The following is a guest blog written by Jenni Dye.
In the past year, I’ve shared a lot of my thoughts about Wisconsin politics in bursts of 140 characters or less via my alter ego, @legaleagle. But some things are too important to sum up in so few words – like why I am strongly supporting Kathleen Falk for governor in the Wisconsin primary.
I am by no means a longtime Falk supporter or political insider. I volunteered for Tom Barrett in 2010, and having grown up in Janesville, Russ Feingold was the first politician for whom I developed an admiration. And although I was just elected to the Dane County Board of Supervisors this month, my relationship with politics over the 10 years preceding February 2011 could be described as “dabbling” at best.
In fact, I first met Kathleen in November of 2011. We talked about what we both thought were the most important things to restore to Wisconsin – respect, both for labor and in general; protection of our environment; standing up for public education and women’s rights; and restoring our Wisconsin community and our legacy of good government. I had entered that conversation unsure of who would be our best champion against Walker and left knowing I would support Kathleen Falk if she ran. Not only did she share my values and have strong, progressive positions on the issues, she listened and she shared her views and her vision with me.
A native Wisconsinite, Kathleen Falk shares the values of the Wisconsin I grew up in – respect for each other, investment in public education, and sustainability. But more than that, Falk has a record that shows she is willing to work hard for those values and to bring all the players to the table to try to reach common ground and common sense solutions that promote Wisconsin values. One often touted and important example of this is her negotiations with labor as Dane County Executive, in which she collectively bargained with the unions.But my favorite example of Falk’s commitment to including everyone in the conversation is outside of the labor context and appears in a piece in Our Lives magazine a piece in Our Lives magazine. She called together environmentalists and developers, and had them place M&Ms on maps of Dane County where they wanted development. At the end of the exercise, all the groups had put the M&Ms in roughly the same places, and they used that as a jumping off point for continued cooperation on development in Dane County.
Although more than willing to work cooperatively with all players, Falk has also proven that, when necessary, she is willing to take a stand for the values we share. She has fought hard both as an attorney and as County Executive to protect Wisconsin’s clean air and water. She is willing to fight to restore collective bargaining, and she has been open and honest with Wisconsin regarding her plan. Perhaps it is possible to sum up my support for Falk in 140 characters or less after all – I know Kathleen Falk will truly fight for all of the Wisconsin values I have been fighting for this year.
Last February and March, I found myself marveling at the sustained backbone displayed by the Democrats in our Wisconsin Legislature – a willingness to stand our ground that is all too often missing on the left side of the aisle. Their willingness to stand with us, to stand up for us, was inspiring and refreshing. Kathleen Falk is the candidate who will bring that backbone to the governor’s office.
Falk supporters–this is the way to support your candidate.
It didn’t change my mind, but at least it didn’t make me angry and it doesn’t attempt to tarnish Barrett.
I think both Barrett or Falk would make very good governors. In fact, I think Falk might even be slightly better. But the fact that she is slightly better on the merits, for me, does not outweigh the fact that I believe that she is much less electable in this environment. Falk may be 2% better than Barrett but I think she is also 5-10% less electable. Barrett is still 1000% better than Walker. The people who want to call Barrett Walker-Lite–that is counterproductive and completely false. Aside from raising the employee health care contribution–name ONE thing that Walker has done, that Barrett would have also done. You can’t. Barrett may not be as exciting as we would like, but he is pretty much identical to Doyle, and does not deserve to be smeared as being Walker-Lite. If indeed Falk wins the primary I hope I am wrong about her lack of ability to beat Walker.
In my opinion, in a recall primary it is all about who can win and not about who is the ideal candidate. If we want to get hung up on the ideal candidate, we should have just waited until 2014.
No matter who wins on May 8th I will happily support the Democratic nominee on June 5th.
Alex, here’s the thing. While I may not be a full-throated supporter of Kathleen Falk in the Democratic primary, I’d support her without any qualms if she were the Democratic gubernatorial nominee. I think each of the four Democratic candidates would be a good governor, while many of the Falk supporters I’ve encountered have resorted to attacking Mayor Barrett as “Walker lite” (among other attacks).
I think that’s really unfortunate, and it doesn’t do us much good.
So the bottom line is that our guest blogger supports the only candidate that she’s actually spoken with. Does she know where the other candidates stand? Not much of a recommendation, is it?
Memory Man – I’ve actually met Tom Barrett on more than one occasion and I’ve met Kathleen Vinehout once. So just having met Falk that has no bearing on my decision to support Falk. I know their records and their stated positions on issues in this recall. Rather than wade into those, though, I wanted to focus on what I believe in about Kathleen, not why I’m choosing her OVER someone else or where I have differences or concerns with the other candidates.
Alex – thanks for your comments. I think what’s most important right now is that we all find ways to talk about this primary in an open but respectful way, so we can all come together at 8:01 p.m. on May 8 and work for our nominee!
Jenni, thanks for commenting and adding some context to your op-ed.
“I’ve actually met Tom Barrett on more than one occasion and I’ve met Kathleen Vinehout once.”
I’m glad to know that! Next time consider including that information up front. It makes a far better argument for your case. 😉
For the sake of transparency, you might want to mention that Falk endorsed your bid for County Supervisor. I’m glad to know your reasoning went deeper than that, but I’ll admit when I first read of your endorsement, it struck me as politics-as-usual.
After all, your endorsement is kind of at odds with your closing paragraph:
“Last February and March, I found myself marveling at the sustained backbone displayed by the Democrats in our Wisconsin Legislature – a willingness to stand our ground that is all too often missing on the left side of the aisle. Their willingness to stand with us, to stand up for us, was inspiring and refreshing.”
If that’s the case, why not vote for Vinehout, who was literally standing that ground with us?
I should have also mentioned that like many Dane County residents who have been politically active since Walker forced us to rise up, I have immense respect for you, and I’m glad you were elected.
Greg – Kathleen did endorse my candidacy for Dane County Board, but that has nothing to do with my endorsement of her here. Quite frankly, this recall is far too important for politics as usual, and as honored as I am to be representing my community on the board, I’m not willing to simply play tit-for-tat with something I am so passionate about and wouldn’t allow the politics of my election there to interfere with my positions in this recall. As an aside, politics as usual is the exact problem we need to fix by having more people stand up and run for office, but that’s a subject for a different blog post.
In regard to Kathleen Vinehout, I have respect for her actions last spring and for her energy and enthusiasm for many of the things I love about Wisconsin. In the end, I am simply confident that she will fight for what I believe in on all the issues that I think we need leadership on, while I do believe that to be true about other options in the field. I trust Kathleen Falk to not only take the positions that I agree with, but to also have the experience to get the work done on them. I’m not a one issue voter, but, for example, part of what I want in a candidate is someone I can trust on women’s issues, and for me, that person is Kathleen Falk, not Kathleen Vinehout.
Correction: In re. to Vinehout, that should read “I am simply not confident that she will fight for what I believe in on all the issues that I think we need leadership on, while I do believe that to be true about other options in the field.”
This is what I get for attempting to catch up on the Internet after County Board tonight.
And thank you very much for your comment. I’ve been so honored and inspired to stand with all of the amazing people who have taken action in Wisconsin this year. I really do hope that this is the start of a better era of politics for us, beginning with a successful recall!
Nice post.
I support Kathleen Falk for Governor, too. And she also endorsed me for County Board many years ago. OTOH, I endorsed Peg for AG in `06. (But, I’m way over that and more people should be, too).
Kathleen can absolutely win. For one thing, the gender gap is bigger than ever right now and a woman will make the most of that. Aren’t most independents women? She’s basically tied with Barrett in the polls – within MOE.
Having worked with Kathleen I know she is hard working, smart, committed and straightforward. She would make a very good Governor.
I appreciate the guest post. It’s good to hear a supporter who gives reasons for supporting their candidate rather than reasons not to support the alternatives. I feel similar to Alex (from the first comment) in that I worry about Falk losing to Walker. To be fair I worry about Barrett losing to Walker too. In my mind Falk is not a natural campaigner. Contrast that with Walker, who is always in campaign mode and can obfuscate the truth with the best of them. That makes the race that much harder for her to win.
With regards to Vinehout, I actually like the fact that she’s more pragmatic. I want a governor who I trust is doing what she believes is best for the state, rather than what is best politically. It’s one of the things I’ve always admired about Feingold; even when I disagreed with his position I trusted that he came to his point of view through honest thought rather than political expediency. I don’t have that feeling with Falk or Barrett. I’m not sure if I do for Vinehout, but it could be there. I’m still not sure who I’ll vote for in the primary. If is see enough endorsements like this one it very well could be Falk. In the general I’ll vote for any of them over Walker (and I’ll encourage everyone I know to do the same).
I read this and came away with no idea why you support Kathleen Falk other than that she is a native Wisconsinite and used M&Ms in a planning exercise.
In this primary there is so little daylight between any of the candidates in terms of their platform and positions on the liberal-progressive spectrum that arguments for or against a candidate come down to personality: “I’ve met them and they seemed nice.” Which is fine – any of our options would make a great governor and a fantastic replacement for the current occupant of that seat.