Campaign Game

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New Years Resolutions

1. Practice Guitar Every Day
2. Blog More
3. Blood Sugar Under 100
4. Elect a Ton of Democrats

IA Starts...

Here is the order I sent a buddy earlier today, we'll see if I was right in a little bit...

1. Edwards

2. Obama

3. Clinton

4. Dodd

5. Biden

6. Richardson

7. Kucinich

(Note: my prediction, not the order I am supporting them)

Stew's right!

Credit where credit is due, great post Stew (responding to an anonymous forum basher of a signed letter to the editor):

Dear Keen,

At least she had the courage of her conviction to put her name on her opinion...hint, hint.
_________________
Stew Rieckman, ee

Winnebago County Board Election Signature Recap

Here are the papers that have been turned in as of the deadline of 5:00PM tonight:

Contested Districts:
District 1 -
Jackie Miller
Thomas Konetzke

District 4 -
Paul Eisen
Joe Hotynski

District 6 -
Joseph N Maehl
Bill Roh
* Note - Roh has challenged some of Maehl's signatures and Maehl may have not qualified for the ballot

District 7 -
James Koziczkowski
Kyle Reppert

District 9 -
William Pollnow, Jr
Tom Widener

District 14 -
Claud Thompson
Donna Lohry
Harold Steineke

District 15 -
Kathleen Lennon
Travis R Swanson

District 18 -
Bill Wingren
John Daggett

District 21 -
Robert Warnke
Christine Kutnink Richards

District 28 -
John A Schaidler
Jerold V Finch
Jay Schroeder

District 36 -
Patrick O'Brien
John L Reinert
Susan Rubick


Non-Contested, with an Incumbent
District 2 - Nancy L Barker
District 3 - Donald J Greisbach
District 5 - Shiloh Ramos
District 10 - Timothy Hamblin
District 11 - David Albrecht
District 12 - Kenneth C Anderson
District 17 - Jef Hall
District 19 - Alfred Jacobson
District 20 - Michael Norton
District 22 - Kenneth B Robl
District 24 - Arlene Schmuhl
District 25 - Stan Kline
District 26 - Susan Locke
District 29 - Joanne Sievert
District 30 - Chuck Farrey
District 31 - Jeanette V Diakoff
District 32 - Patrick J Brennand
District 34 - Thomas Ellis
District 35 - Harvey J Rengstorf


Non-contested, with a Non-Incumbent
District 13 - Tena Riste
District 23 - Christopher Wright
District 33 - Thomas J Egan


Vacant
District 8 - Vacant
District 16 – Vacant
* Note - The current incumbent did not fill out a declaration of non-candidacy, therefore the deadline for signatures is extended by 3 days
District 27 - Vacant

Tax Bill Mailings Remind Me of Local Issue

This story:

Tax bill messages probed - Endorsements are mailed to residents

A letter from Town Chairman Robert Hultquist mailed to all town residents with their tax bills in which he endorsed two candidates for the Town Board is under investigation by the district attorney as a possible campaign finance law violation.

"It does appear on its face to be a violation of campaign finance laws, although I have not made a final decision yet," Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel said of the letter.
...
He said the town paid to print the newsletter for distribution, postage was paid by the town for the mailing and some staff time was involved in getting it ready.
...
But because the tax bills were being mailed anyway and inclusion of the newsletter in those envelopes did not require additional postage, "it didn't cost the town another cent," he said.

"This is a big deal over nothing," he said of Schimel's investigation.

"I'm not worried because I didn't do anything wrong."

Sounds a little like this.

NYTimes: Lottery No Good for Poor People

The Super Lottery Is No Prize

Lawmakers pretend that lotteries make new taxes unnecessary. But lotteries are a tax, an inefficient, badly targeted one that is having a devastating impact on poor communities and beyond.
...
These new super lotteries are especially dangerous. One study in Texas showed the more expensive tickets selling best in the most poverty-stricken ZIP codes, ones heavily populated with Hispanics and blacks. Money that should be used for food and housing goes up in a whiff of hope instead.
...
They can dress it up all they want in slogans about buying a ticket and a dream. But the states are encouraging behavior that is too often addictive and ruinous for people who can least handle the burden.

NYTimes Profiles Dirty GOP Election Tricks

The big quote:

Such excesses are often dismissed as the work of a few overeager campaign staff members. Mr. Raymond argues, however, that illegal tactics are often standard operating procedure. “In my business,” he writes, “communications devices were all lethal weapons — and every fight was dirty.”

Such as:

It was a world in which, he claims, dirty tricks were the norm. When Mr. Raymond opened a political telemarketing firm, he was hired by a Republican challenging a New Jersey Democratic congressman. Mr. Raymond’s company — in a plan he says he hatched with the challenger’s advisers — called liberal Democrats and urged them to vote for the Green Party candidate.

Those same advisers, he says, gave Mr. Raymond another assignment: to call white households asking them to vote for the Democrat, using the voice of, as he puts it, a “ghetto black guy.” He also called union households, using voices with thick Spanish accents.

Quote of the Day:

Arthur Schlesinger, in his biography of Kennedy, quotes Richard Harwood of The Washington Post:

“We discovered in 1968 this deep, almost mystical bond that existed between Robert Kennedy and the Other America. It was a disquieting experience for reporters. ... We were forced to recognize in Watts and Gary and Chimney Rock that the real stake in the American political process involves not the fate of speechwriters and fund-raisers, but the lives of millions of people seeking hope out of despair.”

Something to remember as we go into the IA Caucuses and the 2008 race.

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