The Kathleen Falk Mailer

A Kathleen Falk for Attorney General mailer arrives today and the following sentence is worth noting. “There is no office more important when it comes to protecting our environment, our rights, our communities, our families and our future.” On Kathleen's list, the “environment” is primary and “our rights” secondary. I would dismiss this as an arbitrary compellation of equally important values, however, everything in Falk’s past words and actions leads me to believe this is a true reflection of her values.

Any tough talk about fighting actual crime, e.g. Taking the Fight to Gangs, is merely necessary election posturing and even these attempts to appear serious boil down to having task force meetings and government programs to address bad behavior.

Falk’s also pledges creating Operation Take Back Our Towns, a task force comprised of school officials, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, law enforcement agencies, parents, and community leaders designed to prepare effective, localized solutions to the gang problem. Falk also pledges to make sure Wisconsin is a full participant in, and beneficiary of, the many national programs designed to address the problem of youth in gangs.

Democratic controlled Milwaukee continues to see “the largest percentage increase in murders of any large city in the nation between 2004 and 2005 – an increase of 40%, outpacing the national average nearly tenfold”, which she pledges to address by being in Milwaukee one day a week, for meetings.

Those of us living in Dane County and paying attention to her leadership understand that when she places “fighting sprawl” first on her list of “issues that matter”, she is completely serious in her belief that the American economy of home, yard and car is the wrong direction for Wisconsin. There is no reason to believe her priorities will change in a Statewide office.