Might as well be us!
For all the Werkes knows, the Spring primary election has been decided already. Two weeks of early voting ended Friday. Your next chance is what used to be called “Election Day.” That would be Tuesday 02-21-23. Even Republicans encouraged an early vote this time! (If you can’t beat them … ) But would we listen?
We’re going with Dan Kelly for Supreme Court for all the wrong reasons. Kelly won’t pledge to support Jennifer Dorow if she wins so we don’t want to take any chances. Our greatest fear: that the two progressive candidates make it through the primary. More likely to survive than Everett Mitchell is Janet Protasiewicz. Now Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says she is being criticized for giving probation in three felony cases in which children were sexually assaulted or criminally neglected by an adult. Progressives will lap it up!
→ Magazine-length profile of Dane County Judge Everett Mitchell in Politico.
The Werkes predicts: Protasiewicz and Dorow.
Give Gloria Reyes credit. She knows how to bring it. She’s up on social media dunning incumbent mayor Satya Rhodes Conway for milking out-of-towners for her campaign cash. Reyes is working the safe neighborhoods lane, even though she gave up school resource police officers to the social justice warriors when she was president of the Madison school board. (We detailed their supporters.)
We’re voting Scott Kerr as a protest vote. The Werkes predicts: Reyes 48%, Satya 42%, Kerr 10%.
Madison aldermanic
For Madison Common Council, the Werkes cannot improve on the picks made by Madison Safety Connection, led by the indefatigable Bonnie Roe. All 20 seats are up in April and 8 of them have at least three candidates to be winnowed on Tuesday. The Safety Connection recommends six of them:
Colin Barushok for District 2. Opposes incumbent Juliana Bennett who, the Safety Connection reports “has a strong history of anti-police votes … [and was] the lone sponsor of a resolution that set out to ban police from using tear gas, mace, any other chemical munitions, and other non-lethal tools, like beanbag rounds. (More here.)
Paul Skidmore in District 9. Would redress the mistake made two years ago when this near-Middleton district chose Nikki Conklin instead. “Conklin is one of three Alders who is so fond of defunding the police that she voted (along with Alders Juliana Bennett and Yannette Figueroa Cole) not to fix the roof of … the Madison Police Department Training Center.” Voted against police body cameras, grant-funded neighborhood police officers. Is endorsed by Progressive Dane. (More here.)
Sheri Carter in District 10. A sitting alder who was redistricted into Yannette Figueroa Cole’s bailiwick. “No new funding to the police and maximum funding taken from the police appears to be Figueroa Cole’s motto,” Bonnie Roe says.
Amani Latimer Burris in District 12. A newcomer, Burris “is a skilled collaborator and will bring all voices to the table to make Madison a City where all can thrive. Concerned about our current level of gun violence, Amani will prioritize healthy police-community partnerships and wants police officers reintegrated back into the neighborhood. Amani values diversity, but focuses on coming together in unity to get things done.” (More here.)
Isadore Knox, Jr. in District 14. “He will work toward greater public safety in our city and renewed accountability for city government.” Opponent Noah Lieberman is Progressive Dane. (More here.)
Barbara Harrington-McKinney in District 20. Another alder mapped out of her old district. (WTF?) “Believes everyone should feel safe in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods and will prioritize public safety. … McKinney supports body-worn cameras on police officers and increased staffing to allow for more proactive, community-oriented policing.” Endorsed by the police union.
“The worst choice would likely be Matt Phair. He is for a “professional” council and was a sponsor of a resolution to significantly increase Alder salaries.” (More here.) Also, Phair is a school teacher who refused to accept a book from constituents titled “The War On Cops.”
→ Find your aldermanic district.
Election denier for WI State Senate
One other race of statewide interest is the Republican primary in the special State Senate race to succeed Alberta Darling. The 8th District encompasses the ‘burbs north and northwest of Milwaukee like Menomonee Falls, Mequon, and Cedarburg. Democrats are promoting election-denier Janel Brandtjen — Wisconsin’s Lauren Boebert — as the easiest to beat in April. It’s a strategy that worked for them in the 2022 mid-terms.
Asked Monday about his preference in the State Senate special election, WI Assembly Speaker Robin Vos replied: “LOL. Let me quote Sarah Huckabee Sanders, ‘normal vs crazy.’ I would vote normal.”
— ‘Democrats meddle again in GOP primary.’
Werkes predicts: Dan Knodl 60%, Brandtjen 30%, Van Mobley 10%.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Conservatism can win if it shakes off our crazies before the Left shakes off their crazies.
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
You didn’t opine on the 19th.
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That’s Furman’s district. He’s not running. Only two candidates there. No primary.
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One’s his clone I’m told.
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Furman’s a Lefty D!ck with a capital D!
The Gotch
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Blaska’s Bottom Line: Conservatism can win if it shakes off our crazies before the Left shakes off their crazies.
“Democrats Meddle Again in a G.O.P. Primary, This Time Down-Ballot”
Original article is at the NYT, excerpted at Election Law Blog:
“Last year, Democrats spent millions of dollars elevating far-right candidates in Republican primary contests for governor and Congress — betting, it turned out correctly, that more extreme opponents would lose general elections.
Now Wisconsin Democrats are trying to do it again, this time with mail and TV ads before a Republican primary in a special election for a State Senate seat that carries ramifications far beyond the district in suburban Milwaukee.
The Democrats are helping a far-right election denier who has become a pariah within her party in her race against a less extreme, but still election-denying, conservative. They hope that with a more vulnerable opponent, Democrats can win a seat held for decades by Republicans and deny the G.O.P. a veto-proof majority in the gerrymandered chamber.
“Janel Brandtjen is as conservative as they come,” reads a postcard sent to Republican voters from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which calls her “a conservative pro-Trump Republican.”
The Feb. 21 primary, and the April 4 general election to follow, will serve as the latest test of how much appetite Republican voters have for the flavor of election denialism that fueled the party’s grass roots after former President Donald J. Trump’s 2020 election loss.
The twist in the Wisconsin race is that both leading Republican candidates took significant public steps to try to overturn Mr. Trump’s defeat. One of them, however, Ms. Brandtjen, a state representative from Menomonee Falls, has so alienated members of her own party that she was kicked out of the State Assembly’s Republican caucus, leaving Democrats giddy about the prospect of facing her in a special election for a battleground district.”
Claire McCaskill smiles.
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