The Nov. 6 election has been analyzed to death, but lost in the post-mortem is a bright spot for conservatives that’s gone largely uncovered. President Obama won the Electoral College handily, but did not get the mandate he wanted based on popular vote. However, there was a mandate for Governor Walker and the GOP-controlled legislature.
The Red Tsunami of 2010 brought about a new breed of conservatives who went to Madison and began to work immediately. Instead of constituents’ requests falling on deaf ears, Wisconsinites saw a new relationship between themselves and their legislators. The people asked and the legislature delivered collective bargaining reform, concealed-carry, voter ID, an end to state funding of Planned Parenthood, along with numerous changes to state law showing the rest of the country that we are, indeed, open for business.
The June 5 recall results were an affirmation of their achievements and Nov. 6 was a mandate for them to carry on with their work.
For those still baffled by Tommy Thompson’s loss to Tammy Baldwin in the US Senate race, there is a real lesson to be learned.
Near the end of a hard-fought primary season, the establishment broke for Tommy Thompson in a big way and we were assured of two things: 1) Tommy Thompson was the only one who could definitely beat Tammy Baldwin, and 2) No matter who won the nomination, the money would be there. On Aug. 14 it was clear that many bought into this and Tommy Thompson was nominated.
Hindsight is 20/20, but both assertions were horribly wrong. Although not finalized, the numbers show that Mitt Romney received about 30,000 more votes that Tommy Thompson and Thompson only fared .5 percent better against Baldwin than Romney did against Obama. We all know that by the end of the primary, and again shortly before the general election, the Thompson campaign was out of money. Lack of money wasn’t the only reason he lost.
If not just money, then what was wrong with Tommy Thompson as our nominee? I believe he ran for the right reasons—with sincere concerns about the fiscal cliff and the impact of Obamacare. The real problem was that the 80s and 90s establishment stepped in for him during the last days before the primary. Maybe they bought the arguments that he was unbeatable and that he’d be well-funded, but I can’t help but wonder if they also had a sense of indebtedness to Tommy Thompson for what he did as governor and for the careers he helped to launch.
By backing Thompson, the establishment ignored the types of legislators we sent to Washington (and Madison) for the first time in 2010 and disregarded the strides we made in 2010 toward unapologetic, Constitutional conservatism. We ended up with Tammy Baldwin.
Don't worry--I do not own any firearms and don't have any plans to do so. I do strongly support the right to own weapons and carry though. I grew up in a rural area with no local police jurisdiction. Fortunately crime wasn't an issue for us at the time, but I can recognize that there are situations where one would be better off providing their own security rather than relying on the police...
There is little doubt that Baldwin falls into the far left category. Thompson, and his campaign, allowed her to set the agenda and tone of this election. He let her sell herself to the voters as the moderate candidate. To hear her commercials, you would have thought that she was the fiscal conservative. I don't think that this state is conservative. But its not liberal either. For the most part, its somewhere in between, and that's why it seems almost schizophrenic at times with how it votes. And that's why I think this was a winnable seat, with a better candidate and/or campaign. Oh, once last aside. Whoever thought it was a good idea to run that horrible Thompson commercial with him riding a Harley and trying to look tough, needs to never work in politics again. Can't really sell yourself as a Schwarzenegger tough guy when you are probably closer to Jerry Lewis.
http://www.ncsl.org/legislatures-elections/elections/voter-id-2011-legislation.aspx
1) With Obama as the presidential candidate, you get unusually large democratic turnout from constituencies that historically don't turn out in such numbers. It's not racist, it's a fact. You can go back and examine turnout in total from 2008 from predominantly black communities across the nation overall and compare them to previous races. 2012's numbers probably follow suit. If you up the number of Democrats voting, Democrats win. Simple as that. 2) It's Tommy. He's not an appealing candidate on, frankly, any level. He's got a history here of running (or threatening to) run in just about any race that'll garner him some attention. His command of the English language is horrible. He sounds like the guy you rent cottages from up in Herman's Landing. On a good day, he looks like 40 miles of bad backwoods macadam. He came off as darn near brain damaged in the debates. Frankly, all Tammy had to do was show up and not look nuts to win.
So Bud had some real chutzpah sticking his hand out to the taxpayers for his spiffy new stadium some ten or fifteen years later. They count on us not remembering these things.
If you've got a really long memory you might remember, as well, the whole cable franchise horse race and stories about grand pianos being bestowed upon certain individuals by TWC (which I believe was just Warner Cable back then) at the time. One of the more peculiar incentives I can recall.
And yeah, there was a lot of behind the scenes politics but no pianos. They were on a shoe-string at the beginning.
http://www.putnampit.com/milwaukeepress/Warner.htm If you read down through it, you get to this: The next week, Ald. Kevin O’Connor denied receiving an $1,800 campaign contribution from Warner, but he did acknowledge he got “about a grand a piece” from Warner’s registered lobbyists Robert Friebert and John Finerty. Now, based on the time this was occurring, it would have been right around the end of my drinking career so it's entirely possible I mistook, or someone I hung with at the time heard and mistook "about a grand a piece" for "a grand piano". It certainly wouldn't have been the oddest mistake I made at that point in time.
The technology has changed since then. There are no more antennas on that tower -- just satellite dishes.