I hope everyone is having a great Christmas holiday. I promised everyone that I would not blog or talk politics during Christmas. However, I feel this is too important not to share.
Now If you read any of my past diaries you probably know that I am from Wisconsin. So you know my governor is Scott Walker. If you want an honest account of what happened I suggest you read " Ringside Seat" by former State senator Tim Cullen.
In this book, he presents and analyzes the piece-by-piece dismantling of democracy in Wisconsin, that continues today. It is not about unions, it is about using the destruction of unions as a front to garner power (amazon.com review)
Even with the voter suppression tactics Donald Trump only won Wisconsin with 47% of the vote. Hardly a landslide right, take into effect that Ron Johnson only won with 50 % of the vote. Scott Walker's big campaign theme is that that he won 3 times in 4 years. Well, that is not entirely. He won 3 times in 5 years. He acts like this is a big accomplishment. What he fails to point out is that before 1970 the governor of Wisconsin only served 2-year terms instead of four. Republican Governors's Walter Kohler Jr and Warren Knowles were both elected three times in five years.
Take this into effect. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in all three elections has not cracked 53%. He is the only Wisconsin governor since the first election of Tommy Thomspon to do so. Tommy Thompson was elected by over 55% in each re-elect and Jim Doyle was re-elected with 54% over Congressman Green. So if you can't win with ideas you suppress the vote to get to 48%. That's hardly a tactic and eventually people will catch on. Although, it might take a while.
Gerrymandering.
Wisconsin legislative maps were struck down in federal court as a partisan gerrymander. So if you can't suppress the vote you pack them all into one area. In Cullen's book, he predicts that in 2016 no congressperson will win with less that 56% of the vote. Lets fact check his prediction. Ryan 65%, Pocan 69%,Kind (uncontested) Moore 77%, Sensenbrenner 67%, Grothman 57%, Duffy 62% and Gallagher 63%. Guess he was pretty close.
Open Records Law
During the last budget debate. There was a motion to curtail Wisconsin's open records law. What it boils down to is this. Governor Walker's quest for the presidency began January of 2011. Where he turned the department of commerce into a pay for play scheme. The drew lopsided maps in secret to keep control and blamed public employee unions as the cause to all of Wisconsin's problems. The problem is that with all his reform's Wisconsin still can't afford to fix its roads. He has diverted money from public schools to fund a private voucher program. As Tim Cullen says, " There have been 12 governors before Scott Walker. Six Republicans and Six Democrats and Scott Walker ignored the conventional Wisdom of all 12.
I have said since I started my writing on daily kos. We will never know how far Wisconsin will fall under Scott Walker. His whole entire tenure has been a partisan power grab. Scott Fitzgerald said this will be another tough budget, especially with the transportation issue. When will Wisconsin see that Scott Walker doesn't represent their interests?
I do recommend that you check out Tim Cullen’s book “Ringside Seat”