Blame the blogosphere for Jeff Plale’s vote? Nope, blame Jeff Plale!

This is funny…

According to Fred Dooley over at “Real Debate” Wisconsin, yours truly and my “left wing blog pals” – along with the unions deserting him – are the reason State Sen. Jeff Plale lost the Democratic State Senate primary to Chris Larson, and as a result, the reason why Plale voted against approving labor contracts for state employees. While there’s no denying the Cheddarsphere was cool to Sen. Plale’s reelection bid – especially yours truly and xoff over at Uppity Wisconsin – Dooley’s assertion that the unions deserted Sen. Plale is patently false, as Fred, who has a propensity for ignoring those pesky facts, would have found if he had bothered to do a 15 second Google search.

After all, while Dooley seems to think Sen. Plale lost his bid for reelection because unions soured on him, the fact is he received more union endorsements than Chris Larson during their primary campaign. In fact, here’s a list of the union endorsements Sen. Plale received:

  • Wisconsin State Council of Carpenters
  • Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council
  • Plumbers Local 75
  • Operating Engineers Local 139
  • Steamfitters Local 601
  • Wisconsin Pipe Trades Association
  • International Brotherhood of Boilermakers
  • Iron Workers Local 8
  • United Transportation Union
  • Wisconsin Professional Police Association
  • Wisconsin Troopers’ Association
  • Milwaukee Professional Firefighters Local 215
  • Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin
  • WEAC
  • AFSCME

As you can see, Jeff Plale’s reelection campaign was endorsed by AFSCME, the very same union whose members Plale screwed over by voting against approving 17 state employee labor contracts this week. The fact is, Plale’s decision to vote against the state employee labor contracts likely had little to do with the fact that unions deserted him – since they actually stood by him – and had more to do with the fact that Plale’s angling for a job in Scott Walker’s administration. As I’ve written elsewhere, I’d be shocked if Plale does not end up with a job somewhere in Scott Walker’s administration, because Plale’s been working hard the past few weeks to put himself in Scott Walker’s good graces.

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4 thoughts on “Blame the blogosphere for Jeff Plale’s vote? Nope, blame Jeff Plale!

  1. the very same union whose members Plale screwed over by voting against approving 17 state employee labor contracts this week.

    I get that you wanted the deal done. But how exactly is voting against it in the lame duck session “screwing over” the unions? 2 plus years behind, letting it go another month or two, for the newly-elected legislators to deal with, would hardly seem to rise to the level of screwing them over.

    If that’s truly the case, then it follows that:

    The rest of Democrats in power screwed over the unions exactly the same the last 2 years by also not getting a contract agreement done.

    If the proposed agreement is so drastically different than the one that would (hopefully) be reached after swearings in next month that not passing it is screwing them over, then doesn’t it follow that it necessarily is an overly generous deal?

    1. then doesn’t it follow that it necessarily is an overly generous deal?

      No, it only affirms that the screwers are screwier.

  2. Not sure how influential it was, but I know some serious Sierra Club canvassing and calling went into undoing him. Some key leaders in WI rather lived/ate/breathed “defeat Plale”. Maybe environmentalists get pissed when you start out supporting the Clean Energy Jobs Act and then do a 180.

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