Snow! Summer is not over until there is snow on the ground, but as of this evening it is now winter. It is well established that Wisconsin can freeze over but the question is if hell will follow suit and elect a Republican to the 2nd Congressional District. Dave Magnum will challenge incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin for the second time after loosing to her 63% to 37% last election.
Redistricting gave the 2nd District to the Democrats and it will take circumstances that money can not purchase for a Republican to win. In an official Dave Magnum Interview the candidate plows through predictable and meaningless positions on the conventional topics. He paints Tammy Baldwin as ineffective and pandering to utopian interests even though this is exactly what her base wants. Tammy is a true liberal with a record of voting her beliefs and she is loved for this fact.
I wonder if this candidacy is conceived as part of a larger state wide attempt to claim pieces of a restructuring political alignment. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has committed to an internal power struggle with the Falk vs. Lautenschlager Attorney General Race. Governor Doyle has made it clear he sides with money from the Teachers Union and Tribal Gambling, and a left leaning State Supreme Court has handed down some radical anti-business decisions. There may be opportunities, even in Dane County, to pick up small business votes which could tip the total balance within Wisconsin.
There’s a piece of legislation called the Small Business Health Fairness Act that Tammy Baldwin voted against. And when I asked her why in front of the Madison Rotary Club, she said because we can’t trust business people to do right by their employees. Here I am in this room full of business people who are providing jobs and opportunities for their employees – their jaws, like mine, hit the floor – and I think Tammy realized immediately that this is the wrong audience to say that to. I mean, that’s the last attitude we should have as we try to work on economic development and the future of this 2nd Congressional District.This is the age of information capture and anyone who does not use an opponents’ own words against them is a fool. Too soon to tell if this race is Don Quixote having fun while traveling the local countryside on a quest for beauty and truth, or if this truly is a Machiavellian gambit to convert 3,000 new Republican voters as part of the larger conflict.
