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Primary Day

Monday, September 8, 2008

Today is primary day all around Wisconsin. Our statewide union, AFT-Wisconsin, has made some endorsements in contested primaries. While none of them are right here in our backyard, there are two major primaries where we have endorsed - and there are a few primaries here in our neck of the woods worth watching.

Our political organizing program has indeed worked on one primary. Up in the Northwoods of Superior, in the 73rd Assembly District, we worked to elect the AFT-endorsed candidate Nick Milroy. Nick is a Superior City Councilor who is running to replace the estimable Frank Boyle in the legislature. Frank has been one of our union's best friends over the years, a progressive champion who always stood up for labor and working families. Frank has himself endorsed Nick and sent a letter to AFT members in the district on our letterhead asking people to vote for Nick. Frank isn't the only endorser of Nick Milroy. He's joined by US Congressman Dave Obey and State Senator Bob Jauch and they both represent the area of the seat.

AFT was joined in the labor community in endorsing Nick by the local labor council, specifically because he will be the strongest champion for working families. And Nick is part of our union family - his wife is a K12 teacher and member of the Superior Federation of Teachers, one of our strongest locals. His parents were too before they retired. Nick get it - he's a self-identifying progressive who will be there with us on all the key issues. And not just as a good vote. He's going to be a leader in the Assembly for working families.

So the TAA political team worked on the district by contacting almost all of the AFT members and their households to encourage folks to vote for Nick and to identify supporters. This weekend, we also helped with the labor GOTV by first making GOTV calls to our identified AFT household supporters and then cruising through the list of AFL-CIO households in the area to get out the vote for Nick. With the strength of labor in the district, we could account for a significant chunk of Nick's votes - and be the margin of victory for him in this Democratic primary. This is a heavily Democratic area, so whomever wins the primary actually wins the seat. We'll be pulling for Nick on Tuesday!

Another contested primary where AFT-Wisconsin endorsed is in the 22nd Assembly District on the North Shore outside of Milwaukee. There, we joined with Progressive Majority, part of our progressive coalition of groups in Wisconsin, in endorsing and supporting Sandy Paasch. Sandy is a nurse and nursing educator running to replace Sheldon Wasserman who is vacating the seat to take on the odious Alberta Darling for the local State Senate seat. But it's not the AFT and PM who endorsed - so did the local labor council, sticking out their neck in a race where Herb Kohl's nephew is running along with another prominent candidate. Sandy was the choice here because she is so strong on healthcare issues, working families issues, and on education funding.

Our brothers and sisters in the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association have been doing for Sandy what we did for Nick Milroy, building support, identifying voters, and conducting GOTV. We'll also be pulling hard for Sandy on Tuesday, this being another seat where the winner of the primary will take the seat.

Here in South Central Wisconsin, there are three major primaries. Right here in Madison and in Dane County, the 81st Assembly District race has six candidates in the Democratic primary. Again, it's a seat where the winner of the (D) primary wins the seat. AFT did not endorse in this race, and we'll have a champion no matter who wins. The two frontrunning candidates are friends of our union, Justin Sargent and Kelda Helen Roys. Justin is the chief of staff to State Senator Judy Robson and has been instrumental in moving along progressive legislation for years. Kelda is the former executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin and has been an advocate in the Capitol on healthcare issues. We'll look forward to working with whomever wins here as a strong champ for the UW.

North of the 81st District is the 47th, where the winner of the primary will take on the hand-picked successor of the odious Gene Hahn. He is retiring after decades of do-nothing "service" to the district being a reliable conservative vote and not much else. In this primary, AFT did not endorse because there are two great candidates running. Paul Fisk is the former mayor of Lodi and Trish O'Neil is a nurse and former UW clinical faculty. Both are proven progressives that will be strong allies of ours in the statehouse.

South of us in the 80th District, the primary includes two candidates running to take on George Bush Republican Brett Davis. He is a radical conservative privatizer who literally worked in the Bush Administration for years before carpet-bagging on back to southern Wisconsin to run for the Assembly. This is one of the most progressive and Democratic districts still represented by a conservative Republican incumbent. In this primary, it looks like Kris Wisnefske, a nurse at the Monroe Clinic and active community member, will win over John Waelti, a former University of New Mexico professor. Both Kris and John are themselves committed progressives. But the winner will have a tough row to hoe against Davis. He works the district hard and is a likable enough fellow - it's his policies that suck and are hurting his district and the state of Wisconsin.

No matter what happens Tuesday in the primaries around our state, we'll keep driving forward to our goal of building a progressive, pro-labor, pro-education, pro-UW majority in the statehouse. We're just three seats away and we can get it done this year!

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posted by Peter

 

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