wisconsin – Page 12

Wisconsin Recall Elections, Take Two.

Jim Holperin against Kim Simac (R) in the 12th district; Bob Wertz against Jonathan Steitz (R) in the 22nd. Of the two, Holperin is considered to be more vulnerable; but the Democrats’ failure to win back the Senate last week has put this election – and the Wisconsin Democratic long-term agenda generally – on the back burner*. Which is entertaining enough, in its way – then again, there’s something deep, dark, and not very nice in the human psyche that enjoys watching an enemy run across a field at full tilt, only to step on a rake. Put another way: from the GOP’s point of view, this is mostly about trying to make the EPIC FAIL of the Democrats’ even more obvious than it is already**.

Anyway, still looking for the AP link for the results: but you’ll be able to see them here (via Legal Insurrection) in the meantime.

Moe Lane (crosspost) Continue reading Wisconsin Recall Elections, Take Two.

#rsrh The Kaus is cruel. (With additional netroot desperation!)

Mind you, Mickey is going to be cruel every time a labor union cries; that man is one of the most stubborn Democrats that I’ve ever seen, and I’m from a Boston Irish Catholic background.

Extra points for Mickey’s link to dKos’s we-totally-won-and-I-hate-grapes-anyway post; I normally wouldn’t link over there, but watching Moulitsas be desperate enough to try to actually recruit a Wisconsin Republican Senator to the losing side has a certain raddled charm to it. Besides, it’s going to be darned difficult to laugh at those people today if I don’t throw some of them links…

Moe Lane

PS: There’s another round of recalls next week. Us winning there too will help us rack up a nice score.

WI Democrats make (illiterate) threats to news organization.

Said threats being made by one Graeme Zielinski, communications director (his title will be funny in a moment; trust me) for the Wisconsin Democratic party – and my, but did he ever communicate! And more than Zielinski really intended to, methinks.

Background information: there’s a site called WisconsinReporter.com. They apparently cover Wisconsin local politics – of which there’s been quite a bit lately that’s been of interest on a national level, of course – and earlier in the week the site reported on an interview that Governor Scott Walker did with the Heritage Foundation. In the process of that article, WisconsinReporter.com noted two things:

Wisconsin reportedly added 9,500 jobs in June. This is technically the same number as half the net jobs created nationwide in the US (direct comparisons are really sort of… imprecise).
And that Zielinski was – in the process of using language that, while not actually profane, was not exactly professional – touting Illinois’s job-creation credentials, despite the fact that Illinois reportedly lost a net 18,900 jobs in June.

So far, so… not really that much of a thing, is it? Certainly not something that would spark a threat of going after press credentials. At least, not something that would spark a threat that would be made by normal people. Continue reading WI Democrats make (illiterate) threats to news organization.

#rsrh WI unions begin to discover market forces.

And it’s not a moment too soon. The Wisconsin State Journal tries to put a nice face on the situation – possibly out of pity – but the basic message of this article on WI public sector unions adjusting to the end of automatic dues collection is pretty clear: a significant proportion of public sector union members don’t consider membership worth the price. The only numbers of retained dues-payers that the article could get on the record were from two local ones, and those numbers are 50% to 70%; as Legal Insurrection helpfully points out, that works out to a dropout rate of between 30% and 50% percent. And who here thinks that, if the unions had a 90% dues retention rate, that they wouldn’t be bragging about that?

I’ll just end by noting this: I don’t really know how next week’s recall elections are going to go – at least, not with 100% certainty. But it’s just not feeling like DOOM is onrushing for the Wisconsin GOP…

Wisconsin labor union reform: saving jobs, money, schools.

There is a striking (if you’ll pardon the pun) dichotomy taking shape in the Wisconsin public school system right now, and it’s one that should hardly be surprising to anybody who was paying attention to this spring’s labor union reform struggles. Said dichotomy is as follows:

School districts that were able to institute Scott Walker’s & the GOP’s reforms to collective bargaining procedures have generally been able to balance their school budgets for the year without layoffs. In fact, at least one district that was on the verge of instituting layoffs will be able to avoid that.
School districts that were not able to institute those reforms – for whatever reasons – will not be avoiding layoffs.

The Weekly Standard article linked to above lists Milwaukee (354 teachers fired) and Kenosha (212 teachers to be laid off). The first example is particularly noteworthy because: a), Milwaukee had had to fire an additional 482 teachers in 2010; and b), the Milwaukee school board estimates that it could rehire at least 200 of their teachers if the union simply agreed to instituting employee contributions to their own pensions (5.8%). The union (in the form of its president Bob Peterson*) refused, of course. They’re rather defensive about it, too – which is nice; I always like to see admissions of shame and remorse, even if it’s just being restricted to subconscious attitudes. Continue reading Wisconsin labor union reform: saving jobs, money, schools.

The Wisconsin redistricting maps are out.

Alternate title: Wisconsin Gutter War expands.

There is a gutter war going on right now in Wisconsin, by the way. It’s not one that the Republicans there started, but darned if they’re not grimly intent on finishing it – and for anybody who might be upset at that notion, let me remind you of something: oddly enough, when you threaten a man or woman’s family, it’s rare that he or she will… just shrug that off later. The more typical response usually involves the phrase ‘put down like mad dogs.’

Of course that statement, while true, is perhaps a little melodramatic for this situation: Wisconsin state legislators have merely put out the likely new redistricting maps. Normally, it’s the federal one that would get the most ink or pixels, but the state legislative one will probably get touched upon in the media, too (for reasons that will be made clear)… Continue reading The Wisconsin redistricting maps are out.

#rsrh Tammy Baldwin (D, WI) to run for WI-SEN?

For those who have forgotten, Herb Kohl…

Kohl. Herb Kohl. The senior Senator from Wisconsin? Yes, Wisconsin has two Senators. I know, I know: you’d never realize it from the news or anything, but they actually had more than one. It’s a constitutional requirement, in fact.

…at any rate, Kohl is retiring in ’12 (or at least, won’t be showing up for work anymore), which means that the seat he occupies is of interest for the first time in decades. Russ Feingold was assumed to be the front-runner for it, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that Feingold losing to Ron Johnson has snapped the former’s political will like a rotten branch, so there’s an opportunity for the ambitious. It’s sort of what like what happens when a tree falls in a dense forest; the sudden influx of sunlight can cause rapid growth among the stunted saplings that had hitherto been denied the res0urces needed to thrive*. One such sapling is Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who is apparently on the cusp of running. Continue reading #rsrh Tammy Baldwin (D, WI) to run for WI-SEN?

#rsrh Please don’t do fake apologies, #p2.

If you hate us, you hate us. Some of you dream of violence against Republicans, if only you had the nerve. Don’t insult our intelligence by pretending otherwise; and, in particular, don’t take your later obligation to apologize as actually being an opportunity to continue to be a partisan schmuck. Well, sure, nobody can stop you from doing that last bit, but then nobody can stop you from dropping your pants in public and attempting to then dance the can-can.

I mean, seriously, Graeme Zielinski, Communications Director for the Wisconsin Democratic party. Are you not just the tiniest bit old to be pretending to be a tough guy?

Wisconsin school district now stable, thanks to Scott Walker et al.

Oh, that awful Scott Walker and his awful union reform law. It’s been devastating; I mean, look at just one school district affected by the Republican-passed law! The Kaukauna School District was already laboring under a $400,000 deficit; now, ‘thanks’ to Scott Walker and the Republican party, they’re now stuck with a $1,500,000 surplus! That means more work for the hiring department! That means that they’re going to have to gut the average class size! That means that the school district will probably now be able to get away with instituting the hideously unfair program of… merit pay!

Yes, I’m being sarcastic; this is actually great news. Most of the savings are taking place from teachers facing a slight increase in their contributions to their health care (still well below the average private sector contribution, mind you) and the institution of a modest contribution to their pension funds. They’ve also had their work week bumped up – to forty hours – and they’re up to six out of seven periods teaching a day, instead of five. Yes, this kind of fiddling was what Big Labor in Wisconsin went to the wall to to prevent. Well, that and monopoly pricing: Continue reading Wisconsin school district now stable, thanks to Scott Walker et al.

#rsrh Supreme Court Fight Club Watch: 06/28/2011.

Not much to report on this, except that:

NRO has a report on the entire Bradley attack that looks… about like how I thought it happened, really. Short version: Bradley wigged out, Prosser was defending himself, the Left needs to just deal with it. Not to mention, zip their pants back up.
Ann Althouse has just discovered that proper feminists are apparently supposed to simply parrot whatever narrative that the Democrats need them to parrot; if they don’t, they get to be attacked by hyper-progressive men! Who generally seem… to really get into it, IYKWIMAITTYD.
Joy McCann (now of The Conservatory) is having none of that, by the way. I add this link mostly for the H/Ts, and to encourage my readers to check out Joy’s new digs.