In 2015, the Republican legislative majority passed three bills that fundamentally changed our electoral landscape. I wondered, "Who's asking for these changes?" Using our open records law (while we still had one), I asked the 19 GOP state senators for all of the citizen contacts they'd received about one of those bills. I was struck by the numbers showing that close to 98% of citizens who contacted their senator voiced opposition. I continued to pursue the majority, querying them about other bills. The results demonstrate that our legislative majority ignores citizen input, listening instead to their wealthy donors. The people of Wisconsin are no longer in charge; they are useful only in so far as they're willing to accept the status quo. I invite you to visit www.we-the-irrelevant.org.
Mike McCabe is my choice in the Democratic primary. He is running without PAC money. He has traveled 100,000 miles - in Wisconsin only. He is an independent Democrat putting principle above party. This has offended members of the party, but they are far outnumbered by the "politically homeless" whom Mike has been attracting by the thousands. Mike McCabe understands that Wisconsinites yearn for legislators who listen to and respect them. He has heard their concerns, and knows where there is common ground. Mike will take us from divide and conquer to unify and empower. He gives me hope for my beloved Wisconsin's full recovery from the disease and destruction of the Walker years.
4
Democrats have devoted the last two years to nonsense.
1
Although some allude to the Kochs not enough credit is being given them in their takeover of a whole state ( outside of Kansas ). I think the same thing has been going on in Iowa. Our illustrious past governor and now happy and silent resident of China was a founding member of ALEC. Our younger Senator was the recipient of a large last minute flood of money from the Kochs as well as being one of the largest recipients of money from the NRA. Scott ALEC Walker actually held a conference call with 29 Iowa Senators, sort of a pep talk, to advise them on how to attack public workers. Does Mr Walker find it important to involve himself in other states politics or is he just being the Kocks errand boy? The well oiled Koch Machine is behind the divisiveness of Wisconsins problems, from their Supreme Court to their McCovallian tactics and rule changing to control to control their legislature. I have hopes that once the out of state poison is neutralized Wisconsin go go back to being a inclusive and progressive state that the Scandinavians built. Now if only we can stop the subway of influence from Kansas here in Iowa.
1
So, Ocasio-Cortez traveling outside NYC to spread socialism is hunky dory but Walker speaking with Iowans is bad? Got it.
1
@From Where I Sit I prefer someone like Ocasio-Cortez over a lapdog for the Kochs. The Kochs are a shadow government, never elected but writing more laws than people who were elected.
1
I note many false comparisons between MN and WI. Note several points: 1) MN is also going R. In 2016, both House and Senate were R. 2) Pawlenty is likely to win the Gov race. 3) Tina Smith will need to run in Nov and she is not a lock in any sense.
MN is not an example of a state run by Dems. It is an example of a state going more to the R side.
@GeorgePTyrebyter: I think you don't live here. Economic comparisons show higher wages and lower unemployment, better schools, more investment by business, ... than in Wisconsin. Polls show leading DFL candidates in the governor's race defeating Pawlenty. His track record as governor took money away from schools and increased unemployment; then there was the time he shut down state government - except Hogs, Jobs and Bogs, as they said. He tried to shut down state parks just before the July 4th holiday weekend. Several Republican incumbents in districts that went red in 2016 are in toss-up races for their seats in the House.
1
And yet the tweets eminating from the WH filled with lies, misinformation, defamation and insults goes unchecked. Why is that ?
My husband and I drive from Minneapolis to Stevens Point, Wisconsin to see his parents. It's been heartening since the spring that Trump signs have disappeared and new anti-Trump and anti-Walker billboards have sprung up. One backed by the website https://www.scottholes.com says, Car repair is *not* economic development."
3
It’s too late.
1
The previous leftward moves by Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota in the period leading up to the financial crisis were a product of a different era. Once the outsourcing and "globalization" waves began to break on the people of these states, they realized they literally could not AFFORD the luxury of a leftward world view, so they have begun to move back. Economics trumps all.
4
By almost any metric you care to use, Wisconsin has trailed Democratic-governed Minnesota during the time Walker has been in office. Job growth in Minnesota has been better and the economic expansion more robust. Meanwhile, thanks to his conservative policies poverty in Wisconsin, including child poverty, has actually worsened whilst it has improved significantly in Minnesota.
Yes there has been improvement in Wisconsin's economy, as indeed there has been in most states over the past 8 years, but as with other conservative Republican governed states, there has been a severe price to pay for that growth.
2
This is nominally off-topic, so I'll keep it short: the story
appears to be a vehicle for a second topic, and it's religion. The
photo at the head of the article doesn't show the "crossroads" of
the headline; it's a T intersection. In other words, there is no
path forward for the classic Amish buggy and everything that it
represents.
1
This phrase: “to keep Wisconsin on a Trumpian path or pull it back toward the left.” Why not “pull it back toward the middle”?
4
"But it may be too late." YUP, TOO LATE!
Having grown up in Illinois when I moved to Wisconsin 35 years ago I couldn't believe what I had stumbled upon: a place where people had a voice in government, public officials were committed to working for the good of the people, and a state brimming with beauty. It almost felt too good to be true!
Fast forward to now: the governor and his cronies in the state senate and assembly can't be trusted to hold public meetings on legislation they are trying to slip in during late night sessions, voters' rights seem to be in retrograde, and on off-days I can smell the manure produced from the large cattle operation west of town.
I never suspected that the American "dream" was just that - a dream - but it certainly feels that way in Wisconsin these days.
6
I just went home for a visit and am heartbroken. I thought I’d retire on a lake somewhere in WI but not any more.
3
Twenty years ago I was told that Wisconsin was one of the top states in the United States. Where are all these educated and hard working Scandinavians and Germans that made this state great?
Wisconsin is the apparently the muster how Republicans can ruin a prosperous state. Scott Walker is as well unable as he is disgusting.
5
One, with Walker’s first term, he and the majority Republicans gathered in secret meetings to gerrymander state legislative districts.
Two, wealthy right-wing conservative donors, among the elite one tenth of one percent, financed interconnected, coordinated networks to corrupt public discourse in the state.
Three, Walker and Republican legislative leaders passed laws to repress voter registration and to deliver votes favoring special interests. One beneficiary was Foxconn. Other corporate interests, including Proctor & Gamble, are now lining up for their “Foxconn Dividend” in what Wisconsinites have earned and pay in taxes.
Four, Walker’s so called “accomplishments” include gutting environmental protections in mining, in permitting unlimited private sector withdrawals of water from underground aquifers, and in relaxation of pollution safeguards at large confinement feeding facilities.
Five, Walker and Republican legislators also attempted to gut controls of municipalities and counties pertaining to zoning, specifically to favor state-authorized frac sand mining.
The list goes on. Walker and legislative leaders are the enforcers of elite corporate interests, in and out of state. He works for them, not the citizens who live and work in the state.
6
"We've got to get back to being decent."
Great sentiment! That should be the mantra of EVERY candidate running for any office from nowhere through 2020.
8
Our family dodged a bullet when one of our children applied to the University of Wisconsin, Madison based on it’s long held former reputation, got accepted, but chose McGill in Montreal instead. Tough luck for Madison, loosing out on the big bucks from what would have been our hefty international student tuition fees. Wisconsin’s ‘bait and switch’ to attract foreign students and then defund the University two years later under Walker just as these students would be finishing freshman year was deplorable.
Good luck with that, Wisconsin. You got what you voted for with Walker.
14
As a road warrior I've driven all across Wisconsin. I remember having what seemed to be a friendly and intelligent conversation with a local, until he made the statement,"I think it's arrogant that humans think they can affect the environment."
I was stunned. I reminded him of the Dust Bowl, the Ozone Hole and acid rain. He refused to believe. Driving past farmer's fields, many had signs visible from the road viciously putting down President Obama and praising Scott Walker.
I was not surprised to see this state go to Trump. I will not be surprised to see it go totally red in November.
1
I have read a lot of referencing to the Koch brothers. Could anyone explain how they are different from the Soros guy?
4
@Maria
Soros promotes democracy. The Kochs promote their own interests under the guise of libertarianism.
6
I would like to hear from Mr. Huth about how his employees have benefited from his business success. Are their wages higher after being adjusted to real inflation numbers? Have their health insurance and retirement benefits increased. What about their children, are their education futures looking better or worse? Are your infrastructure needs being fully addressed, or are those expenses being put off for future higher costs? After all, infrastructure, roads, bridges, public water and sewage, etc., are necessary for you to conduct your business. There are many ways to view success, individual accumulation of wealth, and a healthier society are usually at odds with each other.
16
How his employees fare only matters in a communist economy which aren’t yet. As far as infrastructure projects, when they aren’t controlled by public employee unions, then we can talk. Until then, they’re nothing more than thinly veiled income redistribution, social engineering and vote buying schemes.
3
You mean as opposed to the underfunded infrastructure projects that are doled put to corporate cronies?!
Sorry, but our best bet are actual public works programs run by the government and not given out in sweetheart deals to private companies— e.g., in private toll roads where the corporations rake off billions.
We need to resurrect the New Deal!
2
Why can’t the government use its powers of conscription to staff public agencies at drastically lower cost to the taxpayer? Why doesn’t every eighteen year old male with a public school education owe a period of enlistment to their country? Contrary to liberal dogma, taxpayers pockets are not bottomless.
If the GOP situation were really strong, Walker would not be spending this year pretending to be a Democrat. He's going to lose, and Tammy Baldwin is going to be reelected to her Senate seat. Wisconsin voters have wised up to what the GOP's Koch brothers' agenda is all about.
11
Remember, Scott Walker's signature issue in the presidential campaign was to build a wall on the Canadian border.
8
Canada would have offered to pay for it, no doubt.
5
I've circled America three times and Wisconsin WAS my favorite state.
Walking on Curly Lambeau's field, along the Wisconsin River in the Sand Counties, through the frozen meadows of Madison's university, stumbling through the northland with my dog in search of grouse, I was charmed by the decency of our heartland.
WHAT HISTORY Wisconsin has: FARM labor and Fighting Bob...
John Muir, Aldo Leopold and Senator Gaylord Nelson...
Our country's environmental leader and progressive beacon...
Sensible, Fair, Smart, mindful of the common good.
All gone in ten years.
Flushed by Koch's money, Ryan's small mind, Walker's meanness...
The heart of the midwest has become, just another discouraging southern state up north. What a dispiriting inroad,
to see this reactionary poison spread and threaten the best.
It means no state is safe
and maybe we ARE doomed.
Please...
Fight on Wisconsin, be as tenacious as Badgers,
Call on your most noble ancestors...
Across the nation, we cheer for you
Lead us back to the better country
we once were.
29
Amen.
1
Born here, gone from 1991-2016, and soon will be gone again.
When I left in 1991 everyone, whether rural, small city or big city, was educated. When I returned in 2016 (and when visiting during my non-residence) the decreasing level of education among the 20- and 30-somethings was saddening. Clean air and water are gone. Republicans and their support of greedy, corporate CAFOs have ruined what used to be a fine state. We're moving to a state we hope will turn blue, and if WI ever does, we will probably be back. Until then.....good luck!
22
Wisconsin will be paying that Foxconn bill for decades. If that’s how they want to live then that’s fine. Just don’t claim to be conservative or responsible.
14
Amen to those other Wisconsin residents who commented here that Walker's appeal appears stronger to outsiders than it really is. It's hard to overstate the advantage handed to him by the state's hapless Democratic Party, nominating the snooze-inducing Tom Barrett and Mary Burke to face Walker, and failing to articulate any exciting new policies or themes that would have made it worth the undecided voters' effort to come to the polls.
Here's hoping those who do come to the polls on Tuesday nominate someone other than the snooze-inducing Tony Evers, or we'll have another election decided by Republican voters' party loyalty and swing voters' lack of interest.
6
Scott Walker and his actions have been continually subsidized by the Kochs et al.
It will take substantial efforts to change their tide. He has destroyed what had been a decent state.
The only thing that can stop him would be to unite behind the strongest opposition candidate, and punt!
9
Wisconsin is not s lost cause. Walker is unbeatable by any of the Democrats running in Tuesday’s primary. But we can pick up US House seats. Dan Kohl can beat Grothman. Randy Bryce may be able to win the first CD. And we can keep Tammy Baldwin in her job. My efforts between now and November are going only to Kohl and Baldwin. State government has to wait.
10
Wisconsin’s politics got hijacked.
I’d rightly blame Putin, but some of the blame is clearly in the mirror.
Vote the change that’s needed.
Power your way through to a return to progressive policies.
17
In 2016, I could not find a local office to get a Hillary bumper sticker. There were no lawn signs, billboards, visits...it was palpable that Hillary thought Minnesota was in the bag. She won the state by 1.5% of the vote. She wasn’t so lucky in similarly ignored states. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania were lost by a total of 74,000 votes, giving Trump the victory. In those states, Democrat voter turnout was a huge problem compared to Obama’s runs. Lots of blame to go around, lots of voter self-centered motivations, and lots of mistaken assumptions by Hillary. Gee, can’t we figure this out? Just win.
14
Spot on!
5
@Michael Pesch You know little or nothing about WI. In point of fact, the Feingold-Johnson race had 22,000 more votes than the Trump-HRC race. That is, 22,000 people did not want to vote for either, and seemingly more Dems than Repubs abstained. HRC not only generated no enthusiasm, but she actually generated negative momentum.
I spent most of my life in Wisconsin, growing up there, attending college and professional school, coming back after military service, and spending a significant part of my professional career there. What many people don't realize is that Wisconsin has a truly distinct culture that is different than most states. It is really a special place. When I was growing up, the differences between Republicans and Democrats, for the most part, were pretty good natured. Everyone shared the view of good schools, a strong university system, a wonderful system of state parks and forests, and a solid, social safety net. In my college political science class, Wisconsin was referred to as the "model commonwealth". Walker, backed by the Koch Brothers and wealthy special interests, destroyed that. He truly pioneered the nasty politics of divide and conquer (Walker's own words) that have become the hallmark of the Trump era. I think there is a chance that the Democrats can turn it around. I could see the people of Wisconsin simply voting Walker out on the principle that he has been in too long and it's time for a change. The ugliness of the Walker/Trump era doesn't wear very well in Wisconsin.
52
When the taxpayer is funding college educations for baristas and high school for Walmart stockers, the people paying the bills are right to be fed up and push back. Push back hard. When highways cost millions per lane mile, the people paying the bills are right to be fed up and push back. Push back hard. When cops are making over $100,000 for a job they could be drafted to at $25/month, as teachers accumulate million dollar pensions and DMV clerks get gold plated benefits the people paying the bills are right to be fed up and push back.
1
Walker has decimated higher education in Wisconsin, causing faculty to be lured away, quality ratings to fall, the very reputation of the University of Wisconsin system to be challenged. And it is no wonder, Walker quit college in his junior year, so clearly has either a vengeful streak or is too ignorant to appreciate the value of a college degree! Defeat this evil person in the next election!
42
State University funding is being reduced in many states. In deep blue CT, the state passed a budget last year to reduce over 300 million in funding. The Governor vetoed it but the amount reduced was still over 150 million.
Union contracts and pensions are bankrupting Government institutions and the average citizen is paying for it.
Some people don’t realize that college sports coaches are public employees. Do you know the pension cost on an employee making millions per year.
1
I don't have a dog in this fight save for wanting Dems to prevail nationwide. But "eeny, meeny, miney, moe" tells me that Walker wins again. Why hasn't the DNC and DCCC figured out the two top candidates and backed them with funds and promotion? Then let them appeal to Wisconsin's citizens in a debate or two? Too late now.
10
Wisconsin is a lost cause. They are deep red these days and that won’t change anytime soon. It’s sad but hate and greed have taken hold of the people of the state - they are now the Mississippi of the Great Lakes region.
23
We have a current president who is a criminal, and possibly even a traitor. Anyone politician supporting him at this point is suspect. This is beyond party politics; our country is at stake. Please vote for democrats to put a check on this president.
34
Interesting that two of the so-called Grass Roots commentors in the article are retired government employees. Their pensions are a thing a beauty gifted to them by democrats; similar obscene payouts will never be seen by anyone in the private sector.
9
Why shouldn’t people have comfortable pensions? Corporations have plenty of money. Rather than fight for a good pension for yourself, you disparage workers who managed, maybe through unions, to get a fair retirement.
49
What a very sad, revealing, and selfish thing to say. Let’s not agree that all people deserve food on the table and a roof over their heads. Let’s not hope for better pensions for everybody. Let’s just be jealous of those who have them. That’s where the country is, even in the “liberal” city of San Francisco. I wonder, if you’re jealous of a retired older couple, do you agree with Paul Ryan that we should cut their Medicare, too? Why should we pay for that? Why do old people deserve anything? That’s what Republicans have done to this country, and that’s why we’re finished.
10
If Wisconsin gives Walker a third term they deserve him. They helped give us trump, so no one has high expectations
18
There are structural barriers in Wisconsin to having fair elections
That married with a very strong solid white vote - that supports failures like Paul Ryan because he looks like a congressman, and Trump because he entertains like pro-wrestling.
Walker is safe to continue to hurt just about everyone in his state.
18
Walker is a disaster but somewhere along the way he promised Wisconsinites something that they fell for and voted the moron in. How’s that working Wisconsin?
20
Maybe it was just a disaster called Hillary Clinton?
13
@Max Andrucki: Nah, Jill Stein.
15
Maybe, according to the National Security Agency, it was Russians hacking voting machines.
3
Maybe it was a disaster named Trump and his Russian cohorts corrupting the elections!
4
Anyone who thinks the Dem lineup is "uninspiring" or more of the same hasn't heard Mike McCabe speak yet. The only lifelong independent in the lineup, his whole adult life has been a crusade against political corruption and economic injustice in Wisconsin. He won't take Big Money, won't live in the governor's mansion, won't take a salary that's more than the average Wisconsin worker's, and his supporters are as passionate as Bernie's were here. The majority of Wisconsin voters just haven't been paying attention yet, but if they nominate Evers, another truly uninspiring, establishment, centrist Dem, Walker will do to him what he did to the last two.
15
The other thing that has declined under Walker is a sense of caring for thy neighbor .
I grew up here but moved away when I was 23. I’m 47 now and have moved back and I am daily in disbelief at the awful condition of this city. Especially in the lower income areas. I am appalled at what my state has allowed to happen to this city. Infrastructure, education, and safety for the lower class is disgusting. I see a city and state where they starve the poor so that they can later blame the poor for still being poor. Seeing people at pubs go on about how good things are under Walker makes me sick. As if none of us owe any responsibility to our fellow citizens. Walker is the epitome of white class supremacy.
58
democrats or socialists have controlled Milwaukee's Mayoralty since 1916 - and you blame Walker? It would be funny if you weren't serious.
8
@Bob You are very seriously misinformed. First of all, the socialists built a really solid and beautiful city in Milwaukee. The Democratic leadership in Milwaukee has been pretty successful. I doubt you have been there, but the city is probably one of the most pleasant in the midwest. However, the inner city problems have been largely a product of the state government and policies coming from Madison. Milwaukee also, like other blue collar, manufacturing cities, was very hard hit by Reganomics and destructive trade policies. Your blame is completely misplaced.
8
@Bob. Can you really be serious that the problems of Wisconsin in 2018 are the result of people governing early in the 20th century? “...democrats or socialists…” Yes, and they did very well by Wisconsin. It’s when your people got into power that the state started to deteriorate. Before Scott Walker, Wisconsin had a university system that was the envy of the country. Walker — bitter, angry, petty, jealous of anybody better educated than he is, an unprincipled servant in permanent fealty to the Koch brothers — has destroyed it. Tell us, exactly what good do you think the Republicans have done in Wisconsin? Well, I guess taking away the bargaining rights of public employees would be considered a triumph. In some circles. How incredibly sad that you’re invoking politicians from the dawn of the 20th century to justify what Republicans are doing today. That’s just plain bizarre.
9
Walker and johnson are as dumb as they come but what does that say about the Democrats when they can't beat them
7
@Brad: It says more about the voters...
19
I’m confused: Why would you pronounce that “it may be too late”? A long list of choices shows interest, and someone will indeed win the nomination. There doesn’t always have to be an ordained “star” to be a viable candidate and then win, particularly in a year that is likely favorable to democrats.
13
This is a pretty badly written article. The NY Times talks of things Walker claims to have done or has taken credit as if they were successful. Most have been failures ( keeping the youth in Wisconsin for one). The only “high tech” growth has been within Dane County, which is essentially Sarajevo to Walker’s Milosevic- Walker had done everything in his power to wreck the place as well as the world class University there. This article fails to mention that the likely reason Walker isn’t in jail is because a radically conservative Supreme Court and the republicans controlled state government has either changed the laws to legalize Walker’s crimes or derailed investigations into various types of corruption and election law violations. he has been a disaster for a state that 8 years ago had one of the cleanest governments in the nation. His WEDC boondoggle in which the state gave billions in cash and tax incentives to his biggest donors, only to see many of them literally take the money and run ( Kestrel aircraft for instance) seems to have escaped The NY Times. That scandal alone should be enough all by itself to destroy any governor, yet here he is still in office. Also, Walker’s ever so un-republican attack on local control is almost beyond belief (were I to mention something else the NY Times fails to mention). Finally he may have said bad things about trump during the2016 presidential election,but he’s been sucking up to trump ever since. God help us if he wins again.
68
Why is it always so easy to put us rural "folk" in the Republican basket? Nobody looks beyond the local pub to peel back the layers of intelligent life that exist out here and actually want to learn about our lives, what we do, what we believe in and maybe even why we choose to live in rural areas. Maybe we don't all have guns, maybe we are not all racist, maybe some of us don't watch Fox news. I'll tell you one thing, even though I'm not a Trump supporter, when he came out here to campaign, he wore a suit and tie. Take a look at some of the campaigns of the past and the "costume" being worn by candidates hoping to win our votes. Sitting on a hay bale wearing jeans and a plaid shirt is not impressive to most of us rural "folk." It does tend to send a message, one that is subtle but it's there.
9
Hard to believe “rural Wisconsinites” fought in large numbers in the most celebrated brigade to see action in the civil war and that Wisconsin was the birthplace of that ‘other’ Republican Party that once freed the slaves and late elected Theadore Roosevelt, our first environmentalist president. The educated “gentleman farmer” was the underpinning (along with the university) of the so called “Wisconsin Idea” and the progressive ideal. A big problem here is that there are a lot less farmers than there once were- like elsewhere, farming has been taken over by a few big operators as the small guys have been driven out. rural communities have been decimated as a result. People are desperate and the republicans have been adept at lying to us and scapegoating people who seem to be doing a little better ( teachers and snowplow drivers for instance). “Devide and conquer” as Walker famously bragged about on camera, has been his path to victory.
26
I don’t know of one poll that shows Baldwin’s seat in play. Not one. And there have already been several polls showing Walker losing to any generic Democrat. And when anyone talks about the Democrats chances for retaking the senate, Baldwin is not mentioned as one of the vulnerable seats. But somehow the Times manages to come up with articles like this.
33
Scott Walker is a horror. He has been the Koch Brothers' boy from the time of his first campaign for governor and has pursued their agenda in lock step. He has never had an original thought in his life, has no conscience, and revels in ruining ordinary people. He is where he is because of massive PAC money, and too many Wisconsinites who want it to be 1943 again.
26
I wonder if Democrats will dismantle the gerrymandering or do some gerrymandering redevelopment. The Wisconsin republicans hired a statistician to run a simulation progrm which would give the the opposition the least possible representation.
11
@Anon, it was even worse than that. The gerrymandered districts were computer-generated, and it was all done in secrecy by a law firm. The Republicans refused to comply with requests to turn over the records. A lawsuit on this went to the Supreme Court, where it was not exactly overturned but was tossed because the plaintiffs didn't have standing. So due to this gerrymandering the legislature has been hijacked, but that doesn't help in statewide races--or if the Democrats can engineer a revolution of such a scale that they can overcome the gerrymandering. I think the climate is right.
19
The prime example would be Paul Ryan who could not be elected dog catcher in Janesville or the rest of his original
District, which suddenly includes Waukesha (a wealthy conservative enclave known as “Walker-sha” currently).
20
With 3% unemployment, Wisconsin voters will likely reward most Republicans. Why anger the gods of economic fate?
6
@LawrenceLawrence, as illogical as this may seem, the reason Wisconsin voters (I am one) may rebel against our Republican masters is the same as why they voted for President Trump two years ago. The 3% unemployment figure masks a reality people are not blind to, because this reality hits them, as they say, in their pocketbook. This reality is what’s called the hollowing-out of the middle class. Yes, people have jobs, but what kind of jobs, and what do they pay? My Milwaukee area had one of the highest concentrations of manufacturing jobs in the U.S., and statewide in our small cities and towns it was likewise. So when our manufacturing economy declined we had the farthest to fall, giving rise to what’s called the “disaffected middle class.”
The Democrats in 2016 were so thrown off their game by the awfulness of Donald Trump they failed to run an energetic campaign explaining how they were going to address our economic problems. Now-President Trump DID at least talk about these issue, and even though his “solutions” were a con it worked—he won Wisconsin, although by the smallest margin of any of his states.
Except now if anything things have gotten worse, people are NOT happy, and, as they say, what goes around comes around. And now the Democrats are smarter—Tammy Baldwin’s TV ads are so much about economics it’s hard to tell she’s not a Republican. Should be interesting.
22
3% unemployment is a questionable figure even if you count all those new fast food jobs. Milwaukee is currently doing significantly worse than New Orleans, both before and after Katrina.
19
@Jerry S. Well, I'll be paying close attention to how Wisconsin votes in November. As you say, it should be interesting.
2
I grew up in Iowa in the 50s and 60s, when the educational systems of the 4 states that share the Mississippi as one of their borders --Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa-- also shared a reputation for being high among the best public education systems in the United States. While all still rank solidly above the 50th percentile, all four seem to have a common plaint: the best and brightest of the students they educated hemorrhage to brighter lights, better climes or both. I expect Walker's assault on civil service employees and his Neanderthalic cuts to education to come back to bite his backside. Giving a single company $4 billion in tax breaks is typical modern Republican hypocrisy. Apparently Scott has mended fences with Trump. Hope all those tax cuts are bulging the pockets of the citizens of Wisconsin; they aren't helping the rest of the country's workers.
18
Let's see how attached Wisconsin voters are to their politics when those translate into the liberal snowflakes like me with six-figure incomes not buying their products.
7
The trumpkns are currently planning to boycott Harley Davidson...so we would be getting boycotted from both sides.
6
Hello Wisconsin: Is the dairy industry an indicator
of the condition of Wisconsin? (ref NYT editorial)
U.S. dairy farmers dumped 100 million gallons of milk
last year. The price of milk fell by half.
Many dairy farmers say they would be happy with Canada's supply management system. Farmers get a fair price and don't have to dump milk.
Mexico is biggest importer of U.S. dairy ($1.3 billion)
and Canada second ($700 million).
The U.S. imports about $400 million of Canadian dairy.
Mr Trump's 270% tariff distortion...
I have some neighbours from Trumpland who keep banging on about Canada's 270% tariff on U.S. dairy.
They can't understand that the 270% tariff kicks in before volumes reach a point where Canadian dairy
farmers would have to start dumping milk.
If there was a 270% tariff on all U.S. dairy Canada
wouldn't import any U.S. dairy.
The Trumplanders are brainwashed by FOX news...and retaliate by saying "you're watching too much CNN."
The role of government is to maintain order in the marketplace.
If Wisconsin dairy farmers want a better deal maybe
they'll have to dump a few thousand litres of milk
on the White House lawn.
ancient Canadian economist
ref:google
"Who milks Americas cows" (hint Mexicans, but they're leaving)
Note the Republican wizard who says that dairy farmers should move closer to the city so they'll have access to more American labour.
If I was 50 years younger I hired the highly trained
Mexican's and start a dairy farm in Mexico.
12
Note to Ben Huth: Ten years ago, the economy was in free fall after the failure of Lehman Bros. Thanks to the Fed and Barack Obama, we were able to put a floor under it and allow it to recover. Scott Walker had nothing, repeat nothing, to do with that. It would be hard to imagine your business would not be doing better than during those dark days.
Also, all statewide Democrats have to put up with the corrupt vote counting in Waukesha county, which makes those of us in Illinois look like amateurs.
36
It's striking how downplayed Walker being a stooge for the Koch brothers is in this article. They tried to run him like their sock puppet against Trump, little realizing that Trump was Putin's sock puppet with the psy-ops division of the Russian Army behind him. Wisconsin never knew what hit them. As for Walker, the Koch's withdrew their money and Walker shriveled then and there. Hopefully Walker will be exploring the ranks of the unemployed personally come January 2019.
35
Make me a proud Badger Again!
For the last eight years I have been too ashamed to tell people I am from Wisconsin.
Throw the bums out!!!
39
Have we fallen so far away from the concept of equal justice under law that a lawyer is charged in the court of public opinion and
tarred with the same brush as his client?
I don’t know if I’d vote for him or his opponent.
What caught my eye was a terrible injustice.
Even if Flynn volunteered his service to the Church or its people, accused of hideous crimes, they, and everyone else facing legal action, are entitled to what they feel is the best defense/response they can mount - and I hope the state or those claiming abuse have equally-skilled counsel pressing their cases.
A trial, plea agreement or acceptance of a settlement shouldn’t be about the lawyers - the problem thousands of indigent defendants face daily because we really don’t believe the poor are “innocent unless proven guilty” and deserve a defense as strong (in the mind of defendant/respondent - I’d never hire Rudy Giuliani) as the one Donald Trump’s chosen. We need excellent Public Defenders and a solid Legal Services Corp.
But a lawyer should never be punished for representing anyone, unless s/he violates the law in the process.
4
Any discussion of Wisconsin politics since 2010 needs to take into account the effects of union-busting, Voter ID, and gerrymandering. After Walker and company rode the 2010 Republican wave to power, they entrenched themselves by destroying unions (Act 10, "right-to-work" laws) and pushing draconian Voter ID laws that punish minorities and students.
But the extraordinary partisan gerrymandering was the coup de grace. In 2012, only 46% of Wisconsinites voted Republican for the state Assembly, yet Republicans took 60 of 99 seats. However, Walker miscalculated with his recent $4.6 billion FoxConn debacle. Knocking on doors in Reedsburg, WI, this week, I was struck how even Republicans are upset with this ridiculous corporate welfare, as well as the increasingly poor shape of Wisconsin roads. People want a return to common sense.
43
Wisconsin doesn't have an identity problem so much as a gerrymandering problem. Frankly, I'm not sure how you can write about elections in Wisconsin without mentioning the fact that less than half of the state votes Republican, but more than 70% of seats in the state legislature are held by Republicans. Neither are mentioned any polls showing the true makeup of voters. "People on the street" interviews are useless unless they are personifying actual data, of which there is little in this article. I'm sure stories like this are titilating for your urban readers who have only ever flown over the Midwest, but please, we expect better especially in a year like 2018.
58
Seeing the business' name in this article, I just wrote to Organic Valley (based in Wisconsin) letting it know I would no longer buy its organic half-and-half, nor its chicken, pork, or other organic meat products now that I know it is headquartered in the state that voted for Paul Ryan, who thinks a hard-working secretary at a school should be thrilled that the Republican tax-cut gave her an extra $1.50 in each paycheck, the same Paul Ryan that thinks health-care is for politicians like him in the US Congress and Senate with benefits no average American gets.
15
@David, I share your antipathy toward Paul Ryan, but why punish organic farmers and a company that does right by the earth? Organic Valley is on the opposite side of the state in Congressman Ron Kind's district, a Democrat who has held the seat since 1997. I teach students who work hard on their family dairy farms and have friends who work at Organic Valley. I sincerely hope you reconsider your boycott.
18
Perhaps the NY Times can do an extensive study of
Wisconsin covering:
Cost and Quality of Education.
Cost and Quality of Welfare.
Cost and Quality of Government.
It now seems that the Post-War Boom,
the Interstate Highway System,
the new Schools, the promise of a wonderful future
led to the toleration of higher taxes.
My son lives in California and 45 % of his income
is gone in taxes and for that he must live among
robbers, thieves and murderers, potholes, terrible
public schools and little public decency.
Democrats need to produce a more efficient
form of government and stop playing identity politics
and then you will do better at the polls.
9
Wisconsin should first settle for honest government over the type of corruption Wisconsin is seeing since Walker arrived on the scene...that would be job one. Your son should be more concerned that California’s’ own Dana Rohrbacher is the highest payed Russian intelligence asset in California...worry about taxes and morality politics later.
21
C'mon Wisconsin, you can do so much better!
12
The Koch Brothers have bought both Wisconsin and Iowa. Vote in 2020!
25
Why is anyone following this, much less the NY Times?!
Does anyone that reads believe the voters of Wisconsin can?
Isn't it the land of let's-vote-for-Paul-Ryan-because-well-who-needs-jobs-with-living-wages-or-health-care-for-non-politicians?
11
Thanks, David from Seattle. How very informative, persuasive, and not at all stereotypical.
5
We can only hope that a majority of Wisconsin’s registered voters will get off their keisters and vote like their lives depended on it.
25
An entire article on Wisconsin election details going back to the McCarthy years and not a single mention of the MOST significant fact of WI electoral politics in our time and that is the defeat of Russ Feingold. TWICE.
Here was a guy who did everything possible to try to solve the problem so many voters CLAIM is the most corrosive and debilitating to our electoral process, unlimited money in politics, and the voters twice rejected him.
Baldwin is toast. WI, like OH, is now an officially red state.
6
Why would anyone vote for someone who takes away healthcare and will not pay for the education of the state's children? I understand everyone needs a job....but why would you deprive health care and education? It is not just Wisconsin who did that....most red states sacrificed the needs of the many for the few. GOP, party of me and not for thee.
36
Walker is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Koch network. Koch will buy him another four years at any cost.
21
"...the very identity of the state, which swings between progressivism and conservatism..."
At this late date, Wisconsites haven't noticed that Trumpism is nothing like real conservatism?
8
Walker isn’t a conservative either... in fact you looks much more like a fascist if you look at his willingness to use his power to both entrench himself and do highly unpopular things, often with little regard for the rule of law...which he has proactively changed to legalize his activities after the fact.
9
The irony of a Red Wave leading to an increase in demand for a sewer cleaning service is not lost on me.
27
What a shame--Wisconsin used to be such a cool, progressive state with local control, tolerance, an always solidly behind education for all. Walker and the Koch bros have wiped that out and replaced it with a race to the bottom--trying to re-create the 50's.
41
@Tom
You are right Tom, and Governor Reynolds and the Koch Brothers are doing the same to Iowa. I hope we see change in 2020.
19
I grew up in the Chicago area. My family looked at Wisconsin politics as the anti-Illinois, all squeaky clean and no state officials, elected or hired, going to jail. Now Wisconsin politics are like Cook County politics, dirty. Governing Wisconsin is now an experiment directed by ALEC. Not sure what it stands for, but I can tell you that the the quality of our environment has deteriorated and that the character our public employees was demonized. That was what Walker campaigned and won on. Look out for ALEC in your neighborhood.
30
@Rich Pein Wisconsin politics are not like Cook County politics-Chicago is not influenced by ALEC, issues that affect the lives of regular people are important political matters, the beauty of the city and state are important.
Republican Wisconsin does not care-about people, the environment, education, good jobs, social issues, democracy.
11
Wisconsin isn’t a Trump state. Cruz won in a landslide here in the primary. I voted for Cruz and I don’t like Cruz. But by the time the primary got to WI there was only two left on the right.
Hillary was such a poor choice she couldn’t even beat Trump. Sanders would have won big in WI. Sanders would be president now. We all know that.
13
True. Hillary was her own worst enemy. Odd though that sanders and Cruise won the primaries but Trumpkin won the general. Doesn’t make sense, does it?
4
Loved the photos . . . the Democrat Baldwin meets constituants in a field of lovely coneflowers, and the republican meeting takes place in a bar. The comparison would blow the thinking mind . . .
7
Non-wealthy republican voters are possibly too unintelligent or too uneducated (or both) to understand just how corrupt and dangerous this Republican government is. I guess when your world consists of 50 square miles, it is impossible to see the bigger picture.
11
@Taliessen 50 square miles is too big for many residents. It is more like 5 square miles. Scary trip to hospitals and doctors in larger communities.
4
Come on, Wisconsin! Vote Blue! Your Minnesota neighbors did and we are pretty embarrassed for you having Walker as your governor twice now! That Foxconn tax liability is a Paul Ryan/Walker CON job. When you end up like Flint, MI...perhaps you’ll wake UP!! :(
26
And it's the same old interview. "My business of blah, blah, blah is doing well and I am making money, so I guess everything's ok". I'm getting pretty sick and tired of hearing people say that. What a selfish bunch of jerks this country has become.
40
I think this should read "since 1988" as Dukakis carried the state then: Republicans never coalesced around an opponent to Mr. Trump, who went on to become the first Republican presidential nominee to carry Wisconsin since 1984.
During Mr. Walker's attack on Wisconsin Union contracts in 2011 & the subsequent struggle, President Obama and the rest of the national Democratic Party were noticeable by their absence, and their lack of support. Why should workers vote for Democrats who have stood by & watched the destruction of the American labor movement without taking any action?
In 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy opened his Presidential campaign in Cadillac Square in Detroit, with the assembled heads of the AFL-CIO on the platform with him, and made his main issue a drastic rise & extension of the minimum wage! Democrats were not ashamed to identify with Labor then.
What a contrast with today's Democratic corporate puppets. If you favor traditional FDR/JFK Democracy, you must vote for Sanders the Socialist!
4
@Red Allover Rise in the minimum wage never came from Republicans, who actively worked to destroy the labor movement. Why would anyone how must work for a living vote for any Republican?
6
@Red Allover Yeah but---who is president? "Why should workers vote for Democrats---? Who is president?
There are two/2 parties-vote for one.
1
If Scott Walker has national ambitions, best wishes. In two years does he plan to challenge Trump as he did in 2016? He was one of the first to drop out of that contest. If Ron Johnson runs for a third term in 2022, it is doubtful Walker would challenge an incumbent Republican. If Baldwin is re-elected, his opportunity challenge her wouldn't be until 2024. By then, he would have been out of office for two years..unless he runs for a fourth term in 2022.
But, who knows...if everything in the current White House goes down the drain, perhaps President Pence will select him as a VP running mate in 2020.
4
Any mention of Wisconsin's alleged turn to the right that fails to mention that its state legislature is Republican-dominated entirely due to gerrymandering is a failure of reporting. More Wisconsin voters favored Democrats than Republicans, yet extreme gerrymandering led to Republican dominance. A lawsuit on this matter was recently set aside by the Supreme Court; with revision, it should eventually be heard there.
Gerrymandering, voter restriction, etc. - the Republicans hold power in Wisconsin by denying voter preference, not through enjoying the support of a majority of the population.
33
There may be no clear frontrunner on the list of Democrats running for governor, but there is plenty of real talent and experience there. The whole country should be happy to see boring, competent candidates like that.
This should be easy for Wisconsin. Which state does it want to emulate, Minnesota or Kansas? Minnesota is a far better place to live. Vote for Democrats.
20
Walker and the legislature have taken steps to destroy what was previously one of the best public education systems in the country. I am leaving higher ed in Wisconsin for a better job. I simply cannot stay if I wish to be a productive teacher-scholar in my profession. Many of my colleagues are leaving, and most who remain are planning their exit strategies. The pay is not competitive. I don't have the same support for research and professional development that I had when I started my job. It's challenging, heartbreaking, and demoralizing to teach students who no longer have access to adequate tutoring and advising support. Mostly, I am just looking forward to working at an institution where I don't have to spend my time fighting unwinnable battles on behalf of students. It has been incredibly difficult to watch the situation in Wisconsin become progressively worse over time for students.
The unemployment rate is low in Wisconsin, but the pay and benefits aren't competitive. The public schools in my area used to get get more than 200 to 250 applications for every teaching position. Now there are 12 to 15 candidates for positions, and only a handful meet minimal credentials. My young adult children have left the state because they were able to find jobs with higher pay, better benefits, and improved working conditions outside of Wisconsin. I have loved my life in Wisconsin, but there is no future here for me (or for many of my educator friends).
26
I love Wisconsin and I love the Midwest for providing Canada with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the democratic socialism that gave us medicare and the best educated rural population in the world. I know Madison and I understand the chasm between Madison and the rest of Wisconsin.
If Wisconsin was as fortunate as Minnesota which shares a border with Manitoba we would not be having this discussion and Trump would not be President.
What talks to me most about Wisconsin is the vehemence of its farmers condemning Canada's supply management system. The fact that Wisconsin farmers would choose to see Canadian farmers suffer the fate of too many American farmers rather than see themselves and their children enjoy the security of Canada's family owned farms where the main insecurity is children getting the education and choosing the big city.
12
@Memphrie et Moi The politics of resentment are an important force in this state.
9
@PSmith
Thanks PSmith,
I am 70 years old but I still remember Paul Harvey's tirades in the late 1950s and early 1960s against the Russian people and his America where the politics of resentment had no traction. Here we are 54 years after the GOP nominating convention in San Francisco and their adoption of the Stars and Bars as their personal battle flag. America better choose quickly will it be democracy or Russian plutocracy.
1
@Memphrie et MoiThe CCF. My dad was one of them - a Member of Parliament for the part of northern Ontario that borders Minnesota (late fifties and sixties). He says that way back then, true friendships grew among farmers and miners on both sides of the border. They were friends - and sometimes even family. Things sure have changed since then - especially since the election of Trump Republicans.
7
If one compares neighbor Minnesota to Wisconsin in terms of economic and job growth since Walker took office, the Vikings win handily over the Packers. Cheesehead Dems might want remind the people that Minnesota’s success has been under a Democratic administration.
25
@Purity of I didn't say it was all roses. If the state"is developing serious problems with economic inequality and an affordable housing shortage", then they're lagging behind much of the nation.
As someone who's watched Walker's rise from the very beginning, I'm skeptical that Evers, Vinehout, or any of the others mentioned can beat him. It doesn't matter that they are both far more intelligent and honest. In this day and age, a candidate has to be proven in the art of retail politics and in tune with the deepest core convictions and fears of his/her coalition's voters and Walker has done absolutely that at the expense of everything else for two decades now. Unengaged citizens watch him give a speech and see a mild mannered well meaning guy rather than a hostile threat to the social safety net, clean water, and public schoolteachers.
Bernie Sanders did well here because voters who felt neglected , routinely vilified or even threatened by the kind of rhetoric and actions taken by Walker and Republicans knew 10 seconds into the Vermont Senator's stump speech that he was visibly and genuinely outraged by the events unfolding. Nothing against Tom Barrett or Mary Burke, but neither ever came close to making that critical connection with the type of voter the Democratic candidate desperately needs to turn out in a mid term election. This current group of Dem hopefuls resembles something closer to Barrett and Burke on the stump rather than the passionate Bernie. Once the Walker campaign starts injecting the mass infusion of out of state billionaire money into the race down the stretch, the result will be all too familiar.
76
@Andy, I suspect anyone who thinks the Dem lineup is uninspiring or more of the same hasn't heard Mike McCabe speak yet. The only lifelong independent in the lineup, his whole adult life has been a crusade against political corruption and economic injustice in Wisconsin. He won't take Big Money, won't live in the governor's mansion, won't take a salary that's more than the average Wisconsin worker's, and his supporters are as passionate as Bernie's were here. The majority of Wisconsin voters just haven't been paying attention yet, but if they nominate Evers, another truly uninspiring, establishment, centrist Dem, Walker will do to him what he did to the last two.
1
@Andy Well said. The only Dem who shows any fire is Flynn, and yet I just can't bring myself to vote for him based on his past work for the church.
I’m writing this in a Starbucks in downtown Milwaukee, where I live (for comparison, I used to live in Manhattan). As is frequently the case, the writer offers impressions, possibly based on inexperience, background, preference, etc., that only partially resemble the truth. In reality, there are at least four “Wisconsins”: rural/farming, suburban, urban/educated elite, and urban minority. They behave and vote very differently. Hillary and her team of “incompetents” saw the big Dem vote for Obama and figured the state was in the bag. But, that vote depended upon an abnormally huge turnout by the urban minority. After Obama’s term ended, the urban minority vote plummeted to its usual abysmal level, and the educated/elite returned to its obsession with being cool and whining on social media rather than voting.
253
Not to mention voter suppression in the form of voter ID requirements. That would have contributed something to reduction of Urban Minority voter turnout, perhaps?
11
@stevevelo Excellent analysis here. Took the words right outta my mouth. Expect Walker to win handily as the Dems (I'm one of them) are clueless. Keep talking about "high speed trains"...trans-gender bathrooms..."free" higher ed and BLM to the disparagement of the police and the R's can phone in a victory with a 10% margin. Pathetic.
6
@Robbie J. Some not even capable of showing ID should not vote. You don't give minorities much credit if you think they are not even able to a get a government issued ID.
I lived in rural WI for a period of time during the early 2000's. I was very impressed by the level of educational services available. The local public school was of such excellent quality that our children were enrolled there, rather than in the private schools they had attended in other areas of the country. I did work in a public school also. Since leaving, I have remained in touch with many of my WI friends. It is not the same they tell me. Former co-workers, in public education, have not enjoyed the same level of wage growth that I have received living in another area of the mid west. Many have left WI for better job opportunities in MN or on the east coast. Public school services have dwindled. Environmental protections have been lifted. This is not the WI that I remember.I hope that voters come to their senses and kick Walker out.
229
@Logical "This is not the WI that I remember." That's because it ISN'T. The economy has been hollowed out by outsourcing and globalization, and people are AFRAID. Good schools and quality social services cost a lot of money. The high value manufacturing jobs are gone, and the money just isn't there anymore to pay the costs.
3
The problem in the governor's race is that Democrats are still running weak candidates, not unlike the wealthy Mary Burke from 2014 for whom running for governor was a hobby, and who left the state immediately after she lost, or the too-nice-for-his-own-good mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett, who got crushed twice by Scott Walker.
Any Democrat who plans on actually winning has to be ready to play hardball, but also to be inspiring enough by playing softball to the right audience. Tony Evers will probably win on Tuesday for his sheer name recognition, but I fear that he'll be chewed up and spit out in the general the same way as Tom Barrett. I sure hope I'm proven wrong.
109
@Mark Lebow
Ms. Burke, who still lives in Madison and is president of the school board, would be surprised to hear your contention that she left the state. (However, running for school board is a hobby for her too. And nobody will run against her because of her money.)
@Mark Lebow Mary Burke did not leave the state of Wisconsin. She continued on the Madison Public School Board where she is now president. She remains active in the Madison community and promotes women's rights and development.
Walker is in trouble. His natural resources dept. has routinely approved environment threatening permits for high capacity wells, failed miserably to police concentrated livestock feeding operations resulting in hundreds of wells being polluted by feces due to a limestone (karst) subsoil totally unfit for such operations; all in return for pay to play campain donations. In central Wisconsin, essentially the same issue is playing out--high capacity wells with unlimited volume draining lakes, streams, and wells to support, again, large farms and donations. Fracking sand is also mined here, and Walker and the legislature have passed legislation denying local government the right to regulate this industry with local zoning regulations allowing silica sand (cancer agent) to cause health problems. The icing on the cake is the Foxcon [sic] giveaway of 4.5 billion and rising cash payments. Corrupt, irresponsible, out of touch. Walker and his band of thieves are in trouble in Wisconsin.
226
@benvo1io-Good to hear.
Walker has benefitted from Koch money; at one point they funded 10 under-the-radar PACs and other groups to manipulate state politics, support Walker as their proxy, and (ab)use Wisconsin as an incubator to trial de-regulation and other reckless policies they would roll-out, A.L.E.C.-style, in other states.
http://realkochfacts.com/the-koch-brothers-and-americans-for-prosperity-...
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/wisconsin-scott-walker-koch...
2
Except for a few hoboing, hippie years in the west I am a life-long resident of Wisconsin. Seeing this once progressive stronghold fall into the abyss of ignorance and greed and racism has, in my golden years, broken my heart. We strove for the best in education, environmental protections, unions, and good governance. For the first fifty years of my life our beautiful state enjoyed the rewards of those efforts.
Our current governor, not unlike our current president, is a man without character or integrity. He and his ilk in our legislature seek only to enrich themselves and their cronies using gerrymandering and voter suppression as tools to maintain power.
Perhaps the greatest heartbreak, though, has been to bear witness to the people of this state abandoning the great traditions of citizenship. Most don't think of themselves as citizens anymore; they think of themselves as taxpayers. They believe that cost is more important than value.
I will work hard to support the many good progressive candidates in the upcoming primaries and general election. I feel like it is my last chance to return my beloved home onto a path of decency.
My modest home where I have lived for the past 42 years looks across the beautiful Upper Mississippi River to the verdant bluffs of Minnesota. The idea of crossing over is very tempting.
393
@Eddie Allen Minnesota has prospered under a state government which is divided. Its economic growth has outpaced Wisconsin's under Scott Walker. One party control of all the levers of government leads to corruption and a failure to hear the needs of all voters.
4
@Eddie Allen - Yes Eddie, I have a very different view of the State from down here in Milwaukee, but what I see is the same. Since the Bob Lafollette days we used to pride ourselves on being first among all the states in so many things, especially our schools. Now, we're stuck back in the middle of the pack, at best. Our governor brags about his "reforms," but they're nothing of the kind—it's all a smoke screen to help out the Republicans' cronies in many ways and provide meaningless feel-goods to their supporters.
My hope—fantasy?—is that all the people of our state come to their senses, see how bad this all is, and despite the Republicans' rigging of the game through gerrymandering and other means throw the whole gang out and get us back on the path to where we once were. Tony Evers would be a worthy leader. He's sure to win the Tuesday primary, but I fear he's a long shot to unseat Governor Walker.
1
@Eddie Allen. PLease join me in voting for Mike McCabe. Best regards.
We've watched our state make an aggressive march towards pollution, devastated schools, and anger towards those we think have it better than we do. My Wisconsin, the one I grew up in, cared about the state as a whole. Now it seems that being able to say, "I got mine!" is all that matters to some people. Check out former Department of Corrections Secretary Ed Walls' new book, “Unethical: Life in Scott Walker’s Cabinet and the Dirty $ide of Politics.” You'll get a sense of the backstabbing, character assassination, flouting of state law and other feel-good things going on behind those fakey American flag pins on their collective lapels.
170
We were looking for a new place to have our annual corporate-wide retreat and Wisconsin came up as a candidate until someone asked why, as a company with significant numbers of women and people of color, we would want to go to a whites only Trump state. Suffice to say it dropped off the list pretty quickly
25
As a former Wisconsinite, I find it frustrating when an article like this fails to mention that as a result of Republican gerrymandering, Democrats won the popular vote overwhelmingly in 2016, but Republicans took 64 of 99 Assembly seats. This is not majority rule; it's rule by those most willing to subvert the system. It's that really who we want to be as Americans?
59
@Michael Scott
Can everyone vote for who sits in all seats including both seat 64 and seat 99? Because if not then claiming who won the state-wide popular vote "overall" vs who won the popular vote in each district where voters chose a certain seat is misleading.
I hear this all the time about several states, then have to remind people that if you live in District XX (or ward or parish or county or whatever) of a given state you vote for representatives for District XX (as well as for state-wide initiatives and for Governor.....). and others vote for the same in their districts. Any state-wide totals combining local and not state-wide races is entirely misleading.
1
@Michael Scott-Agree. It's not just at the state-level.Vote suppression tactics by Koch-backed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans included roadblocks to prevent people from voting. According to University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Kenneth Mayer between 12,000 and 23,000 registered voters in Madison and Milwaukee—and as many as 45,000 statewide—were deterred from voting. “We have hard evidence there were tens of thousands of people who were unable to vote because of the voter ID law,” he says. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/10/voter-suppression-may-have-...
2
Walker has made Teachers and public servants the enemy. These are our neighbors and friends. The economy is doing well but the rural areas are ignored. Funding for Foxxcon is diverting resources from small counties for road repair and education. Walker is successful because he divides people, gerrymanders his future security and pushes us right. A correction is on its way--Walker can't stop that even if he personally is reelected.
32
@Gary Edelman
The GOP has made teachers and public servants the enemy. America is addicted to the quick fix and an immediate high. Those 19th century German Socialist immigrants made Wisconsin a rich, educated and abundant society that is the American dream.
Low taxes and small government will no doubt cure Wisconsin of its desire for long term success.
i will continue to repeat watching Wisconsin farmers rail against Canada's supply management system that protects and nourishes Canada's family farms and wishing our Canadian farmers the same despair and misery they enjoy tells me all I wish to know about Wisconsin rural voters. Misery sure loves company.
11
There is no more give economically for republicans to offer their omnipresent tax cuts. They are cutting into the bone now. (and have been doing so for quite some time)
Having said that, the last election was about those selfish tax cuts, and now people have seen that the cost for them is dramatically higher then what they envisioned. While the poor and middle class get a meager tax cut that sunsets, the rich and corporations get a large permanent one.
Now this republican administration/President has implemented crushing new taxes (tariffs) that is moving whole companies and sectors out of the state or out of business. (let alone a few jobs here and there)
There is a going to be a blue wave that is going to wash away the republican swamp, and with it unions are going become stronger again to make Wisconsin a forerunner to the country once again.
Looking forward to it.
20
When analyzing the vote in Wisconsin, many people fail to keep in mind that George Wallace came in second in the 1972 Dem primary in Wisconsin. In other words, there is a strong streak of racism among Wisconsin voters, and it is a mistake for any candidate, or party, to forget that.
19
This kind of article is good to keep in mind when we become optimistic about southern states like Texas, North Carolina and Georgia changing from red to purple. Fifty pendula swing back and forth in this complicated country. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
And don't forget who carried the Wisconsin Democratic Presidential Primary in 2016.
1
I just don't think any of these people can beat Walker in the general election: Wisconsin is a predominantly conservative State, with two islands. Milwaukee and Madison. Wisconsin's demographics are old and white. Not good for the Democrats in a statewide election.
7
@CBH
Given WI's gerrymandering I suspect you may be right.
4
Writing this from the rural north woods, the bigger problem is the Republican legislature and their hubris which have passed laws overriding local control of everything from schools to water quality to air quality to quality of life. Even my Republican neighbors are mad at walker and the legislature for doing this but alas, no matter how much Madison and Walker damage the lives of everyone Republican and Democrat and all their children, Republicans will still vote for anyone with an R behind their name on the ballot. Willful ignorance cannot be overcome.
27
"shifting set of concerns and priorities and a changed political landscape".
Trump just said one word: jobs. Liberals say a lot but have no coherent party platform, old leadership and have been reduced to rubble under Obama. However, abolish ICE sounds like a winning strategy. Go with that. Sanders-backed candidates were washed away last week for a reason
4
Scott,
The story is about Wisconsin.
The state where Sanders roared in the Primary.
Read the top comments in this NYT article.
Bernie did well in Wisconsin for a reason.
See ya in Nov.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/06/us/politics/democratic-primary-result...
7
@Scott
Old leadership? How old is Trump?
3
Obviously the people of Wisconsin liked Governor Scott Walker enough to vote him into office twice and his chances look pretty good that he will be reelected for a third term. I certainly hope so. He was against the unions liberal policies of out of control benefits which put the burden onto the tax payers. They were fed up and wanted to rein in on these benefits.
The Democrats are all for tax and spend at the expense of others footing the bill. These free giveaways were increasing at a pace that would only bankrupt Wisconsin. The state was becoming like the coastal elites and the people had had enough. I cannot vote on Tuesday but if I could it would be for Scott Walker. He is the grown up in the race.
8
@WPLMMT Hope you enjoy your cat food when you're old. Putting money together for the collective good is older than the Bible - common cause to care for the young, build infrastructure, selflessly administer our laws and keep the public safe from fire and other disaster, manmade or otherwise. That is a civilised society. Lifting people up, not worrying about "excessive benefits" - excessive to whom? Sure sweatshops are cheap - but dignity and common decency built our prosperity. The coastal "elites" - what a joke - we work for our money and take care of others too. Try it again - Wisconsin used to lead the way.
13
@WPLMMT And the Republicans prefer to borrow and spend. At least when you pay taxes, you don't have to spend the next twenty years paying them back.
9
WPLMMT,
Walker is the king of Give Aways. As are most Republican politician. Lies and deceit bob in the wake, as always. Even in the NYT comment section.
Example:
If Foxconn receives the full subsidy amount of $3 billion for 13,000 jobs, the deal would cost over $231,000 per job created. The package cost Wisconsin eight times as much per job as similar 2017 state jobs deals. But as yet, there is no written agreement in which Foxconn commits to any number of jobs. Because it is being built on the Illinois border, many of the jobs won't be going to the residents that will be paying for the boondoggle. The required skills for much of the plant, Wisconsin doesn't train for. Especially now with Walker devastating the schools and University's. The break-even point for Wisconsin tax payers would be well past 2044-45. If, IF, the manuf. plant is even still viable and making LCD screens 27yrs into the future. This deal Trump pushed hard for and touted, is nothing but a speculation, paid by taxpayers, for a propaganda moment.
The Republicans are all for tax and spend at the expense of others footing the bill. These free giveaways are increasing at a pace that will bankrupt Wisconsin.
And yep, you would vote for Walker if able. As he picks not only your pocket, but your children's too.
Sad. Bigly.
16
We should all remember the marches and protests in the dead of winter when Walker and the state assembly pushed through public sector union squelching. They took over the statehouse, marched everywhere, farmers on tractors drove in solidarity. It was a remarkable show of democracy. They then we able to get a huge number of signatures for a recall. Dems ran the same person against Walker that had just lost to him in the earlier election. So Walker went on to "protect" Wisconsin from "voter fraud" by eliminating tens if not hundreds of thousands from the voter rolls. One of his county clerks in or near Milwaukee transfers vote tallies from voter machines to her laptop, then erases the actual votes from the machines. It's all so corrupt.
47
@laurenlee3 And this is what we need investigative journalists to document and then voters to stop.
10
@laurenlee3 really? How do you know this? If you are indeed speaking the truth, please alert a journalist with your proof.
2
It just occurred to me that what made the Midwest strong was immigrants. There’s millions upon millions of immigrants dying for the same opportunity to start from scratch and build anew. I know some Hispanics here who would love a challenge in a place like Wisconsin. But they all now think of the Midwest as anti-Hispanic.
The previous immigrants and their descendants don’t want the new injection of immigrants so desperately needed to renew itself. All because this new generation of immigrants is browner and a bit different. And so the Midwest will continue to die until it embraces its past greatness in terms of today’s realities.
Go browner, less Eurocentric and hardcore evangelical, and the Midwestern Phoenix can rise from the ashes of this era.
24
@left coast finch Yes we need immigrants here. Large dairy farms milk cows every 3 hours on a 24/7 schedule. Who will milk cows from midnight till 9am 7 days a week. Tourist attractions do not operate all their concessions because they can not find workers to fill those jobs. Visit Wisconsin Dells, Midwest largest tourist attraction. Who is filling those jobs, Russians on special visas. How many large farms hire Russians and other immigrants on special visas to manage and work their farms. Hire high school kids? No, they have sports, summer school, band, family vacations, won't work weekends only time they see their parents and family, not to mention church. Low unemployment rate is great but we don't have enough people to do the jobs. Infrastructure, construction projects wait in line. Walker has done nothing to prepare us for the future.
16
@JanMarijean All the states have low unemployment rates-Wisconsin and 6 other states are 7th in having less than 4%. ( Alaska has a 7% rate.)
The economy is still improving from 2008. It's a 'cycle'. Up---and then down---.
Wisconsin was once touted as a progressive state. The United States was once a country worth coming to. It was once a country where we could hold different opinions and still cooperate with each other on what mattered: improving our lives and the lives of others. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 that changed. It was gradual but it's become all too evident in the last 10 t0 15 years or more.
After 9/11/2001 it became unpatriotic to criticize or disagree with the government. During the 1980s and onward spending cuts to the social safety net have hurt many Americans who paid taxes and then, due to circumstances beyond their control, needed assistance. Welfare reform, as enacted by Clinton, didn't help those people. It penalized them for being poor. We're still doing it.
There's no sense of community unless the crisis is overwhelming. The new normal is for working Americans to live paycheck to paycheck with no guarantees at all of anything, not even a decent standard of living or job. Government refuses to do its job at every level. Employees have no protection from capricious or retributive firings.
What has hurt American and probably Wisconsin is that we can no longer hope for a better future for ourselves or our children. Our politicians refuse to work for us and carry on about petty things while ignoring the larger issues. It doesn't matter if players don't stand for the national anthem. What matters most is spreading the prosperity to all.
39
I live in Wisconsin,. Under Scott Koch Brothers Walker we have the worst potholes in the nation. He is giving away $4.5 billion to a foreign company that might employ 905 of its workforce as temporary employes at $14.00 an hour with no benefits. Those jobs will be subsidized by the state. The cost will be the state will pay for all the environmental damage. The company is off the hook.Now we have Kimberly Clark , a toilet paper company, asking for more corporate welfare because they are threatening to cut jobs. Wisconsin has a major brain drain because young people here so no future in Walkerconsin. A state that has a lower standard of living , lousy roads, declining schools, and sand frack holes all over what was once beautiful farmland. America's DairyLand is now the Applachia of the midwest. Outside of Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin has idiots who vote for racism ,division, and corporate welfare. I sadly live in a state full of idiots.
140
@Roger I live in Weld County, Colorado, where oil and gas wells have totally encompassed our home. The sand used for fracking those wells -- tens of thousands in my county alone -- comes from Wisconsin. I hear that the sand companies are tearing up pristine lands, forests, and ruining rivers in your neck of the woods. I hope you will join us in the fight to stop this horrible practice. I developed asthma likely because of it, and my non-smoking husband died of lung cancer last year. The cost is terrible.
64
@Roger But quite often, the only way some people learn is by having to actually live with their mistakes. Sadly then, there are always those who will NEVER admit to being wrong . . .
22
@laurenlee3 Here in Illinois, sand mining for fracking is destroying huge amounts of some of the greatest far ground in the world near Starved Rock, one of our state’s most beautiful regions, all for some sand. Unreal.
4
Wisconsin, COME ON! We need your Vote to take the steam away from the clutches of a renegade GOP stranglehold! Take back your state! Best of luck to you! Get your friends and family out to the polls!
56
I find it pathetic that Wisconsin is hurting!!!
Have some common sense for God's sake.
You keep voting republican who fight hand over fist giving money or tax breaks to the already rich or corporations and there is nothing left .
And then you expect to be tinkled on.
Does Kansas ring a bell??????
You give rich people more money and they invest it where they make the most money.
36
**2nd SUBMISSION** Wisconsin gave birth to the modern progressive movement in "Fighting Bob" LaFollette. Democrats seem to be both willing to fight and once again to embrace progressive values like universal health care, tuition-free higher education at taxpayer funded state colleges and universities, and a living wage by supporting workers rights to form unions and bargain collectively. These are all policies that Scott Walker and Republicans like Sen. Ron Johnson have worked against. Gov. Walker has turned the University of Wisconsin, a nationally renown school, into a banana-republic university with his political interference in its most important function--the tenure process. This is unheard of in the annals of U.S. higher education and reeks of totalitarianism. Wisconsin hopefully will vote for democracy over the right-wing autocracy of the Walker administration and not be bought off by economic Trojan horses like Foxcomm and the Trump bailout for farmers hurt by his trade war.
36
I don't think I saw the word "Canada" anywhere in this piece. Why not? Wisconsin is one of the six Great Lakes states that border the Canadian province of Ontario - and absolutely require that economic engine to maintain their own prosperity. The dairy farmers in Wisconsin and five other Great Lakes states had particularly "loud mouths" as Trump supporters during the 2016 election campaign. That's because they have been fighting Canadian "dairy farmers" for decades on definitions of "subsidies." They hate each other. Trump has thrown this tariff meat to his dairy boys. But it's been made clear that Wisconsin's own business community cares more about Ontario than it does its own dairy boys. That's because Ontario is FAR more important for their prosperity.
American dairy farmers have far less political power in Washington than the Ontario and Quebec dairy farmers have in Ottawa. The dairy industry is a powerhouse in Canada - not something struggling.
5
I’m saddened by the change in Wisconsin. My only visit was during one of my cross-country roadtrips, that one on I-90, Boston to Seattle, across the northern states in 1991.
Madison was amazing. My boyfriend and I decided to spend the day when we saw the university, bookstores, shops, the bakery coffee shop we went to twice - once for breakfast as we rolled into town and again before we left. You could feel the chill, both in the gorgeous October air but also in the current sense of laidback progressive pragmatism suffusing the town. And it was a pretty place; I can still see it in my mind. The people of the countryside were similar as we went off the interstate to explore country stores and farm stands.
But I now startlingly realize that was nearly 30 years ago. I guess the generation that greeted us that day has since died. In its stead, a new generation has forgotten the bookstores in Madison and importance of spending money on quality education, lost its openness to those who are different (and were we different with our hippyish long hair and bohemian wreck of a California car but, I now realize, white and hetero which matters according to some commenters), that now looks to the politics of resentment and China to solve its issues - anyone but those Dems in blue states who care too much about others who look, act, and are from someplace different.
Obviously, I need to return to update my memory but after it’s embrace of Trumpism, no way. Still, I am saddened...
17
@left coast finch’s Madison is still the same, and still resented by outstate residents.
5
Of course, people like Mr Huth refuse to give Democrats like Pres. Obama credit. That always goes to Republicans. There's a reason for that asymmetry.
23
@Doug K
Mr. Huth, owner of a small sewer cleaning business, is in his glory. Business has picked up. No doubt it has, as the republican state congress is guaranteed to greatly expand the amount of sewage in the state . . . only I wasn't aware that bills that qualify as "sewage" would actually clog the pipes he cleans . . .
3
Ben Huth , owner of a sewer cleaning business says he has done very well. Does he realize that Obama's administration dug the United States out of a huge recession?! His business is doing well, because of many policies set in place by Democrats.
This is infuriating, and often the case with Republicans! They do not see the big picture, don't see the facts in front of them! The Trump administration has removed many of the financial safeguards put in place by the Obama administration after the Great Recession. It's just a matter of time before Donald's tariffs derail a thriving economy.
The only way to win for Democrats is to get the vote out! Independents and moderates will side with us, to thwart Donald's reign!
20
@Mari I have been around so long that I've been able to see how Republicans destroy our economy, Democrats are voted in, and they fix the economy, so people vote for Republicans again who lower taxes on the rich and ruin the economy AGAIN! Reagan lowered taxes a huge amount, leaving an immense deficit which was ultimately fixed by Clinton, who had a surplus! Along comes Bush II, lowers taxes on the rich, and leads us straight to an almost depression. Then Obama, who brought the economy back big time. Here's Trump, claiming it's "his" economy, although growth has been slower than under Obama.
This is important. Trump's tariffs and withdrawals from Obama's trade agreements and other agreements could well lead us to the worst recession since 1929. And a Democrat will be elected to fix it and will be blamed for not causing job creation, etc.
This roller coaster has to stop. Cutting taxes on the wealthy while stripping social programs will destroy our country. It's halfway there already.
5
Once you step outside of Milwaukee and enter the burbs, the ignorance is apparent. Simple answers for simple people who wear their intellectual laziness like a badge of honor. I plan on voting in Tuesday's election. Hoping for the best, but I'm afraid that the old dog and whistle message the GOP puts out will incite enough "fear" to motivate righteous republicans to foam at the mouth and do everything in their power to tilt the vote to their side.
35
The state Democratic Party has has incompetent governance for years. That said, Kathleen Vinehout is an excellent candidate and would be a great governor.
7
Profoundly negligent or disingenuous in such an article to OMIT mention of the huge out-of-state wealth dumped into the Walker/GOP coffers, to OMIT mention of the nationally-promulgated ALEC legislative drives which exploit Wisconsin as a compliant and purchased-for-that-purpose target laboratory, to OMIT mention of the forces other than citizenry marshaled to the current demolition of the Wisconsin Idea.
31
Wisconsin has such a beautiful natural environment across most of the state. Milwaukee--the first time I drove into it from Madison--is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen, at the edge of Lake Michigan. Some of the most beautiful towns. Great--but fattening--food. An absolutely wonderful pro-football team; great Badger teams.
Why oh why has this state fallen for the kool-aid of the Republicans who have gained office there? Why oh why can't the Democrats find candidates who will inspire voters?
That state voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary. He would have won there.
A very big puzzle. Figure it out and the Dems will win and oust the paid-for Republicans.
50
No, the most memorable part of Walker's 2016 presidential bid was not the way he ended it. The most memorable parts of his 2016 run were 1) the quickness with which he blew through the Koch Brothers donations, and 2) the total lack of boldness and charisma.
Walker is not a leader; he is led by donors. Besides that only has about three stories to his campaign - all dull and uninspiring. What else is there to say about Walker? He's weak on infrastructure, education, environment, prison reform, and rising living standards. He's a divider because that's what his donors want.
70
Joseph R. McCarthy was from Wisconsin.
So was Robert M. La Follete.
Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton lost to Mr. Melania Knavs Trump in Wisconsin in 2016.
Instead of "a poltical crossroads" this looks more like Wisconsin is building and mounting a gallows that endangers preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution of our divided limited power constitutional republic of united states.
5
Walker & the WI GOP - Architects of: the Chinese Foxconn 4 billion taxpayer giveaway, a clean water crisis; and education degradation. Just another state for guns and white, Christian "supremacy". Other than Madison, home of a STATE funded university which Walker & Co has yet to destroy, no attractions for smart, entrepreneurial millennials.
17
@F/V Mar Foxconn giveaway. People from Illinois will travel north for those jobs. We are rebuilding the highway so they can get here faster and easier. They will take their paychecks back to Illinois.
5
Reading these comments show how of touch Dems are. Even FDR was against public sector unions. As far as cuts to social security and medicare they running deficits and unsustainable and will have to be cut some how - such as raising the retirement age and it should raised. And don't reply by saying raise the income cap for SS taxes. That does not do it as one is supposed get back what one pays in. If you raise the cap and people don't get back what they paid in SS is just welfare. Actually it is welfare now because many people get more than they every paid in even when adjusted for inflation.
5
@Reader In Wash, DC
Unfortunately your comment lacks investigative skills regarding social security. I'm all for trying to reform a system that has problems, but look to where those problems came. Raising the age demonstrates how out of touch you are with the working poor whose bodies often give out long before the current retirement age. There are plenty of solutions to the deficits, including splitting disability from social security and not giving out tax breaks to corporations that the majority of used to make themselves more profits.
22
@Reader In Wash, DC
Another comment extolling the evils of taxes with no constructive solutions on caring for the weak, poor, and elderly in our country. This nation was founded on Christian values that I believe in. I’ve been blessed to be living the "American Dream" and will always champion for the less fortunate among us.
“My Fellow Americans" is more then just a slogan to me.
6
@Reader In Wash, DC Social Security currently runs a $2 Trillion surplus, and it will never go broke as GOP politicians like to say, because it is funded by working people. You have been fed a large helping of deception, and you devoured it. Congress will shore up Social Security by raising the cap which was set in the 1980's by Congress and Ronald Reagan, and sooner or later we'll have single payer healthcare like every other advanced society, finally removing odious profits from a necessary service, and saving trillions of dollars.
8
If folks like the Uihlein family (who gave $500,000 just last month to the newly formed Club for Growth Action Wisconsin super PAC) and the Center for Responsive Politics (who have given $4.8 million thus far) would cease with the glutenous over kill of financial purchasing of political candidates such as Kevin Nicholson and Leah Vukmir, perhaps candidates such as
Tammy Baldwin would have a fighting chance. The entire notion of candidates being manipulated by money rather than by the interests of the voter is beyond deplorable.
While this race will no doubt be close, I am convinced in my heart that the true Wisconsin voter will regain their senses, vote Democrat on Tuesday and begin rebuilding Wisconsin. The Democrats will win, but because of superPAC monies, but from small town farmers like those In Reedsville and other small communities who will help push the GOP out of Wisconsin once and for all.
33
Try as I might, I cannot think of a primary election as a "crossroads." Isn't it more a green freeway sign, "Conditions Changed, Three Months Ahead"?
3
You don't get it, you totally missed the point: "...both parties are frantically battling to keep Wisconsin on a Trumpian path or pull it back toward the left." No, Ms. Davey, Democrats and Progressives (yes, I'm one from a long line of them - the best and cleanest government we ever had in Milwaukee where I've lived my entire live was under "Socialist" Frank Zeidler) don't want to"pull [Wisconsin] back toward the left." We want to pull it back toward DECENCY and for the benefit of the many, not just the few.
33
"Governor Walker cut benefits to state workers, limited public sector labor unions’ ability to bargain and made deep cuts in state aid to schools."
Wait!
The state is in decline? Wages are stagnant? Isn't this is the whole point of Republican politics?
Cut and Run.
43
This will come down to how the people of Wisconsin faired under Trump tax cuts, the limit on deducting property and local taxes, did they actually get a tax cut or a rise in state income taxes, did they lose their jobs at Harley-Davidson and other factories in the Milwaukee - Green Bay area, and, if you are a farmer, are tariffs making a shambles out your crops and dairy products. Couple this, with a GOP, in lock step with Trump, cutting state benefits and a giveaway to Foxcomm that saddled the state with nearly a $5 billion debt (in a state of 8 million people), then it would be surprising Wisconsin becomes even more redder, but instead becomes much bluer.
Madison and Milwaukee will remain blue. But, what happens in places like Kenosha, Racine, Green Bay and La Crosse could be telling. Just south of Madison is Paul Ryan's district, that is the primary and election to watch. It is both rural and an outer suburb.
Let's just say, like many people, in the midwest, they feel both dismayed, and angered, over the turn of evens over the past few years. They are not feeling prosperity that Trump, and the GOP, promised. And, certainly, not from Scott Walker, in Wisconsin. In Ohio the 12CD special election, was one of voter's regret.
The Democrats need to make sure they stress the economics, and kitchen table issues. To go after Trump, or the GOP, is a recipe for failure. If they do, they may actually win back Congress and some states.
9
@Nick Metrowsky No one is going to know exactly how those "tax cuts" work out until after the November elections. Not until we do our taxes in 2019 will we know if we have a real tax break or not. The fact that we got "to keep" a portion of our paycheck (a mighty small portion) is immaterial until we do our taxes and find out what the outcome is. And that isn't factoring in the higher prices we are paying because of Trump's policies which probably have gobbled up much, if not all, of the supposed tax reductions for most Americans.
9
I share Ms. Mather's comments about the hope of returning Wisconsin to a leadership role in education, environmental protection and social support programs. I am familiar with environmental programs in all 50 states. Minnesota and Wisconsin were always the leading states in terms of innovation and effectiveness. Scott and Trump have destroyed Wisconsin's legacy in education and environmental protection. We all hope Wisconsin will return to its progressive roots.
45
It has been a lackluster Democratic primary. That could be because Democratic contributors have sat on the sidelines to see who comes through. Without money candidates can't increase their profile. My guess is that Tony Evers will be the nominee after Tuesday. He may be the Dem's strongest candidate. He's won statewide as state schools superintendent three times, most recently with 70% in April of 2017 -- after Trump's win here in 2016. He's steady and boring, which may be good. Liberals are plenty fired up to vote for whoever faces Walker, but Evers is not likely to excite conservative voters to come out to oppose him. I'll go out on a limb and say that Evers will beat Walker narrowly in November.
91
I think your assessment is spot on.
Thanks for staying involved, Mayor Dave!
2
Walker's image even in rural Wisconsin is fading. Poor roads, failing school, few jobs, and major exodus of the young from the land. ''Making Wisconsin great again'' has resulted in major disregard of the lives and futures of so many, be they from urban or rural communities here in the state.
Walker or Trump will not gain the upper hand this fall; people are angry, women, minorities, and yes, even rural folks will vote against the "divide-and-conquer" Republicans. The spin doctors' game that the Republicans had been so good at in the past, has spun out.
Wisconsin: Get Out The Vote!! and vote the bums out!!!
211
The Democrats used to own the rust belt because of labor Unions, but Trump gave them something better , a promise to bring back Factory jobs, mixed in with intolerance, a combination the blue collar white workers could not resist.Unless the Democrats are willing to become conservative,
& the Factory jobs do not come back, the Democrats can write off the Rust Belt.
21
@Joe Blow -
The right fiscal policy could lower the dollar enough to make manufacturing competitive. Piecemeal tariffs are just going to result in anger and a dropoff in trade.
@Joe Blow
The Republicans have switched their re-election tactics from promising jobs (which the smarter among us realize that blue collar jobs don't materialize out of thin air) to pointing fingers at imagined enemies that prevent jobs from being created, however delusional the reason, be it liberals, or Democrats, or illegal immigrants, or the EPA, or... or... There's no limit to the enemies list the GOP can draw up while making themselves look innocent.
2
Democrats, must talk exclusively about the bread and butter issues people care about: healthcare, Medicare and wage disparity! Focus on these and how Democrats have always been the champions of Working and Middle Class Americans!
2
I reviewed Wisconsin economic date to see if Republicans were better for economy than Democrats in Wis. Hard to say. The Midwest has had economic problems that Florida has not. Manufacture, a large part of Midwest economy, has been hurt by demand and demographic shifts in that sector. High tech, engineering and systems are moving to FL, CA and TX. What to do? Republicans have offered better business environments to lure eg Foxconn, but at a big cost in tax breaks. At the same time Wisconsin may have downgraded its education system and has gone to a right to work state. Smart or dumb? I think dumb because in a more technical world, our children will compete with brains not brawn. Losing unions might leave working people without a voice. Giving up federal ACA funds and refusing to fund infrastructure will hurt in the long-run. Wisconsin has had motivated workers and a strong work ethic and an appreciation for education (U of Wis has been a great university). The future will need combining work ethic with education. In shifting demand and demographics it is hard to predict what will be best, but giving up resources to balance a budget may be a Pyrrhic victory.
80
Wisconsin's right turn has destroyed its appeal to me. In addition to avoiding Wisconsin cheese, I'm not even interested in visiting, and I'm only miles away. Can't wait to see the damage the Foxconn "tax break" con will do over the long run.
16
All the Midwest is under stress. There’s a drain of talent and capital to the coasts.
People will try anything to make the pain stop.
8
So true.
Compare the economies of neighbors Minnesota and Wisconsin and you’ll see clearly the failings of Scott Walker and the Republicans compared to the policies of the democrats and Gov. Dayton in Minnesota
50
"He cut benefits to state workers, limited public sector labor unions’ ability to bargain and made deep cuts in state aid to schools" But Walker has billions for foxconn... One hand washes the other
39
[[Some Democratic voters even speak of carrying a sense of guilt over the unexpected role that a few states, including Wisconsin, played in putting President Trump over the top in 2016.]]
Wisconsin's role was not "unexpected." The Upper Midwest, Pennsylvania and a couple of Southeastern states have provided the margin of victory in presidential elections for a few decades now.
So, not "unexpected."
Democrats need to stop justifying their weaknesses and start addressing them.
Clinton didn't campaign in Wisconsin.
She was arrogant and took the voters for granted. She took a lot of people for granted.
What has she done in the nearly two years she lost? Walked in the woods and cried. "Wrote" and promoted a book.
The sad/funny thing is that Clinton and Trump share a lot of the same qualities...compulsive lying, laziness, arrogance, social awkwardness.
Anyway, Wisconsin was not "unexpected."
10
It is shocking to read the party of "term limits" (The Republican party) is actively supporting a third term for Scott Walker. Wisconsin is well on its way to becoming a Deep South state without the good weather.
31
@Lynda, NOT without an epic fight, and I won't stop fighting until the day my ashes are scattered to the winds on a crest in a northern Wisconsin stretch of preserved forest lands overlooking the waves of Lake Michigan.
9
Simply put, Walker is by far the worst governor that Wisconsin has ever had. He MUST be replaced.
Walker has slashed investment in the state's future – in K-12 education, the UW system, and tech schools. He has done a terrible job simply maintaining the roads, and has done nothing on cyberinfrastructure. He has cut taxes for the rich, and diverted $450M to the billionaire owners of the Bucks and away from the University of Wisconsin. His actions on the environment are uniformly catastrophic and tied ultimately to corporate cronyism.
He has ruined Wisconsin's reputation for clean government by introduced corruption at all levels, including perhaps the worst gerrymandering in the country.
Putting $4.5B into the Foxconn deal AND suspending environmental regulations for them are abysmal from a business viewpoint, given that the project is projected to return a positive benefit only after 25 years (ha, in go-go high-tech!), and because he and fellow Republicans have put all our eggs into one basket for a company that has not proved to be a reliable player elsewhere.
And the real reason for the deal is simply to re-elect Scott Walker. $4.5B in debt to re-elect Walker is the very definition of corruption.
64
@Thomas Givnish, he also presided over the largest brain drain ever experienced by our state by attacking and slashing budgets to our formerly excellent and highly rated state university system, as well as attacked women's right to decide whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term and attacking teachers and their unions, primarily made up of - you guess it - women. Why are "conservatives" SO terrified of females???
25
I hope that Wisconsin continues to support the Trump revolution. I support the President. I support Trump. Thank you.
5
@Southern Boy
Please stay or move to the south. I appreciate progress and not fear mongering. I find it difficult for anyone to support a man with no morals ( I do not want my son to ever act like trump). I think your forget potus has never suffered in his life. He makes a habit of attacking everyday citizens in which he was elected to serve. He is a revolution of disaster.
4
It's never too late to swing a state that voted for Trump back to the Democrats. Trump gets worse - more dishonest, more racist, more incompetent, more corrupt, more volatile - on a daily basis. Evidence mounts on a daily basis that Trump is in over his head and dangerous to this country and to world stability. Trump's own national security staff - Secretary Mattis, Secretary Pompeo, NSA Advisor John Bolton - worked with NATO to solidify agreements behind Trump's back so he couldn't blow them up on a whim. Trump's own Cabinet members don't trust him to act like a rational adult.
Some of these states are going to swing back to the Democrats as the result of Trump's idiotic trade tariffs and his focus on obsolete industries like coal and steel batter these states, whileTrump refuses to acknowledge climate change or help green industries that are booming now as our climate worsens. And expect more former Trump voters to swing to Democrats as their health insurance becomes unaffordable or,
if Trump gets his way, disappears all together! Remember Trump vowed to make health care better and more affordable to everyone. We see that his real intentions were to make health care more expensive and even unavailable to many Americans who were covered by the ACA.
As people are increasingly harmed financially by Trump's policies, some of his supporters are going to flee.
11
RE: Sally Mather, 69, a retired social worker,
That tells you all you need to know. Mostly like a retired government or university employee. There are few private sector social workers. Mather sounds like another government employee who thinks the taxpayers' purse is unlimited.
10
@Reader In Wash, DC
Now tell us why there are few private sector social workers.
It wouldn't be because the private sector isn't interested, would it? It wouldn't be that government is necessary to provide services that the private sector won't touch because they aren't profitable, would it?
While you are at it, tell us what's so good about a private sector that has kept real incomes to its wage earners nearly flat, while becoming hugely more productive and giving itself (ie, its executives) all the rewards.
19
@mancuroc The private sector has created the highest standard of living in history. Even "poor" people in the US have indoor plumbing , electricity, telephones, TVs, microwaves, and more food than needed. There is an obesity epidemic. Wages have been flat for a generation because there is a global labor glut. US is no longer the only industrialized country as we were after WWII. Flat wages are a godsend compared to what socialism provides. No one is entitled to a US middle class lifestyle circa 1945 - 1980 or 1990. That was a historic and economic anomaly. So people need to adjust expectations. For most of history most people has lived subsistence live and we are returning to that. But at least there are modern conveniences including medical advances.
@Reader In Wash, DC
"So people need to adjust expectations."
Yes indeed. And it seems that in today's America, a small percentage of people have "needed" to adjust their expectations grotesquely upwards.
So, in the 21st century people are supposed to be grateful for indoor plumbing, electricity and phones. Imagine that!
Funny, but in my mind the most memorable parts of Scooter's bid for POTUS were:
1. embarrassing himself in Europe in an attempt to show he had "foreign" chops;
2. hiring a speech coach to erase his Wisconsin accent; and
3. blaming his bald spot on his wife and a cabinet door.
And what three things could better elucidate how Walker is a bald-faced-lying, partisan hack who wasn't actually raised here, became a career politician when he couldn't handle college, and told a billionaire donor on video ("As Goes Janesville") that he would need to "divide and conquer" his constituents in order to turn Wisconsin into a "right-to-work" state.
36
My brother lives in Wisconsin (I left the state over 30 years ago) and he voted for Trump. When we last spoke he said he regretted voting voting for Trump. Historically he has always voted for the GOP. I asked him why he votes against his own interests. He asked me what I meant. I responded "Are you wealthy?" He said "No." I asked do you want to keep your SS and Medicare benefits. He said "Yes." I asked him if he doesn't realize that the GOP wants to dismantle those benefits. His response was silence. I asked him if he cares about the environment. He said "Yes." These are reasons why, in order to keep the peace in our family, I no longer discuss Trump or any politics with him. I love my brother but he is clueless.
133
@susan
Many Republican voters are clueless. Remember the "Keep the Federal government out of my Medicare" signs back in 2009 and 2010 during the big fuss over health care reform? Clueless indeed.
17
@susan, I have two sisters who are the same. Sadly, they are more afraid of people with "brown" skin than they are rational about anything and everything else!
9
@susan I feel the same way about my dear, clueless brother in West Texas. When you get your daily dose of "news" from FOX, your social circle reinforces what you believe and you think that liberal "elites" don't respect your values, you are primed to vote against your self interests.
3
For those Human Beings who still live in the Mid West and grew up in Wisconsin it is never too late to turn Wisconsin Blue again. I am on 41 and happy to point out Wisconsin and Minnesota are not Fly over states anymore. Come on over and visit!!! The Democratic Socialists are not just in Bronx NYC.
11
32 year Wisconsin resident here. The political house of cards here began when the teacher's union failed to read the signs of voter discontent. When they refused to make even a small concession regarding their health care (which was first dollar, no co-pays) the Walker avalanche began and crushed the state employee unions.
We have extremes on both sides here with a complete inability to compromise.-Extreme liberal Madison meets ultra right winger Sensenbrenner territory. We do have a real brain drain here plus a lack of any federal funding sites (military, parks, monuments).
Walker slashed out taxes and has brought jobs to WI. I don't like him (he cost me my public health job in 2011) but the Republican impact on the state is hard to deny.
24
@Quickbeam May I remind you that we gave up wages for benefits. Have you heard of a QEO this reduced wages and benefits to 2.5 percent of wages. There were years my wage went down so I could keep my benefits. I have a Math Major and a Masters degree. I never made what I could have in the private sector. I stayed in education because of my students and healthcare. Maybe it you think education is so great you can give back to your community. It is rewarding but you will never be rich. So save those sour grapes. We have truck drivers who make more money with less education and responsibilities. The hours they work are better too. They go home and they are done.
1
@Quickbeam
This is outdated. The teachers' union was MORE than willing to negotiate regarding healthcare. Stop bashing educators; it's SO 2010.
Where are the jobs? North of 29, people are hurting.
7
@Quickbeam
The name Sensenbrenner sounds familiar. Isn't he the congressman who lashed out in protest against the US Supreme Court decision to over turned Section 5 of the voting rights act in Shelby v. Holder?
Wisconsin Dems had 2 opportunities to win the governor’s race twice and defeat Scott. However they ran the same candidate (who lost the first time) twice! They put party over the State instead of finding a candidate who resonated with both the issues and the people.
Democrats will win because of people like Scott, but they better look and examine what voters really want. Trump and Bernie hit on issues that hit many Americans......they don’t want to live paycheck to paycheck, they want to feel safe, and want a level of healthcare that doesn’t come with so many out-of-pocket costs.
We need candidates who can also light a fire by connecting to the issues rather than picking a Party loyalist. Whether that candidate is Moderate or Progressive, they have to find what makes voters tick.......
The Democratic candidate in Ohio lost because of the Green Party votes. He has to get out there and light a fire!
40
@Linda Nobody wants to live paycheck to paycheck , as far as healthcare and feeling safe , well if people keep voting for the Trumps and Walkers , that will never happen . So vote for candidates of their ilk , where the tax cuts benefit the 1% and corporations and the rest pay for them . Vote for candidates who antagonize our allies , lie , and again give huge cuts to companies like Foxconn ( that are not even American) that will bring short term jobs . I absolutely agree with you that these are a matter of importance to those of us who work all our lives and are just existing and subsisting ; but it is obvious that these guys haven't lived up to what they promise . The Republicans are hyper partisan and the Democrats fracture themselves by running too many candidates therefore self-defeating themselves and yes the Green party is out there as are DSA . It's not about offering a chicken in every pot , or voting my party right or wrong , but about sensibly and methodically addressing the issues of the present working man and woman . So far I haven't seen a politician in the order of a FDR .
3
Why in the world would Wisconsin go back to the party of tyranny, oppression, socialism and every bad idea in the last 100 years that has destroyed our once magnificent cities?
Are Wisconsin’s that dumb to fall for the Democrat Party insanity?
9
@Cjmesq0
"...tyranny, oppression, socialism and every bad idea in the last 100 years..."
Really? Such as direct primary elections, breaking up monopolies, preserving state forests, defending small farmers, establishing workers' compensation, regulating factory safety, reforming child labor laws, spreading electric power statewide, establishing a state highway system, creating a university system that extends into every county in the state, and the list goes on...
By the way, the original Progressives were Republicans. The GOP sure has come a long way from home.
28
@Cjmesq0 That's right! Why support the party of clean air, the 40 hour work week, affordable health care, protections against loan sharks, and protection against poison in your food? Not letting corporations kill you and rip you off is tyranny! tyranny!
Better to cozy up with the Russians, since they're much better Americans than real Americans are.
19
@Cjmesq0
Perhaps you should check your facts. Every single time the Republican party has controlled all three branches of government, a recession immediately followed. Remember this comment in 6 months.
15
I'm afraid Ms. Davey's reporting isn't up to New York Times standards.
Ms. Davey claims that Senator Baldwin "is in a tough race for a second term," but in fact Baldwin is leading both of the Republican primary candidates by double-digit margins. Her re-election isn't a slam-dunk, but nor is she in an especially close race.
Ms. Davey also claims that "Democrats face a dizzyingly long list" of primary candidates for governor. It is true that a lot of candidates are running, but only three of them have hit double-digits in any one poll. In the Marquette poll Ms. Davey cites, Tony Evers polled literally five times the support of the second-place candidate (31 to six percent).
Finally, Ms. Davey wonders if any of the Democratic candidates "can win" against Governor Walker. In fact, the only two non-partisan polls taken this summer show Evers ahead of Walker by seven and 13 percent. Governor Walker's re-election is in much more trouble than Senator Baldwin's, yet it's Baldwin's re-election chances that Ms. Davey questions.
politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com
91
@Ecce Homo On the other hand, Ms Davey neglects to mention that long-time Senator Russ Feingold lost at his last 2 attempts to regain political office. Democrats are too busy pursuing symbolic issues and forgot about the economic issues facing middle class citizens of that state.
4
@Ecce Homo. Also, what about the caption of a “pub” in Hartland, Wisconsin? That is ridiculous, even if the name of the bar is Hartland Pub, it is a bar.
3
I have admired the "Cheeseheads" (said in a very respectful way) of Wisconsin for decades. They are a hard-working sensible bunch who seem to value practical aspects of life. They are fiscally responsible, concerned for their children's futures, well educated by in large and "sensible".
What has happened to their state? Its government seems contrary to what I see there. Their support of the Trumplican Party is anathema to me - it represents everything they are not, and much for the worse.
Could they have fallen for Trump's cons, lies, fake promises, racist attitudes, inhuman actions and total inability to govern anything? So it would seem.
Wisconsin has a chance to make things "right" (as in "correct") in November - its future depends upon it. They cannot hitch their wagon to a Trumplican horse, especially the rear end of one, and expect anything but disaster. A GOOD Republican is a good person, as is a good Democrat. ANY REPUBLICAN these days is hitched to Trump, and that is suicidal.
Vote yourselves back into sanity and reject all that is Trump; your children will thank you.
111
If you come from the state that elected Scott Walker 2.5 times and still consider yourself sane, it is time to pack up and leave. You are going to get him for a third time. Foxconn or no, WS is in the rear view mirror. Move.
10
Please quit pretending we have an election. The system is rigged, corrupt, broken. That's why the polls are so wrong. That's why every critical race ends up 50-50. Massive racist voter suppression gets reds elected.
39
@Dave
It takes money to conduct a poll. Inevitably, the results of any given poll reflects the preferences of whoever pays for the poll to be conducted.
3
Just wondering what's up with Maria Butina and Scott Walker? They met and probably discussed adoptions of Russian kids.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
41
Scott Walker is the man behind Wisconsin's Right to Work for Nothing law. That is why companies like FoxConn are coming to Wisconsin. They need taxpayer money to pay for the suicide nets like they have in China.
75
@Ronny Foxconn is a Taiwanese company. Only China thinks Taiwan is part of China.
1
Make America DECENT Again. VOTE out the GOP, every single one.
Period.
168
“This just wasn’t what Wisconsin was, not what it used to be,” said Sally Mather, 69, a retired social worker...
This is almost exactly what laura Ingraham said is a controversial commentary and some on the Left claimed that was racist.
https://www.msnbc.com/velshi-ruhle/watch/fox-news-laura-ingraham-drawing...
11
@Amy
Big difference, not even in the same ballpark.
Ingraham was pointedly talking about race, about the decline of White people in the wake of the rise of the Hispanic population. These voters are talking about democratic values, not race. Despite a few here and there, everyone on both sides look pretty White to me.
5
@Amy And it clearly was. As long as Democrats were standing up for white working people, these southern and midwestern whites were on board. The second Democrats decided that standing up for ALL the people included brown and black people, Republicans started winning big time.
Do the math
4
@Amy
Not even close to equivalent. Ingraham was speaking to a perception of invasive immigration. Mather speaking to a loss of civility due to politics. Nice try, no cigar.
11
Well, duh. It'll go with the party that Charlie Sykes did so much to build up. And we'll be treated to another pearl-clutching op-ed from him later this week.
5
The good people of WI just have to ask themselves one question -
what is this six time serial bankrupt and demonstrated liar doing for you and your family in terms of healthcare; education; clean air and water; jobs with a future? (fat cats and his kids are doing great)
(and please recognize that you can't take resentment and hate, which he generates in spades, to the bank. )
96
All Republicans are now the party of Trump. Vote GOP means no healthcare and no living wage. Ray Sipe
103
The level of interest in Tuesday's primary is low in my view. The turnout will be as well. The Dems have mounted a march of the lilliputians against the governor and it shows. Sadly, Trump's not on trial here - an opportunity lost.
6
@DaveD I just saw the ads for candidates about a week ago, and discovered the election is this Tuesday. No promotion at all.
6
Both LaFollette, the Socialist, and Joseph McCarthy, the rabidly unhinged anti-Communist, were from Wisconsin. Perhaps Wisconsin is more of a microcosm of America than most states. Now it is led by a self-serving right-wing Republican who has not made life better for most Wisconsinites. What is happening to manufacturing under the present state and federal government? What is happening to agriculture under the leadership of its present governor with a Republican Congress and Trump? Not much. Time for another swing of the pendulum. The right has had its chance. But despite declarations of a very strong economy, most Wisconsinites have not seen it helping them. Why not? Because most Wisconsinites are not part of the one percent just like most Americans are not part of that one percent of Trump's Republican cronies. The "great businessman" in the White House and his fellow traveler in Madison do not have the solution to how to make lives better for all of us. Their tax cut for corporations has only enriched the fat cats and the rest of us scramble for the crumbs that fall off the Republican table. Do voters in Wisconsin realize just how much they are responsible for what is happening to them? November will be their chance to Make America Great Again, and that will not be done by Scott Walker and/or Donald Trump and their Republican cronies in Congress and most state houses..
5
As you mentioned in your article the political lines can be blurred in this independent thinking state. but one issue was not mentioned and that is health care. Scott Walker has done everything possible to undermine the ACA and try to cut people out of getting affordable health care. Sean Duffy(my representative) health care view is let the the free market decide. What "free" market? Folks with life threatening diseases cannot be cured by Spaghetti Suppers. Somehow Dems need to make this issue their own.
69
This morning NPR interviewed a Wisconsin dairy farmer who was and still is a Trumpo supporter.
The farmer was rueing the fact that much of her family farm business depends on exports of dairy products to international customers her farm has long done business with.
She recited how Trumpo’s tariffs have resulted in reciprocal tariffs against Wisconsin dairy products which now threaten relationships with her foreign customers like in Mexico as vendors from Italy and other countries are poised to step in with lower non tariff prices for their product.
She still supports Trumpo however.
I don’t wish her ill but she and those like her help give us the Trumpo nightmare we live with on a daily basis. If the possibility of losing a farm that has been owned by her family for generations is not enough to make her reconsider her support of Trumpo one wonders what will.
As my old pappy used to say “if you can’t think you gotta feel” about the consequences of making bad decisions. I think Wisconsinite dairy farmers are about to do a lot of feeling.
77
The incompetence of the Democratic Party continues to shock me. Here in liberal New England, four of our six governors are Republican. In New England! This includes perhaps the two most progressive states in the nation, Massachusetts and Vermont (the other R governors are in Maine and New Hampshire). In this fall's upcoming election, I'd wager that 80 percent of Democrats don't even know the names of their party's candidates vying to unseat incumbent Republican Gov. Charlie Baker. SAD!
15
@keepgo Dems aren't any more incompetent than GOP, but they are clueless and way out of touch with the concerns of the middle class as a group. Trump, on the other hand, understood that, but he is sadly the most incompetent of all.
1
The lead photograph captures the situation. Our choices here are either a hard left or a hard right. There's nothing up the middle going forward.
11
@S Baldwin
Also shows an Amish buggy. They generally do not vote.
1
As of a only two weeks ago, Evers is the clear leader of the Democratic field vying to take on Walker.
And Evers leads Walker by 14 points in the same poll.
Here's a look at Republicans vulnerability in the "blue wall" upper Midwest states.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politic...
Trump is also way under water in these states that supported him in 2016.
This article paints pessimism.
Reality shows optimism.
I'll go with reality every time.
28
Wisconsin leads the way to the brave new world of paying corporations for jobs.
27
According to the Constitution, there will only and always be two Senators per State, no more no less. It was in the House of Representatives that our Founders conceived the legislative process being 'OF the People, BY the People, FOR the People'.
The number of Representatives in the House, however, was locked at 435 by the Apportionment Act of 1911, based on the census of NINETEEN TEN, a year when the US population was 91 million. With the population grown somewhere north of 321 million now, by Lincoln and the GOP's own standards, 230 million Americans are either UNDER represented or not represented AT ALL.
State wide gerrymandering? Let's talk about COUNTRY WIDE. The math says there should be 1534 Reps in the House of Representatives -- not 435. That means enough to send streams of fresh and creative thinking through the DC Swamp every two years, enough to loosen the Mercer's, the Koch's and The Donald's wealth-powered grip on our national programming and allow legislation to rise to the Senate from the population itself.
Vote out the Cons, yes, of course, but then vote to void the Apportionment Act of 1911. Let's get back to the constitutional democracy our Founders envisioned. The American legislative process was NOT designed to support National Feudalism. Vote a way forward, not toward the Middle Ages.
-
12
@Wm Conelly - How about electing 2 candidates per district, and they get a fractional vote in Congress depending upon their share of the public vote in the district. That would almost all the value out of trying to gerrymander. And it would leave losers with a voice, reducing frustration - perhaps.
1
“He cut benefits to state workers, limited public sector labor unions’ ability to bargain and made deep cuts in state aid to schools.”
How ironic that the progressive agenda that promotes Medicare for all single payer, a living wage for all workers, and affordable education largely benefits Trump’s core constituents, less educated white working class.
10
Wisconsin gave birth to the modern progressive movement in "Fighting Bob" LaFollette. Democrats seem to be both willing to fight and once again to embrace progressive values like universal health care, tuition-free higher education at taxpayer funded state colleges and universities, and a living wage by supporting workers rights to form unions and bargain collectively. These are all policies that Scott Walker and Republicans like Sen. Ron Johnson have worked against. Gov. Walker has turned the University of Wisconsin, a nationally renown school, into a banana-republic university with his political interference in its most important function--the tenure process. This is unheard of in the annals of U.S. higher education and reeks of totalitarianism. Wisconsin hopefully will vote for democracy over the right-wing autocracy of the Walker administration and not be bought off by economic Trojan horses like Foxcomm.
17
For those who want to understand WI, and MI, and PA, and IL, and IA, and OH, read "The politics of resentment". There is a lot of good stuff in this book - a study of the thoughts and comments of hundreds of WI residents by interview.
I am a part-time WI resident, living near Fond du Lac. Rural WI is very conservative. There is no support for the Dem agenda of gay rights, transgender rights, illegals rights, trashing American workers, and the like. Dems have nothing to offer to rural voters. Dems will continue to lose in the rural areas (Fond du Lac, Appleton, Oshkosh are all rural) until they stop helping illegals and start helping American workers.
14
@GeorgePTyrebyter
What sort of help do American workers think they need? I work for a major airplane manufacturer, and it's hiring like crazy. But you need to be aware that a LOT of these new workers are coming out of universities with Ph. Ds in their mid-20s. What kind of education does your typical Wisconsin resident have? Are they still pinning their hopes on Santa Claus showing up with a sackful of jobs?
Beg to differ! Democrats CAN offer rural Wisconsin something they NEED desperately: HEALTHCARE! These folks, are not even close to Middle Class and many are already scrapping by. They NEED healthcare, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These social programs save lives and prevent folks from going bankrupt paying medical bills!
Democrats MUST campaign in rural areas and talk about healthcare, etc.!
10
@GeorgePTyrebyter Remember that those gay people, transgender people and the others who don't look like you, worship like you or sound like you are American citizens entitled to the same set of rights you have. Did you also know that illegal aliens once on American soil are entitled to due process of the law?
I followed Walker's decimation of collective bargaining very carefully. At the time, and since that time, the democrats and the media failed to mention that the police and firefighter unions were exempt from the ban on collective bargaining. In other words, the police and firefighters were allowed to continue collective bargaining. One can speculate about the reasons - police and firefighters probably are predominantly male and probably tend to vote republican. However, I have never understood why no one talked about that glaring distinction.
39
@dba Scott Walker is very unlikeable person but state workers cannot have collective bargaining over wages and benefits. Unions yes but not the ability to bargain for wages and benefits. The exemption of fire and police is a double standard. As I understand it Wisconsin state workers were contributing nothing for their Defined Benefit pensions and 3 percent of their healthcare costs. This could not continue. Here in Connecticut where state employees have collective bargaining over wages and benefits, old timers contributed nothing to their DB pensions and healthcare and now collect 6 figure pensions, the state is broke.
2
I loved the photo of an Amish farmer in tiny Reedsburg, yet nothing specifically was referenced in the article about either. I was hoping and expecting some thread of continuity of either in this story.
5
“Wisconsin has veered sharply to the right under Mr. Walker and in the Trump era after a long history of widely varying ideologies...”
How much further to the right than Scott Walker do you have to go before you find you’ve driven off of a cliff?
I can empathize with the level of frustration which I imagine much of this country has been made to endure throughout countless presidential administrations which have undoubtedly ridden the coattails of America’s working class, knowing that this was a constituency which could be taken for granted.
...and now that we’re in the twentieth century, you’d be fools to think that you won’t be taken for granted until you provide a reason for that to change.
11
I'm bothered by the article's point that candidate Martin not only the head of a firefighters'union, but also African American. None of the other candidates are also described by their race. This sort of writing strikes me as implicitly biased.
5
@Coleen The other candidates are all white. There is nothing biased in mentioning that one of the candidates is not.
Not much substance in this piece. How is one primary a “crossroads”? Which outcome on Tuesday could determine the future’s direction?
1
As a long time hospital RN Case Manager in Wisconsin, married to a teacher who is an outdoorsman, daughter of a faithful union worker, mother and grandmother of children who have and do attend public schools, it is almost difficult to know where to begin the expression of disdain for Scott Walker.
After he was elected he shut down unions. We protested in the dead of winter. Educators have fled their profession - so much there have been proposals to have uneducated teach in our classrooms. But what would Walker care - a college drop out.
Very shortly after that he shut down applications to a program here called Family Care which serves elderly and disabled. For seven months people could not even apply until the Feds marched in and put a halt to that! In the meanwhile they went without.
He turned away Medicaid funds. Never mind individuals with healthcare needs.
He has sided with business to decimate our pristine environment. He’s sold state land to business, done virtually nothing about the deer population with CJD, wanted untoward mining, privatized hunting, appointed a woman with no college degree or experience to Head our Department of Natural Resources. And allows Foxconn to come in and taint Lake Michigan water.
He sold out public schools to private and parochial school vouchers and has defunded public schools and our UW system.
We pay for high courts to jurisdict his voter suppression acts.
These are just a few of Walker’s acts.
Wisconsites - VOTE Dem!
231
In Wisconsin we are tired of Scott Walker. The roads are in terrible shape, our once great schools are struggling to keep basic programs going, wages are below the national average. For 8 years Walker and the GOP have been in control and what have they done other than sow divide? It's time for new leadership. Just as people voted for Trump "just because" they felt it was time to give the GOP a chance in the WH, Wisconsinites will now vote for any Dem "just because" it's time for a change. Walker is no Tommy Thompson and he knows it. As for the legislature, the gerrymandering and vote suppression is a crisis and a serious threat to our democracy. Gerrymandering is the real reason the GOP holds on to many seats in the legislature. Progressives live everywhere in Wisconsin - not just the urban areas.
43
Benefits to public employees have been over the top for decades. State needed to rebalance. Now Wisconsin is on firm economic footing and the future looks just fine, thank you.
6
@clarity007
Benefits to public employees should be replicated in private industry. THAT is what needs to be rebalanced. Wisconsin is NOT on firm economic footing...under Walker's leadership it has debased its natural environment and not attended to its built environment. That "firm economic footing" of which you speak, is an illusion. Most of us are well aware of this. I hope that my former neighbors and my friends in Wisconsin understand this and vote accordingly.
6
I live in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. A beautiful little town close to twin cities. Although I have no connection to mid-west and I hail from Northeast, but the the two times reelection of Mr. Walker makes me wonder, why? Why somebody who cut benefits to state workers and funding to school and universities was elected twice? I have several new friends here, who told me how they were laid off from their jobs, and how hard is it to find a new job in education sector. Graduate programs lack funding and new aren't coming. His actions in the last two terms reflect the priorities of Mr. Walker. Does he know what Wisconsin, and not just you and me but whole Wisconsin wants? I bet he does, if he was able to hold office for two terms with these policies, he might do another time. I don't see any democratic alternative at this time anyhow.
11
"He cut benefits to state workers, limited public sector labor unions’ ability to bargain and made deep cuts in state aid to schools." It seems as if Scott Walker has done just what the voters in Wisconsin wanted him to do by cutting their benefits and reducing school aid. Who needs education anyway?
All Walker has to do now is convince the people of Wisconsin that by voting Republican they can ensure themselves of reduced benefits for Social Security and Medicare in the future, just in time for their retirement. That prospect should comfort them in their senior years, as they reflect on all the money they have "saved" by having reduced costs for education, a budget line item anathema to Republican voters. My bet is if they could vote for Walker twice, they'll do it again.
113
I live in Wisconsin, and I agree that Tammy Baldwin is in trouble. there is tons of outside money pouring in against her, but the 2 Republican options are spending money going against each other. Foxconn could hurt Walker as many in the state, outside of southeast wi, question giving that much money away, that we will not benefit from. it is a defining moment.
61
@cbeesehead She is not as endangered as McCaskill or Donnelly, but she is certainly in trouble. She does not represent WI values as far as the rural folks are concerned. In 2016, Feingold lost to the dumbest guy in the Senate for the second time. Baldwin had better ask "Why did Russ lose?" It has a lot to do with immigration policies, rural policies. What do the Dems have to offer rural voters? NOTHING. Baldwin is going to lose.
6
Welcome to Wisconsin - Land of Right-Wing Voter Suppression !
Russian-Republicans can't stand democracy and neither can Scott Walker.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/us/wisconsin-voters.html
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2018/07/21/residents...
https://onewisconsinnow.org/scott-walker/voter-suppression/
Register to vote, Wisconsinites....and throw your rigged Russian-Republican representatives and Scott Walker out of office !
https://myvote.wi.gov/en-US/RegisterToVote
163
I live in Madison Wisconsin. The energy against the Republican Party is quite palpable. Few will sit on their voting hands in November.
239
@steve
Good to hear that!
2
But the energy against Madison is even palplabler. That's why your governor killed the high-speed trains, isn't ti?
6
@steve
Problem with that view is that you live in Madison so of course the energy is high. I believe the joke, as told by my Cheesehead spouse, "Madison is 21 sq miles surrounded by reality".
8
In the mid 90's when I moved to Georgia, Zell Miller was Governor, Sam Nunn, and Max Cleland were our U.S. Senators. All Democrats. Then over the next decade or so the State transitioned to Republican. And another decade later we're beginning to move the pendulum back towards the Democrats side.
Wisconsin seems to be following a similar pattern, maybe for different reasons, but nevertheless... Citizens will put up with a lot from their politicians until they cross some imaginary line, then it riles us up. Trump has done that, along with the Walker's of the world.
I wish the Democrats in Wisconsin the best, it takes awhile to swing back, but it will happen. Poor governance is a winning ticket for the opposition.
235
@cherrylog754 In both Wisconsin & Georgia, as well as other states where they won control of state government in the 2010 elections, Republicans gerrymandered electoral districts so extremely that it will take a Tsunami, not a wave to boot them out IF the votes are counted fairly. Recently, SCOTUS refused to address the extreme gerrymandering in Wisconsin despite glaring evidence that screamed corruption. And the voting irregularities that have been practiced by Georgia's current Secretary of State are just as blatantly biased.
2
The Republican plan to deal with their increasing minority position is to devalue the votes of the majority who mainly live in urban areas. Our constitution was written for an agrarian nation where cities were small and most people lived in the country. Gerrymandering and voter suppression have been raised to high art by Republicans who know they cannot keep power in a free and fair system. Look at Georgia, a state where the majority would clearly favor more progressive government, but is held hostage by an aging and increasingly small minority. Such tactics do work, for a while, but it always ends badly.
184
Redrawing congressional districts should be largely be accomplished using technology (basically the same technology Republicans are now using to create our current gerrrymandered nightmare), which would be uniform nationally. As for the electoral college, it reached its expiration date some time ago. All it does now is undermine democracy. It should be repealed. Period.
1
@Steve - How can gerrymandering possibly effect the governor's race, which is a straight state-wide election?
Living in a Wisconsin red county, where even Democrats run as Republicans, Kevin Nicholson flipping to Republican is all too familiar. In addition to sorting out all the actual Democratic candidates, we have sort out the Republicans who might be Democrats. I noticed that Fighting Bob LaFollette’s Republican affiliation isn’t mentioned, and given he founded Progressive Dane in Madison, well, it takes a local to sort it all out.
The problem of this state is still the same, Milwaukee/Madison vs. everywhere else. My county stays Republican because people vote what they see. When the Republicans are in the Governor’s seat, our roads get blacktopped, the towns and schools here get grant money to spruce up. When the Governor is Democrat, the roads go to potholes, the schools go seedy, and the towns get rundown.
Right now, I’m pretty sure the current potholes are in Madison. At least, it looked that way last time I was driving through the west side.
9
"Roads go to potholes" under Democrats?? Wisconsin, under Walker, is now rated nearly dead last among the states for the condition of our roads. People here used to talk about driving south into Illinois and how terrible the roads were there. Now it's the opposite. And Walker cut school funding and essentially destroyed teachers' rights to bargain.
385
@Socrates
You have a liberal governor in NJ now. How is that going?
I also believe one person moving to Florida to escape the state taxes blew a huge hole in your state budget.
Pretty good so far, Rocket Squrriel.
Governor Murphy is starting to fix eight years of Republican damage to the state; it's going to take awhile.
Taxes are the cost of civilization; I'm quite content to pay taxes and be part of a decent civilization, unlike many pretend-Americans.
Get out and vote...…. No matter who you vote for this counts!
48
All the people have to do, is compare Wisconsin, with Minnesota, which is booming and what the difference is!! Its Democrats and Independents, versus Republicans!
385
@Guess who Wow, ignorance. In MN, BOTH houses are R, although there is an issue with the and the elevation of the Speaker to LGov. In the next election, MN will elect Tim Pawlenty as Gov, and will probably dump Tina the Imposter from the Senate. MN is going R, not D.
3
@Guess who Sorry to burst your bubble, but both houses of the Minnesota legislature are controlled by the Republicans. The Governor is a Democrat.
1
2 terms as Governor is enough for anyone in either party, period.
174
@Rumplestilskin It's 2 terms too many for Walker.
2
Reading anything about the political situation in the state where I've lived almost half my life leaves me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach these days, but I'm glad to see coverage of Wisconsin in the Times.
Kathleen Vinehout would make a great governor; it's a shame she doesn't have better name recognition statewide. Her constituents (I am one) know she is a smart, compassionate, pragmatic leader in the best tradition of what Wisconsin used to be; a state that cared about public education, family farms, protecting the environment, and working for the common good of all the people.
I have no idea how the November elections will play out, but whatever the outcome, for me personally it may be too late. I'm working hard on finding a way to get my family (and the small business we've operated for more than twenty years) out of Wisconsin and into a part of the world which feels better aligned with my values.
I feel for the friends and colleagues I may soon leave behind, and wish them the best in their long battle for the soul of Wisconsin.
Forward.
328
@aI'm very sorry to hear that you've decided to leave Wisconsin. I've committed to remaining in Ohio after living all over the country and world. It breaks my heart to see the non-stop assault on our still beautiful land. I hope you rethink your decision, but I do understand. Living on the West Coast is like being on a different planet compared to the dark red mid-West.
69
@a
My extended family and I are all looking at Minnesota--and still angry about losing Al Franken. I will hold my nose and vote for Tammy Baldwin, but I no longer respect her.
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@a
Where will you be going? Could you leave a few clues for the rest of us??
This election may end up turning on different issues than the traditional economic ones. This issues of social justice, healthcare for all, clean government, and environmental protection may be more powerful than the low unemployment rate. And we need to ask what is being done to create this low unemployment rate? Is Foxconn the future we want to build? I don't think so. I hope not. We are going to have an answer to these questions in the Fall.
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