Fitchburg, Wisconsin Malarkey — Kierstin Huelsemann and Dorothy Krause

Identity Politics Goes Down the Sewer

Update: Dave Herbst upsets five-term incumbent Ald Dorothy Krause - 375 votes - 323 votes.

Fitchburg, Wisconsin — There was a time not long ago when sticking up for neighbors against home invasions, break-ins, and vehicle thefts was politically axiomatic. 

Everyone was for the sanctity of the home, it didn't matter your politics, beliefs or commitments.

No more, not in Fitchburg.

The Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Spring elections have begun, and a Common Council race for Fitchburg alder district one is drawing attention on this score. 

The candidates are Dorothy Krause (inc) and Dave Herbst.

Herbst is a popular former youth coach, a hard-working old-school guy who helps neighbors all over the district with problems and advice.

Raised on a farm, now a general manager with a utility services company, Dave seems to know a lot about just about everything.

A branch had fallen down over the Winter, and when the snow thawed, I asked Dave if he had a saw I could borrow. Two mornings later before I even had my coffee, I saw Dave outside. He had cut up the whole branch, ready for pick-up.

This exemplifies who he is, and I want this guy on the Fitchburg Common Council, because Dave Herbst really likes to solve problems. 

Last weekend, after a big old couch was dumped on the neighborhood park-basketball court, Dave calls up neighbors and says, let's take an axe to this thing, break it up and get rid of it. Problem solved.

One of the problems Dave is working on now is building strong neighborhoods to defend against the vehicle theft and home break-ins in Dane County. It's bad; Google vehicle thefts Dane County WI.

Turns out the Fitchburg Council incumbent, Dorothy Krause, and her campaign, refuse to criticize the criminals terrorizing the region, and when pressed actually identity with the criminals against the victims.

Check out Fitchburg Politics - Facebook. A recent dialogue instructs.

A Dorothy Krause supporter wrote a pro-Krause piece, and I wrote in reply that the alder was out-of-touch with her constituents and unresponsive to crime victims in the district.

In sum, the families of criminals should be paying their victims, not the other way around.

So, one Kierstin Huelsemann writes in part, "What is funny to me is how you continue to claim to be progressive in your politics while championing inequitable solutions, out dated (sic) narratives, as well as solutions that continue to fail to actually change things in any meaningful way."

This is in reply to my criticizing criminal terrorizing homes. 

I tried again. "You again express no empathy for my neighbors whose homes have been attacked," I write.

The reply: "I really do feel sad that that is where your mindset is. Hopefully one day you will be willing to shift and build your analysis/understanding a bit more," and comprehend "transformative solutions" to the criminals' invasion of homes.

Krause just waves a flag and the Democratic Party comes running.

April 6 is Election Day. If Krause is where the Democratic Party is heading, there is a bad storm brewing.

Writes Fitchburg resident, Steven Karlin, after being sent to links spelling out "transformational politics.":

Kierstin Huelsemann,

Holy crap, it looks like those articles were written by a random text generator. As far as the chart goes, when the strategy is to create a strategy, you lose me. 

 

Is there a candidate who favors a social change model where the a-holes who stole my kids' bikes out of the garage in broad daylight have to give the bikes back and then go to jail where they can't steal anyone else's bikes? Because that person would get my vote.

Fitchburg Residents Defend and Clean Up the Park, Neighborhood

Fitchburg residents, Eric Podell, Dave Herbst and Alan Craig,
take an axe to old couch despoiling their neighborhood. On a
Saturday morning, they picked up garbage, trash and refuse
left on residents' and City property in an ongoing battle.

Update: Dave Herbst upsets five-term incumbent Ald Dorothy Krause - 375 votes - 323 votes.

Fitchburg, Wisconsin — In Fitchburg's Jamestown neighborhood, an enclave of beautiful homes with immaculate yards and gardens dot King James Blvd in this city bordering Madison.

The families love their homes and take the interested on tours around the neighborhood with obvious pride. Lovely homes and community though, have become a point of contention.

This is because a small, unorganized group of folks in the same neighborhood adamantly believe in their right to dump garbage, litter in these same lawns and leave old couches and other trash in a nearby park. Outcasts and hooligans, right? Wrong.
They have support from a sitting City Council member and other supporters who regard complaints about the garbage as per force racist is another illustration of how deranged identity politics have become. 

Neighborhood residents have had enough. One resident, Dave Herbst, is running for alder against the pro-garbage-in-your-lawn incumbent, Dorothy Krause.

On a beautiful Saturday morning, Herbst and three neighbors canvassed the neighborhood picking up litter, and breaking up an old, very heavy couch dumped in a neighborhood park next to a basketball court.

The residents expressed disgust with Alder Krause, seen as perpetually defending the vandalism and destruction of a neighborhood she was elected to defend.

Dave Herbst is no stranger to complex municipal policy questions, but he is making this simple fight for clean and safe neighborhood a major plank of his campaign.

Fed-up, these residents literally took an axe to an old couch, and broke it up for the City to pick up, after taking away the bulk.

The pictures and video below chronicle the events of Saturday morning and the larger fight to defend a neighborhood, homes and a way of life. 

 

A job well-done, and the fight continues as Dave enlists new help for the future: