Madison WI progressives are the ‘uniparty’

Republicans fear entering ‘the political scrum’

Questions we never expected to see asked in The Capital Times: “Progressives have full control of the city and its schools. Is it for the better?” Figures that it is a freelance journalist, not a CT staffer, posing the question — Marc Eisen, formerly editor of Isthmus.

Mr. Eisen never really answers his own question, perhaps leaving it to the eye of the beholder. Isthmus, his old stand, wouldn’t touch it. [UPDATE: Eisen tells us that after submitting to Isthmus what he calls “a very rough first draft,” he decided to pull the piece. Much later, The Capital Times encouraged him to complete his reportage.]

Lends credence to his quote of Jim Zellmer, that Madison WI is governed by the uniparty. City council, mayor, county board, county exec, legislative delegation, school board — all progressive. Same for outlying ‘burbs like Fitchburg, Middleton, and Sun Prairie. Same with our civic institutions like the chamber of commerce and Downtown Madison. 

The 1,650-word piece recalls campaign manager Brandon Scholz back in the day proclaiming that the moderate Republicanism of his successful congressional candidate, Scott Klug, was ascendant. This bloggeur thought so, too, during those same 1990s when we majority conservatives elected brother Mike Blaska to chair the Dane County Board. Republican Tommy Thompson won Dane County in 1994.

Can’t argue with Eisen: our breed experienced its extinction event when Scott Walker hurled Act 10 at public employee unions in this government region in 2011. Eisen quotes Scott McDonell, currently the county clerk but previously county board chairman, to say:

“The next election was like a gang war scene out of The Godfather. The Democrat(ic)-aligned candidates slaughtered all the conservatives. It was a bloodbath.”

 The shouters won

Years later, McDonnel berated this former county supe for ending a Great Depression-era welfare program for able-bodied, childless adults. We responded that McDonnel served six years as chairman of the county board but never attempted to restore that program.

Eisen asked Blaska for videos of yours truly and others being shouted down and physically harassed at Madison school board meetings debating school resource police officers. Said he wanted to show as proof to his skeptical editor at The Capital Times (which itself demanded the defunding of police). (The average journalist in town is barely legal drinking age.)

Turning to the front of today’s Capital Times, we see publisher Paul Fanland accusing Madison of “failing its black residents.” (We do not capitalize black any more than we do white, brown, or pink.)

More progressive guilt-mongering! The individual has no agency. No responsibility for his own fig and vine. Progressivism blames intangible external forces: “unmet needs,” institutional racism, Ron Johnson. Maybe if our schools demanded accountability, expected performance, and quit making excuses — maybe if our schools taught reading instead of grievance — black residents would quit failing themselves.

 Where Eisen is wrong

Government employees, despite their public rhetoric, are not starving. Tell the tally man that the teachers union isn’t as strong as ever. Madison public school teachers got an 8% pay raise in 2024 (all things considered) according to the WI Policy Forum. Further, employment in the private sector — paced by Epic Systems, Exact Sciences, and other high-tech companies, is far outpacing government. Madison is less a government town than ever.

Eisen doesn’t go there so we will: the Republican brand hereabouts is poisoned by Trumpism. Endorsed by Trump, victim of a personal appearance by his chainsaw-wielding henchman, the Republican-backed candidate for state supreme court managed a meager 18% of the vote in the April 2025 election. What sells in Waupaca County don’t hereabouts.

Eisen argues that Madison progressivism has modulated to a certain amount of pragmatism. He recounts that campus alder Juliana Bennett fought city bureaucrats to build a high-density housing development. Maybe. The writer theorizes that the city’s high real estate prices are driving progressives to more affordable suburbs. We’re not sure of that. According to realtor.com the median single family home price in Madison is $450,000, in Sun Prairie $505,000, in Middleton $580,000, in Waunakee $639,000, in Verona $659,000.

More likely is the observation from one-time mayoral candidate Scott Resnick that peer pressure stifles dissent — or, as Eisen puts it: 

Blame the relative lack of serious debate, in part, on fear of entering the political scrum.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: That fear turns the public forum into an echo chamber. This is a town that wouldn’t prosecute Althea Bernstein for hoaxing racial victimization like Jussie Smollett. That paints murals honoring a violent drug abuser. That wouldn’t hold Freedom Inc. responsible for shutting down the statutorily required school board budget meeting. That dithered building a more humane — but smaller — jail as the price tag kept soaring. That doesn’t want to know how Brandi Grayson is spending millions of taxpayer dollars. That re-elected a state schools superintendent who cheats on her own tests. Where the only remaining daily newspaper joined the uniparty because it wants to keep doing business in this town.

That gives Paul Fanlund a newspaper to publish.

Who else fears entering the political scrum?