Power Progress

Jess King: "A Profile in Courage."

Jess King is a Progressive Majority farm team member who, with our help, was elected to the Oshkosh City Council in 2007.  Jess was a challenger in that city-wide race and she raised more money and knocked on more doors than any other candidate.  Her election, combined with the re-election of 2005 Progressive Majority farm team member Bryan Bain, helped flip the Oshkosh City Council to a progressive majority.

In an article that recently ran in the Oshkosh Northwestern, Jess is hailed as "a profile in courage" for her vote that kept the special interests and lobbyists from getting their way to use TIF funds to purchase a Chamber of Commerce building and bail the Chamber out of selling its property by feeding them public money.

Jess was the decisive vote in a 4-3 decision that sent a clear signal to the special interest groups: no more status quo.  As Northwestern editorial columnist Stew Rickman said of the vote:

"...it was an examination of the difference one person can make by taking a courageous stand.  The Oshkosh Common Council, by a 4-3 vote, stymied the special interests in town that are accustomed to getting their way by virtue of the fact that they are who they are.  And you're not."

Earlier this year Jess decided to bring her leadership skills to the State Senate .  She is running in an open seat that has been held by a conservative incumbent for twenty-one years.

Progressive Majority has been working with Jess King for over three years.  We invested in her training and development before she thought she could run for any elected office.  We mentored her and gave her strategic advice throughout her first campaign for Alderwoman.  And we are standing by her through her campaign for State Senate.

Jess King is "a profile in courage," and she exemplifies the very reason that Progressive Majority candidates are winning!  And on days like June 1, 2008, the day Jess King cast that decisive vote, we are reminded what is really at stake.  We are reminded that electing progressive leaders can bring change we can be proud of. 

Anti-Choice Web Watch

Planned Parenthood has a new website devoted to catching the anti-choice extremists in our State Legislature in the act! The site features include contemptible quotes and outrageous video clips. My favorite quote is from Representative Sheryl Albers of Reeseburg:

"Birth control for personal convenience is not medically necessary. We do not mandate coverage for massages, health spas, exercise programs, aspirin for minor headaches, or acupuncture--even though each makes our lives more comfortable and provides health benefits. As a society, we recognize these items as personal conveniences that each individual chooses to take advantage of or forego."

Equating safe access to birth control with spa treatments! You couldn’t make this stuff up! Check out the site and find out more about what conservative members of our State Legislature really think about women’s healthcare.

Conservatives Block Budget

It was a late night in the Capitol.

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's revised state budget passed the Senate but died in the Assembly late Monday, casting the Capitol impasse over taxes into a 108th day today.

…..

"The cost to operate school buses, pay heating bills and maintain roads has gone up, and lawmakers refuse to deal with it," Doyle said. "The state is spending more than we are taking in, and we will be unable to fund essential services that protect the health and safety of our citizens."

And that is exactly how Assembly conservatives will continue to mismanage the state’s finances.  Do not expect a budget anytime soon.

The early 21st Century Conservative does not believe in government.  To do anything other than to drive it into bankruptcy would be counter to conservative philosophy.  And Wisconsin’s Assembly conservatives are more than happy to sacrifice a few schools and roads to maintain ideological purity—the public be damned!

The House That Cannot Govern

It has not been all that clear up to now what has been holding up the state budget. There was the canard from the Assembly majority that if Healthy Wisconsin were just taken out of the budget there would be smooth sailing. Clearly that wasn’t the issue. Now it’s finally becoming clear what the hold-up is: the majority party in the state Assembly does not want to pass a state budget at all.

Rather than doing their jobs and doing what they were elected to do, which is to govern, they prefer to issue news releases blasting the idea of health care access for all, and paying for needed infrastructure improvements through a tax on the excess profits of oil companies.  

Two news stories and a JS Online blog posting this week made it clear what’s going on here… From the Waukesha Freeman :

Republicans are cheering the logjam…."Republicans can be proud of what we have accomplished so far," state party chairman Reince Priebus said Friday in a letter of support to Huebsch.

And this from endangered State Rep. Brett Davis, who is clearly trying to save his job, who confirms for the first time that …

"The differences in the caucus, perhaps, are the ramifications for and what will happen with no budget," said Davis, R-Oregon…I think there may be a difference of opinion as to whether or not we need a budget at all."

And from Speaker Mike Huebsch, Davis’s leader:

The chief Republican budget negotiator in the Capitol, Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem), said today he does not support plans to put new deadlines or systems in place to force the Legislature to meet the July 1 deadline to adopt a new spending plan.

So there is no doubt: the Assembly majority cannot govern. Do the voters need any more reason to flip the Assembly in 2008?

Walker to be challenged by State Senator Lena Taylor

It’s official, Scott Walker will have a serious challenger in the Milwaukee County Executive race this spring.  Milwaukee State Senator Lena Taylor filed a campaign registration statement this week. Senator Taylor has a strong record as a progressive champion in the State Capitol. Now voters in Milwaukee County will finally have a strong progressive alternative to the ultra-conservative incumbent Scott Walker. 

In a campaign statement today she promised to “restore balance, integrity, and fiscal accountability for the Milwaukee residents who depend on public service — and the taxpayers who foot the bill.” If Milwaukee County needs anything it’s a restoration of balance. I think Senator Taylor is just the person to bring it, and I’m not the only one.  Renee Crawford wrote a great blog detailing why Lena is “Taylor made for Milwaukee County” and we couldn’t agree more. If Senator Taylor’s work forwarding our progressive values in the State Legislature is any indication of the effort she is willing to give this Milwaukee County Executive race, then Walker should be afraid, very afraid.