State Legislative Races

But I Still Keep My Subscription 

Solidarity Walker

I spent the majority of my last two weeks canvassing outside of my county in two of the most historical elections in Wisconsin's history. Many of you reading this are probably saying something like, "Well  he should be working for a cause." or "That Steve, he just likes to talk." or "It's about time he gets off his ass and does something." I'm sure many of you may be saying something quite different as well. If a common Wisconsin media outlet were to have covered me here's likely what the "story" would say: 

Headline: Dem Canvasser Makes Little if any Impact in Recall Races

VanderLeest's record includes a bankruptcy, a home foreclosure, an unpaid judgment, building code violations and a misdemeanor conviction.

Maybe he was inspired by the campaign of Jim Steineke, another Green Bay area Republican Tea Partier who was elected in November despite a longer legal history than VanderLeest's.

Steineke had a record that included drunk driving, leaving the scene of an injury accident, multiple cases of driving with a suspended or revoked license, obstructing a police officer, small claims judgments and more.

His record was featured in a TV campaign for two weeks before the election, so the

"I'm Steve Doyle. I'm the career politician that raised your taxes." -- Doyle,  La Crosse County Board chairman, joking with supporters after winning the special election in the 94th Assembly District this week despite a $200,000 negative campaign against him making those claims.

Holy mackerel!  Little known fact that there are no contribution limits in recalls.  So $20,000 from one oil company executive?  You ain't seen nothing yet.

WisPolitics reports:

Most of the lawmakers targeted for recalls are taking advantage of state law that allows them to exceed normal contribution limits when facing removal from office, according to a WisPolitics check of campaign finance reports.

Joint Finance Committee Co-chair Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, leads the way for fundraising among recall targets with $188,226 through March 21. She also spent $15,579 and had $177,863 cash on hand. Her biggest donor was Daniel McKeithan of Tamarack Petroleum, who gave $20,000.

There appears to be a little wrinkle in the Republican plan to recall State Sen. Bob Wirch, the Kenosha Democrat.

It appears the GOP doesn't have a candidate, although it filed enough signatures, if they pass muster, to force a recall.

The Kenosha News:

[Recall organizer Dan] Hunt wanted Rep. Samantha Kerkman, R-Powers Lake, to run. But she said she talked about it with her family and decided not to run for Senate in the recall election. Hunt also said he is not planning to run but has not completely ruled it out.

Not exactly a sterlling start to a campaign. You can't beat somebody with nobody -- especially when the somebody you're after is Bob Wirch, who's already successfully beat back several GOP challengers, including some guy named Reince Preibus awhile back.

As each week passes it seems like Senator Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) is hearing the tic-toc of his career in the Senate. With scandals abounding regarding his mistress who got some sort of preferencial treatment in acquiring her State job, not to mention his strong stance with Walker on both the budget repair bill, he finds that fighting a recall election could be one of his own worst nightmares. 

Our friends at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are doggedly in denial about what happened in the 7th State Senate district on Tuesday, when challenger Chris Larson whomped incumbent Jeff Plale in the Democratic primary.  It is a heavily Democratic district, and winning the nomination is, as the pundits say, tantamount to victory in November.

In what poses as analysis, both columnist Patrick McIlheran and reporter Jason Stein have claimed that Larson, the more liberal Dem, beat Plale because Democratic voters crossed party lines to vote in the Republican primary for governor, presumably for Scott Walker.

That's exactly upside down.

The district, which includes Milwaukee's east side, Bay View, Cudahy, Oak Creek, and South Milwaukee, is solidly Democratic.  It consistently gives Democrats huge margins of victory in November.   Some of the Dems in  the southern suburbs,  admittedly, are more conservative than those on the liberal East Side.  But they're Democrats.

Plale won his seat in a special election in April of 2003.  He was opposed in the Democratic primary by a more liberal candidate, Joel Brennan, and a third candidate, Edwin Thaves, whom I don't even remember.

There will probably be few undecideds in the room, but Monday night's Democratic Party of Milwaukee County meeting could be fun:>blockquote> We’ll hear from the incumbents and challengers in two primaries:

Jeff Plale and Chris Larson in the 7th Senate District and Peggy Krusick and Scott Dettman in the 7th Assembly District.

It's a 7 p.m. at Pettit National Ice Center at State Fair Park, 500 S. 84th Street (just off I-94 at the 84th Street exit). You do not need to be a card-carrying Dem to attend.