Category Archives: 2012 Elections

Now comes the hard part: Compromising.

Yes, compromise. Bipartisanship. Working across the aisle to govern where most people are: in the middle.

And that’s indeed where most of us are, right? Somewhere in or near the middle, with ideas, viewpoints and positions that may cross party lines depending on the issue. Thats’ where I am.

Proof came on Tuesday. 

• South Milwaukee is a 50-50 city, one that sided with three Democrats (Barack Obama, Tammy Baldwin, and Gwen Moore) and a Republican (Mark Honadel).
• Wisconsin is a 50-50 state, one that put a Republican-led legislature in control at the same time they supported Obama and Baldwin.
• The United States is a 50-50 country, one that re-elected Obama and a Democratic Senate … along with an overwhelmingly Republican House.

And in most cases, races were tight, split almost down the middle.

Lawmakers on both sides would be wise to remember that.  I fear they won’t.

Instead, I fear they will see Tuesday’s election as a mandate and try to govern in their interests, neglecting to remember that about half of their constituents likely disagree with them.

They’ll certainly tell us they’re willing to work with their counterparts to advance good ideas, Democratic or Republican, and that they’ll truly compromise. They’ll talk about bipartisanship … then most likely firmly vote the party line on legislation that doesn’t reflect any notion of input from the opposition.

They’ll do this because partisanship is easy.

Extremism — ignoring the other side and ramming through an agenda simply because you can, because you happen to have a few more votes in your legislative body than the other party – is simpler than the alternative.

Compromise is that alternative. And it’s hard.

It’s hard to admit you don’t have all the answers, that the opposing party may have good ideas, too. It’s even harder to then engage the other party in bringing those ideas to life. And it’s still harder to write legislation that incorporates those ideas, and get it passed.

There are a couple good tests of this coming soon.

First, there is that much-publicized “fiscal cliff” looming in Washington D.C., where a combination of significant tax increases and spending cuts may automatically take effect on January 1 – unless the president and lawmakers can make a deal to avert them. It’s a deal that will require both sides to give up something they want so we can avoid signficant damage to our economy.

In Wisconsin, we have the mining bill. South Milwaukee Rep. Mark Honadel has said this is his top priority when the new Assembly is seated, and I’m interested to see which version sees the light of day: the version that passed the Assembly last year, one that was too extreme for even some Republicans, or something that resembles the compromise version that nearly passed in the end.

Both cases — and many, many more — scream for bipartisanship, lawmakers working together to come up with common-sense solutions that reflect Tuesday’s election results and the divided state of the city, state and country.

Will legislators recognize this and act accordingly? We’ll see.

A quote from former Democratic State Sen. Tim Cullen from earlier this year still stays with me. He said: “I came to Madison as a centrist, and I discovered there was no center.”

We need more center.

It was a clean sweep for Barack Obama and Joe Biden in South Milwaukee on Tuesday … but they didn’t see the same strong support across the city.

Check out the the results from each aldermanic district in Tuesday’s presidential election:

• First District: Obama 54.1%, Romney 43.7%
• Second District: Obama 54.3%, Romney 44.1%
• Third District: Obama 49.9%, Romney 48.7%
• Fourth District: Obama 54.4%, Romney 43.9%

The Third District also saw easily the closest margin in the U.S. Senate race in South Milwaukee, as Tammy Baldwin beat Tommy Thompson by only 14 votes there (1,448-1,434). The Third was also the only district that put their majority support behind Dan Sebring in the House race, and it produced the widest margin in the Mark Honadel-William Kurtz state Assembly race.

Here are the final overall numbers again.

What does your election math show you? Post your comments below!

Rounding up some other area election results and coverage …

• Cudahy voters approved a $5.9 “Safe Warm Dry” facilities referendum by a margin of 65% to 35%. Learn more about the referendum here.
• Democrat Christine Sinicki of Cudahy won her eighth term in the Wisconsin Assembly, easily beating Republican Molly McGartland, 58% to 42%.
• Here is Oak Creek Patch coverage of the “strange day” at the Oak Creek polls.
• Patch also took a deep dive into Oak Creek’s results … which, not surprisingly, leaned strongly Republican.
• And then there’s this from NOW — a story about how other southern suburbs (including Oak Creek) went heavily Republican Tuesday. That wasn’t the case in South Milwaukee.

I’ll post more items when I see them.

Update: Through Thursday, we have had more than 2,000 people come to City Hall to vote or register to vote in the last couple weeks, with more today, our city clerk reports. Impressive.

Just a reminder that early in-person voting at City Hall ends at 5 p.m. Friday.

Learn more in my previous post.

If you don’t vote by end day Friday, we’ll see you at the polls on Tuesday.

And if you haven’t voted in my presidential poll on the right side of the page, please do so. Go, democracy!

Starting Monday, you can vote at City Hall.

In-person absentee voting runs from Oct. 22 through Friday, Nov. 2, and you can vote during normal business hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday) at 2424 15th Ave.

Learn more on the city website’s elections page, which includes sample ballots and district maps.

Remember: No photo ID is necessary, but voters will have to sign the poll book before receiving a ballot.

And you can register at City Hall. From the city site:

Voters can register at the City Clerk’s office prior to the election date or at the polling place on election day. Voters should bring their Wisconsin driver’s license or state ID card when registering. If the information on your license does not list your current address, additional documentation with the current address will be needed to establish residency. A voter must have lived at their residence for at least 28 consecutive days prior to registering. Remember, you must change your voter registration if you are new to the city, have changed residences within the city or if you had a legal name change. 

Of course, Election Day is Nov. 6.

Just wanted to call out my latest poll.

If you haven’t voted already, please do … and post your comments below!