Blogging Blue » Dave Westlake

Audition Uncovered

Jeff Simpson — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:58:17 +0000

For those of you not familiar with Christian Schneiders work, he has written some of the (unintentionally?) funniest stuff there is out of Wisconsin politics lately.

Schneider came out with such gems as the well timed “alternate” story using “anonymous” sources that pointed out that Justice Bradley’s neck performed a vicious attack Prosser’s hands, compared Randy Hopper to Buzz Lightyear, said Paul Ryan becoming president would be a demotion and best of all actually wrote this line(while declaring Paul Ryan the winner of the recent recall elections):

I, for one, am trying to determine which of my children to love less in order to make more room in my heart to love Paul Ryan more.

Here on BloggingBlue, we came across a draft of Schneider’s take on the upcoming 2nd Congressional district race, if he was a paid shill for the democratic party(instead of one for the right). It appears he auditioned but found out that a bunch of teachers, nurses, police officers, firemen, prison guards, etc… do not pay as well as the Koch brothers.

The 2nd Congressional Race – we all win!

With Tammy Baldwin all but assured to continue Senator Herb Kohl’s amazing work for the people of Wisconsin(who can beat her? Tommy “Tax & Spend” Thompson, The Fitzgerald sisters, ted “no one has ever heard of me” Kanavas, Dave “orange camo ” Westlake? See now we can move on to the rest of the story). The race to fill her seat is turning out to be an interesting one.

The indefatigable Mark Pocan who has been doing award winning work exposing the damage that Alec has done to this state and others, is the first one to throw his hat in the ring. Rep. Pocan was the person who coined the brilliant term “Fitzwalkerstan” and has been one of the few voices of reason to come out of the assembly.

It also appears that the next person in will be Senator Jon Erpenbach who was one of the leaders of the Heroic Wisconsin 14 during their time doing the Wisconsin people’s work in Illinois. Erpenbach handled himself so well on TV that the only real question he faces is should he run for national office or take over the CBS Evening news.

There is also rumor that the beautiful and brilliant Representative Kelda Helen Roys will also run for Ms. Baldwins seat. We hate to share our Wisconsin treasures with the rest of the country but if we must we must.

The decision for me will be like choosing if I want to drive my Ferrari, Lamborghini, or Mercedes to work. I might have to pass on the primary and just support the last action hero standing.

I could vote in the Republican Primary, but I would be the only one. Right now all three are polling 75% higher than Chad Lee (who has promised to run ads of Tammy Baldwin dancing at the Gay Pride Parade regardless of who the candidate is), and polling approximately 98% better than Peter Theron or Dave Magnum.

Whoever wins, Wisconsin and the second congressional district can be proud of who we send to represent us in DC.

Christian Schneider – Chief Executive, Senior Fellow and Grand Poobah of all things politics

Collective Bargaining Not a God Given Right…

Ed Heinzelman — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:41:34 +0000

SEIU and Democracy for America claim the GOP “…rolled back 50 years of civil rights…” It’s appalling that they equate the PRIVILEGE of collective bargaining to the God-given rights afforded us all regardless of gender, skin color, sexual orientation or religious affiliation. This is a gross mischaracterization of the facts…and they know it.

The above quote was posted on Facebook earlier today by former Republican candidate for US Senate, Dave Westlake.

Dave, with all due respect to your faith, the rights enjoyed by citizens of the United States weren’t God given. They were earned with the blood of our patriotic forefathers who took them back from someone who thought he had the ‘divine right of kings’. They were enumerated by the founding fathers. At the time of the adoption of our Constitution they were so divisive that they weren’t even included in the final document. Ten of the twelve if these rights became the first amendments to the Constitution now revered as our Bill of Rights.

If these rights were God given, why did he wait until the twentieth century before he allowed women to vote. Why were people of color allowed to remain in bondage and be declared three fifths of a person until we once again had to fight a war? And why did it take almost another hundred years before the laws of the land truly found them equal?

And no, collective bargaining is not a specific right outlined in the Bill of Rights, nor any other amendment to the Constitution. But it too has been paid for in blood by our forefathers. And it has roots in the first amendment under freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Just because it wasn’t written in 1789, doesn’t make it any less important. And over the past three weeks we’ve seen hundreds of thousands of citizens support that right and I am proud of each and everyone of them.

How many will they get?

Zach W — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:11:21 +0000

I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised, but Dave Westlake, the arch-conservative “tea party” Republican who got crushed by Ron Johnson in the 2010 Republican U.S. Senate primary, is organizing an event supporting Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to take away collective bargaining rights from Wisconsin’s public employees. I never pegged Westlake as a rabidly anti-union guy (clearly I was wrong), but apparently he wholeheartedly supports Gov. Walker’s attempts to take away the collective bargaining rights of public employees.

The goal of the event Westlake is organizing is to get 60,000 people to show up and voice their support for Gov. Walker, but I’m betting turnout will be significantly less than that, so let’s have a little fun predicting just how many folks will show up in Madison on Saturday to support Gov. Scott Walker:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Herb Kohl loans his campaign $1 million

Zach W — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:10:37 +0000

Rumors of Sen. Herb’s retirement in 2012 may be dramatically exaggerated:

Amid mounting speculation that he may retire, Sen. Herb Kohl pumped $1 million from his personal funds into his campaign committee account at the end of 2010.

While the $1 million loan is not a sure sign that Kohl, D-Wis., will seek re-election, it certainly doesn’t support any notion of his retirement.

If Sen. Kohl does run for reelection in 2012, folks like Dave Westlake and Rep. Paul Ryan – both of whom have been rumored to be interested in the seat – will certainly have a much tougher time winning the seat.

Then again, Dave Westlake would probably have a hard time making it out of a Republican U.S. Senate primary against Rep. Ryan or any other half-decent Republican candidate with a pulse, as evidenced by Westlake’s performance against Ron Johnson in 2010.

So yeah, about 2012…

Zach W — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 12:01:54 +0000

I’ve heard it speculated that 2010 Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave Westlake, who was drubbed by Ron Johnson in the Republican U.S. Senate primary, is thinking about another run for the U.S. Senate in 2012, but if Westlake is thinking about running, he might not find much support. A recent poll by Public Policy Polling found Rep. Paul Ryan favored as the Republican U.S. Senate candidate by a wide margin, with Ryan garnering 52% support in a seven person field, with Westlake bringing up the rear of the field with only 1% support.

Obviously a lot can change between now and 2012, but it certainly appears Dave Westlake is going to have his work cut out if he wants to be taken seriously as a Republican U.S. Senate candidate.

Some primary day predictions

Zach W — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:24:28 +0000

Just a few predictions on some important races today, keeping in mind that this list is far from exhaustive:

Chris Larson v. Jeff Plale (Democratic primary in 7th State Senate District): A lot of money has been spent in this race, including scads of money from outside groups on both sides, and the race has gotten really nasty in a personal way. I’m predicting a Larson win over Sen. Plale, by a margin of 52% to 48%.
Scott Walker v. Mark Neumann (Republican gubernatorial primary): This is the race to watch in the state of Wisconsin. Scott Walker’s entire gubernatorial campaign has been run with the assumption he’s the frontrunner and would win easily today, but the fact that he’s gone negative in recent weeks seems to signal a shift in the race. I’m going to go out on a big limb and predict Walker loses today, with Mark Neumann winning by a margin of 51% to 49%.
Dave Westlake v. Ron Johnson (Republican U.S. Senate primary): Everywhere I go, I see Scott Walker and Ron Johnson yard signs in tandem. Obviously yard signs don’t vote, but the point I’m getting at is that it certainly seems to me that the better Mark Neumann does, the better Dave Westlake will do, since the two seem to share some common supporters. However, while I like Dave Westlake and I’d like to see him win the Republican U.S. Senate primary, I’m calling this race for Ron Johnson, by a margin of 58% to 42%. (However, I will say that if Westlake does by some miracle win today, I’ll don a blaze orange “I Am Dave Westlake” t-shirt for a full 24 hours)
Chris Moews v. David Clarke (Democratic Milwaukee County Sheriff primary): Without the crossover conservative voters who’ve helped conservative Clarke win election after election, I’m predicting Chris Moews wins today, by a margin of 54% to 46%.

Obviously I’m no expert political pundit, so I fully expect these predictions will be wildly inaccurate.

The UPDATED Blogging Blue 2010 endorsement post

Zach W — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:33:32 +0000

Given that we’re less than a week away from the 2010 partisan primary election, we here at Blogging Blue figure it’s time we make some official endorsements. Some of these endorsements will be made as a group (Zach, Paul, Ed, Greg, and Proud Progressive), while others may be made on an individual basis. While we’ll obviously be voting for Democrats in the partisan primary, we here at Blogging Blue did also make one Republican recommendation, just to keep things interesting.

The Democratic Races:

Tom Barrett, Wisconsin Governor: Though I really like Tim John (especially his YouTube channel), Tom Barrett has proven himself to be an effective leader as Mayor of Milwaukee, and he certainly deserves a promotion to the governor’s mansion. Tom Barrett gets a unanimous endorsement from Blogging Blue.
Russ Feingold, U.S. Senate: I think it should go without saying that we’re wholeheartedly endorsing Sen. Russ Feingold for reelection to the United States Senate.
Henry Sanders, Jr., Lt. Governor: While there’s a lot of good candidates to choose from in this race, both Ed and I are endorsing Madison-area small businessman Henry Sanders, Jr. Sanders has made job creation the main focus of his campaign, and given his blend of public and private sector experience, we think he’d be a great choice as our state’s next Lt. Governor.
Tom Nelson, Lieutenant Governor: While Ed and I stand behind Henry Sanders, Jr., Proud Progressive endorses Rep. Tom Nelson for Lt. Governor. According to Proud Progressive, Nelson is a tremendous and tireless campaigner, and he has proven that he stands up for the working people of Wisconsin and can win an election in a purple district.
Scott Hassett, Wisconsin Attorney General: Considering Scott Hassett’s the only Democrat in this race, this was a no-brainer. Hassett is the unanimous choice of all us here at Blogging Blue, and here’s to hoping he can beat J.B. Van Hollen in November.
Paul Morel, 4th Congressional District: Ed’s on his own with this endorsement. While I’ve generally been supportive of Morel’s candidacy and had considered endorsing Morel, I’m torn, and therefore there won’t be any endorsement from me in this race.
Chris Larson, 7th Senate District: Though I think Sen. Jeff Plale’s a nice guy outside of politics, in this race my endorsement – and those of Ed, Greg, and Proud Progressive – go to Milwaukee County Supervisor Chris Larson. Larson is a strong progressive voice who will be more representative of the citizens of the 7th Senate District than Plale, whose close ties to the cable TV, energy, and telecommunications industries have shown where his priorities lie.
Tom Michalski, 21st Assembly District: It’s no secret I’m no fan of Rep. Mark Honadel (R-South Milwaukee), and Tom Michalski has already demonstrated he won’t be outworked in this election. It’s that kind of work ethic that would serve the citizens of the 21st Assembly District well, and that’s why I’m endorsing Tom Michalski for the State Assembly.
Dan Bohrod, State Treasurer: Ed and I are both endorsing Dan Bohrod in his race against incumbent Democratic State Treasurer Dawn Marie Sass. As I’ve written time and time again, I tend to root for the underdogs in races, and perhaps that’s one reason why I’m endorsing Dan Bohrod, but I also think he’d do a heck of a job in a position that not a lot of voters here in Wisconsin know exists.
Dawn Marie Sass, State Treasurer: While Ed and I are endorsing Dan Bohrod, Proud Progressive endorses incumbent Dawn Marie Sass. She works very hard, is not scared to talk to anyone about what she does and has returned an enormous amount of money to the rightful people. She should be rewarded for a job well done.
Scott Dettman, 7th Assembly District: Greg, who happens to live in the 7th Assembly District, wholeheartedly endorses Scott Dettman, a progressive candidate running against a far more conservative Democrat. Dettman would be a solid progressive voice in the State Assembly, and so he gets Greg’s endorsement.
Chris Moews, Milwaukee County Sheriff: Considering the fact that Chris Moews is the only real Democrat in the Democratic primary for Milwaukee County Sheriff (David Clarke’s not a Democrat, despite what the ballot says), we here at Blogging Blue feel like he’s the obvious choice to receive our endorsement. Having spoken with Chris, I’m convinced he’s got the right ideas on how to restore morale and honor to the ranks of Milwaukee County’s sheriff’s deputies, and he’s the right choice in this race.
Dave Mahoney, Dane County Sheriff: He has also done a great job, despite being caught in the middle of many of ICE requirements. He also is not scared to visit numerous talk shows to share his views and allow input from the public.

The Republican Race:

Dave Westlake, Republican U.S. Senate: Though I’m obviously not a conservative, I’ve had a number of opportunities to sit and chat with Westlake, and while I may not agree with his political beliefs, I appreciate his willingness to express his unvarnished opinions – and not just to friendly crowd. My endorsement of Westlake may be more of a curse than a blessing (at least for Westlake), but he’s the Republican I’d most like to see pitted against Sen. Feingold in the general election.

Ed. Note: This endorsement list has been updated to reflect the endorsements of Proud Progressive.

Feingold agrees to six debates, how many will his GOP opponent agree to?

Zach W — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:17:36 +0000

Last month I noted the general unwillingness of candidates for elected office to engage each other in debates, so I was happy to see Sen. Russ Feingold has agreed to six debates with his Republican opponent in the general election. While Ron Johnson’s PR flack has said Johnson is focused on winning the primary and won’t address the topic of debates in the general election, I’m betting Ron Johnson and his handlers want no part of any debates with Sen. Feingold in the general election, so I wouldn’t be shocked if Johnson and his campaign wanted the number of debates between Feingold and Johnson to be a number somewhere between zero and two.

While there’s been no word from Dave “nominal opposition” Westlake on whether he’d agree to six debates with Sen. Feingold, I’m betting he’d agree to do a hundred debates against Sen. Feingold if Westlake happens to win the Republican primary.

So in the interest of getting your thoughts, here’s a poll. Let’s try and predict the number of debates we’ll see between Russ Feingold and his Republican opponent in the general election:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Tea Party Part 617

Jeff Simpson — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:38:23 +0000

While I have been a little dismissive and hard on the “tea parties” on here, I do recognize that there is a trace of grassroots movement to them. I also realize that the right wing has successfully been able to bottle up the anger of the white right and seems to have been able to organize them. Where I have been harder on them was their fringe positions, and misguided anger, and being able to be controlled by being able to be manipulated by a couple billionaires and a cable station. I have to admit though that I was wrong, very wrong. The “tea partiers” are more extreme fringe than I even originally suspected.

There is this story from Delaware, where the tea party star, has the GOP party scared she will knock out incumbent Mike Castle.

Believe it or not, we can trump the lunacy of Christine O’Donnell, with the outright insanity of Sharron Angle!

As if these wackos were not enough there is someone even wackier still…Arthur Robinson! Robinson is running in the 4th Congressional District against one of the better and most progressive members of congress, Peter Defazio. Robinson has not only advocated dumping Nuclear and crude oil waste in to the sea, but he is also well known for homeschooling his children and selling the curriculum. To make ends meet he also sells a book comparing africans to retarded children.

There was a time that people this fringe would run as a third party candidate, get a couple hundred votes and never be heard from again. Now they are stars of the Republican party. What could President Obama possibly of done to make people think that voting for loons like Robinson, Angle, etc… would be a good idea? Its not like he bailed out wall st, started 2 wars, gave billions to big pharma and spied on Americans…..

They all need to take a page out of the Jan Brewer debate book:

Dave Westlake: The Flintstones had it right!

Zach W — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:44:09 +0000

In an interview with Madison’s 27 News, Republican U.S. Senate candidate made it clear he believes the Earth is only thousands of years old, not billions, as is widely accepted by science, saying, “I believe in creationism; I just happen to believe we were created the way we are.” Here’s the rest of what Westlake had to say during his interview with 27 News:

When asked if the earth was around 6,000 years old, as some creationists believe, Westlake said, “That’s probably a general timeline. There are very solid supporting evidence out there, or data out there, that shows that it’s very reasonable to expect that it’s not nearly as old as science says it is.”

Clearly, Dave Westlake believes The Flintstones had it right…after all, it’s not at all implausible to believe dinosaurs and man roamed the Earth together.

Man and dinosaur roaming the Earth at the same time….sounds kinda far-fetched to me. While I certainly believe that some divine spark created the heavens and the Earth, I have a hard time believing everything happened just 6,000 years ago, especially in the face of scientific evidence to the contrary.