I'm so excited this morning I forgot to finish my coffee! Apparently former State Senator Pat Kreitlow is sending up some of those trial balloons for a 2012 attempt to unseat MTV wunderkind Sean Duffy. Duffy, you will recall, is the one having a tough time making it 174 grand a year, while pretending to be someone fit to sit in Dave Obey's seat.
And yes, I am excited. Pat Kreitlow, while not the old-style liberal that Obey is, is still a gifted speaker with some mad political skills and common sense positions. Everyone I know is still dumbfounded that Kreitlow somehow lost his seat in the 2010 Tea Party melée. He was actually really, really good.
Here's the local news item about Kreitlow's current exploration of a run. One potential mouse turd in the Skippy is if GOPers, wary of someone like Kreitlow, redistrict him out of the the 7th Congressional District and into the 3rd, which is ably served by Ron Kind. Certainly, that particular border had bounced north and south over the years.
More about Kreitlow below.
"Democrats have got to stop playing defense"
The following is an excerpt from a 2008 rally diary: "You're Freaks". This following Kreitlow's powerful campaign to unseat local GOP color, Dave Zien in 2006. He addressed the crowd as a state senator who had been engaged and proactive. No doubt he would have been one of the Fab 14, had he just a little more re-election luck.
At right 23rd District State Senator Pat Kreitlow talks to a young rallygoer. Kreitlow, a former WEAU news anchor, took out the very colorful, popular and kooky Dave Zien in 2006. It was an exciting campaign, Kreitlow was a good candidate, and I think most people were grateful to be rid of an 18-year senate veteran known mainly for grandstanding on God, guns and gays rather than substantive legislation. Kreitlow, on the other hand is an active author of legislation, according to his colleague, Bob Jauch.
Kreitlow recapped his calling to politics. It was election night, 2004, and he told his wife, "I can't believe this. I can't stand this." and got involved because "the Democrats have got to stop playing defense."
He talked about local races, including the case of ex-Republican Jeff Woods (67th Assembly District), who realized that his fellow Republicans stood only for the lobbies, not his ideals. While he became an independent rather than a Democrat, Woods votes will frequently help the Democrats, who stand to take over the Assembly this year anyhow.
Echoing what others said about Sarah Palin's potshot at community organizers, Kreitlow talked about community organizers. Crediting an e-mail correspondent, he said, "Jesus Christ was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor. Martin Luther King was a community organizer. George Wallace was a governor. And Barack Obama was a community organizer. George W. Bush was a governor."
"Snide sarcasm read off a TelePrompTer is easy," Kreitlow added.
He exhorted the crowd to get out make history, not just witness it, because they were in a good position to help the Obama-Biden ticket. "You're freaks," he said to laughter. "You're not like the rest who tune out politics. Things trickle through to them. You will need to get engaged with them and talk." Democrats need to refute the rumors with fact and, borrowing a line from Clinton, "Make sure you tell people to vote your hopes, not your fears."
The crowd stood for Kreitlow, too.
I guess he was only half right about Jeff Woods, whose legislative career went, ahem, up in smoke, but whatever.
2006 interview with Kreitlow
I had the opportunity to ask Kreitlow some questions when he put his hat in the ring against Dave Zien. Here are some excerpts:
Rationale for running
I decided to run for State Senate after years of frustration seeing our elected officials take no significant action on two moral issues. First, the growing number of people suffering for lack of health care security. No one in America should be just have to worry about financial ruin because of one illness, one accident or one layoff. Yet 45 million Americans do have those kind of worries. That's a moral failing on the part of our leaders, many of whom took office a decade ago claiming they had better ideas for health care access. It turns out they didn't, otherwise more than 300,000 Wisconsin residents wouldn't be without health insurance right now.
The other great moral failing of today's career politicians in Madison revolves around education. An educated workforce is the cornerstone of a growing economy. And yet today's legislative leaders have made education a villain. They paint teachers as greedy. They paint public schools --Wisconsin public schools!-- as an enemy that needs to be replaced by a model based on corporate profits. When politicians deride the value of a good education, it's time for the politicians to go.
On life lessons and ethics
I bring my life's experiences that include growing up in a poor family dependent on welfare, working hard in public schools, attending UW-Eau Claire and rising through the ranks to the job I held at TV-13 for so many years. It's a story that illustrates the value of good schools and hard work, but also reminds people that without a certain level of safety nets for children in poor families, they will never be able to attain the kind of success that anyone in America should be able to dream of.
On hot-button issues
[C]ommon sense tells us that instead of being fixated on personal pet issues that affect almost no one, our officials should be paying attention to making health care more affordable, bring stability to school funding, reducing the corrupting influence of special interests on our politicians, and making sure corporate polluters aren't running roughshod over our natural resources. I'm not seeing that from our current legislative leaders.
On the decline of clean government in Wisconsin
Nothing really "happened" so much as one party gained so much control (at the state and national levels) that it repeated what has always happened in American history when one party gets entrenched: it starts doing anything it can to stay that way. And when it starts bending or breaking the rules in that quest for cash, the voters eventually recognize it and make a change.
On redistricting
We also have to do more to ensure that redistricting remains as fair a process as possible. What Tom DeLay did in Texas was so far past the line that it serves as a wake-up call in Wisconsin and elsewhere to make sure no one person or party can abuse the rights of voters to fairly choose their representatives in Congress and the legislature.
New energy realities
Governor Doyle and others have already taken the lead in declaring that Wisconsin will be a leader in attaining more of its future energy from renewable resources. Unlike certain politicians who work so hard to protect "Big Oil," I remember the energy crisis of the mid-70s, and I'm dedicated to making sure that Wisconsin continues to be a leader in researching new technologies and more efficient ways to use energy.
On education and the Wisconsin Idea
The "Wisconsin Idea" is alive, but it's not well. It's been endangered by lawmakers who fail to value the UW as our state's economic engine and its primary research vehicle for creating the next generation of jobs, workers and inventions. That does not mean we back up the money truck and bankrupt the treasury. It means we spend wisely including and especially in the area of financial aid so that Wisconsin's best and brightest stay in Wisconsin, work in Wisconsin and eventually create jobs in Wisconsin.
So . . .
What do you think of "Congressman Pat Kreitlow"? He's got common sense, a common touch, wonderful communication skills, legislative experience, political savvy, and as far as I know, his wife, a local physician, doesn't insult cheese or fly sushi in for the holidays.