Environmental billionaire Tom Steyer has had some great success this year helping climate hawks like Senator Ed Markey (D. MA) win the special election and recently helping Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe (D. VA) take down anti-science zealot Ken Cuccinelli (R. VA):
http://www.politico.com/...
Even Steyer’s strategists acknowledge that the full lessons of the campaign will come into sharp focus only in the coming weeks, as they unpack the results of their efforts through data analysis. Early indications are that Democratic turnout rose in targeted areas, such as Hampton Roads and Richmond, but NextGen was hardly alone in working coastal GOTV targets and it remains to be seen how much impact the climate issue had, specifically.
In both the mail and digital arms of the campaign, Steyer’s consultants experimented with a range of environmental messages to see which fine-tuned climate pitch would work best with different groups of voters. McGowan said in early October that digital ads had already shown that targeted female voters responded most strongly to a message about corporate pollution, more than messages about droughts or NASA-endorsed climate science. Those kinds of best-practices lessons will trickle out as NextGen performs its internal review of the Virginia race.
“A lot of the foundation that we need to build in each of these states and across the country at some point is really trying to make climate change a top-tier issue,” McGowan said in early October. “My program has to be sustainable beyond Election Day.”
Thanks to Steyer’s personal largesse, it almost certainly will be. The founder of Farallon Capital Management said he remains committed to his climate crusade, focusing on races where there is a meaningful contrast between the candidates on climate and where his money can make a difference.
“If we go against [the candidate] and the argument we make is he’s been sleeping with sheep, that’s not quite good enough,” Steyer said. “We need to have a public conversation about what we think is an incredibly important issue and have that be the reason, or a major contributing reason, why somebody wins or loses.” - Politico, 11/11/13
So which climate change denier will be Steyer's next target? Some are hoping this guy:
http://host.madison.com/...
Will Gov. Scott Walker's mug someday sit atop Steyer's virtual trophy case?
Although Walker has been careful to avoid rejecting climate change out-of-hand, environmentalists view him as a top enemy for a variety of reasons, most prominently his killing of a federally-funded high-speed rail link between Milwaukee and Madison and his championing of a bill largely designed by a mining company to build an open pit iron mine in northern Wisconsin. Furthermore, the environmental battles here are likely to further intensify as oil companies increasingly turn to western Wisconsin as a source for frac sand.
A spokesman for Next Generation did not respond to requests for comment.
David Blouin, the political director of the Wisconsin Sierra Club, says his members are more motivated than ever to do whatever is necessary on the ground to defeat Walker, but he says it is too early to predict how much money the national organization will invest in the race. As for Steyer:
“(I)n the short term, money to help environmentally-friendly candidates is welcome,” he said. “But in the long term, more money flooding into elections is extremely harmful to democracy and isn't the answer.”
Blouin's comment reflects the tension on the left between grassroots activists who are wary of replicating the tactics of corporate-funded groups like Americans for Prosperity and party pragmatists who believe that progressives cannot compete unless they are willing to find their own sugar daddies. - The Cap Times, 11/13/13
Environmental activists in Wisconsin should be calling on Steyer to help take out Walker next year. And Steyer's experience taking down Cuccinelli could be very helpful in taking out Walker next year. Especially since campaign with Cuccinelli hasn't really helped his image:
http://urbanmilwaukee.com/...
And, then there was Gov. Walker’s inept campaigning for Virginia Tea Party-GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli. He lost. The Washington Post said: “The election of a Democrat (Terry McAuliffe) one year after Obama won Virginia…ends a streak of nine governor’s races, going back to 1977, in which Virginians elected the party opposite to the one that won the White House the year before. This also marks the first time since 1885 that any party has lost the governorship after just one term.”
Gov. Walker was also a loser in Virginia. Only a few hundred attended his rallies. Walker seemed stuck in a time warp. He talked of “big government union bosses”. Memo to Walker: only 4.4 percent (159,000) of employed Virginians are members of a union. Moreover, Virginia is a right-to-work state. “Big” labor was not an issue in the Virginia governor’s race. However, Medicaid expansion was. Cuccinelli was opposed, but Gov.-elect McAuliffe campaigned for Medicaid expansion. Note: victorious New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie is implementing Medicaid expansion. But Walker was out of step again in his Virginia campaign criticism of Medicaid expansion. - Urban Milwaukee, 11/13/13
Like Cuccinelli, Walker isn't just a Tea Party extremist, he's also incredibly corrupt:
http://host.madison.com/...
On UppityWisconsin, Jud Lounsbury claims Gov. Scott Walker is counting Little League teams and Girl Scout troops to pad the number of business that have allegedly been created since he took office. Walker claims he has hit his goal of 10,000 new businesses, Lounsbury writes, but it's really just over 4,000 when using information that can be verified.
Concealed carry has not made Wisconsin safer, contends Chris Walker on his blog, Political Heat. There's no way that one can prove a cause and effect, but the crime rate in the state has gone up since concealed carry became the law, he explains in his blog.
The Wausau Daily Herald welcomes former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to Wausau, but urges her not to make a simplistic political statement out of the recent controversy in the city over holiday music at a school event. It's not a simple issue, the paper says in an open letter to her, but one that many in the community took part in to reach a solution.
Earlier this year the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign reported that 14 donors to Scott Walker's war chest had already exceeded the $10,000 contribution limit, but now the governor's campaign has issued new figures that switch parts of the contributions to the donor's spouse, Mike Buelow points out in a post on the WDC's Big Money Blog. The contributions have undergone a sex change, Buelow muses. - The Cap Times, 11/14/13
And he's a huge prick:
http://www.jsonline.com/...
In the budget approved this summer, Walker and his fellow Republicans in the Legislature rejected additional federal money under the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare, to expand BadgerCare to a greater number of people.
Democrats blasted Republicans for that decision, while Walker has said he thought accepting the federal money was too risky because the federal government might switch gears and stop providing as much aid in the future — leaving the state on the hook.
At the same time, Walker's budget did call for making BadgerCare available to a new population — 82,000 adults without dependent children who are below the federal poverty line.
Walker said Thursday that he would simply delay both changes. The financial impact of the two changes should roughly even out — a spokesperson for the state Department of Health Services didn't have exact figures on that Thursday.
Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said Thursday that Walker should accept the added federal money for Medicaid so the state could bring more people onto BadgerCare without dropping anyone from the program.
"Wisconsin would not be in these dire straits if Governor Walker had made the right decision in the first place. By accepting funding to strengthen BadgerCare and building a Wisconsin-specific health care exchange that considers our state's unique assets and needs, Wisconsin would have saved taxpayer dollars and insured more residents," Larson said in a statement. = Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, 11/14/13
Getting rid of Walker next year would be a dream come and Lord knows we could use all the help we can get in making that happen. In the mean time, Mary Burke (D. WI) is putting together a tough and seasoned campaign staff:
http://www.jsonline.com/...
In putting together the team so quickly, Burke is signaling her ability to run a lengthy campaign to oust Gov. Scott Walker in 2014.
She's also making it more difficult for another Democrat to jump into the race, although state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout of Alma has considered waging a grass-roots primary battle.
Jim Margolis, who handled advertising for President Barack Obama's two national campaigns, has signed on as Burke's media strategist.
Diane Feldman, who polled for Tammy Baldwin's successful U.S. Senate campaign in 2012 and Gwen Moore's 2004 race for Congress, will be Burke's pollster.
Pete Giangreco, who was the lead of direct mail for Obama's first Democratic presidential primary campaign as well as Baldwin's 2012 campaign, will run Burke's direct mail operation.
"This is the top talent in the country," said state Democratic Party chair Mike Tate, noting the party would be neutral if a primary occurs. - Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, 11/6/13
If you would like to donate or get involved with Burke's campaign, you can do so here:
http://burkeforwisconsin.com/