Wisconsin doesn’t need a governor who wants to bring people together…Wisconsin needs a governor who will fight to rebuild Wisconsin
Martha Laning, the chairperson of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, just doesn’t get it
Even though the November 2016 elections haven’t been held yet in any part of this country, Democratic insiders in Wisconsin are already talking about the 2018 race for Governor of Wisconsin.
Jessie Opoien, a political reporter for The Cap Times, a Madison, Wisconsin-based newspaper, wrote this piece about how Democratic insiders are preparing for the 2018 gubernatorial race in Wisconsin.
Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker intends to run for a third four-year term as governor (Wisconsin does not have term limits on its governor’s office), despite being literally the first person to drop out of the Republican presidential race. Walker and his Republican allies have absolutely destroyed Wisconsin since taking power in 2011, having busted unions, driven down wages, left Wisconsin’s infrastructure to crumble, given out corporate welfare to large corporations and sports teams, and made it harder for Wisconsinites to vote, among other things. Thanks to Republicans like Scott Walker, Wisconsin has seen a larger decline in the middle class than any other state.
Martha Laning, the chairperson of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, and an unnamed Democratic source, proved that they just don’t get it when it comes to the kind of Democrat that is needed to win a gubernatorial election in Wisconsin:
A Democratic source listed a handful of names that have already been floated for this election and in years past: Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, Exact Sciences CEO Kevin Conroy, U.S. Rep. Ron Kind and state Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling.
Rather than recruiting candidates, Laning said her job is to offer support, information and resources to anyone who is considering a run.
Democrats need a candidate with “the skills to bring people together,” Laning said.
While I’m not too familiar with Parisi, the other three names the unnamed source mentioned would probably not win a contested statewide primary in Wisconsin. Kevin Conroy’s company was supposed to be the main beneficiary of the Judge Doyle Square corporate welfare project in the city of Madison, Wisconsin, which was designed so that his company could have a new, taxpayer-funded corporate headquarters, but Conroy’s company pulled out of the corporate welfare project not long after it was approved. Ron Kind has taken money from the NRA and has voted for free-trade deals that cost Wisconsin thousands of jobs as a U.S. Representative. Jennifer Shilling supports taxpayer-funded private school vouchers (she supports accountability measures for them, which means that she supports the continued existence of vouchers), campaigned for Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin earlier this month (Clinton lost in a landslide to Bernie Sanders in Wisconsin), and, as leader of the Wisconsin State Senate, her caucus put out a press release that, in part, claimed that a skills gap existed in Wisconsin (that is not true, although the business community will claim that because they don’t want to pay their workers more money).
Martha Laning claimed that Wisconsin Democrats should nominate a gubernatorial candidate who has “the skills to bring people together”. I categorically disagree with that sentiment. Democratic primary voters in Wisconsin are not going to be interested in nominating a candidate who is interested in bringing people together, they’re going to be interested in nominating a candidate who will fight to rebuild Wisconsin, its middle class, its infrastructure, and its economy. Wisconsin can’t afford a third Scott Walker term, and Wisconsin can’t afford another boring, milquetoast, centrist, out-of-touch Democratic gubernatorial candidate like Tom Barrett and Mary Burke. Bringing people together doesn’t excite voters. Here’s some things that do excite Wisconsin voters:
- ending corporate welfare as we know it by replacing the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) with a North Dakota-style state central bank
- raising the minimum wage to $15/hour
- expanding access to health care
- protecting local control
- protecting Wisconsin’s environment
- rebuilding Wisconsin’s crumbling infrastructure
- raising income taxes on the wealthiest Wisconsinites
- repealing taxes on tampons and pads
- defunding and repealing school voucher programs
- making voting accessible and non-partisan again
- making the redistricting process non-partisan
- legalizing, taxing, and regulating recreational marijuana
In 2018, the Democratic nominee for Governor of Wisconsin should run on a strong, bold progressive agenda, and make rebuilding Wisconsin the cornerstone of the campaign. This isn’t a time for bringing people together.