Three years ago Tuesday, Gov. Scott Walker signed into law Wisconsin Act 10, a budget repair bill that contained historic collective bargaining reforms for public sector labor unions. The legislation did not reach his desk easily; Democrats in the Senate fled the state, labor union members rioted at the state Capitol, and some Republican state senators nearly killed the plan.
One GOP senator who nearly gutted Act 10 now wants his job back.
Van Wanggaard was among those Republicans in the state Senate who thought Gov. Walker’s reforms were going too far. The freshman lawmaker had been elected the year before. A former police officer, Wanggaard used to work as a negotiator on behalf of a police union. Walker’s plan exempted police officers and firefighters, but that wasn’t enough for Wanggaard.
Working with fellow Republican Dale Schultz, Wanggaard spent several days in mid-February trying to come up with a plan to pare back Walker’s proposal. According to “More Than They Bargained For,” an account of the fight over Act 10 written by two reporters, the effort unfolded like this:
“Dale Schultz, the veteran GOP senator from southwestern Wisconsin, had been working on an amendment that would have seriously weakened the governor’s proposal. Van Wanggaard, the freshman Republican senator from Racine, had been helping.”
According to the reporters’ account, Wanggaard was telling other GOP senators at the time that he would not vote for the collective bargaining reforms in their current form.
Wanggaard and Schultz hatched a plan that, according to WisPolitics, would have eliminated the requirement that unions recertify annually, protected the power of unions to take dues directly out of the paychecks of members whether they wanted to pay those dues or not, and forced local governments to start bargaining with labor unions again after December 31, 2013.
If Wanggaard had gotten his way, the reforms of Act 10 would have expired by now.
As one writer at a liberal Madison publication noted of Wanggaard’s plan, “And because unions will still be able to collect dues from workers, they will have the funds to conduct an aggressive campaign over the next two years.”
And campaign aggressively they likely would have done. The bruising battle to pass Act 10 the first time was not something many Republicans appear eager to repeat, and certainly not two years later on the eve of a gubernatorial election.
Despite raising more money than the Democrat candidate who ran against him, Wanggaard lost his seat in a recall election in 2012. While his cohort in compromise Dale Schultz announced his retirement from the state Senate at the end of this year, Wanggaard wants his seat back.
In order to get back into the Senate, he will have to win a primary fight against Jonathan Steitz, a conservative financial planner. Steitz posted solid fundraising numbers in the first campaign finance report of the contest match-up. Democrats have abandoned the district – the incumbent is running for lieutenant governor – and redistricting makes the seat one the GOP can win and hold after this election.
Lingering doubts about Wanggaard’s conservative credentials dog him, and his weakness on collective bargaining reform is not quickly forgotten. While Wanggaard did eventually ditch his effort to change Walker’s plan and voted to pass the legislation, it wasn’t until after the Governor, his aides and conservatives pushed him over the line with much cajoling and convincing.
According to an October 2013 report by the John K. MacIver Institute, the collective bargaining and pension and health insurance contribution reforms of Act 10 have saved Wisconsin taxpayers $2.7 billion. Savings will continue to accrue because there is no sunset provision on the reforms.
Some supporters of Wanggaard assert that if he gets back into the state Senate he will have a more conservative voting record. Wanggaard, they explain, had to push back against conservative ideas because he represented a swing district. But according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wanggaard has said he will not swing to the right in his legislating even if he represents a much more conservative district.
“Wanggaard — who was lobbied by Democrats and unions during the fight over collective bargaining — said if elected again to represent very different voters he would approach legislating the same way,” wrote the paper’s top two state politics reporters last month.
For Republicans looking to back Walker in his continued pursuit of conservative reforms, that’s not good news if Wanggaard gets back into the Senate.
#GoodTidingsAndGreatJoyWI was the hash tag Thursday and I'll tell you why; @SarahPalinUSA came to #WI. Where you ask, Wausau, why Wausau, it's so far, it's in the middle of the State, but then you think back and you seem to remember something in the news about a School Board superintendent trying to limit the singing of Christmas songs in a school play or something; and that @SarahPalinUSA mentioned something about it in social media? Well your correct. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/08/one-sacred-song-for-every-five-secular-songs-wisconsin-school-district-cracks/
-once at Sarah's fb page scroll down to the Wausau bit she wrote. So, I say thank you to the progressive liberal socialists once again trying to take God out of our culture, who were shown by over 1000 #Wisconsin friends of @SarahPalinUSA that we say #MerryChristmas ! And we stand with the Baby Jesus born that day to Mary.
If I'm for Christmas, it's only because I'm for Christ.... Sarah Palin
-from the book "Good Tidings And Great Joy" Protecting the Heart of Christmas
So on to the actual adventure... I got up at 2 AM, umm not to worry all good adventures start off early in the morning... By 5:30 I'm picking up @VickiMcKenna in Madison to go rogue with me on my adventure...
You don't know @VickiMcKenna well check her out here
@VickiMcKenna is a powerful conservative talk radio show host in #WI she is on
WISN 1130AM Milwaukee in the morning from 10am -Noon ...
then from 3pm -6pm on WIBA 1310 Madison.
So imagine being the fly on the wall in the truck on the way up there and back ! What happens
in the truck stays in the truck.
...fast forward
We arrived in Wausau around 7:30am at the Wal Mart store
where the book signing was being held. While walking in I noticed an announcement taped up to the center window between the front doors, since I had called ahead and knew we needed to head to the back left of the store and look for the layaway section. As we headed in we observed wal mart employees directing people, the Mgr looking lady mid store looked important and had a clip board so we stopped quick and introduced myself, when she heard #Organize4PalinWI she said oh we are expecting you, Vicki says I'm Media, the lady says oh well then we have a media room also, I'm like.. I'm media too, Vicki says "He's my producer." Boom we are escorted
to the media room. Coffee, cookies, donuts, veggies, fruit, and more!
Geez the media is treated like divas! #LOL ...you will know in a bit why the diva thing is funny!
So the media room- aka quarantine room...after being escorted to the media room,
the mgr advised if we wish to use the washroom it's down the hall and someone will escort us down there as needed, super tight security...
there were two camera men and a young female reporter, we all introduced ourselves then @VickiMcKenna and myself had some coffee and cookies, thanks Wal Mart!
About half an hour went by and the next media person joining us was a real sharp young gal dressed in a black suit, mid height heels that were kind of chunky, cute blond pixie cut freckled rosy cheeked TV Anchor type. Well she was instantly talking to the other medias , they all seem to know each other, small town media... boy oh boy she was not happy with the rules set out for the media, when @SarahPalinUSA has an event her team absolutely controls access to her for many reasons, think them up your self if you don't get it. But this young lady was beside herself with angst about the access she was given, she was calling her boss telling him. "they are only giving us ten minutes to shoot, no questions, no interviews..then when our access is over they are escorting us off the property!!
LOL ...it wasn't to much longer when she called @SarahPalinUSA a diva for having the power
to set out all the rules ! She said "The security wasn't even this tight for Michelle Obama."
shorty after that she went into her moking @SarahPalinUSA voice "Don't cha know!"
Makes sense that the media access is limited #LSM #biased
#WhenYouComeIntoMyHouseYouGoByMyRules
Next thing you know and it's 10am #GameOn !
The doors opens and the mgr says "Ladies and Gentlemen, follow me." he led us down the hall to a door that led to the room where @SarahPalinUSA and her daughter Willow were seated behind
an 8' pop up table.
Because of our media access we now had 10 minutes to take video and stills. Go..
Vicki shot stills and I took some video.
Vid to come, we are having issues uploading it.
After our time was up to take pictures and video, we headed out to join the end of the line.
Vicki and I waited in line about 2 hrs and 45 min before getting up to see @SarahPalinUSA.
Once we did I introduced myself with the extension O4P WI, she said "Thank You for doing that."
Another inclusion in the budget is a request for 61 new Tax Enforcement Personnel! Brian Sikma from Media Trackers thinks this might be a way to increase tax revenue without raising taxes. I guess this might be a good use of tax payer money.
