Follow the timeline and see if you notice anything odd:
September 4, 2008 – Brian Fraley announces his new gig as Executive Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Leadership, and in describing his new job, Fraley said it was, “nonprofit, nonpartisan and issue-focused.”
December, 2008 – Fraley distributed a note via email, along with an announcement e-mail from Rose Fernandez, a candidate for Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction. Here’s Fraley’s comments:
“Please check out this e-mail, below.
I know and respect this woman.
I realize a lot of people have election fatigue, but the fate of our public schools is worth the effort to find out more about Rose. I am sure that you’ll discover that she is worthy of your support.
— BF
Now as the executive director of an organization that’s supposed to be “nonprofit, nonpartisan and issue-focused,” shouldn’t Brian Fraley have abstained from practically endorsing Rose Fernandez in an email? The email Fraley forwarded was straight from Rose Fernandez’s campaign, and if you’d like to read, it can be found here.
January 1, 2009 – On January 1, the Wisconsin Institute for Leadership blog notes that Brian Fraley is taking leave from his position there until April 15. Conveniently enough, April 15 is after the spring elections are done.
January 15, 2009 – The Fernandez for Superintendent of Public Instruction campaign announces none other than Brian Fraley has been hired as campaign manager.
And speaking of the Wisconsin Institute for Leadership, I think it’s telling that a “nonprofit, nonpartisan and issue-focused” organization counts among its “blogs of note” 12 conservative blogs and not one left-leaning blog. Way to be non-partisan, WIL!
Zack,
1) You don’t surrender your voting rights when you work for a nonprofit. No reason I should have abstained from sharing information about anyone’s campaign.
2) You should realize, by the way, that the spring election for DPI Superintendent is a nonpartisan race.
3) Don’t confuse the nonpartisan nature of WIL (or OWN for that matter) with the concept of non ideological. WIL’s stated mission was to further pro free market, pro liberty solutions. We opposed healthy Wisconsin, want the state to focus on economic development, etc. Blogs that generally supported that vision were listed as ‘blogs of note.’
4) I’d encourage folks from every slice of the political spectrum to check out Rose’s efforts at ChangeDPI.com. She has a proven ability to bring people of diverse political opinions together to advance policies that increase educational opportunities for public school kids.
This issues surrounding this race are important and the discussions that take place over the next several weeks are important and worth having. We won’t always agree on how to get there, but I think we can agree that when it comes to education in Wisconsin, especially at MPS, we can and must do better.
Zach,
Thanks for the informative posting. I will be following WIL more closely. Futile parsing of definitions in 3), notwithstanding, any group that says they want the state to focus on economic development and yet opposes healthy Wisconsin is obviously suffering from the effects of a dire disconnect, either missing or possibly dismissing the necessity of universal health care coverage as being one of the key measures necessary for the success of future economic development.
Don, you raise a good point. As the cost of health care continues to rise seemingly unchecked, more and more folks are finding themselves unable to afford even the most basic health care. The fact that medical bills are one of the leading causes of bankruptcies in the U.S. speaks volumes about just how broken our system is.