Blogging Blue

Watchdog Milwaukee has done the Milwaukee area a great service by exposing those trying to ruin the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s name and integrity. It seems Tom Reynolds’ PAC organization, Clean Sweep Wisconsin, has chosen to take the route of planting candidates in Democratic districts and then run them as Democratic “challengers” to the incumbents. For those of you who don’t know who Tom Reynolds is, he was a former Republican State Senator and was quite controversial before being tossed out by his district for a Democrat, State Senator Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa).

It seems Wisconsinites are getting more than their fair share of unnecessary, sleazy campaigns. It wasn’t too long ago when we had a tug-of-war being fought over the TV for our Supreme Court seat. This, however, brings the entire 2008 campaign season to a new low. It’s shameful and outright disturbing that individuals would go to such lengths to unseat Democrats in November.

Members of Clean Sweep Wisconsin should be ashamed of themselves if they knew about this and understood what they were supporting with their contributions. If some contributors didn’t realize this level of trash was going to occur, I’d suggest that they’d ask for their contribution(s) back. To support something like this only shows off a negative characteristic of someone’s inner being.

As for the candidates who chosen to take on this role of being FAKE, I have no kind words for you. To run on a Party platform only to eliminate the true Party candidate is appalling and shouldn’t be acceptable by any means. If you don’t share in the views of the Party in question, you should run either as an independent or as a member of the opposing Party (Republicans). Period.

I agree with Watchdog Milwaukee in asking the Milwaukee County Democratic Party to NOT endorse these wolves in sheep’s clothing. Furthermore, any Democrat in those districts should be informed of the deception(s) right away so they don’t fall for Reynolds’ dirty tactics.

The individuals listed by Watchdog Milwaukee as FAKE are:

State Assembly District 8: Jose Guzman

State Assembly District 10: Charisha Allen

State Assembly District 15: Josh Hoisington

State Assembly District 16: David D. King

State Assembly District 17: Samantha H. Bady

State Assembly District 20: Philip Landowski

H/T: Fairly Conservative & Watchdog Milwaukee

As first reported by Lisa Kaiser from Express Milwaukee, former Wisconsin State Senator Tom Reynolds - the same Tom Reynolds who was allegedly fond of asking his staffers if they were virgins - has ventured back onto the political scene here in Southeastern Wisconsin as the brains behind Clean Sweep Wisconsin, a political action committee with a stated goal of electing “NEW people to state offices to make our government accountable and work for the people again, instead of the special interests…

Throughout its web page, Clean Sweep talks a lot about finding candidates to run against incumbents from BOTH political parties, yet a quick glance at the PAC’s platform makes it clear that Clean Sweep Wisconsin is really looking for conservative candidates. Here’s Clean Sweep’s platform:

• HEALTHCARE - Reestablishing consumerism in health care by expanding the use of high deductible policies with matching health savings accounts.
• K-12 EDUCATION - Putting parents back in control of education by implementing an educational tax credit for parents to use at either public or private schools.
• COLLEGE EDUCATION - Capping tuition increases, streamlining courses and credit transfers between technical, 2yr. and 4yr. colleges, creating a tax credit on income used to repay college loans.
• TAXES, FEES & REGULATIONS - Halting all increases of taxes and fees, begin a moratorium on new laws interfering in the lives of Wisconsin citizens and Wisconsin businesses.
• IMMIGRATION - No more free welfare for illegal aliens.

Not exactly an agenda that appeals to liberals or progressives, is it?

In a recorded phone message, Reynolds said he recruited primary challengers for Rep. Christine Sinicki, D-Milwaukee, and Rep. Tony Staskunas, D-West Allis, and was trying to find more.

“In Milwaukee here, we are working on a full slate of 12 candidates — eight on the north side and four on the south side — and we are at eight or nine candidates right now,” Reynolds said in the message.

Now let’s recap:

• Conservative platform? CHECK!

• Candidates recruited to run against only Democratic incumbents? CHECK!
• PAC organized by ultra-conservative, highly partisan former Republican State Senator? CHECK!

Call me a cynic, but something tells me Clean Sweep Wisconsin isn’t as bipartisan as it would like to seem.