Sunday, April 03, 2011

Election on Tuesday

I normally write a column along these lines, but for a variety of reasons, I didn’t this time. I don’t generally endorse anyone anymore, but I feel an obligation to at least tell y’all how I’m voting. After all, I write about politics and the ultimate political choice is for whom to vote. Here are the offices up for election in Washington County.

Justice of Supreme Court

Easy choice. Justice Prosser has proven himself to be a reasoned, measured justice for the last 12 years. He is actually a bit more moderate that I would ideally prefer, but is head and shoulders more qualified and more judicially conservative than his opponent. I’ll be voting for Prosser.

City of West Bend - Mayor

Kraig Sadownikow is challenging incumbent Kristine Deiss. Mayor Deiss is a nice enough lady. She was my alderman before she was my mayor. But she lacks any type of active leadership and has found herself on the other side of me on several important city issues.

Sadownikow is a businessman with real ideas to promote West Bend’s business community and keep government spending conservative. Between Sadownikow’s experience in West Bend’s economy, fiscally conservative ideas for city government, and energetic approach to promoting West Bend, he’s got my vote.

School District of West Bend

This race has 5 candidates vying for 3 seats. My first two choices are easy. Bart Williams and Doug Rakowski have both been active in district issues and steadfast in promoting fiscally conservative management of the district. Both of them have my vote.

The third vote is a bit tougher. The remaining three candidates are perceived (rightly, in many cases) as being liberals. All three of them are endorsed by the teachers’ union. As a conservative then, my choices are to cast a vote for one of them, write-in someone, or not cast a third vote. Many of my conservative brethren are planning to write in Vinney Pheng, the conservative who lost in the primary.

As for me, I’ll be casting my third vote for Rick Parks. His vocal support and willingness to link his candidacy to the avowed leftists on the ballot is certainly not good. He has a business background and several of his comments have shown promise. I may regret it, but I’m going to give him a shot.

I can’t choose to NOT cast a third vote. I’ve always believed that elections are about choices and I should always make a choice. I also don’t think writing in Pheng is a good idea, even though I supported him in the primary. Frankly, write-in votes virtually never work and I don’t think it will here. If we assume that all of the liberals in West Bend will vote for Maley/Miller/Parks and all of the conservatives will vote for Williams/Rakowski, then conservatives can swell one of the Maley/Miller/Parks vote total by using their third vote. Maley and Miller both have a strong record supporting every tax increase, referendum, and spending increase that’s been introduced in recent memory. Parks, as a relative unknown who at least espouses some fiscally conservative ideas, is the least objectionable of the three.

The district’s fiscal conservatives need to win one of the three seats to maintain a fiscally conservative majority on the board. That’s paramount. Two seats cements the majority.

———

Those are the only contested races that will be on my ballot. Two honorable mentions…

City of West Bend - District 2

This election is a redux of last time. Incumbent Steve Hutchins is being challenged by the guy who held the seat before him, Dave Krochalk. Hutchins has been a staunch conservative on the council who has rocked the apple cart a bit by asking questions that many former alderman didn’t ask. He’s willing to dig into the minutia of city government and challenge the status quo. If I were casting a vote in this election, it would be an easy choice… vote Steve Hutchins.

City of West Bend - District 4

This elections finds incumbent Nick Dobberstein being challenged by Randy Koehler. Dobberstein has been the liberal fixture on the common council for a while now. If you go back through any of the contentious issues that faced the city in the past few years, you’ll find Dobberstein on the liberal side of it. He’s also a unionized public employee who actively protested Governor Walker’s budget repair bill. It’s hard to see him making those fiscally difficult choices that our new budget paradigm will demand. Koehler is a conservative citizen who has promised fiscally conservative leadership for his district and the city. Vote Randy Koehler.

I don’t have much insight into the races for the Hartford School Board or whatever the heck is going on in Richfield. Feel free to let us know for whom you will be voting and why.

(8) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1453 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. Thanks for sharing this! I recently moved back to West Bend and have been trying to figure out which candidates in the local elections were conservative.

    Posted by Dave Gink on April 04, 2011 at 0954 hrs


  2. Awesome, Dave!  Glad to have you back in WB!  Need more strong and vocal Christians here!  I personally know you ROCK!

    Posted by GAMazy on April 04, 2011 at 1217 hrs


  3. Hey Dave - cool website.
    As to the School Board, by Taliban standards, they are all liberal and by San Francisco standards all conservative.
    So, if you want to go for competence and character, vote Miller, Parks, and Maley.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 04, 2011 at 1337 hrs


  4. San Francisco or Madison whats the diff , its all the same.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 04, 2011 at 1534 hrs


  5. Clearly you have never lived in either place if you thinik that there is not a difference.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 04, 2011 at 1601 hrs


  6. Does anybody know anything about Berchem vs. Rice in the Town of West Bend?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 04, 2011 at 1816 hrs


  7. Owen Owen OWEn Even your name should alert you to the Problem of voting for the “Lesser of three evils”  Rick Parks will disappoint you for sure.  Most political arenas are now polerized. Like a magnet the one pole will draw the the heart that is closest to it’s extreme.  Rick Parks would have to be a very rare individual.  If he was, no one would care about or trust him.  Vinney Pheng has the people in mind with conservative principles.  If you encourage others to go for the slushy we all will keep OWE’n and OWE’n and OWE’n along.

    Vote your conscience not your fears. 

    Also thank you for your good research!
    RB

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 05, 2011 at 0917 hrs


  8. Owen, where else are we going to get such insightful commentary on West Bend elections?  Thank you!

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 05, 2011 at 1326 hrs


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