My pappy raised his son to be magnanimous in victory and gracious in defeat, damn him.
So your conservative blogger is licking his wounds the morning after the Spring election and plotting his revenge.
About the County Board. I predicted a pick-up of one seat for the moderate-conservatives. I stand corrected by the voters. We lose one seat.
We left Dale Suslick's Monona seat unprotected but picked up Rich Pertzborn's seat in Stoughton. All hail Cynda Solberg. With a name like Solberg, how could she lose in Stoughton? Solberg was one of the pick-ups I predicted. But my good friend Ruth Ann Schoer tasted defeat after 16 years of service. She was the longest-serving member except for Dave Ripp in rural Middleton.
It gets harder and harder to campaign, believe me, I know.
Congratulations to Ronn Ferrell in the South Gammon Road district. Ronn will be a more reliable vote for the moderate-conservative caucus than the unpredictable Richard Brown. Then going south into District 14 -- don't count winner Melanie Hampton as a slam dunk for Kathleen Falk. Like her predecessor, Mike Hanson, Melanie is a uniformed police officer. She'll caucus with the moderate-conservatives but will be a little to the left of Mike.
As for my man Dave Glomp, he promises to be back in two years. He is a great individual who raised issues that needed to be raised.
Here are Tuesday's election results -- read 'em and weep.
The Kathleen
Tuesday's election reinforces my conclusion that The Kathleen is the political boss of Dane County. That is said with due respect. She is this county's Tommy Thompson -- with a firm grip on the enviros, the unions, and the Democrats and with a working relationship with the Progs. Sheriff David Mahoney pays obeisance. She has a political love affair with State Journal editor Ellen Foley. The wife of WISC editorialist and Madison Magazine editor Neil Heinen is a campaign contributor. Mayor Dave Cieslewicz remains in her shadow. Of the state legislative delegation, only Mark Pocan has some measure, although certainly lesser, of her clout.
The Kathleen is not only cunning but adroit:
- Something like 20 communities have criticized the heavy handed approach of the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission (CARPC). Including Madison! That is Kathleen all the way, but she deflects criticism to others.
- There is deep uncertainty about releasing ever more offenders into the community on ankle bracelets -- concern that is shared by the judiciary and the deputies themselves. It is clearly driven by Kathleen's long-standing aim to balance her budget on the back of public safety, against which Rick Raemisch and then Gary Hamblin offered resistance. No such pushback from the new sheriff and it will be he, not her, that suffers from the plan's failure.
- The regional transit authority was rushed into action on the County Board floor, with vague promises of a referendum somewhere down the line that could be decided by university students. On that hot potato, board chairman Scott McDonell is the point man.
Wait till next year!
On the other side, the conservative-moderate movement remains deeply divided. That's our dirty little secret. And the business community -- aside from the shelter industry (God bless them) sits on its hands.
The Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce promises to get involved -- next time. But it had better start looking for someone to challenge Kathleen Falk. She is up one year from now.
That person can be a game-changer, reaching far and wide outside county politics into state legislative races, Madison and other city councils.
There is justice, after all
And his name is Mike Gableman -- he the man! Unseating a sitting justice, his campaign was more toxic than it needed to be. (But so was WEAC.) He had the goods on Louis Butler, whom I've met -- both on crime and on civil tort issues.
