Tag: tom barrett

Preparing for Tuesday’s Day of DOOM in Wisconsin.

Some interesting happenings at today’s Wisconsin’s Brown County Dairy Breakfast*:

[Democratic gubernatorial recall candidate Tom] Barrett was greeted warmly by some of the breakfast-goers — at least one man told him Barrett he was voting for him, prompting Barrett to joke, “Give him a lot of really good food” — but others reacted differently, telling Barrett they were voting for [Republican Governor Scott] Walker and not shaking his hand when he extended it.

Asked if he got this kind of reaction when he ran against Walker in 2010, Barrett said, “No no, this is a newer occurrence.”

Continue reading Preparing for Tuesday’s Day of DOOM in Wisconsin.

#rsrh Tom Barrett’s cops arrest peaceful protester at Clinton’s (sparse?) WI rally.

Gotta love Milwaukee – and Milwaukee’s Democratic mayor Tom Barrett, huh?

No, actually, you’re obliged to love him in public.  Don’t, and they throw you in the hoosegow.  More from Buzzfeed:

A lone Scott Walker supporter was arrested at a campaign rally for Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett today, where Bill Clinton also spoke. The man had been arguing with rally attendees since before the rally began, and held a sign that said “Support Scott Walker, Not Union Thugs.”

After the end of Clinton’s speech, the man was taken away by police and taken to the corner of Pere Marquette Park in downtown Milwaukee as the police waited for their car to arrive.

Continue reading #rsrh Tom Barrett’s cops arrest peaceful protester at Clinton’s (sparse?) WI rally.

Tom Barrett (D CAND, WI-GOV RECALL) passes on honoring slain cops to… stump-speech the UAW. #recall

DOOM.

When it came out last week that Milwaukee mayor (and Wisconsin Democratic candidate for governor in the upcoming recall election) Tom Barrett had skipped out on two ceremonies honoring Milwaukee police officers, there was some questions about what Barrett thought could possibly be more important that going to, say, a memorial service for slain Wisconsin policemen. It probably didn’t help either that Barrett was so evasive about the answer, either – to the point of convenient memory loss. Well, it turns out that Barrett probably wanted to forget the answer of where he was doing instead of honoring fallen officers, given that the answer was… ‘making a stump speech:’

…Mayor Barrett was actually speaking at a luncheon for retired United Auto Workers in Oshkosh at the exact same time that the fallen officers memorial was taking place in Milwaukee. Barrett spoke to a room of about 50 UAW union members.

I acquired a link to the video of the event that Barrett spoke at: it is unpleasant viewing for those with both a basic ethical sense, and an awareness of the context.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amPW4UAkSLk
(Link.)

Continue reading Tom Barrett (D CAND, WI-GOV RECALL) passes on honoring slain cops to… stump-speech the UAW. #recall

#rsrh Obama’s need – or greed – forces DCCC to throw away money in Wisconsin recall election.

Well, it’s for sure that the DNC isn’t going to help.

The DCCC confirmed to Roll Call today that the committee has shifted its Badger State operation, in place to aid Democratic Congressional candidates in the fall elections, to boost the party’s effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker (R) and replace him with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Today, the DCCC today sent an email fundraising appeal asking its supporters to help underwrite its participation in the recall campaign.

The worst news for the Democrats?  In a demented way, it even makes sense.  The DCCC is struggling to regain ground in Wisconsin’s current 5/3 GOP/Democratic split: the two Republican freshmen (Sean Duffy and Reid Ribble) are the only ones really vulnerable this go-round, and even then only in relative terms.  If the latest batch of Wisconsin recall elections end as mind-bogglingly disastrously for the Democrats as it’s currently looking, then the DCCC will not only find themselves not even close to winning back either seat; they might even be stuck worrying about Ron Kind’s again*.  So they’ve got a stake in the recalls. Continue reading #rsrh Obama’s need – or greed – forces DCCC to throw away money in Wisconsin recall election.

“Who was that lady I saw you with last night,” Tom Barrett? #wirecall

…Oh, relax: it’s an old vaudville/movie routine.  You know: “That was no lady: that was my wife.”  Yeah, that one’s older than my parents, let alone me.  Still: why exactly did Democratic Wisconsin recall gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett shrug off ceremonies honoring Milwaukee policemen this week?  Including one on Wednesday that honored Milwaukee cops slain in the line of duty?  I ask… well, mostly because I figure that the answer is going to embarrass Tom Bartlett; but also because Barrett likes to talk a lot about how Governor Scott Walker is supposedly campaigning at the expense of his job.  Which makes Walker’s presence at a function that Barrett was absent from – we can all agree that honoring slain Milwaukee policemen is part of the job of Mayor of Milwaukee, surely? – somewhat, well, awkward.

Hey!  That describes the Wisconsin Democratic party’s current rhetorical position, too!  It’s all cyclic, isn’t it…

Continue reading “Who was that lady I saw you with last night,” Tom Barrett? #wirecall

Gov. Scott Walker (R, WI) brings in a budget surplus! #wirecall

Second year running.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s administration said Thursday that its new revenue projections show the state will finish the 2011-2013 budget years with a surplus rather than the deficit predicted earlier this year.

The projections were based on stronger-than-anticipated personal income growth last year, Walker officials said. The numbers could give the governor a boost as he heads into a June 5 recall election against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

Gee, you think?

Continue reading Gov. Scott Walker (R, WI) brings in a budget surplus! #wirecall

The DOOM that came to Wisconsin Democrats.

Here are the final results of last night’s primary contest, and presumably a variant of this[***] will end up on Democratic political operatives’ desks across the breadth of Wisconsin:

Barrett 390,109
Falk 228,940
Vinehout 26,926
La Follette 19,461
Huber 4,842
Total 670,278
Walker 626,538

Note that that total does not include the almost 20K of ‘Republican’ votes accumulated by ‘Republican’ Arthur Kohl-Riggs, given that the use of square quotes in both cases is justified.: he’s not a Republican, and neither were his supporters. And let me make this one point: Kohl-Riggs demonstrates why I don’t really believe in strategic opposite-side voting and/or Operation Chaos-style shenanigans.  I am not convinced that such things worked, and yesterday’s results seems to back me up on that. Yes, I know that Republican spoiler Isaac Weix came in second in the LT-GOV primary recall (which is why nobody on the Left is bring that race’s total voters up); but I should note that he did not, in point of fact, actually win. Continue reading The DOOM that came to Wisconsin Democrats.

#rsrh WI-RECALL update: Barrett, Falk acting like… Wisconsin Democrats, actually.

The Democratic Wisconsin recall primary battle continues to show all of the dignity and maturity levels of a high school Prom C0mmittee slap-fight:

A prominent Democratic Party leader is warning gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Falk not to go negative in her primary campaign against her rival Tom Barrett. Falk says she won’t change her strategy.

Dave Obey served in Congress for 41 years, and now supports Tom Barrett in the primary. Wednesday, Obey reacted to published reports that Kathleen Falk, behind in the polls, is going to take aim at Barrett.

Seriously, here’s a thematic translation of all of this: Continue reading #rsrh WI-RECALL update: Barrett, Falk acting like… Wisconsin Democrats, actually.

WI-GOV Recall Democrats running on… property tax hikes?

Wait, what?

If states are really the laboratories of democracy, then apparently Wisconsin is the place where all the mad scientists go to cook up the latest abomination of science with which to terrify the populace. And one case in point is the way that the Democratic party in Wisconsin has decided to run with the novel platform of explicitly offering to raise other people’s taxes in order to maintain certain Democratic cronies’ current-but-threatened standard of living.

I simply cannot come up with a sarcastic comment worthy of that particular brainstorm.  Sorry.

But let me give you the background.  Believe it or not, average property taxes went down in Wisconsin last year for the first time in over a decade. This happened because Scott Walker and the state legislature – not being idiots – knew that if they didn’t impose strict limits on property tax increases then local governments would simply hike said taxes up in order to maintain their current (and quite unsustainable) budgetary spending. Good news, right? Continue reading WI-GOV Recall Democrats running on… property tax hikes?