Truth about Pocan-Roys Race for Congress

Update: John Nichols: If Kelda Roys' campaign were a vehicle after an accident, it would be considered “totaled” (AUDIO).

"Roys ad was so absurd -- suggesting that Pocan, the Legislature's most consistent critic of corporate abuses, had somehow turned into a corporate stooge -- that it provoked an immediate response from one of her most prominent supporters." (Capital Times editorial. July 26, 2012)

State Rep rescinds endorsement of Kelda Roys over her negative and false ad. (Captial Times column. July 25, 2012)
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A brief preface: Doing a short state assembly race profile can be a tough proposition for a writer in a daily newspaper. Did such a piece for the Cap Times (Nov. 1, 1990) (Dave Travis-Donald E. Damon) and crafting a balanced summary in this perceived blow-out (which ended up being a close race that the GOP could have won) was much more difficult, no matter the piece in question is decidedly mediocre.
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Wisconsin's congressional districts

Mention the work involved because a good journalist, Clay Barbour, wrote a front-page, Wisconsin State Journal piece yesterday profiling the Mark Pocan-Kelda Roys democratic primary for the second congressional district (forgot the other two minor candidates) in his 1,100-word treatment.

I have a quarrel with Barbour's profile, and the copy editor's hard copy headline reading "Candidates differ in approach, experience," and the Net's head reading, "Dem primary to replace Rep. Baldwin gets nasty."

Roys' Attacks

The race has been relentlessly negative because it has been waged so by Roys; and no global-level, neutral-to-facts view of the race accurately describes the getting-nasty nature or any other major aspects of the race.

Roys has been and is on the attack against Pocan.

As an analogy, one does not describe a violent assault by one person against another as a "nasty" situation. No, it is truthfully and accurately described as an attack.

But in the conventions of journalism, truth loses out to the strange, almost nihilistic manner of reporting phenomena—the subject(s), topic of a story.

Roys' continuous attacks should be the story line repeated in accurate, thorough coverage of this race.

And her star is not "rising" as the front page picture's cut line asserts. Democratic politicos to whom I have spoken most often describe Roys as "strange," and if a trajectory can be discerned, Roys' star is falling.

That's the story of the horse race, but Barbour buried this in the last three paragraphs and even this text is vague.

Writes Barbour, "But some party advocates say (Roys) must tread lightly. It's one thing to fight hard during a campaign. The problem comes when the jabs cross the line."

Some party advocates? Roys is roundly condemned in the colorful lexicon of
politics.

Barbour's attempt at balance conflicts with offering readers a truthful and accurate report of what is happening in this race.

Party advocates, speaking off the record, see a candidate in Roys who foolishly just blew a political career by an ego-driven spasm of self reverence.

Roys' TV Spots

Roys's first-person TV spots border on the incoherent and bizarre. That's another story of this race. Who writes these scripts?

Almost messianic in tone, take a listen: "Leader ... who helped build a movement."

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"This is my fight, too," intones Roys in another spot.

Yes, I don't believe the viewer requires being disabused of the notion that Roys is above being hurt by the governor. Even you, Ms. Roys.

I think Roys misses the lesson of 2011: The people led, and the elected servants followed.

Wisconsin State Journal Stands Alone as Only Daily Getting Story Right

Rep. Peter Barca (D-Kenosha)

Update: MJS coverage catching up now (Bill Glauber).

Kudos to the Wisconsin State Journal's Clay Barbour and Ed Treleven. So far the State Journal is the only daily newspaper to report this story right.

The Wisconsin writer, Illusory Tenant, noted to me that virtually every headline in the country is wrong, misreporting what the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) publishing the anti-collective bargaining-GOP bill means.

This includes the Milwuakee Journal-Sentinel which really blew it, "out to lunch," writes the Illusory Tenant.

Congrats to Rep. Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) and LRB Director Steve Miller for flushing the facts out as well.

GOP move does not enact law, say experts

Publication online is administrative step, not legally binding

Update IV: From WisPolitics:

Dane County District Attorney Ismael R. Ozanne knocks down GOP contention with statement:

I was surprised to learn shortly before 5 p.m. this afternoon that, despite Judge Maryann Sumi’s temporary restraining order, an effort was undertaken to try and make 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 (Governor Walker’s Budget Repair Bill) effective. I was even more surprised to learn that the impetus for an attempt at publication, contrary to Judge Sumi’s order, came from a named defendant in the lawsuit.

As Judge Sumi said in issuing the temporary restraining order enjoining publication of the bill on March 18, 2011:

Finally, the necessity to preserve the status quo. I think relief is essential to preserve the status quo, which is what exists here and now. The bill has passed. But it has not been published.

I believe that, pursuant to Judge Sumi’s order, the status quo is preserved. This case, including the legal significance of today’s actions, should be resolved in a court of law. I look forward to presenting our case on behalf of the People of the State of Wisconsin Tuesday morning, March 29, 2011, at 8:30 a.m.

Update III: I told my mother, we feel like we were just mugged, but we checked and we still have our wallets. This could have been a Friday night massacre of sorts, but instead the perp just committed suicide in the capitol.

Update II: Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) and "[LRB Director Steve Miller] met Friday. Miller said Fitzgerald asked him to publish the law and, after reading the statutes, Miller agreed that he could do so. He said he had never published a law without being given a date by the secretary of state during his 12 years of running the reference bureau." (Marley and Stein, MJS) Fitzgerald said, "It's law." [Note: Fitzgerald's status as a legislative expert is under some dispute.]

Update: Via Rep. Peter Barca comes this:

[LRB Director Steve Miller] ... indicated that the LRB published the Act in order to satisfy a statutory publication requirement that is separate from the publication duty of the Secretary of State, and that such separate and additional publication by the Secretary of State is required in order for Act 10 to take effect.

The "bomb" that Gov. Scott Walker bragged about dropping on Wisconsin was
followed by the latest bomb that has GOP leaders smiling.

Keep smiling. [The mad bombers—Scott Walker, the Fitzgeralds, and Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch—just blew themselves up with their home-made bombs. These guys are either very foolish, playing games with Wisconsin, or some combination of both.]

The bombers are known. And recall efforts of the GOP senators just got another great push, reminding citizens the GOP will do anything in pursuit of the goals of its far-right ideology.

The Wisconsin State Journal's report (Clay Barbour and Ed Treleven) includes experts' explaining why the GOP celebration of sticking it to working families is premature.

The legislative bomb, the anti-collective bargaining bill, had been pushed through the legislature without the necessary quorum and in violation of Wisconsin Open Meeting laws.

Now, the "drama over Gov. Scott Walker's controversial measure limiting public sector collective bargaining took a sharp turn Friday when the Legislative Reference Bureau published the law — normally the last step before legislation takes effect." (Barbour and Treleven)

But this act will not stand either inside a courtroom or in the homes of Wisconsin families.

From Barbour and Treleven:

But officials with the nonpartisan Reference Bureau (LRB) and the Legislative Council — the Legislature's drafting and research agency and its legal service, respectively — said publication of the act online was only an administrative step.

Reference Bureau Director Steve Miller and Legislative Council staff attorney Scott Grosz both said La Follette still needs to designate a date for publication and actually publish the act in the Wisconsin State Journal — something the court order bars the secretary of state from doing.

The WSJ report continues: "If the bureau's action did constitute publication, it could make moot the state's appeal of Sumi's order, now before the state Supreme Court."

And if Judge Sumi's order becomes moot, other remedies become available.

Madison attorney Lester Pines is quoted, saying: "I suspect that if Judge Sumi was willing to take up a (temporary restraining order) against publication I suspect she'd do the same thing on enforcement" of the new law. "This is going to unleash a tsunami of litigation." (Barbour and Treleven)

Walker Exposed; Rejects Concessions, Demands No Collective Bargaining

Update: As the Tea Partiers rush to defend a desperate Gov. Scott Walker today, Forbes reports, Koch Brothers Behind Wisconsin Effort to Kill Public Unions.

In other news, Rush Limbaugh went a rant last night calling Wisconsin families "freeloaders."

Walker's Bluff Called

Wisconsin public unions have said all along they will compromise, negotiate and make concessions as they have for decades.

Wisconsin citizens have accused Gov. Walker as lying about his true motives in the so-called "budget repair" bill that contains language to bust unions and political opponents by outlawing collective bargaining for public unions.

Now, the unions have again called Walker's bluff.

"Mary Bell, president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, and Marty Beil, executive director of AFSCME Council 24, said in a conference call with reporters [last night] that workers will do their fair share to narrow Wisconsin's budget gap." [Hall, Spicuzza, Barbour; WSJ)

All Bell demands is that Wisconsin working families be allowed to continue the right to collectively bargain and organize as before.

Walker refused the offer in a rambling response that personally I still cannot decipher.

The plain truth is Walker and the GOP want to destroy unions, they want to obstruct Democratically leaning voters ("Voter ID"), especially College students; gerrymander all voting districts (Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison) is high on their list); and a host of other anti-democratic measures.

It's been written here before: What Walker and the GOP fail to understand is that Wisconsin citizens do not owe the Republican Party political allegiance or face pay-back through the budget and other legislative measures. We can vote for and work for whomever we damn please. It's called: Democracy

Walker will continue his too-slick-by-half defence of the fiscal crisis. But his expressed concern for the budget is a sham. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) has the story.Funny, but I do not recall Gov. Walker mentioning the Koch Bros. Why the silence, Gov. Walker?