Doyle and Moore get MCJ nod

Election

The "Community Journal" endorses...

by MCJ Staff
Like the proverbial Horn-of-Plenty, which spills out its bounty of vegetables and fruit, there is a bounty of candidates and issues for voters to chose from and decide on in the six days before the November 7 election.

Candidates for Wisconsin governor, state attorney general, U.S. House of Representative and Senate, Milwaukee County sheriff and district attorney offices have told voters around the state, city and county their visions and laid out how they would address the issues confronting citizens in the state and on a local level.

The issues are many: Crime and punishment, the economy, taxes, education, health care, business development, attraction and retention; political campaign reform, employment, the elderly, same-sex marriage.

The following is the "Community Journal’s" recommendations to you--the voters--as to which candidate can best lead in the respective offices they are running for.

Governor

If Milwaukee--especially the city’s Black community--is to continue getting its fair slice of the state’s economic pie, then Governor Jim Doyle must be reelected to another term.

In his first term, Governor Doyle--with the help of Black state lawmakers and community leaders--spearheaded a number of initiatives, such as his "Grow Wisconsin" initiative, which promotes workforce and economic growth in several regions across the state.

Southeastern Wisconsin--which includes Milwaukee--has received an $110,000 "Grow" grant to help spur economic growth and job development.

The governor has also raised the minimum wage twice--$1.35 above the national average--and his policies have helped create 170,000 new jobs in the state. Of those, 25,000 jobs were in Milwaukee.

More importantly, Doyle has increased the amount of work the state does with minority-owned businesses by 14%

After some compromise by Doyle and parental school choice advocates, the governor eventually lifted the cap on the revolutionary education program. At the same time, he increased funding for smaller class sizes, school transportation, special education and high quality teachers.

Perhaps the crowning jewel of his commitment to education is his Wisconsin Covenant, which guarantees a place in the state’s colleges and technical schools for high school graduates who maintain a B average and demonstrated good behavior.

Doyle also kept Republican legislators from cutting $400 million from schools.

In the increasingly important area of health care, Doyle proposed a new income tax deduction for health care costs and worked vigorously to make sure every child in the state had health coverage by 2007.

Earlier, we noted political leaders needed vision. Despite the controversy and skepticism by some in the science community, Doyle is committed to investing in stem cell research, which could lead to cures for a number of life threatening diseases.

It’s these examples that put Doyle head and shoulders above his Republican challenger Mark Green, who would be the wrong choice for the state and a disaster for Black Milwaukeeans.

While Doyle has been on the right side of the issues, Green--as an U.S. Congressman and if he were to win the gubernatorial race--has been and will be on the wrong side.

His ideas and agenda would favor the rich in this state and would lead to the dismantling or severe curtailing of programs and initiatives that help poor working families, African Americans and other minorities in education, health care and job creation.

Our choice is clear and should be to the rest of the community: Reelect Jim Doyle as your governor November 7.

State Attorney General

Much has been made of Kathleen Falk’s lack of experience in a courtroom practicing law. But when one looks beyond the courtroom, they will see a candidate with sparkling credentials as Dane county executive for almost 10 years and an assistant attorney general.

Falk defeated incumbent AG Peg Lautenschlager in the primary to earn the chance to take on GOP opponent, U.S. Attorney J.B. Van Hollen, who has labeled Falk an activist who, if elected will concentrate on cases that would threaten the states ability to attract outside businesses.

Falk counters that Van Hollen is one dimensional, focusing on just law enforcement when the job of an attorney general is to focus on all the laws of the state from crime to the environment to fraud and consumer rights.

Stressing that she would also focus on violent crime, Falk promised to spend at least one day out of the week in Milwaukee to see how her office can better address the city’s crime and enforcement issues.

The state needs a top cop who is diverse in the law and can bring a sensitivity to the position that goes beyond the "lock them up and throw away the key" mentality of some law enforcement officials who ignore the gray areas in the lives of some criminals--particularly nonviolent offenders--whose life circumstance, whether economic or drug related, led them to breaking the law.

Not that we are excusing lawbreakers. Those who break the law must be punished. However, compassion and the ability to look at the underlying factors of some crimes must be among the criteria in selecting the next attorney general.

We feel Falk possesses that intangible. Coupled with her management skills, she would make a good attorney general for the state.

Though an experienced criminal trial attorney who is selling himself to voters as someone who is tough on crime, Van Hollen hasn’t demonstrated an awareness of those underlying circumstances that lead some to commit crime the way we think Falk will.

Couple the aforementioned with the fact Van Hollen is an appointee to the U.S. Attorney position by President Bush; Black voters have no doubt already formed their opinion about him the same way they have about Representative Green: A myopic "tough cop" type who believes in locking people up--especially Black citizens--for a long time for even nonviolent crimes, while ignoring "white collar crimes" committed by multimillion corporations.

Judging from her efforts to bring law breaking corporations to justice during her tenure in the Justice Department, Falk will champion fair and impartial justice. She earns our endorsement for attorney general.

Fourth Congressional District

Two years ago, Representative Gwen Moore made history by becoming Wisconsin’s first African American and woman elected to Congress.

Now she’s in her first campaign to retain the office and continue working on behalf of her constituents on the subjects of health care, the economy, the war in Iraq and issues impacting women and children.

Like her opponent, Republican Perfecto Rivera, Moore favors a comprehensive immigration reform plan that would allow illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. and receive permanent legal status, and tighter security along the border.

Moore was a co-sponsor of a House bill that would give immigrant workers a chance to register for a six-year temporary work visa.

But the similarities end at that issue.

On other issues, the candidates are strictly divided along party lines. Perhaps the biggest difference is the war in Iraq. Moore has called for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and called the war unwinnable.

She also supports embryonic stem cell research, believing such research could yield cures for several diseases, not to mention open the door of economic opportunity for the state, which has already invested heavily in stem cell research.

Though she was new to the ways of congressional politics, Moore impressed many in Washington and back here at home with her quick grasp of the political landscape, which helped her garner for the state $74 million worth of resources to Wisconsin for such things as transportation, job creation and health care.

Rivera, the Republican challenger to Moore’s seat, is a political newcomer. Not only, would it take some time for him to learn the political system, his stance on the issues are a polar opposite to Moore.

Rivera supports the war, is against embryonic stem cell research, for Social Security reform and supports school choice.

Moore is against the privatization of Social Security and has been an opponent of school choice.

Still, Moore should be returned to Washington. Though Rivera has strong backing in the Latino community, Moore has managed to build a coalition that encompasses Latinos, women, Asians, gays and African Americans.

Our choice is Moore for two more years.

U.S. Senate

Due, in part, to the governors and attorney general races, the Moore and Rivera race has gone virtually unnoticed by the media. Another race that has been under the media radar has been the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Senator Herb Kohl and his Republican opponent, lawyer and farmer Robert Gerald Lorge.

Even more unknown (other than Lorge) is a third and fourth candidate for the senate seat: Green Party Candidate Rae Vogeler, who is a working mother who lives in Oregon, Wisconsin, which is south of Madison, and Independent Candidate Ben Glatzel, who is a manager for the Milwaukee Water Works.

Kohl, who owns the Milwaukee Bucks and whose family owned the old Kohl’s Foods Store chain and own Kohl’s Department Stores, prefers to work quietly to bring about change and bring resources back to Milwaukee.

The senator has worked to lower prescription drug costs and helped make changes in the new Medicare drug program that would help senior citizens.

Either because of the millions Kohl has on hand to conduct a campaign without the help of the Democratic Party or the "quality" of his opponent, the Republican Party--on both state and national levels--have all but ignored Lorge, conceding the race to Kohl almost by default. So, you can imagine what little chance Vogeler and Glatzel have.

Which would explain the media’s total ambivalence to the senate seat. Voters won’t be ambivalent as they once again vote to retain Kohl for the Senate.

Milwaukee County Sheriff

Surviving a tough primary election against Vince Bobot, incumbent Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr. is expected to have a somewhat easier race against challenger Donald Holt, a retired State Patrol commander for southeast Wisconsin.

A former Milwaukee Police commander before being appointed sheriff by former Governor Scott McCallum, Clarke has the experience and accomplishments that will get him reelected to his second full term.

Clarke has worked hard to remake a county agency that he called "grossly inefficient." He has greatly reduced overtime and eliminated deficit spending, as well as tightening discipline, which he described as lax when he took command of the department.

It is Clarke’s tough disciplinary stance that has earned the ire of his deputies, forcing the sheriff to go toe-to-toe with the deputies’ union.

Like Bobot, Holt has been critical of Clarke’s management decisions and style in running the department. Holt was critical of Clarke’s de-emphasis of freeway patrols and withdrawing the sheriff’s department from participating in multi-agency anti-drug and anti-truancy efforts.

Holt also said Clarke’s dictatorial style has crushed morale.

But Clarke should be judged on his accomplishments and his no-nonsense style of law enforcement, which is needed in these times of increased violence on our streets.

The sheriff’s focus of manpower on Milwaukee streets, especially high crime areas, should be welcomed by citizens and Milwaukee Police and send a signal to criminals that this city’s laws must and will be obeyed.

Clarke’s experience makes him the obvious choice next week for reelection.

Milwaukee County District Attorney

Like the sheriff’s race, experience will win the day for John T. Chisholm, who is running to replace his boss, outgoing D.A. E. Michael McCann.

Chisholm, who has McCann’s endorsement, has 12 years of experience in the D.A. office and has pledged to modernize the office with new technology and introducing what he called "community prosecutors" in police district stations so they will be more responsive to neighborhoods.

Chisholm’s opponent is Lew Wasserman who has been in private practice for 26 years. He touts that he has more courtroom experience than Chisholm, who has led the gun unit in the D.A.’s office does.

Chisholm said he is against bringing back the death penalty, as well as proposals to allow citizens to carry concealed weapons. Wasserman favors a conceal-carry law and the elimination of jury inquests as a way to review police shootings.

Chisholm wants to expand the inquest juries from six to 12 members and use statewide investigators to handle cases.

Though Wasserman claims McCann will call the shots in the office from retirement, we feel Chisholm will be his own man and will work hard to modernize the D.A.’s office and regain the trust of the people.

We give the nod to Chisholm for D.A.

Wisconsin’s Marriage Amendment

In a column and an editorial, the "Community Journal" urged its readers to vote "NO" on November 7 against the marriage amendment (AJR 67), which reads:

"Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state."

While the amendment is aimed at preventing gays and lesbians from marrying or getting civil unions, the amendment would also impact unmarried, co-habitating couples and the elderly.

Unmarried men and women who are living with each other could lose the right to hospital visitation in emergency situations, the ability to share health insurance, make life and death decisions for a loved one and the right to pensions.

Seniors risk losing legal protections as it relates to wills, medical decisions and powers of attorney.

Gays, co-habitating straight couples and the elderly aren’t the only ones who would be impacted by the amendment, the African American community would be disproportionately impacted since many of them are living together and not married for reasons that are entirely their own.

It’s for these reasons that we encourage voters to vote "NO." Voting "NO," doesn’t mean gay marriage becomes legal, since it’s already illegal. Perhaps legislators who created the amendment should go back to the drawing board and put provisions in the measure that would protect unmarried couples and the elderly. Maybe then the amendment would get our approval...and yours.

When it all comes down to it this election year, the most important thing is that you exercise the most precious gift one has in a democracy--the right to vote!

Use your gift next week at the polls for the candidate of your choice.