Lafollette gets a primary
It looks like we finally have a real race for Secretary of State in Wisconsin.
And it's about time.
Scot Ross, who has worked in every corner of the state helping promote progressive values, is going to challenge the incumbent, Doug Lafollette.
Scot brings a real commitment to advancing progressive action in Wisconsin. He wants to ensure our elections are fair and all of the votes are counted. He wants to get the people of our state engaged in the issues that really matter to them.
Can anyone remember the last time the incumbent did the same? For that matter, can anyone remember the last time you even heard from Doug Lafollette?
The Secretary of State's office could be a real statewide bully pulpit to helping move a progressive agenda forward. Under the incumbent, though, this has been non-existent.
I did a news search on Doug Lafollette out of curiosity and the results were almost comical. He had two news stories come up for 2006. One was about Ross running against him and the other only mentioned that his office didn't call a reporter back about a story. The years 2004 and 2005 had one story each about Lafollette and Earth Day. Then there were no stories until 2001. One story again in 2000 and then no stories until 1997.
Lafollette was elected just two years after I was born. He was out for a while but has held the office since I was a freshman in high school. I'm not ancient, but I did graduate high school in the eighties. Maybe it's time we had some new energy in that office.
Scot Ross is a veteran to Wisconsin politics and has worked for Kathleen Falk, Peg Lautenschlager, Ron Kind and our elected officials in the State Capitol. In 2004, he was the top staffer at America Coming Together doing everything to keep George W. Bush from being elected and helping get progressives values talked about up and down the ticket.
Having someone like Scot out on the stump making sure everyone hears about why we should elect progressives would be an invaluable asset to ensuring we have a big win for progressives in every corner of Wisconsin.
But beating a Lafollette in Wisconsin? Can it be done? Interestingly, Scot has a famous ancestor too and Melanie Conklin of the Wisconsin State Journal had a story last Sunday about Ross' bid for Secretary of State that has a funny line about running with a famous last name. The big Lafollette name is something for Ross to overcome but it can be done.
Ross will be traveling across the state with his message soon and if you give him a listen you'll come away a supporter.
2 Comments:
This year, Scot Ross' race will be the one to watch. Ditto everything from the original blog. Plenty of appropriate people are concerned about voter rights at the moment.
Sadly, the one guy in Wisconsin who should have his eye on the ball -- the Secretary of State -- doesn't seem to share that concern.
The Dems rank and file in the state, however, know that the incumbent never shows up. For anything.
The same cannot be said for Ross. He's been on board in the right races, the right issues. He's smart. He's compassionate. He knows where he wants to take the office. And he wants to WORK. Here's a man who's on our side. Keep an eye out for him. Start the conversation. This will be a clean, smart race.
You really don't want the same old guy who sits idly by while others try to whittle away at your voting rights.
Well, the primary election results are in: LaFollette got better than 72% of the vote and Ross was crushed. This, despite the fact that Ross wasted close to $100,000 in scarce progressive contributions on a race that was hopeless from the start.
True, LaFollette is not a traditional backslapping politician. A PhD scientist who graduated from Columbia University and Stanford University, he concentrates his activism in efforts to protect the environment.
But he has done a good job. And the election results show he is popular with the people of Wisconsin.
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