It gets really interesting when the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s resident Mad Hatter, Patrick McIlheran throws in with a Democratic candidate. In this case he is siding with State Senator Jeff Plale who is facing a very tough Democratic primary campaign for his senate seat from County Supervisor Chris Larson.
Mr. McIlheran headlines his column as “The costs of electoral competition”. Well he misses a point here. He brings up the idea that has been floated by Mayor Barrett and others around the nation that as redistricting rolls around following the 2010 Census counts, that legislative districts be redrawn to approximate a 50/50 political demographic! And then he goes on to talk about a Democratic primary…in great detail…which could happen no matter which way a district is drawn or what the mix is of the area’s demographics. Two Republicans could be going tooth and tongs in this district just as vehemently without any hope of actually winning the general election.
And then Mr. McIlheran elaborates on the third parties who are stuffing the mailboxes of the district with negative and distorted advertisements. He didn’t rail on about the push polls and robo-calls, but believe me they’ve been just as pervasive. (The article did make me feel important because I am getting about twice as many mailings as he is). Although he complained about the rank mailings from American Federation for Children (pro-Plale) and from Citizens for a Progressive Wisconsin (pro-Larson), he failed to mention why these groups can be so bold and callous. It’s because the courts have systemically gutted the campaign finance reform laws. Or the party of No has prevented comprehensive reform from even being enacted. You want to stop this stuff! It’s not that hard.
But finally, when the MJS token prince of darkness blesses your Democratic campaign, I think you should consider your party affiliation very seriously. Although right now isn’t a good time to be a Republican moderate either unless you have your own tea cozy. If I were Senator Plale, Patrick McIlheran is the last guy I’d want on my side in this fight.
After railing about electoral intra-party competition for a half dozen paragraphs, oddly Mr. McIlheran returns to his concept that competitive legislative districts are a bad idea…that monochromatic districts (his term…I am trying not to read anything more into it than face value) might actually be better…well except when they permit people like Congressman David Obey to hold sway for decades. Wonder why he didn’t mention Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner who has festered in Washington for nearly as long?
The scariest part of the column though was the revelation that he lives in my neighborhood, Bay View…I had hoped he lived in a tony red suburb far from the fair people of Milwaukee. Now I know who negates my vote for liberals and democrats in the district. OTOH, maybe he should stop buy Drinking Liberally sometime. I’ll buy him a beer!
Oooh! The kiss of death!