Spring 2011 Election Endorsements

The Spring 2011 sample Ballot is out and its time for my spring endorsements for the local election.

1. Wisconsin State Supreme Court – JoAnne Kloppenburg

Plenty more about this race can be read here!

2. Circuit Court Judges:
* Paul Higginbotham
* Maryann Sumi
* Richard Niess

3. Dane County Executive: Joe Parisi. All the info you need for EIleen for Exec Is right here.

4. Village of Cottage Grove President:

Diane Wiedenbeck is the clear choice.

This is critical time in our state and our Village. I have already chronicled how Mike Mikalsen was appointed to a 19/24 month term. (I actually will have more information on that closer to the election) Mr. Mikalsen, who is who works for(?) Representative(and major Walker supporter) Steve Nass, has proven that he is in over his head. Being an extreme ideologue and career politician has not translated into leadership nor competent management. Under The president-selects management, the Village has lost our signature business of Fired UP Pottery, along with other locally owned businesses. When Fired Up had decided to make the move, the owner specifically named Diane Wiedenbeck, as the ONE person who tried to get them to stay:

Over the past few months, I have greatly appreciated Diane Wiedenbeck’s presentation to the committee about my move and her concern over keeping me here in Cottage Grove.”

It is no coincidence that most of the locally owned businesses in the Village have Diane signs in front of their businesses. The one issue that Mikalsen seems to be campaigning on is taxes. While I pointed out earlier how he is not being exactly honest when he says he lowered the levy, there is of course a little more to the story. While our property taxes have stayed relatively flat, we are not only getting less with what we are paying under this current board(police level staffing is at 2005 levels, when is the last time a park has been upgraded, etc…) Property values have also decreased in the village the last 2 years. Econ 101 says that if your property values decrease and your property taxes remain the same, in actuality your taxes went up in proportion to what the value of your property decreased.

Finally Mr. Mikalsen supports Scott Walker and his attack on the middle class and labor in Wisconsin fully. He supports him so much as to actually go on on the radio and spout partisan nonsense. He also has let it be known that dissent within the village will not be tolerated and opposing viewpoints are NOT welcome. The Village of Cottage Grove deserves better, lets change the tone of politics and allow ALL voices to be heard.

5. Village of Cottage Grove Trustees(3 positions):

Paula Severson:
I have written before how Paula is a registered lobbyist with the building trades, whose goal is to rid the state of unions(sound familiar?). She preaches honesty and integrity yet has never once mentioned this fact in any of her campaign materials and when speaking to constituents, denies her true feelings instead saying what she needs to get elected.

She is so tied to the republican party that she gladly put her name to an endorsement of republican Dane Deutsch in his run for the State Senate:

“On behalf of the 800 members of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, we’re proud to endorse your candidacy for the Wisconsin State Senate.”

– Paula J. Severson (ABC Wisconsin Chapter)

Mr .Deutsch of course gained national fame with his tweets trumpeting the wonders of Adolf Hitler\'s leadership. I know it was dismissed as miniscule, but ESPN finds the exact same reference(by Lou Holtz) unacceptable. While Paula apparently will apparently accept anything to advance the party(I pointed it out to her during the election season and she chose to have it left up), ESPN wont, and I personally find it unacceptable also.

Finally Paula, who broke open meeting laws prior to the appointment of Mr. Mikalsen, also ran the meeting that he was appointed at. One time during the meeting(because support for electing instead of appointing was overwhelming) threatened to call the police and clear the room. After, when there was talk of recall after the appointment, she was moved to tears saying she would never run for another position again(oops). While doing it in a nicer way than Mikalsen, she has also shut down all dissenting voices.

The perfect irony of how she feels about government is that she has a “paula severson for village board” facebook page, that is NOT open to the public(seriously). As a former supporter of hers, her tenure on the board has been extremely disappointing and I can no longer support her.

Jennifer Pickel: Ms. Pickel has been very active in the community between her tenure as President of the PTO and an unsuccessful run for School Board. I do not know Ms. Pickel and have sent her numerous questions to be answered and posted but have not gotten a response. It is troubling to me that she has hitched her wagons to mike mikalsen and paula severson, all of their yard signs are grouped together. Also the fact that local propagandaist, and negative letter writer richard kerr has endorsed her, gives everyone pause. However one story I have heard trumps all of this:

One quick example is that when the district shut down for the “budget bill” protests at the Capitol, Jennifer called all the schools to see who was in their classrooms and who wasn`t. She then brought cupcakes to all those that didnt go to the Capitol. (full disclosure i have emailed Ms. Pickel to get her side of the story and have not received a response, If I get one I will post it)

That makes it hard for me to support her and hopefully all public and unions workers will think about it also.

Micah Zielke: Micah is a nice person with disturbing record. Zielke, voted for the appointment of Mikalsen and took the vote away from the people, , voted to kill the library board thus burying any hopes for a library for years, continually cut Colonial Club funding, is endorsed by Richard Kerr. His one moment where he stood out(unfortunately on the wrong side) was when he wanted to break a contract and get into an expensive legal battle with the rugby club, instead of run sewer and water to Fireman’s park. That all being said, I do think he has the best interests of the village at heart and without such right wing extremists around him(Duane Hubing is not running) he could think logically and be persuaded to actually vote in the best interests of the village.

There is also former Village President Ken Dahl and firefighter/business owner Andrew Last.

I fully and strongly support Ken Dahl and Andrew last as MUCH needed new blood on the board who are willing to bring in all voices. I less than enthusiastically support Zielke for the third position.

Monona Grove School Board:(two positions)

* Susan Fox
* Dean Bowles

We are lucky and blessed to have two great candidates available and willing to run for school board during such a trying time for education. They have my full support!

Please VOTE Tuesday April 5th!