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October 10, 2008

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Three big strikes offer plenty 
reason to oust Doyle

October 25, 2006

There are three strong reasons Jim Doyle should be replaced as governor of Wisconsin. He has sold off state policy to special interest groups, obstructed attempts to clean up state government and control taxes, and finally, has been a bad governor who has not led or worked with others.

* * *

The charge: Under Doyle, Wisconsin has become a governmental eBay in which Doyle's biggest contributors have been able to dictate state policy and receive contracts.

The case: Throughout Doyle's tenure as attorney general and during his 2002 campaign, he adamantly opposed expansion of gambling in Wisconsin. That didn't stop state tribes from pumping at least $1 million into various efforts to elect Doyle. The governor was quick to pay back the tribes by negotiating sweetheart gaming compacts that radically expanded gambling and attempted to give tribes eternal monopolies from competition. Since then, the tribes led by the Potawatomi (but including the potential developers of a casino in Kenosha) have pumped more millions into coffers of groups that favor Doyle and Doyle-supported candidates for other offices.

When Doyle was seeking the 2002 Democratic nomination and facing stiff competition from Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk, the state teachers union endorsed Doyle. His 3 percent win in the primary has been directly linked to the teachers' money and votes. As governor, Doyle has carried the union's water, exempting schools from spending controls, obstructing private school vouchers and opposing attempts to wrest the teachers' health insurance contract from a company owned by the union itself.

The other major group that pumped a fortune into Doyle's 2002 campaign was the state trial lawyers. As governor, Doyle has vetoed several bills aimed at improving the state's business climate by limiting damages in civil litigation. Doyle has consistently vetoed these bills, to the glee of the trial lawyers guarding their huge contingency fees won in civil judgments.

Adelman Travel's owner and board member give Doyle $10,000 each and the state travel contract is awarded to the firm over the objection of all members on the committee overseeing the process. A company seeks state approval from a supposedly independent state agency to buy a nuclear power plant. Several of its executives give money to Doyle, meetings are held and the original rejection of the plant sale is overturned. The Marquette Interchange Web site contract is awarded to a firm whose executives donated to Doyle and no competing bids were ever sought. All of this is the subject of a federal grand jury investigation.

* * *

The charge: Doyle has consistently blocked public policy decisions favored by overwhelming public majorities.

The case: Doyle three times vetoed property tax freeze legislation while Wisconsin property taxes soared. He came up with his own version of a 'freeze' only as the election approached and it expires shortly after the election. He repeatedly vetoed bills to clean up Wisconsin's corrupt elections by requiring photo identification to vote. He vetoed legislation that would have barred Wisconsin welfare and social service benefits from being given to illegal immigrants.

He repeatedly vetoed legislation to expand Milwaukee's school choice program and agreed only to a modest expansion when it was clear his stance was killing him with Milwaukee voters.

* * *

The charge: Doyle has failed to lead and will not work with anyone else to improve Wisconsin.

The case: Doyle's way of dealing with Legislature is to just say no. He has never attempted to negotiate a middle ground on property taxes or the state budget. Instead, he has vetoed virtually every Republican bill of substance and leaned on Democratic lawmakers to uphold the vetoes.

Doyle has shown utter disdain toward corporations and hasn't lifted a finger to encourage the creation of new jobs. Doyle did nothing while his DNR nit-picked Menards to death and led the company to build a distribution center elsewhere. He made no credible attempt to lure a new Honda plant to Wisconsin. Neither he nor his aides attempted to mediate the dispute between Harley-Davidson and its union that will cost Milwaukee any future Harley expansion. So invisible has Doyle been that his first call to Harley came AFTER the union rejected the company's proposal.

There's more. The Doyle-appointed University of Wisconsin Board of Regents chose the remarkably weak Kevin Reilly as UW president. UW-Madison continues to allow a lecturer to "teach" that it was the U.S. government that committed the 9-11 atrocities. Doyle objects but does nothing to fix the situation.

* * *

The bottom line: He's sold policy, obstructed progress and been invisible when needed. Jim Doyle has been a terrible governor.

(Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show and a Sunday television show. His column runs Wednesdays in The Freeman.)

 


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