Posted on 01/07/2012 3:06:57 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
PLATTEVILLE — At Ed’s Café, a table full of old-timers finished their coffee and ribbed a fellow member of their lunch bunch about fixing his truck.
It was all good-natured fun at this Platteville truck stop, popular among rural residents and people passing through on U.S. 151.
But when the talk turned to politics, as it tends to do at Ed’s, the group of men grew stone serious.
They had plenty to say about what they see as the terrible state of affairs in Wisconsin’s divided political climate, just nothing they wanted to share with Wisconsin Reporter — at least for attribution in a story.
Like many rural Wisconsin residents, these men said they are not happy about the barrage of recall campaigns that have hit the state for the better part of the past year, including the latest effort to oust Gov. Scott Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.
Ben Cargill, 27, a cook at Ed’s, wasn’t shy about expressing his disdain.
“If you ask me, I think it’s a waste of time and money,” he said, adding that recall supporters should have to pay the bill for the cost of recall elections.
Unlike many of his Platteville neighbors, Cargill said he thinks Walker is “doing a fine job,” balancing a state budget once bogged down by a $3.6 billion shortfall.
Cargill said his father, a retired baker at University of Wisconsin-Platteville, has an entirely different view of a governor who led the effort to reform collective bargaining for most public employees. Walker’s budget repair bill also requires public workers to contribute more to the cost of their health insurance and pensions.
Along the rolling hills of U.S. 151, from just north of Dubuque, Iowa, through Iowa County, signs speak for or against Walker, even though the recall story doesn’t often seem to be told in Wisconsin’s rural reaches.
While the images of protests and petition signing from Madison, Milwaukee and the urban parts of the Badger State often make headlines, small-town Wisconsin could have a big say in the state’s political direction.
Grant County, home to Platteville, the largest city in far southwest Wisconsin, helped Republican Walker beat Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat, in the 2010 governor’s election. Walker received 52 percent of the votes in Grant County, mirroring his statewide election numbers.
More than 52 percent of voters in nearby Lafayette County supported Walker.
But heading north along U.S. 151, in Iowa County, neighbor to Dane County and the Madison metropolitan area, support for candidate Walker fell off to 44 percent of the vote.
Little town split
Mineral Point is a dividing line.
This historic little Wisconsin city founded on mining and defined, in large part, by its artisan community is like a lot of Badger State communities — split over the recall question.
Chuck Bennett, a Mineral Point resident who’s “proud to be” 50, asserts the math works out closer to 65 percent to 35 percent, with Walker on the short end. His front yard sports a bold red “Recall Walker” sign, and a few other signs are in his neighborhood.
Bennett asserts Mineral Point is divided because of Walker.
“My biggest issues are, along with a lot of people I know, is what he didn’t reveal in his campaign and what he came out and did,” Bennett said, noting Act 10, the bill dismantling collective bargaining that Walker rolled out in February. “It’s just another way of lying.”
That sentiment is common among Walker’s opponents, repeatedly espoused by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, leading the recall campaign.
Bill Spevacek, 77, a member of the Democratic Party of Iowa County, said he and his wife have signed the petitions and support Walker’s recall for the same reasons.
“The closest word I can come to it is ‘criminal,’” Spevacek said. “He didn’t tell us anything about knocking off state employee unions.”
The cancer survivor said he joined his son and 12-year-old grandson at the Capitol in February, among tens of thousands of people protesting Act 10. Spevacek joked that his part in the demonstrations at least qualifies him as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, which heralded 2011 as the year of the protester.
“Walker, in my estimate, has been a total failure, and the quicker we get him out of office the better we’ll be,” he said.
In an interview late last month with Wisconsin Reporter, Walker said the charge that he had Act 10 in the bag is patently false. He said this charge mainly comes from big union bosses who “can’t get their hands on union dues” anymore.
“Did I plan the bill? No. But I laid out the parameters,” he said.
“The irony of all ironies with what’s transpired, particularly of late these last few months, is most people in Wisconsin and across America get upset with politicians who break their promises,” Walker added. “I’ve actually fulfilled my promises, and I’ve got people who don’t like that. That’s fine. They’re right to do that, but it does kind of run contrary to where most people get their outrage. It’s usually because someone did something they said they wouldn’t do.”
Jim and Patricia Johnson advertise their political convictions in their front yard
The Johnsons are fans of the governor, a fact betrayed by the blue “Walker We Support You” sign on the lawn of their home along Mineral Point’s U.S. 151.
Jim Johnson, a 79-year-old former executive with Wisconsin Power & Light Co., a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corp., said Walker has done some positive things in his year in office.
Johnson’s brother, Ken Johnson, 79, also of Mineral Point, has debated politics with his big brother for years. Ken, a “strong union man” who worked as a machinist for 29 years, said he would never vote for Walker.
“I feel state workers should pay more for their retirement and for their health care, they should pay their fair share,” he said. “But I don’t think in any way (Walker) had the right to step in with collective bargaining. Let the people bargain.”
The brothers Johnson do agree on one political point: The governor should not be recalled.
“I believe when you elect a man for his term, he should serve his term out,” Ken said. “If you don’t like it, go back and vote against him the next time. All they’re doing is opening a can of worms with this recall.”
And they both agree that civil discourse has too often broken down in Wisconsin politics.
“You’re not going to get everything you want in life. You have to give and take,” Jim said. “I think the give-and-take process right now is in deep trouble with the Republican and Democratic parties.”
« 2012 off with a bang in Wisconsin
Wisconsin Recall in Rural Areas Ping
If you want to be on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list, just FReep Mail me and it shall be done.
Somehow we’ve got to get the word out to these rural areas. Walker campigned on every one of thee changes -— in fact talked about them for 5 years before the election. Don’t forget that he was running for the governorship back in 2006 before Green entered the race and Walker dropped out at the behest of the National GOP and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner.
I talked to 2 teachers in a bar before Christmas. They told me about the land they had just purchased up in the UP of MI and their new home. They drove a Lexus. They were very angry that Walker wanted them to pay something for their Health Insurance.
The obnoxious lady in Appleton who asked me to sign the Recall Petition and could not understand my "no thank you" response - she drove off in a Saab convertible.
Having another beer after work, protesters against Walker came in to the bar and were ordering $9.00 pints of beer and talking about how they first tried this brand of beer during a trip to Europe.
I work about 60 hours a week. I have never been to Europe. I can't afford a Lexus or a Saab. Then again, I pay for my health insurance and my retirement plan.
I like Gov. Walker. I hope there are more people like me than the greedy public union folks I have met.
I talked to 2 teachers in a bar before Christmas. They told me about the land they had just purchased up in the UP of MI and their new home. They drove a Lexus. They were very angry that Walker wanted them to pay something for their Health Insurance.
The obnoxious lady in Appleton who asked me to sign the Recall Petition and could not understand my "no thank you" response - she drove off in a Saab convertible.
Having another beer after work, protesters against Walker came in to the bar and were ordering $9.00 pints of beer and talking about how they first tried this brand of beer during a trip to Europe.
I work about 60 hours a week. I have never been to Europe. I can't afford a Lexus or a Saab. Then again, I pay for my health insurance and my retirement plan.
I like Gov. Walker. I hope there are more people like me than the greedy public union folks I have met.
I drive a company service vehicle around the state, between one and two thousand miles per week. I have a “Reward Walker” bumper sticker on my van that my employer thankfully allows. I get far more positive feedback than negative, but that probably doesn’t mean much.
Ping
I notice on my drive to work that a car sporting an Obama sticker is usually a foreign made car...go figure.
La Crosse, WI, recall people. There was another group close by with about the same amount of people. In all, there were about 25 people at the height of the screaming and drumming in La Crosse today.
Our fabulous Lt. Gov. spoke at our campaign office gathering and she was on fire.
Where’d you get the bumper, gorush?
Rebecca is the best! I’ve met her and heard her speak many times. We are lucky to have her in our corner. She may be petite but she is dynamite and a huge defender of the Constitution and Scott Walker.
My BIL’s friend had a bunch of them made. I haven’t seen any others, however, probably out of fear of vandalism...that’s the beauty of a company vehicle. :{)
Absolutely! She’s a wonderful lady and quite unafraid.
Those recall people sure look lonely. Can’t Mickey Mouse and Elvis come by and pitch in?
Those recall people sure look lonely. Can’t Mickey Mouse and Elvis come by and pitch in?
The peasants in Wi will be brought to heel by their social betters.
The liberal machine has had free reign for at least 3 decades in that state. It’s not going to go down without a vicious fight - a fight they are currently winning (thanks for not caring.)
Sounds like most of the school employee parking lots here in MN.
Wellstone ,Franken and/or Obama stickers still on them and 100K miles less and 10 years newer than my car.
But they’re always bitching. Then they disappear for the summer to their 2nd home they call a cabin.
So the recallers here in Wisconsin think it’s better to force workers to be union members even if they don’t want to, allow collective bargaining to be a very expensive and restrictive offering for municipalities and school districts, protect teachers even though they are not doing their jobs and are not providing a good education to our students, allow the unions to run the Democratic Party and thus the state, lay-off teachers and other union members to fight budgets while giving union workers free perks or very inexpesive perks as they must be so special in comparison to the non-union taxpaying worker, increase taxes on business, industry and those evil corporations which of course is passed on to the consumer, raid funds unlawfully as Democrat Gov. Doyle did as a budget trick to make things look better than they were (Gov. Walker had to clean up that mess), increase state taxes by $1 billion in the middle of the night after only 24 hours of discussion and allowing NO public input, and on and on and on. Get a life people!
Was anyone signing?
I swear that they’ve given up in Ozaukee County. I don’t see anyone out soliciting signatures, and I know of nly ONE yard sign out in favor of the recal, There were 2, but one of them has been flat in the ditch for 2 weeks with nobody making an attempt to put it back up.
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