AFSCME PEOPLE Endorsed Candidates

 

State Assembly and State Senate:

 

Senate:

 

SD4 - Lena Taylor                                        SD6 - Spencer Coggs                                   

 

SD8 - Jennifer Morales                                SD10 - Gary Bakke                            

 

SD12 - Roger Breske                                    SD16 - Mark Miller                            

 

SD22 - Bob Wirch                                         SD24 - Julie Lassa                                      

 

SD26 - Fred Risser                                      SD30 - Dave Hansen                                   

 

SD32 - Brad Pfaff                                         

Assembly:

 

AD1 - Tom Hermann                                      AD5 - Tom Nelson

AD7 - Peggy Krusick                                       AD8 - Pedro Colon

AD9 - Josh Zepnick                                        AD12 - Fred Kessler

AD13 - David Cullen                                       AD16 - Leon Young

AD17 - Barbara Toles                                     AD18 - Tamara Grigsby

AD19 - Jon Richards                                       AD20 - Christine Sinicki

AD22 - Sheldon Wasserman                          AD28 - Charlie Wolden

AD29 - Joe Plouff*                                           AD35 - Bill Brandt

AD36 - Jim Crawford                                      AD43 - Matt McIntyre

AD44 - Mike Sheridan                                   AD45 - Chuck Benedict

AD46 - Gary Hebl                                            AD47 - Megan Yost

AD48 - Joe Parisi                                            AD53 - LuAnn Bird

AD54 - Gordon Hintz                                       AD61 - Bob Turner

AD62 - John Lehman                                     AD64 - Jim Kreuser

AD65 - John Steinbrink                                 AD67 - Jeff Monette

AD68 - Joe Bee Ziong                                     AD70 - Amy Sue Vruwink

AD71 - Louis Molepske                                   AD72 - Marlin Schneider

AD73 - Frank Boyle                                        AD74 - Gary Sherman

AD78 - Mark Pocan                                         AD79 - Sondy Pope-Roberts

AD80 - Gof Thompson                                     AD85 - Donna Seidel

AD87 - Mary Satterwhite                               AD88 - Dan Aude

AD90 - Helen Schaal                                      AD93 - Jeff Smith

AD92 - Michael Taft                                       AD94 - Vicki Burke

AD96 - Gail Frie

 

 

 

Campaign Plan

 

We are going to be starting our ID callings this coming week and they will go through the election on Nev. 2nd. 

 

Hate people calling you and asking who you are going to vote for?  An easy way for them not to call you again is just answer the question.  If you do not many campaigns and organizations put your number into the pot with the undecided voters - they do this in hopes that in the future when they call you will answer.  If you are put into the undecided list you are going to receive even more mail and auto calls etc. trying to persuade you to vote for a specific candidate.  So the best thing to do is just answer the question. 

 

Worksite Fliers:

 

We are starting our intense worksite flier plan.  The plan is to hit locals once a week with fliers that explain the stances that Senator John Kerry and President Bush have on issues.  These fliers are great because they only talk about the issues - there's no Swift Boats for Justice stuff here.  I will be calling local Presidents this weekend to see if you would like to hand fliers out at your worksites - if you cannot hand them out I can send you some to post on union bulletin boards.  This week's flier is attached in PDF form.  You do not have to print copies - I WILL send them to you.  If you do though print off the flier and post it please let me know as I am tracking which locals had out fliers.

 

Dirty, Filthy, Campaign Commercial

 

Republican US Senate Candidate, Tim Michels, has a T.V. commercial running that talks about US Senator Russ Feingold's position on prescription drugs.  The 30-second broadcast spot airing in some areas has Michels saying that, ''unlike Russ Feingold, I'll fight for your right to buy safe and affordable prescription drugs from Canada.'' 

 

Feingold has responded saying, the ad ''is intended to fool or trick seniors into thinking I have sided with pharmaceutical companies on the issue of drug importation...My record is the complete opposite of what Mr. Michels' ad says it is. ... (The ad) is a dishonest act, a dirty political trick, and I'm not going to put up with it.''

 

Michels campaign spokesman Tim Roby said trying was not enough.  ''Look at the results,'' Roby said. ''The results are what matter. And the fact is we are still facing a health care crisis in this country and seniors have major issues with prescription drug costs. So we can argue about the semantics of the word 'fight,' but our focus is on results.''

 

If Michels spokesman is correct in that we are facing a health care crisis but the blame goes to President Bush for stonewalling the re-importation of prescription drugs.  Senator Feingold has a long history of working to bring prescription drugs in from Canada.

 

Tom Frazier, executive director of the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, listened to a tape of the ad and described it as ''false.''  ''In fact, Senator Feingold is co-sponsor of the best (importation) bill out there,'' Frazier said. ''You certainly cannot say that he's not in favor of (importation). It's simply not true.''

 

Feingold has been a co-sponsor of various rounds of bipartisan drug importation legislation. He also based his opposition to the Bush administration's Medicare bill partly on its specific ban on drug importation.

 

Conclusion:  Michels ad says that we need re-importation of drugs from Canada to reduce the cost on health care. Anyone who opposes this should not be elected to office.  Senator Feingold has a long history of trying push through legislation that would do just that has been vetoed by the Bush Administration. 

 

Primary results and affects

(from www.wiscpolitics.com <http://www.wiscpolitics.com/> )

 

Mary Panzer: The veteran politician was seen as "dead majority leader walking'' by most pundits weeks before primary day, but few thought the Senate majority leader would lose by such a huge margin -- about 80 percent to 20 percent. Now she'll exit the Legislature after nearly a quarter century. A sad way to go, many insiders intone. But conservatives cheer. They see her defeat as sending a message to squishy Republicans -- heed the power of the tax message, or else. And they're hoping her defeat will set off a brush fire in the Milwaukee media market that will envelop Dem Sen. Bob Wirch in the Kenosha area.

 

Scott Fitzgerald: The new Senate majority leader ascends to lead a caucus that has been distracted -- but not deterred -- by the travails of Mary Panzer. With that out of the way, he and the election team now will concentrate on gaining seats. But Republican efforts for a veto-proof majority were dealt a blow with the upset victory of former state Sen. Gary Drzewiecki in the Green Bay-area seat over chosen candidate David Steffen. Some Republican leaders are still trying to figure that one out. For now, Fitzgerald's election as leader is the only major change, but more could come after November.

 

John Gard and conservatives: The Assembly speaker and his band of conservative cohorts solidified control of the Legislature with the defeat of Mary Panzer by Glenn Grothman and the defeat of Rep. Mickey Lehman by Don Pridemore. The Senate caucus, now led by Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, figures to be more conservative and more in sync with the Assembly. But the Republican-led Legislature also now will be more easily painted as right-wing by Dems. Some Dem strategists opine that conservatives' victory dance may be short lived, contending Grothman's win will actually help Dems in their legislative races, as one more piece of evidence that GOP is on an extremist mission. Some Republican strategists worry that conservatives are about to overplay their hand. But for now, RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) better watch out. Who's next on the hit list?

 

TABOR: Conservatives are once again talking smart on the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, pointing to the election victories of Glenn Grothman (over Sen. Mary Panzer), Don Pridemore (over Rep. Mickey Lehman), Rep. Gabe Loeffelholz (over a WEAC-backed candidate) and Rep. Scott Suder (WMC ran pro-TABOR radio ads in Suder's district, where he took 80 percent of the vote). All those election results have given conservatives a boost and spurred them to predict anew that some form of the constitutional amendment will get first-consideration approval when the Legislature comes back in January under expected Republican control. Conservatives further claim the grassroots are finally excited about TABOR, having been educated by WMC, talk radio and other groups over the past few months with the drumbeat of warnings about the need to keep fighting for tax relief. Tuesday's primary election, they say, will be a wake-up call to Republican elected officials who have wavered on TABOR. And if conservatives knock off a Dem in November on the issue, insiders predict pols from both parties will be scared into voting for the amendment. But victory isn't in hand yet -- opponents are well-organized (witness the new WEAC TV ad warning of the demise of public schools), and the amendment language still suffers from the MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) factor. If the language isn't simplified, voters and pols alike may reject it.

 

 

 

REMEMBER A VOTE FOR A LEGISLATOR IN FAVOR OF TABOR IS A VOTE AGAINST YOUR JOB AND HEALTH CARE

 

 

 

 

 

AS ALWAYS FEEL FREE TO PASS ALONG TO CO-WORKERS

 

 

Stuart Zander

 AFSCME

 Project Organizer, "Take Back Wisconsin"

 715-839-8375 (office/fax)

 608-792-5220 (cell)

 608-836-6666 (AFSCME Area Office)

 szander@tds.net <mailto:szander@tds.net>

 www.wispeople.org <http://www.wispeople.org>