When I was younger, I used to say that Election Night in Madison was like Christmas and the Super Bowl smashed together with free beer. But these days, the beer is not free anymore, and more often than not teams I don't like are playing and I'm getting nothing but socks and underwear.
But last night's results have a lot for us to talk about. So while the coffee's brewing and I'm waiting for the aspirin to work its magic, let's go over the known knowns learned last night:
- The person who sacrificed a goat to the Politics Gods on Progressive Dane's behalf is owed big-time today. In 1999, PD hit the high-water mark of eight seats. They've gone between six and seven since then and now are at six seats. It could have been much worse. They came within 306 votes of winding up at an all-time low of 3 seats.
- Wayne Bigelow should have sacrificed a goat. There are now six Democratic Party of Dane County-endorsed candidates on the Council and a candidate he personally backed (Eli Judge) did knock off a PD candidate in a PD seat. But he came within 44 votes of taking another PD seat (Tim Gruber) and putting in an extra Dem-Endorsed candidate (Gary Poulson).
- It's a crying shame that Poulson, Lauren Woods and Vicky Selkowe lost last night. Those three would have vastly improved the Council.
- It's official: Larry Palm is a bad man. Way to elevate the level of discourse, Lar...
- What's also official is that Mark Deadman is a class act. During the entire election, I was watching and waiting for him to spring a lit piece that would cause my eyeballs to burn and melt out of their sockets like in Raiders of the Lost Ark. But instead he kept it clean. Sure, he spun some things on his opponent (and my alder-elect), but it was all above-the-board and I want to make sure people know how much I appreciated that.
- What's also official is that the Smoking Ban as an issue is over. Move along angry people...
- We came within 13 votes of having the first all-white Council since before I was born. I don't like what that says about our political power structures in this town.
- Lost in all the discussion about what groups won what seats is the idea of the power dynamics between the Mayor and the Council. "What are you talking about, Mike?" you ask? Do you remember Paul Soglin? Remember back to when he was Mayor. Did anybody really care about the makeup of the Council back in those days? Absolutely not - because the Mayor was Paul Fucking Soglin and he was going to do whatever he wanted to do and all these groups knew that and didn't pay the Council much mind. That's the best example of the Strong-Mayor/Weak-Council dynamic. Remember Sue Bauman? During her term Ringling Brothers couldn't come up with a circus that topped what happened every two weeks in the Council chambers as the Council acted like she didn't exist. That's an example of a Weak-Mayor/Strong-Council dynamic. Mayor Dave started his term in 2003 on even footing with the Council and has been strengthening his hand ever since. His mandate from last night, coupled with all the new alders on the Council, will strengthen it further.
- Now, when I talk about Mayor Dave's mandate, it doesn't include trolleys. I think this election, and the electorate's response to the trolley idea, proved that point.
- And my friend Brenda Konkel won't admit to it, but with all the 10-10 votes looming, I'm sure she feels a bit of relief that the Mayor can operate from a bit of a position of strength.
- When I was running, I would often talk about how horrible it was that the Dane County Board only needed three-four hours to pass a half-billion dollar budget, but the Council took over four days to pass a budget due to all the grandstanding. Those will soon be referred to as "The Good Ol' Days". Memo to all the alders: Don't make travel plans for Thanksgiving.
- One more thing fellow babies: Quieto!!!
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
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4 voices in my head:
Question:
Considering Poulson lost by 13 votes, do you think Chairman Wayne should have worked to help Gary Poulson more than, say, trying to knock off Robbie Webber and Tim Gruber? I mean, what's worse, Webber and Gruber winning or Thuy winning?
And speaking of class acts, Mike, your speech endorsing Satya at the Dem meeting was very classy.
I believe that resources are resources - whether they are in the form of Wayne's attention or my attention or the attention from the multitudes of politically talented people in this town. I wasn't a part of Gary's campaign and wasn't on the ground in D20, so I don't know if he lacked resources (and highly doubt that he did).
Unless I get any information contradicting that, I'd have to reject the suggestion that Wayne could have and should have spent his time elsewhere. He can support and work for whoever he wants.
IN THE INTEREST OF DISCLOSURE: For example, he worked like Hell for me in the primary - and I wasn't endorsed by the DPDC. Just like other DPDC activists worked like Hell for Satya. It's all good.
Your other comments are very kind. Thank you.
I think it is very fair to wonder whether Chairman Wayne did the best work for his (our) party this spring.
All that effort that went unsuccessfully into defeating two democrats that could have gone into successfully defeating a conservative...what a waste.
As chair of PD's elections committee you can bet there is intense interest in where I put the bulk of my effort. I would have caught holy hell if the time I spent helping Satya see through her election to the end came at the expense of being available for support of Tim, Robbie, Lauren and Beth Moss.
Not having Gary on the Council will be a big drag.
On another front, I agree with your characterization of Mark Deadman. We worked damn hard and was easily the conservatives' best candidate since Dorothy B bailed.
MJ
Because it deserves saying again, your speech endorsing Satya was not only classy, but was inspiringly selfless. A breath of fresh air. I doubt anyone in that room will soon forget.
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