Media Criticism

One of the great myths promoted by mainstream media is that most Congressional races are out of reach for challengers. The reason why most voters don’t select challengers is that they do not have ready access to information on these candidates. Many candidates for state offices cannot afford a full-time operation including storefront offices, updated websites and street teams. Every voter should be willing to conduct their own candidate research but media outlets do not make the task any easier.

I will use the race for Wisconsin’s First Congressional District as an example. Every analyst, political science professor and pundit I hear speaking about this race gives it to incumbent Paul Ryan. There is no allowance given for Ryan’s close connection to the poorly-held George W. Bush (more lap dog than friend) nor the vigorous debate going on among candidates for the Democratic primary in September.

Two of the four challengers, Marge Krupp and Paulette Garin, have websites as well as support from local organizations. Nine-time candidate Dr. Jeff Thomas and second-time candidate Mike Herbert do not have a Web presence at the writing of this post. Krupp has help from a professional political consultant though her goal for $1 million before the general election seems unlikely. The four Democratic candidates held a debate in Elkhorn (about an hour southwest of Milwaukee) in late February that received little attention. The fact that Paul Ryan is given the election eight months ahead of Election Day has not stopped people for going door-to-door for all four candidates.

I think Marge Krupp will end up winning the Democratic primary due to the desire (almost desperation) for a polished candidate to face off against Ryan. I like Paulette Garin due to her stances on health care and Iraq but the momentum seems to favor Krupp. The general election will be tough to win for Krupp but I think she will give the incumbent a tough race. I think that Krupp may benefit from the trend toward Democrats at the top of the ballot including stories by local newspapers and TV stations about up-and-coming candidates. In the end, I hope that Ryan can be deposed from his position by a vice-presidential bid or a successful candidacy by one of these Democratic candidates if only to prove that incumbency is not king.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has been the subject of some heated elections over the past two years. The 2006 contest between Linda Clifford and Annette Ziegler involved a commercial comparing Clifford to a werewolf and allegations that Ziegler ruled in cases where she had conflicts of interest. The 2008 Supreme Court race between Michael Gableman and Louis Butler is exposing the same problems as the Clifford-Ziegler showdown.

The videos above and below are attack ads by non-partisan groups in support of a Supreme Court candidate. The Greater Wisconsin Committee ad shown above indicates that Gableman has been appointed to judiciary positions in the past through political favors and overt partisanship by a flailing Republican Party. Wisconsin Club for Growth is playing up Butler’s work as a public defender to show that Gableman will prosecute rapists, murders and thieves to the fullest extent of the law.

The natural tendency in assigning blame for these third-party ads is complaining about money in politics. It is important to look at the idea of electing judges to short terms (10 years) when looking at the infiltration of partisanship in a non-partisan position. Wisconsin’s choice to elect state Supreme Court justices is flawed from the start. Every nonpartisan election down to the school board features some elements of partisanship. Voters in states like Wisconsin where justices are elected instead of appointed need to blame the causes instead of the symptoms of ugly politics.

I dislike the election of state Supreme Court justices because it favors a greater evil to remedy the lesser evil of judicial insulation from long-term cultural changes. I prefer a court insulated from all outside influences even if some members are appointed by governors who oppose my political beliefs. I think that incumbent Louis Butler will win on April 1st if only because Gableman has resorted to ugly ads using his own money (I am efforting a copy of a Gableman ad where Butler and a criminal are placed side-by-side).

The Eighth Congressional District in Wisconsin was one of the targeted races during the 2006 midterm elections. The seat was opened when Representative Mark Green ran for governor in the same year and lost. Dr. Steve Kagen, a millionaire allergist from the Fox Valley, defeated Republican candidate and former State Assembly Speaker John Gard by a narrow margin. The narrow margin of victory for Kagen means that Republicans will push to regain the seat in the 2008 election.

John Gard is running once again for the seat which represents Green Bay and portions of the Fox Valley. This area has expanded rapidly over the last few years as the Fox Valley becomes an important business corridor in the state. I lived in Green Bay from birth through college graduation and know that the area is inherently conservative. Kagen and other Democrats who have run in the area lean toward the middle to gather up the votes of Democrats and disgruntled Republicans. This moderation is beneficial as part of a party sweep through local, state and federal bodies. The problem with being a moderate Republican or Democrat in a tight race is taking advantage of the top of the ticket.

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and DNC Chairman Howard Dean can speak about appealing to voters outside of the party all they want. Voters who chose Democrats in 2006 may vote for the party’s presidential candidate but turn against lower office holders. Gard has a number of factors on his side in 2008: money from a desperate party, maverick voters in every part of the Badger State and the virtue of not having a vote in Congress the last two years. Kagen has been less than impressive as a rookie representative and the Congressional Democrats may be overconfident in their assessment of the fall races. I think that the race will come down to a few hundred votes and Gard will emerge the victor.

I wrote last week about my experience on the partisan side of politics so I thought it would be good to show that I am a non-partisan observer at heart. I spent my entire day immersed in the Wisconsin primary starting with my work at the polls in Franklin, Wisconsin and ending with some result collection in Pewaukee which is a suburb 25 minutes outside of downtown Milwaukee. These experiences offer an interesting view of the electoral process from the inside out.

Wisconsin has relaxed rules on balloting, registration and identification at the polls. I know that some electors in Franklin were surprised that they did not need to show an ID card to check-in at the polls. You can use any identifying document with your current address to register at the polls. These lax rules may give the impression that our polling place was messy, chaotic and unruly. The hard work of people like Sue, Bill, Kurt and Bob helped keep Ken Windl Park humming along efficiently. I left at 5:00pm and we had nearly a third of our electors through the polls with the busiest three hours ahead.

My work as a precinct reporter for Edison Media Research involved traveling out to Pewaukee to pick up optical scan results for both party primaries. This polling place was less-used than the Franklin station but the election inspectors were great at dealing with a late rush of traffic before 8:00pm closing. I had some interesting conversations with voters as the polls were closing about matters more sophisticated than who we voted for. My experience at the polls today was positive from start to finish and I am heartened that my fellow Wisconsinites are willing to take up the responsibilities of democracy just as readily as they accept its fruits.

My intense focus on the presidential race this early in the process has made me feel like other aspects of political media are being neglected. I live in Franklin, Wisconsin, which is a suburb of Milwaukee and there is plenty going on in the area that gets short shrift from the media. Wisconsin’s role as the fountainhead for progressivism in America seems to go unnoticed by local media which prefers to cover American Idol and the Super Bowl (which our Packers aren’t even in!).

While the Milwaukee City Attorney’s office does not carry a high profile, the spring race is developing an acidic tone. I will give credit to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel politics blog for covering this race though it is a critical position in dealing with police corruption, civil rights issues and other legal problems that deserve more attention. The reason why this race is interesting and emblematic of problems in communities across the country is that incumbent Grant Langley agreed to debate challenger Pedro Colon but refused to show up to the first debate this past week. The absence is rife with the symbolism of incumbency.

There are several issues covered by the city’s alternative newspaper, The Shepherd Express ¸ that need pressing attention on a grand scale. This paper’s reporters highlighted the obfuscation by Republican legislators of a bill approved in the State Assembly providing expedited medical assistance to rape victims. Columnist Joel McNally provided a view of the city’s reprehensible approach to corrections facilities with medium-security prisons using guard dogs to intimidate people awaiting trial. These issues show one of the failings of state government which is a consideration of demographics and broad brush strokes instead of the real applications of law.