In a 2008 interview with the La Crosse Tribune, Kind said he’ll use his 'superdelegate' vote to support whichever candidate gets the majority among 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary voters. "I’m going to keep faith with the voters and respect their choice," said Kind.
Eight years later and Ron Kind has changed his tune. He continues to pledge his support for Hillary Clinton even though Bernie Sanders won the presidential primary in the 3rd Congressional district by 61% to 39% over Hillary Clinton. That's unacceptable.
To date our campaign has influenced Kind to co-sponsor long-neglected environmental legislation, and to finally vote against endless war. Let's work together to insist that he pledge his 'superdelegate' vote for Bernie at the Democratic Party national convention in July. Here's a link to help you make your voice heard, lobbydelegates.com.
And please support our campaign. So far we've accomplished a lot together. There's no telling what we can accomplish on August 9th.
Updated - Someone should ask U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse) why the national and Wisconsin Democratic Parties (DPW) are shutting out grassroots primary challenges against congressional incumbents.
WisPolitics is holding a luncheon for Rep. Kind to discuss policy issues at The Madison Club, 5 East Wilson Street in Madison at 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. on March 29 next Tuesday.
Rep. Kind is facing a tough primary challenger in retired teacher Myron Buchholz (D-Eau Claire).
One would think in progressive Wisconsin, in the tradition of Bob La Follette, voters should pick their representatives, not Party bosses.
Candidate Buchholz found out the Democratic Party bosses protect entrenched incumbents like Kind, who has received over $16,000 from the Koch brothers, (Craver, The Capital Times).
Money Talks, La Follette Walks
Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) Chair Martha Laning is protecting Kind and the special interests funding his six-figure gig as a nine-term member of Congress.
The money from the Koch brothers is nothing compared to the top four special interest sectors forking over money to Kind—Insurance, Pharmaceuticals/Health Products, Health Professionals and Securities and Investment—who have collectively donated over $391,000 in the 2015-16 election cycle alone, (Open Secrets, Center for Responsive Politics).
As of Dec. 31, 2015, Kind had over $2 million on hand and raised well over $1 million in 2015-16. Name of the Game Is Money from Special Interests
Kind and the DPW are not unique. Shutting out, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) hopes shutting down, grassroots challengers is a national phenomena.
"The Florida Democratic Party will not allow me access to our party's (voters') database and software because I am running against an incumbent Democrat," said Florida congressional candidate, Tim Canova (Fulton, Common Dreams). Sounds familiar.
Canova is mounting a grassroots challenge against the six-term congresswoman
and chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida).
Message from the DNC, Schultz and the Party insiders' favorite, Hillary Clinton, to challengers fighting special interests is clear: Get lost, (Iannelli, Broward-Palm Beach New Times).
[Note: Breaking news out of Florida: "After being denied access to an important voter file that could help his campaign, Democrat Tim Canova, who is challenging incumbent Debbie Wasserman Schultz this August, will now get access to a campaign tool called the Voter Activation Network (VAN)," (Perry, Florida Politics).]
Missouri and other states report similar challenger obstruction by the state's Democratic Party.
"(N)ews outlets in Missouri reported last month on the fight over VAN access in that state, 'several Democratic candidates—who are also Ferguson movement leaders,' were blocked from the files by the state party. As one of the candidate's campaign managers put it, 'The sign almost says, 'Newcomers need not apply.'"
The DNC has become a funnel for special interests and Myron Buchholz and Tim Canova are not the right kind of special. The kind with a dollar sign and six figures to donate for services rendered.
Myron Buchholz and Family of Eau Claire, Wisconsin -
Retired Teacher Myron Buchholz Mounts
Primary Challenge Against U.S. Rep. Ron Kind,
Answers Bernie Sanders Call for a Political Revolution in
Wisconsin's Historically Independent Third Cong. District
'Congress has completely forgotten the lessons that caused passage of the
EPA and our first clean air and water laws in the 70’s. We must revisit
them before the corporations suck us dry'
Kind's district includes many rural areas from which residents draw their drinking water from aquifers, and Buchholz blasted politicians who deplete and attack protection of aquifers.
Buchholz also hit Kind's championing of the American jobs-exporting Trans-Pacific Partnership, (TPP).
Buchholz' said special interests funding Kind inspired Buchholz to run as well.
Below is a follow-up interview with Myron Buchholz.
Question - In light of the Flint tragedy, the proliferation of industrialized agriculture against the small farmer, and the present danger to Wisconsin's fresh water bodies such as the Mississippi, Lake Superior and Lake Michigan (for starters), imperiled by state policy, what would you as a member of Congress work for to protect water, the lifeblood of humanity? What can we do federally?
Buchholz - First we must recognize the extent that the corporate model will go to extract whatever they can until the resource has been depleted. I believe the most obvious example of this is 'Mountain Top Removal.' Any government that allows a mining company to blow the top off of a mountain for one days’ worth of electricity will clearly allow any corporation to deplete any resource till it is gone. The Great Lakes Compact was a major step towards protecting our precious water resources, but as recent events make clear, just because there is an agreement does not mean that it will never be challenged. High capacity wells are another challenge to our water resources. It is one thing to connect a 150HP tractor to a well, and completely another to connect an 800HP tractor. There must be reasonable limits placed on any extraction regardless of the resource. For far too long industry has been able to use 'economic development' as a justification for doing whatever, and it is time to draw some lines. In congress, I will advocate for limits and public control of resources and enforce existing law. It appears Congress has completely forgotten the lessons that caused passage of the EPA and our first clean air and water laws in the 70’s. We must revisit them before the corporations suck us dry.
Question - The Trans-Pacific Partnership, (TPP), for most folks is D.C. inside baseball. However, without a doubt the consequences of TPP are exporting jobs and industry, and eviscerating the rights of U.S. citizens by selling out our environmental, labor and consumer rights to transnational corporations with no allegiance to America. Your opponent, Rep. Ron Kind, is all for the fast-tracked TPP which likely will not get a vote before the 2016 election. You are against the TPP, a special interest, massive investor rights agreement that shuts out people. Does this description seem fair and accurate? Buchholz - The TPP is NAFTA on steroids. Stopping it is the main reason I decided to take on Mr. Kind. We already have examples of how these agreements remove local control and are undemocratic in nature. The corporate model is based on greed, and we have learned that their greed knows no bounds. Therefore, giving corporations more control than they already have absolutely scares the hell out of me. Examples abound, but the removal of Country of Origin Labeling on meat should be enough to shock the electorate into stopping the power grab. It seems patently ridiculous that I can know where my shirt is made, but not where my hamburger comes from.
Question - What has gone wrong with American politicians of both parties? Did selling out the people to special interests suddenly displace working for the people whom elected representatives are supposed to protect? What's your narrative on this on what has happened to America?
Buchholz - Why is it that a candidate for almost any office is judged by how much money can be raised to campaign? I have come to the conclusion that a candidate should be judged by how cheaply and efficiently one can run a campaign, not on how much money one can throw at the election industry that has grown large during my lifetime. I get solicitations on almost a daily basis from companies who want to sell services. How can we expect Congress to efficiently manage money when campaigns, especially incumbents, exist on an almost unlimited budget? The average work year for Congress in recent years is 115 days. That leaves way too much time to fundraise. We need have public financing of elections if there is going to be any hope of getting back to a citizen legislature. I propose that no congressional candidate should be able to spend twice the congressional income on any election. For the US Congress, that is still $348,000! The only occupation in America where one spends millions getting a job that pays $174,000 is the US Congress. Those millions come mainly from those with deep pockets who expect something in return. Of course, overturning 'Citizens United' would help a little, but we had a terrible problem before that misguided Supreme Court ruling. I also realize that our present congress will never vote to limit fundraising, so any change will have to come through the amendment process.
Citizens from Wisconsin and Minnesota gathered outside
Rep. Ron Kind’s Eau Claire office last June to urge
Kind to stop Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority
Photo: Wisconsin AFL-CIO
In the tradition of Bob La Follette voters should pick their representatives, not party bosses.
Not so says the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW).
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) Chair, Martha Laning, won her election in June 2015 promising to cultivate a progressive, grassroots-supporting agenda over party insiders, (Talaga, Isthmus).
It didn't take long for Laning to sell out and break promises, and in a presidential election year no less, betraying La Follette and the Wisconsin people who should be welcomed into the DPW, not shooed away.
Buchholz quickly found the DPW is run with broken promises, outright lies and disregard to internal Party rules from Chair Martha Laning.
Laning's months-long tenure at DPW has already earned the moniker the "incumbent protection plan," protecting party insiders from the people whom they are elected to represent and progressives working on behalf of citizens against special interests.
Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wisconsin) was first elected to office in 1996 and became so immersed in Washington politics and out-of-touch with his district, Kind champions the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty.
The TPP is a give-away to transnational corporations, foreign interests, and hedge fund investors. The consequences of TPP would be the accelerated flight of American jobs and industry, and the substituting of citizens' legal environmental, labor and consumer protections with the full force of special interest law.
Think NAFTA's giant sucking sound, multiplied by 1,000 and the reality of TPP, (not voted on yet), and you'll get the picture of this potential restructuring of American society not exactly responsive to citizen voices anymore. Kind made news when he tried to explain why he received over $16,000 in money from the Koch brothers, (Craver, The Capital Times). Now there's a new kind of Democrat.
Democratic Party Obstruction to Grassroots Challenge
She tells this Democrat in good standing that the DPW's voters' list, (Voter Activation Network (VAN), will not be made available to Buchholz for his challenge to Rep. Kind, (Blogging Blue), (Cognitive Dissidence).
Laning's reasoning. She has no reasoning, saying she must control the VAN because if Democratic incumbents believe it will be sold to primary challengers the incumbents won't update the VAN and the voter information contained in the VAN will suffer.
Buchholz' and other Democratic Party volunteers are taking to Facebook and other social media saying if they believed incumbents had a proprietary hold on the information volunteers gather, they wouldn't have volunteered in the first place.
An email by supporters of Buchholz circulating reads:
The current DPW by-law language regarding VAN access is this:
The Wisconsin voter file which is administered by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) will be made available to all the following individuals/groups in good standing with the DPW and legislative caucuses: all incumbent Democratic Party officeholders, Democratic nominees for public office, Democratic legislative campaign committees, and county, local unit, and Congressional District affiliates of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Voter file will be made available to non-partisan candidates who are in compliance with the membership requirements detailed in Article 1, Section 6(e), contingent upon the recommendation of their county party leadership. In the case of multi-jurisdiction or statewide races, such recommendations will be made by the State Chair, subject to review by the Executive Committee. Multiple recommendations for a specific office are allowed. All other requests made by individuals, candidates, groups, organizations, or political committees not specified above, must be approved by the State Chair, subject to review by the Executive Committee. All appeals for reversals or exceptions are subject to review by the Executive Committee of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin voter file and other Democratic Party list access fees will be determined by the Executive Committee established fair market value, as required by state regulation.
The DPW County Chairs Association is meeting this weekend in Stevens Point. The discussion on changing Laning's new protect-the-incumbents-against-grassroots citizens policy should begin in Point.
Myron Buchholz and Family of Eau Claire, Wisconsin - Retired Teacher Myron Buchholz Mounts Primary Challenge Against U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, Answers Bernie Sanders Call for a Political Revolution in Wisconsin's Historically Independent Third Cong. District
Wisconsin's Third Congressional District Snaking Along Mississippi River (into Central Wisconsin) Known for Independence and Oasis of Progressive Politics
On Monday, Myron Buchholz announced that he is challenging Congressman Ron Kind in the August 9th, Democratic Party primary in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.
Buchholz is a retired high school history teacher and longtime peace activist from Eau Claire. He serves on the board of the Chippewa Valley Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and is a steering committee member of 15 Now Northwest Wisconsin, a community coalition that advocates for living wages.
"Bernie Sanders has called for a political revolution, for average Americans to step up and take our government back from the billionaire class. I’ve decided to answer that call," he said. Buchholz also said Wisconsinites need a representative who will fight for working people, instead of promoting trade deals that send American jobs out of the country and depress wages.
"In 2004, 29% of children in Wisconsin were eligible for free or subsidized school lunches," said Buchholz. "By 2014 that figure had risen to 43%. Poverty is spreading across Wisconsin and across the country. We need working class champions in Washington DC and that’s who I’ll be."
The Democratic Party congressional primary election will be held on Tuesday, August 9th, 2016.
