In an email sent out to supporters, Democratic Lt. Governor candidate Tom Nelson took a few swings at his opponent in the Democratic primary, Madison-area small businessman Henry Sanders, Jr. In the email, Nelson tried really really hard to portray himself as a fiscally frugal candidate, in stark contrast to Sanders’ free-spending candidacy, but Nelson’s attacks fell flat in the face of the truth.
First, here’s a snippet from Nelson’s email, with my own comments:
Many campaigns spend a lot of money wooing a small number of votes. They spend money on t-shirts and bumper stickers, loud bands at the state convention and open bars at events – just to name a few examples of bad judgment.
Henry Sanders, Jr. did have a really loud, really great band at his hospitality suite, but I’ve confirmed with the Sanders campaign that the band that performed at Sanders’ hospitality suite did so as an in-kind donation to the campaign. What’s more, the literature the Sanders campaign handed out at the convention was made in-house, and the signage for the campaign was hand-made using volunteer labor, so clearly the Sanders campaign didn’t spend much money on the campaign’s hospitality suite at the convention.
Tom Nelson’s email attacking Henry Sanders Jr. is very clearly an attempt at damage control by Nelson (and a poor attempt at that), given Nelson’s underwhelming performance at the DPW convention as well as the fact that his campaign doesn’t really seem to have a focus – unlike the Sanders campaign, which is clearly focused on job creation, as demonstrated by his “Progressive Recovery” jobs plan.
The band at Sanders’ suite was pretty awesome, Nelson isn’t going to get anywhere with me with an email like that.
Yeah, that band was pretty kickass…
Weren’t most of the Sanders signs at convention hand painted or sprat-painted too?
Yeah, from what I could tell most of the signs were hand-made.
*spray-painted
Hey, open bars and loud bands? Sounds like the type of people I want to be rolling with!
That’s what I’m saying.
Interesting criteria you guys have for selecting a Lt Gov. 🙂
I’m not saying that’s why Sanders should be the nominee; I’m just noting he had a great band!
I second that.
I got the email too, and it really put me off. First of all, it just came off as a whining and sour grapes. But more importantly, I thought it seemed a bit like a racist dogwhistle. You know, “donate to me, I won’t blow all my cash on liquor and loud music like that black guy over there”
Eh, I didn’t really get a racist vibe from the email, but it did reek of sour grapes and whining.
I don’t presume to be an expert on political campaigns, but Tom Nelson really seems to have run a half-hearted campaign thus far.
Henry is definitely the guy I’d rather party with. But when it comes to our next LG, Tom has the experience and the proven record that I’d prefer. It is hard to imagine Henry, with his lack of experience in elected office or government service, stepping in should the Governor become unable to serve. Henry talks a good game, but what little record he has proves otherwise. It’s hard for me to stomach the idea of voting for someone who served as VP of Public Policy for the Madison Chamber at a time the Chamber was blasting loudly against increased minimum wage and paid sick leave ordinances in Madison. Henry may promise jobs, but I’m not sure he’ll bring the kind of jobs we need.
And how would Tom Nelson be more suited to bringing the kind of jobs we need in Wisconsin, as opposed to Henry Sanders?
This email was a nice (read: poor) attempt at a hatchet job from the Nelson campaign, and an even worse attempt from Demo. You’re talking about the same Chamber of Commerce that openly supported the Domestic Partnership Registry, opposed TABOR, helped Fair Wisconsin fight against the constitutional amendment, and supported the state smoking ban. And let’s not forget that they lobbied for a *statewide* minimum wage increase, too (not just for those of us fortunate enough to live in Madison.)
I’m not sure how many of those things happened while Henry was there, but knowing the time frame all this happened in, it would have been a chunk. In any case, it sure sounds like a ton of right wing policy to me – better start a whisper campaign about the DINO candidate. Oh, wait…
Sanders can keep up this bogus “progressive values” schtick as long as he’d like, but it’s transparent BS and everyone knows it. If you care so much about marriage equality, Henry, where were you in 2006? On the front lines with Fair Wisconsin fighting the amendment?
No. You were running a smear campaign against a solid progressive Assembly member, backed by WMC all the way.
Just what we need. Promote more incumbent politicians who got us into this mess in the first place. You guys want to talk about jobs? Where were all these politicians when they could actually have DONE something about it? Where’s the green jobs bill they promised? Where’s the help for the unemployed workers who got screwed when the auto manufacturers left? Sorry folks but if this is what “elected office or government service” experience gets us, I’ll pass. Those guys in the capital a bunch of crooks who think we’re stupid enough to believe their BS lines about jobs. How about you actually DO something instead of just giving speeches!
Good question, Zach. As far as I can tell, Henry’s the only guy with an *actual plan*, let alone the experience on jobs. Spencer Coggs wants to be the guy who works with labor and the legislature on jobs issues and has been around long enough to back it up. Even James Schneider, the guy from Gotham(sp?) has ideas on jobs.
Thomas Nelson hasn’t presented a single idea for job creation or anything else he’d do as Lt Governor. His argument, according to the first email he sent us, is “it’s time” for Thomas Nelson to be Lt Governor. Seriously? Who gave this whiny kid the right to crown himself king? What has he ever done for anybody?
From my understanding the only real professional experience Nelson has ever had is serving in the legislature for the past 6 years. He has spent more time in middle school then in the private sector and has made a full time career out of being a politician.
Therefore you should ask his legislative peers how they feel about his performance. Ask them how he was suppose to raise $250,000 for the Democratic caucus and he raised only $2,000 while using his leadership position to raise $75,000+ for his campaign, a large part of where Nelson will get his money for this reporting period.
During his time in office, Wisconsin lost around 150,000 jobs and now Nelson is saying he would create jobs here in the state? His track record show no success with economic development. Sanders resume shows he worked for the city of Madison dealing with prevailing wage, worked with Rep. Tammy Baldwin, and then worked for the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Agency. Sanders knows how to work with .gov to engage in family supporting job growth.
Those of us who follows this race don’t really believes Nelson is the better candidate, or has run a better grassroots campaign or has a better job creation background. His record is self serving and not about growing the party or doing whats right for Wisconsin.
Nelson simple argument to Dems is “I will raise lots of money and I am from Kaukauna and I have connections with insiders.” But that does not make him a good candidate or demonstrate that he can bring anything to table to help Wisconsin. Nelson has no ideas or leadership, just more of the same broken style of politics.
That’s an awful lot of talking points, Union Voter. Not that I disagree with any of them…just sayin’. 🙂