Curmudgeon's Corner

Village Buzz - July 27th

Posted by Al Campbell on July 27, 2011

Village Buzz, Political, Wisconsin, Germantown, Quality of Life, Taxes, Economy

We have an election coming up on Tuesday, August 9^th…in case you’ve been on another planet for the past several months and missed the news.

Sen. Alberta Darling (R) is up against Rep. Sandy Pasch (D) in the recall election held in our part of the world that day.  The outside money poured into this campaign has been nothing short of staggering.  Both people have waged aggressive campaigns and continue to wage aggressive campaigns.  Some of the outside advertisements have been close to farcical in their portrayal of Sen. Darling and her positions on issues, but those ads repeated time and again take a toll on those who aren’t politically “tuned in”.

This race, in what I’ve been heard to call “Darling Country”, has tightened to the point that every single vote really does count.  There is supposedly about a 4% edge at this time favoring the incumbent, Sen. Darling.  That is virtually a dead heat given the margins she typically has had until the race against Sheldon Wasserman a short while ago.

Every indication is that the level of turn-out will be what decides this race.  Pasch has a solid edge in the eastern edge of the district given its more liberal leanings while Darling should have an edge in the western portion of the district given our conservative leanings.

This is likely to come down, as the experts predict, to the percentage of voters who turn-out to vote on August 9^th.  We know, based on the press reports for lo these many months, that Democrats are cranked up and committed to unseat whichever Republican happens to be involved.  How much of that fervor can be attributed to outside influence from national political action organizations is a good question, but it doesn’t get to the heart of the issue.  No matter where the support has come from, Sen. Darling needs as close to a 100% turn-out as can be mustered if she is to retain the District 8 Senate seat and protect the Republican majority.

You have no doubt received several ‘absentee ballot’ mailings and those votes can now be cast at the Village Clerk’s office since we are within the two weeks preceding the election.  If you have any doubt about being available in the district to vote on August 9^th, please use your privilege of absentee ballot.

Why am I such a Darling supporter?  She has always been responsive to me as a constituent.  Maybe some of that can be attributed to the ‘megaphone’ that Curmudgeon’s Corner provides to me; maybe not.  One of the key issues for me, as a person who enjoys a cigar, is the effort Sen. Darling put forth to help us maintain the right to enjoy a cigar in any of the grandfathered cigar store/smoking lounges that existed at the time of the statewide ban on smoking.  That was not a largely popular position to take, but she analyzed the issue and our position and concluded that we were adults who were choosing to place ourselves in that environment and that this should be permitted to continue so long as the proper licensure was in place and the rules were obeyed.  Beyond that, I am a conservative, not a liberal.  Sen. Darling is a conservative, not a liberal.  Rep. Pasch is a liberal and not a conservative.  It is that simple for me.

Let’s get the turn-out in Germantown and the Falls up into the 85% + range; then we’ll let the chips fall as they do and get on with our lives.