker has made a career of making enemies of public employees and union members.  Eventually the chickens come home to roost. 

He gambled hard on divide and conquer.  It worked well, but after 8 years the people of Wisconsin have come to realize that their neighbor the teacher or snow plow driver is on their side and the politicians in WI, especially the Governor are not.

Finally jobs.  While Scott Walker runs around touting his amazing unemployment stats, people in WIsconsin are not seeing it.   Yes people have jobs, sometimes they have 2-3 jobs at a few hours a week desperately trying to make ends meet.,  The ones who do have good living wage paying jobs, are both working too many hours and are scared that the next  communication from their company is the one that says they are closing the doors. 

By the way, Scott Walker still has not created the promised 250,000 jobs in WI. 

*  Why Tony Evers can win.  

This is a public education election, and Tony Evers personifies public education in Wisconsin.   There is a reason Scott Walker has tried to rebrand himself as "the education Governor", and has run ad after ad about how much he loves public education. 

The people in Wisconsin, much to the WISGOP surprise, have been passing education referendums at an almost 80% clip and now they are understanding what the damage of Scott Walker $1.5 billion cut to education has done to their local school.   

Scott Walker, basically enacted Tony Evers education budget, because he was worried that Tony would be his opponent and wanted to neutralize the public education part of the race.  He failed. 

Secondly, Mandela Barnes.  Mandela is an up and coming star in Wisconsin politics and the perfect partner on the Tony Evers ticket.   I would highly recommend that Tony come up with some actual responsibilities and make Mandela a true partner, and not the figurehead, money sucking position it is now. 

Tony also has a huge advantage in character.  Unlike his opponent, Tony is a good man of character, ethics and integrity.  Tony is not full of ambition, Tony is not using Wisconsin to run for President, advance his career in the party, or use it to fundraise and increase his bank account. 

Tony wants what is best for Wisconsin. period. End of sentence. 

What is best for Wisconsin right now is electing Tony Evers Governor. 

*  Why Tony Evers can lose:

M O N E Y.   Money makes the world go round, and it also buys hours of negative nasty ads.   Scott Walker has unlimited money, Tony will have a decent amount but nowhere near as much.   It is not insurmountable but it will be an obstacle. 

The Democratic Party.   In a state which leans blue, where Progressives were born, which has a history of being involved in politics, the Democratic party has a history of losing elections. 

Now they have done it again.    They hired the campaign manager for Russ Feingold's latest loss, to come up with a strategy to win WI.   Yes they decided to hire the campaign manager for one of the most popular politicians in Wisconsin history, who led his candidate to a loss to one of the dumbest politicians in Wisconsin history to help Tony Evers win.   

While there are no words for the perpetual rewarding of incompetence, it is also not surprising.  You see lots of people being hired onto the Evers team, whose experience comes from the Hillary or Burke campaigns.  Without relitigating those candidates, their campaigns were run horribly.  Why anyone would think this is a good idea, is beyond me but it is. 

The media is also an obstacle to overcome.  They are used to 8 years of taking dictation for Scott Walker.  The night Tony won, Walker put out an ad falsely claiming that Evers should have taken a license from a teacher in Middleton that he had no jurisdiction to take. 

The media, instead of asking why his first ad was negative against his opponent when Walker has said he was going to run a positive issues oriented campaign only, treated the story like there were two legit sides to this story.   There is not. 

Voter apathy.  Anger gets people to vote and get involved.  Hard core Republicans are always angry.  They, with the help of right wing radio and politicians, understand that every thing bad that ever happens to them is the fault of the PC liberals. 

They get a sliver, a flat tire, lose their job, run out of gas, burn their toast and it is the liberals fault and they need to get out and vote to make sure they never burn their toast again. 

The Democrats on the other hand need a reason to vote.  They need to be in love with someone who mostly respects their views to get out and vote for them.    The ads Scott Walker will run will mostly be made to keep you from falling in love with Tony Evers so you stay home on election day.   

Now my advice, on how we win in November.  

Decide today that you like Tony Evers, he is not perfect and there will be things that he has done and will say(we will really consider tolls?) but understand that no matter what he does or says, he is better than Scott Walker on his worst day.  |

Secondly, ignore the party.   They will do and say things that are head scratchers because too many in power care about staying in power, and not winning elections.  We care about winning elections, so ignore the stupid things the party does and will do and work to get Tony/Mandela elected the best way you know how.   Talk to your friends and family about how important it is to vote and especially how important it is to elect Tony. 

Finally, and this is the most important way to change our state, if you are going to work for, or donate to a candidate, pick your local (or a local) race for state Assembly or Senate. 

If you have a race in your district for either Assembly or Senate(or both), understand that it IS a competitive race. 

Your candidate can win.  Period.   

There will be many people who think they are experts, who will tell anyone who listens, that only certain seats are winnable.   That is not true.  We will not win them all but we absolutely can win some of the "unwinnable" seats. 

The best way to win statewide, is to win district wide.  If we can steal some seats we are not supposed to with local candidates that no one expects, not only will Madison be more representative of the people, but the increased Democratic turnout in these districts are what will push the upper part of the ballot over the edge. 

Like an economy, we will win these races from the ground up not the top down. 

We will be addressing some of the down ballot races between now and the election here at CogDis. 

Stay Tuned but for now, lets be prepared to talk to our neighbors like our kids futures depend on it!

It does! 

The Next 72 Hours Are In Your Hands!

By Jeff Simpson

72 Hours until election day, maybe the biggest election of our lifetime.

The emphasis has been put on the Hillary V Trump race and the Russ Feingold V RoJo race.   Do not get me wrong, both of them are important.  Regardless how you feel about Hillary, Donald Trump is unacceptable anyway you look at it.   As for Senator Feingold, there really is no choice when you compare, intelligence, idea, beliefs and personality.   We can finally rid our state of 6 years of one of the most ridiculous, least intelligent Senators Wisconsin has seen since McCarthy!

However, as important as the top of the ticket is, the bottom of the ballot is where you will find races that will effect your daily lives.  From public education to our roads, to jobs and our clean water and lakes.  Your everyday lives will be guided by decisions made at the Capitol.

That is why the next 72 hours are going to be so important.   Even though the opposition has a racist, misogynist, lunatic on the top of the ticket, and we are living in a state where a $3 tax cut has forced almost every public school district in the state to go to referendum to keep the doors open and the teachers paid, the Democrats prospects do not look good for Tuesday.

From new multi million dollar superPacs, to horrendous GOP candidates and buffoon on the top of the ticket, yet Hillary has a measly lead in Wisconsin.    A poor turnout or a slim win by Hillary on the top of the ticket will not bode well for our down ballot races.

With the electeds and party officials getting platforms and telling us that we can maybe win a seat or two, the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee using their resources to run horrendous ads, and everyone that needs to be out there driving these wins focusing on Hillary, we can not rely on party leaders and electeds to help.

For Instance, there have been numerous people coming to Wisconsin to speak to rather large crowds about the importance of voting for Hillary and Russ.  While people wait hours to hear them speak, the captive audience could have listened to all of the local electeds and Democrats on the ballot speak to the crowd, yet never are people like Ryan Solen, Khary Penebraker, Jeffrey Wright, Scott Michalak, Chris Taylor, Melissa Sargent, Jonathon Brostoff, Brian Smith, etc.. are asked to speak.  

Why would we pass up such an important opportunity to introduce these people to a whole new audience?  

It is up to us, the calvary is not coming! The party insiders are making sure they have a job next week with someone, the consultants are doling out the same incompetent advice they always have and activists have been minimized because the party wants to reach the right of center voters(ignoring the lesson Bernie Sanders tried to teach us).  

We need to be the change that we want to see, and can deal with the party later.   In these last 72 hours if you have time, pick a candidate and phone bank or do doors for them,   Give them a couple hours before the Packer game(it is at 3:00 PM).

If you are not able to do that, call your friends and family and make sure they vote down ballot.   Explain to them the importance of checks and balances on our government and why we need to flip the Senate and Assembly.   Explain that they can be disgusted with the top of the ticket but be make sure and fill in the bottom of the ticket where there will be a chance to vote out a very bad Representative and probably vote Yes for your public schools.

You will hear take 10 friends to vote but we all know that is not feasible.   Let us get real, make sure ONE friend votes who wouldn't normally vote.  See if someone needs a ride to the polls, make sure your immediately family and neighbors vote.  Send an email to your college roommate and your cousins, to make sure they vote.   Post on social media the importance of voting, the number you were when you voted(if you did not vote early) and who you support.

We have to deal for two years with the choices that are made on Tuesday, let's make sure that we make the right choices!

Our children and our state depend on us!

If you want a video that you can post on social media about the importance of voting, let me recommend this one.

RoJo: I Don't Respect Feingold

RoJo has likened himself to Donald Trump, so it only makes sense that RoJo would emulate Trump by disrespecting anyone that doesn't agree with him, just like Trump.

In a recent interview with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, RoJo channeled his inner Trump and attacked Russ Feingold on a personal level:

As they reach the closing stages of their second race in six years, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson offered a blunt assessment of his rival, Democrat Russ Feingold,

"I don't respect phoniness," Johnson said Friday during a meeting with reporters and editors at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Johnson made reference to a recent article in which Feingold said the past six years have given him a chance "to feel like a guy from Wisconsin who is leading a life that is similar to other people."

"Is that really a guy who has traveled around the state and really been part of Wisconsin?" Johnson asked. "No, that's a comment from a Washington elitist, someone who went to Harvard and Oxford, who has bamboozled folks here in Wisconsin that he's this independent, little maverick guy that has their best interests at heart."

Johnson's comments on Feingold were politically unusual but reflect a heated rivalry and a vigorous campaign.

In 2010, Johnson ousted Feingold, a three-term senator. But in this race — one of the more important contests in the country — Johnson has consistently trailed in the polls.

"I'll be frank with you, I'm not particularly happy with all the false attacks, the unbelievable negativity of his campaign against me," Johnson said.

Johnson was sharply critical of Feingold setting up Progressives United PAC after leaving the Senate. Johnson said Feingold spent the bulk of money raised "on himself, his shadow campaign, a money-making machine, a donor list. Are you shocked? He sold that donor list to his campaign. I call that corruption. I call that hypocrisy. I call that totally phony."

There he goes whining about the negative tone of the race, even as he is attacking Feingold on a personal level. Well, we just covered who is the real poo-flinger in this race so there is no need to rehash that.

But yet again, RoJo outdoes himself with his charges of phoniness. Not only is this do-nothing running a campaign on a totally fictitious record of accomplishments, he is also a major scam artist.

As he cries phoniness and corruption, let's not forget that he is the one that reimbursed himself $10 million from his business to cover his campaign expenses. And it wasn't even really his business, it was his father-in-law's company.

I hope whoever gets RoJo's office after he is ousted by Feingold knows someone who can clean the stench out and maybe get an exorcism done for good measure. That much evil has probably soaked into the entire place.

RoJo Flings Poo In Latest Ad

In RoJo's latest ad, he goes back to exploiting his family who he has bemoaning the state of politics, especially this year, but goshdarnit, they need good old dad in Washington to clean things up.

Yeah, OK, right.

Let's just ignore the fact that the only things that RoJo had done for the last six years is use his spot as Chair of of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to repeatedly abuse his position to run political attacks against Hillary Clinton (Benghazi!!!) and unsuccessfully attempt to repeal Obamacare scores of times.

It is ironic that RoJo and kids are crying about dirty politics and false ads. Unless, of course, they are talking about the anti-Russ Feingold ad that had to be pulled by three TV stations because it was so false. Even though the ad was run by one of the Kochs multitude of dark money groups, RoJo continues to try to keep up that line of attack even to this day.

Talk about slow learners.

Then again, it might be that RoJo and his dark money masters are trying to cover up his own ineptitude regarding a scandal that happened at a VA center in northern Wisconsin, as this Feingold ad so clearly points out:



But hypocrisy, misdirection and down right lying is the norm for any Republican.

What is really shocking and disgusting is that RoJo that it was a cutesy, homey thing to fling a dirty diaper across the kitchen, including over the dinner table, which had a bowl of fruit sitting right there.

I tell ya, if RoJo ever invites you over for dinner, you might want to be have other plans that night.

Paul Ryan Rallies The (Wrong) Troops

By Jeff Simpson

Today, Paul Ryan (R-Wall St.) capped off a very bad week.  He started it last weekend when the GOP held a rally in Elkhorn, WI.

While it was full of the standard red meat of people who make it a family affair and show up in their best "Trump that Bitch" T-shirt.  While the media eats it up, because they can run around and interview people who you sweat just came from Glenn Grothman's family reunion (by the way he has an incredible opponent this election, Sarah Lloyd, and the world will owe the 6th Congressional District a debt of gratitude if you send her to Washington!),

The real drama at this rally though, was what was going on that night before.  The "pussy" tape was revealed that day and that night, the Donald went from headliner, just another speaker to uninvited.  Paul Ryan wanted to distance himself from The Donald who he thought was finally becoming toxic, so he invited  his Vice Presidential running mate,

Apparently there is someone with common sense is in the Ryan inner circle because they informed Mr. Ryan that inviting Mr. Pence was NOT distancing himself from The Donald.   Then Mr. Pence was unceremoniously dumped.

Lost in the shuffle, was the fact that Paul Ryan put out a statement on the Donald's sexual assault tapes and was almost as condescending and misogynist:

“Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified." 

Paul Ryan is sure that it was his rib that eve was made from, and he will "champion" all women.   It is understandable, because thanks to his wife's family fortune(sounds familiar) he is able to continue his wine habits.   

Lucky for Mr. Ryan, the media kowtows to him and never brings up his actual record with the women he has "championed".  For instance, he held a meeting on women's access to contraception  and had a total of zero women invited to the conversation.   Apparently he was revering them from afar.    Let's also not forget this gem where he champions the ability of women to not have an abortion if they get pregnant after being raped(how many lil Donnies would be running around if that were law) 

A good post at Kos, runs down Paul Ryan's record with women:

And what about you, Paul Ryan? How have you personally “championed” women? Was it in 1998 when you said that women should be criminally prosecuted for terminating pregnancies? When you tried to prevent women serving overseas in our military from having abortions in U.S. military hospitals even when they paid for it out of their own pockets? How about when you worked with Todd Akin to narrow the legal definition of rape to “forcible rape”? Or maybe it was in 2009 when you co-sponsored the “Sanctity of Life” Act which declared a fertilized egg a “person” and outlawed abortions, most forms of contraception and in-vitro fertilization? The numerous times you have voted to defund Planned Parenthood? In 2011 when you supported the “Let Women Die Bill” that allowed hospitals to refuse to terminate pregnancies even when the woman’s life was in danger?Was it when you opposed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act? Opposed paid family leave? 

 
The The Donald, having had a night to digest what happened, did what he does best - go unhinged on Twitter:

Then Mr. Ryan closed out the week at a semi hyped speech he gave to the UW College Republicans, who are chaired by Alex Walker.   Ryan, the great uniter who is sick of the vitriol this election, gave a speech about the evils of some thing he made up called "LiberalProgressivism".    Apparently this Liberal Progressivism is the root of all evil.   After his speech laming liberals for everything from the Billy the Kid to the Berlin wall to Billy Bush, he then took "questions" from the college kids.   Amazingly, these "completely random" questions, never once mentioned some guy name Donald Trump. 

Of course when it came time to face the actual reporters, Ryan turned into Houdini and escaped immediately.   Paul Ryan is prepared to take the fight to ISIS but not prepared to answer a question from Molly Beck or Jessie Opoien.

Then, Paul Ryan ended his week making the case for Russ Feingold.   Seriously.

 Jessica ArpVerified account‏@news3jessica.@PRyan says if Senate is flipped that @BernieSanders will become chairman of the budget committee. #news3

Paul Ryan has never had much of an idea what was happening in Wisconsin, because he is in Congress to represent an elite group of people from New York's Wall St.  Unfortunately for Mr. Ryan and for his friend Ron Johnson, no one told Paul that Bernie Sanders is wildly popular in WI and handily won the primary here.

There is not much news that Mr. Ryan could have told the hard core Bernie supporters that would make them want to run to the polls faster, knowing that the best way to give Bernie that kind of power is to flip our Senate seat and send Russ Feingold back to Washington and Ron Johnson back to his daddy-in-law's protecting arms!

Republicans Write Off RoJo As A Lost Cause

Ron Johnson, who has consistently been trailing Russ Feingold in the polls and in fundraising, just got some more bad news this week:

As the National Republican Senatorial Committee rolled back its planned spending on Johnson’s behalf, it wasn’t clear Monday to what extent that would be offset by a new ad buy from a different wing of the same group.

NRSC spokeswoman Andrea Bozek confirmed Monday that the independent expenditure arm of the NRSC was canceling a planned ad buy in Wisconsin of about $830,000, slated to air from Oct. 17 to Nov. 7.

“Given this difficult political climate, we have to adjust reservations and strategy to ensure we are in the best position to protect the majority,” a NRSC aide reportedly said, according to Politico Pro, which first reported the news.

But that doesn't mean that Feingold will have an easy go of it for the last few weeks before election day.

The Democrats are scaling back their help as well. Even worse, dark money has started to flood Wisconsin with their smear ads:

As Senate Republicans and Democrats shift — at least for now — their focus away from Wisconsin, Johnson still stands to benefit from new spending by outside groups.

A new super PAC, Reform Wisconsin Fund, last week announced a major ad buy that slams Feingold for voting to allow partial-birth abortion. That buy amounts to about $365,000 in its first week, according to the fund.

With the Dems scaling back their help and facing a flood of dark money, I am sure that Feingold - and the people of Wisconsin - would be very grateful for any money that the gentle reader can throw his way.

Republicans Try To Infiltrate Feingold's Campaign

The Republicans are in a panic.

Because they have the ever imploding Donald Trump as the face of their party, They know that their down ticket elections are in deep peril. This is especially true for Wisconsin's Dumb Senator, Ron Johnson.

Since they started polling, RoJo has been constantly trailing Russ Feingold, usually by 10 or more points. RoJo has consistently been named as one of the most vulnerable senators, if not the most vulnerable. RoJo has accelerated his nosedive in the polls by hitching his campaign wagon to Trump's, even though Trump got trounced in Wisconsin's primary.

So the Republicans do what comes naturally to them. They tried to cheat.

They sent in an incompetent woman to try to be a spy in Feingold's campaign. Yeah, that didn't work out too well:

An apparent Republican activist tried to join Democrat Russ Feingold’s team this week in what Feingold’s campaign suspects was a plot to dig up dirt on him.

In an interview with Feingold staff on Wednesday, she initially said she wanted to work on issues affecting women’s health care and unions, but clammed up when confronted about whether she had worked for conservatives and tried to infiltrate Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign in Iowa last year.

“I’m not going to be answering any questions, so if you want me to leave, I’ll leave. If you want me to stay, I’ll stay,” she responded, according to an audio recording provided by the Feingold campaign.

Told she needed to leave, she responded, “Cool! Well, it was great meeting you.”

The woman signed up to be a volunteer as Allison Moss on Tuesday, but was let go Wednesday after the Feingold campaign asked her if she was actually Allison Maass.

Maass is a writer with Campus Reform, a project of the conservative Leadership Institute aimed at exposing liberal bias at universities.

Not only had Maass already been busted once trying to worm her way into a Democrat's campaign, but tries it again with the most pathetic attempt to disguise her name. But Maass gave herself away before she even set foot in the door:

The Feingold sting apparently fell apart thanks to profiling on the part of the campaign. The would-be infiltrator was blonde and drove a big white pickup truck, which staff said was part of the tip off.

OK, I don't know what her hair color had to do with it. There are no blonde Democrats?

Anyway, congratulations to Ms Maass for temporarily taking the heat off of RoJo as being the laughing stock of this election..Maxwell Smart has nothing on you.

RoJo Loses Big Money Backers' Big Money

It's been a rough couple of days for Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. First, the National Republican Senate Committee pulls back on their ads for RoJo, then the Koch Boyzzz follow suit:

A conservative group funded by the Koch brothers that is backing Sen. Ron Johnson canceled $2.2 million worth of ads it had planned to run to help the Republican in August and September, a blow to his re-election campaign as he tries to win a rematch against Democrat Russ Feingold.

Feingold has been outraising Johnson and leading in the polls in the closely watched race. Democrats are hoping to pick up the Senate seat as they try to regain majority control in the Senate.

The super PAC Freedom Partners Action Fund ran about $2 million worth of ads attacking Feingold in May. It was slated to run another $2.2 million in pro-Johnson ads over the next two months, but a Democratic media tracker said Wednesday that they had been canceled.

"We are realigning our television advertising strategy to ensure maximum impact across key Senate races," Freedom Partners spokesman James Davis wrote in an email. "We will continue direct citizen outreach through our grassroots activists, volunteer phone calls, digital media and direct mail. Last weekend alone network grassroots organizations made almost half a million contact attempts to targeted audiences."

The bad news for Johnson comes a day after he spoke in prime time at the Republican National Convention, a late-reversal from his long-held position that he was going to skip the gathering to campaign in Wisconsin. It also comes the day after the National Republican Senatorial Committee said it was delaying until October $1.3 million in ads it originally planned to run over the next two months.

To put it in perspective of just how bad this news is for RoJo:

Johnson has benefited from spending by outside groups, which had outspent Feingold's campaign by about $5 million to $1 million from the April 5 primary through late June. In addition to Freedom Partners, the ads benefiting Johnson have come from Americans for Prosperity, another Koch brothers group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Let America Work and the Judicial Crisis Network.

"Senator Johnson has always relied on the Koch Brothers and these outside groups to run his campaign for him, so this must come as a disappointment for their model legislator," said Feingold spokesman Michael Tyler in an emailed statement.

To put it another way, the money that these two groups just pulled out from underneath RoJo's feet is more than a third of what he spent in 2010.

It is not surprising that these groups are pulling back on RoJo, seeing how he has consistently been lagging behind Russ Feingold in both the polls and in fundraising.

I, for one, am going to enjoy watching RoJo flail about the next few months as he goes through his political death throes.

Pre-Convention State of The Party

By Jeff Simpson

I have written before about the state of the WISDEMS party in WI.  From their disappearing acts, to their complete silence on issues that matter, to what went wrong in the Wisconsin Primary.

It is time for a check in as the Fall election cycle starts to really kick in.

The first thing, that we need to understand is this election cycle is not like any other election cycle in our history.  The Trump Phenomona is something that, while was created by the electeds in the GOP party and we should have seen coming, no one did.

Simple case in point. At one point this ended a presidential run:

while this gained Mr. Trump more and more supporters:

The first thing we need to do is never start a sentence with the word "Historically".  

Second thing is we need some self reflection.  After the last election drubbing of 2014, the WISDEMS got togther and came out with a report explaining why they lost.  Unfortunately it was what you thought it would be, one with vague recommendations and no self reflection.   

Lets take a quick look at some highlights: 

*   The committee not only recommends a stronger rebuttal to the basic Republican argument, but to proactively identify and present a different argument.       Two plus years later we are still waiting for that argument.

*   A common point of contention is that the party and our candidates have delivered a flawed message based upon the actions of Governor Walker. Essentially the critical view of that message has been, “Governor Walker is bad for Wisconsin and we aren’t him.”     Find me an instance where Mary Burke or most candidates running criticized Scott Walker in the last race?  Martha Laning, our current state chair ran an ad with the theme "Republicans have great ideas" while running for an Assembly seat.   

*  To understand the crux of the issue of Rural Wisconsin, we sought out and reviewed qualitative academic studies done in Wisconsin.   Yoo Hoo, they are not that hard to find, go talk to the people in rural Wisconsin.   Looking at them through academic studies?  really? 

*  We need the conversation at the rural gas station in the morning to shift from the bad things that government is doing to a discussion about how government is working to enhance rural lives.  If you really think that rural Wisconsin 2016 is the same as life in Mayberry in the Andy Griffith show then you really really need to get out and talk to people.   WOW.  

* Candidates: A common perception in Rural Wisconsin is that “candidates don’t come here.” This is a difficult conundrum as the logistics of campaigns make it impossible to be everywhere.   So says the consultants we pay big money too,  Bernie Sanders seems to have made it to more rural parts of WI during his campaign here. 

*  The 72 County Strategy, much like Howard Dean’s original plan, is not about winning all 72 counties,   'Nuff said! 

Now the recommendations:

*    Do not be afraid of primaries, hold the internal party units to the constraints of party rules and understand we do not control the decisions of outside forces.    The party has compeletely ignored this recommendation as when Jimmy Anderson announced a run against Robb Kahl(who later dropped out), Gordon Hintz became unhinged.  In Madison, Progressive Jacob Wischmeier, decided to challenge Lisa Subeck in a PRIMARY, and the Democratic party challenged his signatures.   We also see where Myron Bucholz has challenged Ron Kind and Mandela Barnes has challenged Lena Taylor and yet both were denied the VAN and shut down by the party.    

*  When possible, hire campaign staff who have a background in rural organizing or if possible give those staffers additional time to shorten the learning curve.  Great idea I look forward to that actually happening.   

*  Look for opportunities to build new relationships with community groups that have similar progressive interests to the Democratic Party to create a larger base of support.   With the aggressiveness that local party leaders have against anyone who questions them, the complete lack of outreach or interest in people with Democratic ideals who have yet to join the party and the lack of interest in engaging with the million Wisconsinites who signed the recall of our Governor, shows me that relationship building and increasing support is not even remotely in their plans(but it sounds really good). 

Finally their conclusions

Despite the current electoral status of Wisconsin, history shows us that we not only have a road forward but the path to a new progressive era is entirely possible. We heed the advice of the late Congressman Robert Kastenmeier on this topic: "Don't give up the ship...there are better days ahead."    Apparently wishing so, while on the same path as previous elections,  will make it so.

Now the things they ommitted!  

* Leadership:  Not a word about how much leadership has let the party down.   Mike Tate was in charge for 6 years and in that time, the Democratic Party lost seats in almost every election and went from having control of the Governor's office, the Assembly and Senate to being so far in the minority that they are no longer relevant in any debate.   

In the whole time Mr. Tate was ahead of the party, it seems as though he was able to work mostly on advancing his own career.   Mike Tate allowed union busting Chris Abele prime speaking spots at Democratic dinners and in turn Chris Abele then hired Mike to help run his campaign against Democratic Senator Chris Larson.   Quid pro quo at its finest.  Then Mr. Tate did not just hekp Chris Abele win the election, he smeared Chris Larson, his old friend, often.  When you have someone in charge who will turn on his friends and allies for a few pences, then you can expect to have an organization with no ethics.   Heck even Rick Nielsen had more loyalty to the Party then Mike Tate.  

* Party Insiders:  After the Democratic convention, and after Bernie sanders won he Wisconsin Primary handily, Kristen Hansen unleashed a series of tweets@KHansen1724 aimed at Senator Sanders and his supporters:  

 - Can we get hair and makeup into this Sanders event? Thanks.
-  There's only 1 Democrat running for POTUS -  @HillaryClinton. I'm done pretending this is a primary. It's a hostile takeover. #fightback
-  Things I am no longer doing: pretending the Dem race isn't over, being nice to Bernie Bros, nod and smile at misogynists. #emancipation
- You know why we have superdelegates? Because people who are NOT Democrats and don't give a shit about the party can run AS Dems and fuck us.
 - Dear Sen Sanders: I will not let you destroy our party. You were never with us: 'It will be a contested convention'  Ok

I am not sure if that is the new inclusive message that the party is looking to send to win elections or not but there was no apology and she was so proud of these tweets that she has them still up.   

*Democratic Party of WI: The current state of the party shows major signals that even more dire election results are ahead.   If you pull up the WISDEMS website under the "Our Candidates" tab, you see a picture of Senator Russ Feingold and no one else.   Apparently no one explained to them that the 's' after candidate, means plural = more than one.   We have important races all over the state, local and nationa,l and the WISDEMS are only aware of Senator Feingold.  

Secondly go to the "news" section and what do we see there?  Under the latest from our party section:

The Latest from Our Party

November 24, 2015

Democratic Weekly Radio Address: "Happy Thanksgiving"

I 

For those of you scoring at home, it is currently July 18,2016.  I guess nothing that is newsworthy has happened since last Thanksgiving.  

The Political Establishment in WI:  Tune into a Sunday political TV show and who do you see?  The same people week after week, Bloggers David Blaska, and Christian Schneider, For some un beknownest reason, Joe Zepecki and Sachin Cheda, etc...   All on, talking like this is a similar election to the one before and the one before, etc...   All bringing nothing to the table but the same ole drivel.   

Even my second favorite writer in WI recently wrote a column on the state of the Democratic Party and does not really get the new dynamic. 

   Against this backdrop, I attended a forum on building the Democratic bench recently, which The Progressive magazine co-sponsored, along with Emerge Wisconsin, New Leaders Council and Wisconsin Progress — three groups that are doing the hard work recruiting and training candidates to try to take back citizen control of our government.These groups’ efforts are unimpeachable. They are in the trenches trying to get smart progressives to consider public service, and they are supporting their campaigns and achieving some victories.

Actually these groups efforts are fine but hardly unimpechable.  As entrenched political organizations, while they do some good, they really have just become employment factories for political lifers.   

For instance, Scott Spector was running Wisconsin Progress unril Senator Tammy Baldwin called upon him to be her chief of staff. Which will be a nice job for him for a couple years before he founds a political consultancy/lobbyist firm where he will go and make quadruple his salary now.  

As Matt Taibbi recently pointed out, with the political lifers, winning is secondary to continual employment.     A Former head of the local Jefferson County Democratic party disliked a Democratic candidate running in Assembly District 38 because 10 years prior he had a messy divorce (with no actual charges filed against him and he ended up with full custody of his children).  The head of the JeffDems at the time was able to get this candidates blackballed from various fundraisers and from any help at all within the party.  He ended up putting up a good race but slightly losing.  The irony here is that the woman who was upset with him and got him blackballed, actually had charges AGAINST her for Domestic Violence but felt the need to be judge jury and executioner, all be herself. Now we have Representative Joel Kleefisch who has bills written to stop all stem cell research, while the former head of the JEFFDEMS is now in charge of one of these unimpeachable groups.    

Their main focus is raise lots of money, and only talk to Democratic Voters.  Which is a terrible way to bring more people into the party and has not led to many election victories.  

Then Ms. Coniff saw the only way out of the Democratic funk was by Hail Mary's" - 1. Getting someone charismatic to run for Governor and 2.  Win the lawsuit against redistricting. and hoping new districts would be much more fair.     

That is the self defeatist, lets look at historical attitude that we are so used to seeing, and one that will help us continue our landslide.    

Now that we have acknowledged much of the problems, let's look at some solutions. 

Unlike the bloodsuckers of the political consulting world, that have consulted us right into the minority(I am looking at you Nation Consulting), I am giving election advice for free.   

Some can be run this election cycle yet and some needs to be systemic changes.  Here are 9 observations, bits of advice that could be used to take our State back.  

1.  Go on the offensive at all times!   Quick, name all of the times you can think of that Scott Walker or the WISGOP have apologized?  When calling protesters ISIS(no)?  When Bob Gannon was writing racist press releases and flipped off the Democrats on the Assembly floor(no)?  There is not a time that the WISGOP will ever apologize. 

2.  Have each others backs at ALL times.  Yes, Gordon Hintz flipped out when someone decided to run for the seat that he felt Robb Kahl owned(Kahl ended up not running again), but when Hintz went unhinged, he tried to throw most of his base under the bus.  That is not what having your back means.  Hintz did not have a word to say about anyone else who had primaries and in his rants did not say a bad word about the GOP only the Dem base(most of which had nothing to do with the situation).   

When I say "have each others backs", I am thinking specifically of when Senator Dave Hansen retweeted a stupid tweet and was mercilessly attacked by the Wisconsin right wing echo chamber.   On the same day that Republicans at a Donald Trump rally were yelling "Sieg Heil" the right wing echo chamber was outraged over Senator Hansen's retweet.   While it was a dumb thing to retweet, Senator Hansen ended up closing his twitter account, but while he was being attacked, not a single Democrat stood with him. It was shameful.   Hard to build party when you so quickly throw your peers under the bus.  

3.  Update the website: There has unexplicably been a picture of Russ Feingold on the front page of the Democratic Party of Wiscosnin website for months now.   There should be a page you can go to and find not only your Assembly Rep, but your State Senator and if it is a Republican, who on the Democratic Party is running in your area, with a picture, a short bio and a link to their website.  If there is a primary then all candidates running should get the same treatment.  

Secondly update the news!   Coordinate with the party.  Rep. Kolste just write a very good op-ed that we picked up at COgDis.  Those should be written more often by all the reps, and they should be featured on the website when they get published. 

Finally, tell stories(more on this later).  I would send someone with a video camera to drive around Wisconsin and tell us stories of what is really happening, not the "Its Working" crap we get from the GOP.  

4 Stop Talking about all of the races you plan on LOSING!  How many times have you seen one of the rare appearances by someone from the Dem Party asked about the upcoming elections and they talk about the bare minimum that we could maybe possibly win.  Case in point: 

Democratic Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, highlighted three seats as pickup opportunities for her party: Senate District 18, an open seat; Senate District 12, now represented by Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, and Senate District 10, represented by Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls.
Democrats would need to win all three to wrest control of the Senate — something Shilling isn’t willing to pledge.
“I always like to under-promise and over-deliver,” Shilling said. “This is a several-election-term plan that we want to implement.

I'm Sorry Jen, when have you over delivered?  Maybe when you start talking about all of the races that we are GOING to win, That will help build up some momemntum and enthusiasm from places that normally do not vote Democratic?  Who wants a quarterback that goes into the season saying "I can see us maybe winning three games?"  

5.  Stop letting the Republicans get away with their extremist, incompetent ideology!  Scott Walker, spent $7 Million dollars in about three months campaigning to the most right wing of his base and ended up with 0.0% support.   One of the straws that broke the Right wing camels back, was because he actually said that walling off Canada was a "legitimate issue".   I have yet to hear a Wisconsin Democrat bring that up.   

For example, look at Chris Larson's recent run for Milwaukee County Executive, or anytime he is in the news actually), he get referred to every time by the right wing echo chamber as "sticky fingers" Larson.  Why would the Democratic party not take advantage and bring up the Canadian wall every single time the get asked about Scott Walker?   Almost every GOP member running for office this time has statements/actions in their past that equate the Canadian Wall and yet the Dems never call them out.   

6.  Fire Nation Consulting from all inner workings of the party.  I know that candidates are free to hire whoever they want.  I also know that candidates are strongly encouraged who to hire and who not to hire. Over the years, they have been very strong advocates for their bank accounts and not much else.   Just stop it with them.   If they want to volunteer on campaigns fine, but in terms of sending them ANY money from anyone with D behind their name....just stop!    

7.  Stop the Madison/Milwaukee V the rest of the state debate.  As someone who grew up on a small family farm and has lived in Milwaukee and Madison, I am confused as to which issues matter to Madison/Milwaukee and not to rural areas and vice versa.  People in WI want much of the same things, a good education for their chidlren, opportunity, healthcare, a family supporting job, a chance to go on a vacation a year and have a house and a car that works.  There is some nuance between different areas and people on their main issues but in the end we all want the same things.  

8.  Do not fear the Republicans but watch what they are doing and learn.   They have more money than the Democrats and while they govern horribly, they do win elections.   In the recall elections, I knew it was over when the Walker campaign stopped campaigning on issues and focused on the recall itself.   The last couple months, their ads were strictly focused on - "while me dont like Scott Walker, we do not think he should be recalled".  We did not even need to see their internal polling, it was obvious his internal polling showed that as the biggest issue.  In the meantime, the Democrats responded with calling Scott Walker a rockstar.   The results speak for themselves.

The Donald easily won his primary because he ran as anti-establishment.   People are sick of the same people doing the same things over and over and also being perceived as above the law.   Senator Sanders also made huge inroads running against the estbalishment.   Look at how they campaigned here, Senator Sanders, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, had open speeches all over the state, while Hillary Clinton had private events where people in the inside could get in and take selfies for their facebook page.   Its great for them, but she also got creamed on election day.   Think about that.  

9.  Do Not Be Afraid of Progressive Populism. Actually, Progressive Populism is the ONLY thing that will beat Scott Walker in the next election.  It has nothing really to do with charisma(although that does help).   People in Wisconsin, did not take to Senator Sanders (and he won handily here) because of his sparkiling personality, award winning smile and ability to tell jokes.  Senator Sanders won here because he was saying what the people in WI have been desperate to hear.    Ms. Coniff pointed it out in her article, but did not recognize it for what it was.  

But what do you say to young people who are willing to devote their time to local community service when, at the state level, there appears to be very little infrastructure to bolster the opposition against a right-wing juggernaut?
I asked the panelists at the forum this question, and they looked pained. But then they started talking about some of their favorite candidates, and about the dedication of these young teachers, farmers and community activists to local issues. Most get involved in public work by running for nonpartisan offices, and at the very local level, they make common cause with their neighbors — including conservatives — on doing what’s best for their communities.
It occurred to me that if we can bring that community spirit up the chain to higher office, it would fix a lot of what has been going wrong in our state.

What do you say to young people willing to devote their time?   This:

Tell them that you understand that the Government, the economy is not working for them.   That you recognize that the scale is tilted heavily against them and that is not the American ideal.  Tell them that we have to stop letting Wall St and multi national corporations purchase our politicians.   Tell them everything Senator Sanders had to tell them because he reached them.   Not only did he reach them, he transcended the urban and rural areas(see point 7) and won 71/72 counties.    

I have given up hope nationally, as I see that the (poorly named) superdelegates are determined to put party over country and go down with the ship.  

However it is not to late to save our state.   The people of Wisconsin are starving for a change! 

Ron Johnson Needs To Denounce Racist PAC Ad

The gentle reader already knows that ads run by PACs are sleazy. The gentle reader also knows that ads run by conservative PACs are even sleazier. And when it's an ad from a conservative PAC that is already hitting the panic button in trying to save Ron Johnson's flailing and failing campaign, well, the sleaze is beyond imagination.

From Jessie Opoien of the Cap Times:

A Spanish-language radio ad from a controversial political group accuses Russ Feingold of not wanting Hispanic babies to be born, in an effort to persuade Latino voters to support Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in November.

"I have a question for Feingold. Why should you have my vote if you don’t want our babies?" a woman asks in an ad airing on Spanish-language and gospel radio stations in the Milwaukee and Racine markets.

The ad opens with a man asking whether it matters to Feingold that "Hispanic babies are twice as likely to be aborted as white babies."

The man later says the message he hears from the Democratic former senator is, "To improve our lives, abort our future."

"We don’t need to kill our future, we need to have hope for our future and know that opportunities will triumph and grow," the man says. "Ron Johnson constructed business and created more than 100 jobs. We need jobs, not abortions."

In short, they are accusing Feingold of wanting to commit genocide against Latinos. It might be the wet dream of these race-baiters, but in no way has Feingold come even close to saying anything like that.

The ad is from America's PAC and they have dropped $66,000 to flood the Milwaukee area airwaves with this smut. And it's not the first time they ran something like this. They ran a similar ad in 2014 to support Scott Walker in his reelection campaign, targeting Latinos and African Americans.

To add to RoJo's shame, when the Feingold campaign called for RoJo to disavow the ad, RoJo skirted the ad and mewled about the ads being run by conservation groups, veterans groups and others. Apparently, RoJo is in full acceptance and agreement with that message.

It's crap like this why RoJo has been consistently in double digits behind Feingold in the polls. Sending RoJo back to his father-in-law's company cannot happen soon enough.

RoJo Wants Feingold To Denounce Clinton

Having trailed Russ Feingold by double digits from the time Feingold announced, Ron Johnson is starting to get desperate already.

His latest thing has been to demand that Feingold denounce Hillary Clinton because emails!:

Late Tuesday, the Johnson campaign sought to turn the subject to its favor, questioning why Democrat Russ Feingold hasn't backed off from Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee. A private email server used by Clinton while she was secretary of state has been the subject of a continuing FBI investigation.

"When is Senator Feingold going to withdraw his support for a candidate under investigation by the FBI for email practices that jeopardized our national security?," Johnson spokesman Brian Reisinger said in a statement.

"Ron has vowed to hold both candidates accountable when they're wrong, just as he did (Monday) when he took the clear step of calling for a candidate he intends to support to retract his statements. That's something Senator Feingold has shown he won't do," Reisinger added.

At least it's not his usual screaming about Benghazi. But RoJo's problems with this line of attack is threefold.

One, like the whole Benghazi thing, the email schtick is just an unsubstantiated and false witch hunt with the sole purpose of trying to smear Clinton.

Secondly, even though RoJo finally called on Trump to retract his statement about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, calling him biased because he was Mexican, RoJo still is embracing Trump's racism. As Team Feingold put it:

"Sen. Johnson said that if Trump said or did anything that "crossed a line," he'd have to withdraw his support for the Republican nominee," said Feingold campaign spokesman Michael Tyler."It's clear from his response that racist comments from Trump don't rise to that level for Sen. Johnson."

It must also be noted that RoJo hasn't said anything about all of the other racists comments that Trump made, including the "my African American" line or his claims that Mexicans are drug dealers, rapists and murderers.

Thirdly, RoJo is going around the state campaigning with Scott Walker, who has had his own troubles with emails and secret routers. The gentle reader surely remembers that Walker has been the subject of not just one, but two major criminal investigations.

But in RoJo's world, IOKIARDI

Unfortunately, it's only a matter of time before other vulnerable Republicans start up their own nonsense along this line.

RoJo's ouster cannot come soon enough.