Analysis: The Gubernatorial Primary

In just three days, the people of Wisconsin will be voting in the primary for who they would like to represent their respective political parties in November's general election. Here is a brief analysis of where things are at.

Democrats

On the Democratic side, there are two main candidates. One, of course is Tom Barrett, the Mayor of the City of Milwaukee. The other is Tim John.

It is pretty safe to assume that Barrett will overwhelming win this primary. He has the support of the Democratic Party and has been getting all of the media attention. Barrett's record as mayor has been decent. He brought in Ed Flynn to head the police department and crime is down. His budgets have been balanced and he showed true leadership in a crisis, like this summer's floods.

On the downside, some people will criticize him for raising taxes, but these are the usual suspects that feel they should receive services like snow plowing or police protection without having to actually pay for them.

His primary opponent, Tim John, seems to be an affable fellow, and did raise the important issue of the intolerably high level of unemployment of African American men in Milwaukee. However, outside of that one issue, it was hard to take his campaign seriously. He tried to make one of his issues the sale of unpasteurized milk. Outside of some dairy farmers and those that want to drink the raw milk, it was not a big point among most Wisconsinites. To make it even more irrelevant, Governor Doyle resolved the issue during the year, making it a non-issue.

Republicans

The Republican gubernatorial primary is most definitely the most heated in the state, and for yours truly, the most fun to watch.

On one hand, you have the party-anointed boy king, Scott Walker. Walker ran in 2006, but dropped out of the race when the party support went to Mark Green. But he never stopped campaigning, and spent the next four years making the circuit, attending functions and using his bogus bike ride to keep his name out there. Because of this, the party arbitrarily appointed him as their great hope.

His opponent, Mark Neumann, was a U.S. Congressman until he left that seat to run against Russ Feingold. He lost that race, but only barely. After that, he went on to run a successful home building business and started three private schools.

This race is too close to call, despite what the party faithful would have you to believe. If Walker wins the primary, the Republicans lose the advantage of having a non-Milwaukeean running against the mayor of Milwaukee. Walker also has a lot of baggage to carry all the way to the finish line that makes him an easy target for the Democrats. Some of Walker's baggage includes, but is in no way limited to:

• The O'Donnell Park tragedy, where a concrete facade fell and killed a teenage boy and left a woman with a life-altering injury.
• The mental health complex, where years of budget cuts and staffing shortages allowed the facility to become run down and unsafe. Even more alarming is the fact that poor management and short staffing allowed female patients to be repeatedly sexually assaulted, ending up in at least one pregnancy.
• Walker's poor management forced the state to take over the Income Maintenance Program, spreading another Milwaukee County burden among all of the state's tax payers.
• Walker's inability to create jobs allowed the Private Industry Council to be moved from the County's control to the City of Milwaukee.
• Walker's budget cuts to the transit system has cost up to 40,000 people losing access to their jobs.
• Walker's current budget is deep in the hole, and that hole is only getting deeper.
• The multiple gaffes committed by his campaign, including racially-tainted tweets, insensitivity to the victims of the O'Donnell Park tragedy, and being found to be lying in his commercials
• A $400 million debt in the form of pension obligation bonds, which still doesn't cover the shortfall the county faces.

Mark Neumann does not provide the easy target that Walker does. He does not have the career politician tag and has a track record as a successful businessman. His success has allowed him the luxury of being mostly self-financed, which relieves him of the taint of special interests unlike Walker, who has received big money from people like the Koch brothers, who are the financial engine behind the TEA Party movements.

However, due to having the party support, Walker will most likely have a much more effective GOTV system, which gives him that edge, but it is questionable whether even that will be sufficient to make up for all of Walker's deficiencies.

In a way, I hope that Walker wins. It will make it easier for Barrett to win the governorship. It will also give this lowly site a few more weeks to enjoy some mild popularity. On the other hand, I don't know if Milwaukee County, its tax payers, or its most vulnerable citizens can afford, much less survive, much more of his campaign stunts and poor management.

Drinking Liberally Tomorrow With Tim John

Ah, yes, it's that favorite time of the month, when progressives (and the occasional Libertarian) gather together in good cheer and discuss the current events of the day. And these days, it's what else, but the political races which are current.

Well, the races and the birth of the next generation of liberals (Hi, Ellison!)

From proud papa and gracious host of DL, Jason Haas:

Hi folks,

Ever have one of those days where you're hanging around in the hospital room with your wife and newborn son, when someone says to you, "Hey, uh, you know, you should probably post something about Drinking Liberally..."&@#$@!!! Yes! DL meets tomorrow!

And I'm excited to report to you that two exciting events are happening in DL-MKE land. First, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tim John will be coming to Drinking Liberally tomorrow night! Please come out to see what Tim John has to say, and why he thinks you should vote for him.

No matter who you voted for, I will thank Tim for upholding the democratic principles that our country was founded on.

The second exciting event is Living Liberally co-founder Justin Krebs coming to Milwaukee on his book tour! Krebs has written "538 Ways to Live, Work, and Play Like a Liberal." It's Krebs's personal and practical guide to embracing your progressive values everyday life -- I'm looking at you, Nick -- as well as the big ideas of what it means to be a "liberal" in America today.

Come meet Justin Krebs at 7:00PM on Wednesday the 28th at Sugar Maple. His book will be available for purchase there, and you can meet one of the folks that helped make Drinking Liberally possible. Here we've started conversations while we shared a drink and engaged with our neighbors. We've helped good candidates win their races, and we're going to do even more of that this year. Thank you, Justin, for helping bring this rag-tag band of lefties and liberals together.

As always, Drinking Liberally-Milwaukee happens at Sugar Maple, 441 E. Lincoln Ave., Milwaukee, at 7 PM.

Oh, and that stuff I said about newborns at the top? Yeah. Ellison Henry Haas joined us this past Sunday the 18th! As I probably will be absent tomorrow, my good friend Zach "Dubya" Wisniewski will be your cordial host for the evening. Do a heckuva job, Zach!

So put your DL pins and come on out! I'll see if you I can.

best,
Jason & the Milwaukee DL crew

Holy cow! Two events in one month! Don't these people realize I have to make my mandatory contributions to Walker's campaign?!Anyway, come out and enjoy the good things in life, liberally.

Tim John

In case the gentle reader was not aware, there is another candidate running on the Democratic side. This fellow's name is Tim John. I can't say I know much about him, but if your interested, you can find his website by clicking here.

Here is a snippet from an email I received from his campaign:

Our campaign looks for long-term meaningful change, even though our depressed economy often draws our attention to short-term solutions. My great grandfather, Fred Miller, the founder of the Miller Brewing Company, now MillerCoors, always used long-term solutions. He never cheapened his beer to make greater short-term profits

Long-term vision is what keeps MillerCoors successful and is exactly what will put our campaign in the State House.

We will bring Wisconsinites to the “table”, who have never been there. For instance, many unemployed black men have never been allowed to participate in the direction our state is headed. We miss out on their viable solutions to improve the climate for unemployment, low educational test scores, and taxes.

Also, our campaign supports ways to combine healthy living and sustainable local businesses. In this way, we can better buffer ourselves against problems coming from outside of Wisconsin. Our campaign also supports the legal right of Wisconsin's dairy farmers to sell raw (unpasteurized) milk and related products.

We also support our right to buy these products. Our legislature is moving forward on this matter, so let's support them.

Please enjoy our newest YouTube video on raw milk at www.youtube.com/timjohnforgovernor. Spill it around to your family and friends!

Let's send Wisconsin rocketing towards greatness.

Before the usual suspects go off their rockers again. I am not endorsing Tim John, or anyone else for that matter, for governor or any other race. Not yet anyway.