The day that the public educators rose up against Governor Walker and Senator Fitzgerald!

As a whole, American public educators are an interesting group of individuals in a profession that is not always accurately understood or fully appreciated.   Overall, support for the educator is typically one of being loved or loathed by the general public.  In Wisconsin, public educators are under attack by Governor Scott Walker and Senator Fitzgerald who have strategically turned the public against the educators through insistent vilifications and political spun messaging.

For the past fifteen – sixteen months the educators have been verbally accosted more than any other single group of Wisconsin public sector employees, with much of the public resentment being fueled by strategic venom spewing from Governor Walker and Senator Fitzgerald.   To better understand why Governor Walker is specifically targeting educators, read my blog post, “Governor Walker's Attack on Public Educators." http://republicansforahigherroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/governor-walkers-new-powers-in-action_22.html

Sadly, Governor Walker and Senator Fitzgerald’s use of the public educators as a political target has been very effective in pitting much of the state against one another, but especially in dividing the general public against state workers – most notably the public educators.  Governor Walker and Senator Fitzgerald’s vilifications of public educators  has even went as far as to sway many otherwise education friendly parents to say derogatory comments towards the profession, including parents whose own children have been or are being greatly impacted by outstanding educators.   

I can only imagine how some readers may question, “if public educators are supposedly the targeted victim of Governor Walker’s hidden political agenda, then why are these highly educated people being so quite and taking the abuse?”  The answer has two parts to it and both are rather simple.  First off, public educators are not afforded much of any autonomy for being openly vocal about anything negative within education.  As a society we expect the educators to exemplify the epitome of making the best out of anything that life throws your way.    But not only do we the general public expect educators to be the ultimate lemonade makers, we expect school district administrators and school boards to take action if educators speak out on any particular topics, especially political ones.  We require educators to teach our children how learn and apply critical thinking skills, but we do not by any means want those same educators to be exprssing their position on matters that may go against the norm.

Secondly, educators on average are passionately driven towards helping others.  Most would give the shirt off of their own back to make a positive difference in the lives of their students.  But when it comes to standing up for themselves, educators just are not hard-wired that way.  Educators can be like a momma bear with cubs when it comes to protecting their students in the form of advocating for them.  But advocating for themselves just does not come naturally to many of these professionals.  It isn’t that they are absent of an opinion or short on a position over controversial issues.  You just do not openly hear them taking their concerns to the internet, the media, or to the local community events.   The risk of backlash is to great for these public servants to risk their employment status over, even if doing it from their own home one their own time.  It is just a normal and unwritten part of being a public educator.

With all of that said, educators are typically good about getting out and voting.  So I will be curious to see how many of the public educators in Wisconsin will take full advantage of the opportunity to finally push back against Governor Walker and Senator Fitzgerald recall election day.  Think of the poetic justice if public sector employees, specifically public educators step out in droves to cast their vote against Governor Walker and Senator Fitzgerald. 

In Senate District 13 where I live, public educators could in fact be the crucial votes that make the difference in sending Senator Fitzgerald packing.  Future history references might just call it, “The day that the public educators rose up against Governor Walker and Senator Fitzgerald!”  I hope to be rrading about that historical piece soon.

Sincerely,

Gary

Why can’t guys like Senator Fitzgerald just be open and honest with us?

This might not seem like a big deal to some of you, but I find it rather interesting that NONE of the three incumbents of the four WI Senate re-call election races made their campaign fund figures available to the public.  Ironically all three are from the same party. 

What message does this send regarding open and transparent government?  It seems to fit with many other demonstrated actions by the GOP, such as the infamous “secrecy documents” of the redistricting maps.  And these guys wonder why they are being re-called.

I expect more from my legislators than what I am seeing here, especially from my senator (Scott Fitzgerald). 

Sincerely,

Gary

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Candidates in Senate recall races reveal fundraising amounts

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/candidates-in-senate-recall-races-reveal-fundraising-amounts/article_4eb70bfc-a9e7-11e1-80c8-0019bb2963f4.html

Truth be told, Governor Walker’s nose is looking longer!

Some people put far more stock into WI Politfact than I do.  But I do find it interesting that of the fifty public comments that they have analyzed by Governor Scott Walker, that four out of every five, (yes 80%) of what he has said has a less than favorable rating. 

For a man who claims to be of ultra high integrity, (with his esteemed accolade as an Eagle Scout to back it up) Governor Scott Walker does not appear to be telling the truth according to his track record. 

According to Politifact, only six out of fifty of Governor Walker’s claims were deemed to be “True.”  You cannot even get it to twenty percent unless you add in his six claims that ranked as “Mostly True.”   To top it all off, Governor Walker had statements that easily ranked in the “Pants on Fire” category four separate times, including the one in which he said under his budget-repair bill, "collective bargaining is fully intact."

No one is perfect, but would you accept this type of dishonesty from your own children, your neighbors or even your friends?  If not, then is this really the type of moral character that we are willing to accept by a sitting governor?   If any us would be fired from work and shunned by our friends and neighbors if we were this far off, this many times with telling the truth while going around and claiming to be the epitome of truth.

Personally, I demand more honesty and integrity from my governor than what Scott Walker is demonstrating and I hope that you do as well.  I need a governor who I can believe and Poltifact is just another source that has helped to further assure me that Scott Walker is not that man.

I wonder how Senator Fitzgerald’s record looks?

Sincerely,

Gary

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Politfacts – Scott Walker’s record

http://www.politifact.com/personalities/scott-walker/

Is WI GOP paying for political yard sign rentals?

Someone passed along this link for me to read the article by Susan of Watertown, regarding the couple who were paid to put a “Stand with Walker” sign in their yard. 

Just to set the record straight, there is nothing illegal about it that I know of and paying people to put signs on their property is fair play for politics from a legal perspective.   But what about from a principle stand point?  Is this the type of election process that we desire for selecting our legislators?  What impact does it have on the quality of those actually throwing their hat in the ring for public office?

Forget about Governor Walker’s $30 million campaign fund for a minute, and take a look at someone like Senator Scott Fitzgerald in the district where I live.   Last I heard, he had close to $500,000 with over half of it from out of state, which makes me wonder just how much of it even came from within the district.  Regardless of the sources, we know that Senator Fitzgerald has more funds than any of the other three senators facing recall.  In fact, he has at least four times the available campaign funds as his opponent Lori Compas.

For those asking the question, “so what?”  Think about how unlevel the political playing field is and how daunting it would be for a non-wealthy person to get into office without being connected to some source of funding if you were to ever stand a chance at beating out a veteran incumbent.   If that incumbent had any campaign war chest at all, then the odds of a newcomer beating them out is even more unlikely under the current process.

Sadly, no matter how badly the incumbent may need to go and no matter how viable the new person was, being elected into office would be largely determined by money.   Case in point is the story conveyed in the attached article.  While some candidates are trying to campaign on a shoestring budget, guys like Senator Fitzgerald are out there passing out huge professionally designed and printed signs.  They may not be expensive, but they certainly are not free and $500,000 will buy you a lot of them to give away.  But when guys like Senator Fitzgerald and Governor Walker have the funds to pay people to put the signs on their property, the cost of the sign is not even an issue.   

I really wonder how many more signs were put up on properties because money was offered up?

Sincerely,

Gary

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Calling for polling an interesting task

http://www.wiscnews.com/bdc/news/opinion/article_f13eef7e-a623-11e1-8653-001a4bcf887a.html

Why is Governor Walker being non-compliant to open records request?

If Governor Walker’s job numbers were actually anywhere near being as good as he claims that they are, then why isn’t he jumping at the chance to comply with Rep. Richards’s open record request? 

Why not expedite the process for getting jobs numbers data to Richards ASAP so that Governor Walker can publicly further strengthen the success with job creation that he is touting? 

If Governor Walker’s claims are even half as good as he says that they are, wouldn’t it be prudent of him to ensure that this data got to Richards before June 5^th? 

Again, something else from Governor Walker that just doesn’t pass the smell test.  But maybe I am the only one that finds it odd for Governor Walker to be so non-compliant in this matter?

Sincerely,

Gary

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Rep. Richards: Walker continues to keep public in the dark about his unverified jobs numbers

http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=271104

Talk is cheap Senator Fitzgerald - stop telling us and start doing!

Wed evening Senator Fitzgerald and Democratic opponent Lori Compas engaged in a public speaking forum at the Jefferson High School auditorium, in front of a crowd of approximately 600 persons. 

The moderator presented each of the two senate candidates with an opportunity to respond to various questions submitted ahead of time from the public.  One of the questions was, “what would each of the candidates do to restore civility to state government and get it to function better politically.”

For those who know me or who have been following my blog postings, it should be rather apparent that this is a topic of great interest to me.  In fact, my last blog post, “Does Senator Fitzgerald have the leadership for Wisconsin’s future,” I share my personal experience in bringing this very topic up with Senator Fitzgerald.

From that article on my blog, it should not surprise anyone that I am incredibly skeptical when Senator Fitzgerald attempts to convince the public that he supposedly wants to move Wisconsin forward.  For one, the senator talks a good talk, but where is his demonstrated action to assure us that he is even remotely serious about anything dealing with civility or and end to the divisiveness?  Secondly, read the first few paragraphs of the attached article that contains statements by Senator Fitzgerald.  At first glance it almost seems to suggest that the senator is calling for an end to the divisiveness in our state.  But look a little closer at what he is actually saying, paying particular attention to the cleverness of his wording.  

In his statements, Senator Fitzgerald is actually dodging any personal commitments to help facilitate efforts towards bringing healing back to our state.  In fact, he is not even taking any responsibility that his actions heavily contributed to the causative and divisiveness across our state that has friends, neighbors, and family members pitted against one another and not speaking.  Instead, Senator Fitzgerald is placing the blame on the “recall process and the recall efforts” as the source for the divisiveness.  By doing so, Senator Fitzgerald is actually deceiving his constituents into believing that they are being victimized by the liberal left and that the only way to fight back is to vote for him.

Go back to the attached article from the Daily Union, and look at the response that Senator Fitzgerald gave to the question, “what would each of the candidates do to restore civility to state government and get it to function better politically?”   Where in his response do you find anything of any value that even suggests that the senator is serious about leading us back to a place of greater respect and civility?  If any of you can find it, either your eyesight or your imagination is far better than mine.

Wisconsin does need to move forward without the divisiveness, but that process will require true leadership that Senator Fitzgerald does not demonstrate.  Nor does he appear to have any genuine interest in being part of.  Senator Fitzgerald has shown me that he is no longer as interested in his constituents like myself and my family, as he is in his special interest groups and his own career.  That is why I am supporting Lori Compas on June 5^th.

Sincerely,

Gary

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Fitzgerald advises it's time to move forward

http://dailyunion.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=115&ArticleID=11683

Does Senator Fitzgerald lack leadership for Wisconsin’s future?

What will Wisconsin look like after June 5th? There is no denying that our state has been stretched, torn, and divided with friends against friends, neighbors against neighbors, and loved ones no longer speaking to one another all because of recent politics.  But does it have to continue being this way and is this what we really want for our state after the election?

When Act 10 passed and the budget was in place, I actually met with Senator Fitzgerald in his office at the Capitol.  I asked him what his plans were for guiding us back to a place of healthy civility and normalcy.   He scoffed at the question and told me that he did not have the ability to have such impact. So I reminded him that he and Governor Walker certainly had a heavy and effective hand in pitting people against one another and creating a tremendous amount of divisiveness across the state.  I am not sure why this next part surprised me, but Senator Fitzgerald never even showed any ounce of concern over my bold statement. 

The saddest part of the entire exchange was when he responded back with a callous remark indicating that he had no desire to even try brining us back to a more positive light. He expressed that he was satisfied with the accomplishments of getting Act 10 passed and the budget in place, and the means of getting that done were justified.    He then asked me what I intended to do.   I talked about my continued volunteerism in the local schools and community.  Senator Fitzgerald literally laughed at me and those who feel that such efforts make any difference.  He then told me that the only way to bring real change was to be involved in politics, not volunteering.   He told me that it was “absurd” to think that such efforts could possible make any true difference in the big picture.

In the end I left the meeting feeling deeply affirmed that Senator Fitzgerald was not at all the man who I thought that he was when I voted for him in the past.  I walked away feeling as though I had just met the devil in disguise and that I had been betrayed.  From that point forward I have continually found examples indicating that much of the extremism in the Wisconsin GOP and in the Capitol seem to have a trail back to the man who I will never vote for again.

I may not like every piece of legislation that comes along or the impact on my pocketbook, but I do expect my legislators to be genuinely respectful of the impact that their actions have on us as constituents and the culture of our great state.  Unfortunately Scott Fitzgerald has repeatedly demonstrated in actions and in words that he feels differently.  The more that I reach out to him and the more that I pay attention, the more I see that he does not intend to change.  Frankly, I have reached the point where I do not even trust him anymore and I worry about what he still has in store for us if left in office.   

My list of concerns towards Scott Fitzgerald is long, but I am especially bothered by his comments made in the attached video back in December 2010.  The flowing is just a sample of what he said:

"Listen we have new majorities, if you talk to the members of the House of the Representatives and the way they view the world right now, the more feathers you ruffle right now the stronger you are going to be politically. I don't ever remember an environment where that existed before. It was always go along, get along. A little on the edges, yeah we would take a few shots here and there at some political enemies, but in the end we all just want to be on the same page. That just doesn't exist right now. I've never seen that before, it gives us a lot of leeway and a lot of chain to make some significant changes."

As a Republican I want greater civility for our state, and a senator with a genuine desire to serve the people – not a bully!  On June 5th I will be voting for Lori Compas, not Scott Fitzgerald

Sincerely,

Gary

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzs_ZMUvS_w