08 In ’08: An Early Analysis

by Kerry Thomas

January 17, 2007

The race is on for Wisconsin’s 8^th Congressional District in 2008.

Already we see the Republican Party of Wisconsin targeting this race as a must win. It’s the only race mentioned in their most recent fundraising letter, tooting their horn about how successful they were in last November’s races.

The names being floated for this race are familiar ones. Mark Green, John Gard and Steve Wieckert.

If Green decides to make another run for Congress, he has a good shot. He’s liked and respected in the 8^th. But he’s been there, done that. In 1998, Mark Green told me he only planned to serve 3-4 terms in Congress, then move on with his life. Say what you will about him, but I’ve found Mark Green to be a man of his word.

On the other hand, John Gard has been in politics since he was in college. He’s a career politician who aspires to higher office. Unless he manages to land a high paying job as a political consultant, he’ll run again. And the RPW will back him again, no matter what. He’ll lose again, and here’s why.

For years, it was a policy of the Republican Party not to take sides in a primary race between Republican candidates. The RPW violated that policy last year when it gave it’s okay and actively campaigned for John Gard, because he was a friend of the RPW's top leaders. It was a violation of principle and RPW rules, and quite a few Republicans in the 8^th resented it. Didn’t matter who his opponent was, Gard did not and will not get these votes.

Gard and his supporters threw everything they had into his race. They called on President Bush, Vice President Cheney, former Green Bay Packers legend Bart Starr, and a host of other high profile Republicans to campaign for Gard. They relied heavily on the Party apparatus, and were quick to chastise any Republican who dared speak against John Gard. It was even rumored that John Gard used his position as Assembly Speaker to advance his Congressional campaign.

They threw truckloads of mud at his opponents. They pulled out all the stops in a must win effort. And after all that, after exhausting 20 years of political capital and spending $6 million on the race, Gard lost. He’ll lose again.

Steve Wieckert might be a nice decent honest guy. But he’s unknown outside of Madison and his Assembly district. His biggest claim to fame, at least according to the biography portion of his official taxpayer-funded website, is that “he most notably has authored the Wisconsin SeniorCare program and the State Spending Cap bill.”

Funny, but I could swear John Gard repeatedly claimed he was the author of SeniorCare. Somebody’s lying here. And, truth be told, it was actually Terri McCormick in 2002 who authored the cost savings competitive bidding component for prescription druigs incorporated into SeniorCare.

The Democrats are and will continue to attack the spending caps, saying they’re hurting children and forcing schools to close. If John Gard couldn’t win the 8^th with all the outside support he received last time, a Gard-light loyalist like Wieckert won’t stand much of a chance either.

Many of us recall the 1976 Republican national convention, when we realized, after selecting incumbent President Gerald Ford as our candidate, that Ronald Reagan should have been our candidate. In 1980 we didn’t repeat that mistake. We remember the debacle of the 1996 presidential race, when Republicans fronted Bob Dole as our nominee, because it was his turn. Well, it was John Gard’s turn in 2006.

Voters in the 8^th, and across Wisconsin and the country, are demanding honest, principled government. In 1994 the Republicans’ got a chance to fix what ailed America. And they got off to a good start. But, by 2006, all the high talk about conservative values was just that, talk. Government spending under the Republicans was even worse than it had been under the Democrats.

The social conservative movement imposing its idea of morality on society by force of law, instead of principled persuasion, is just as tyrannical to Liberty as the Democrats’ socialist welfare programs. We look to our religious leaders and our families to teach us about morality, not our politicians. It’s not something that needs to be codified into law.

Voters are hungry for fiscal conservatives who understand and support the limited government promised us in the Constitution. We are desperate for candidates who value Liberty and believe all of us should be free to pursue our God-given destiny, with as little interference from government as possible.

Clearly, the “pecking order” system embraced by the Republican Party of Wisconsin doesn’t work very well. If we continue to use that process behind the scenes to select our candidates in 2008, it won’t be pretty. The RPW leadership needs to realize what we all know. Principled people with good ideas should be encouraged, not shunned, regardless of their prior experience.

When we put winning at any cost over the idea of promoting good candidates with good ideas, it becomes transparent to the voters that the Party has compromised it’s principles. It becomes little more than just another power hungry organization, lying to us, telling us what they think we want to hear, in an effort to gain our votes and our money.

I’m reminded of President Bush’s message to us on January 26, 2006: “People are not happy with the status quo. People want honest government.”

© 2007 Kerry Thomas

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