Dave Zweifel's Plain Talk: Why talk issues when you can just tell lies?

Dave Zweifel  —  10/29/2008 4:07 am

John Waelti stopped by the office last week, scratching his head.

"I really didn't think running for office would be quite this bad," he lamented. "Tell you the truth, it isn't a lot of fun."

Waelti, a native of Monroe who went on to become a professor of economics before retiring in his hometown, is running for the state Assembly in the predominantly Green County district now represented by incumbent Republican Brett Davis.

He's long had a keen interest in local politics. Even back when he was still teaching he'd send op-eds to The Capital Times, several of which we printed. When he retired back to Monroe, where he grew up on the family farm west of town, he wrote some for the Monroe Times and was elected to the city's school board.

A Democrat with family roots in the Franklin D. Roosevelt tradition, Waelti decided last year to give state politics a try. He won the September primary to the surprise of the "professional" politicians in Madison, and now is campaigning against an entrenched and connected incumbent.

He's learned, somewhat painfully, that elections aren't all about the issues and convincing the voters that you're the best person to watch out for their interests.

It's a lot about attack ads and negative campaigning, and this year has been one of the worst.

Waelti is just one of several area Assembly candidates who have been targeted by a shadowy outside group euphemistically called All Children Matter. The organization, based in Michigan, is a front for a Republican billionaire named Richard DeVos, the heir to the Amway fortune. Amway itself has long been caught up in controversy over its marketing schemes and spotty record of paying its taxes. But it has brought fame and fortune to DeVos and his compatriots.

With a lot of financial help from the Walton family of Wal-Mart fame, DeVos' All Children Matter has been around for some time, pumping millions into campaigns to elect candidates who are supportive of its main objective: dismantling public schools and replacing them with privately operated "choice" schools -- financed, of course, with vouchers provided by the taxpayers.

Here in Wisconsin, its ringleaders have been George and Susan Mitchell, who have been the brains behind the Wisconsin school choice movement in the Milwaukee area.

All Children Matter, though, has typically been just one step ahead of the law. It ignores state election regulations and campaign limits. Ohio earlier this year fined it $5.2 million and Michigan levied a fine last year. Colorado and Florida are investigating its tactics. Here, the Wisconsin Governmental Accountability Board is deciding whether the organization bypassed the law to funnel money into advocacy campaigns. Interestingly, two of its lawyers in Wisconsin, Ray Taffora and Kevin St. John, are now on the staff of the Republican attorney general, J.B. Van Hollen.

Curiously, though, All Children Matter isn't talking about vouchers in its election smears this fall. It instead is referring to Healthy Wisconsin, last year's Democratic proposal to provide universal health care coverage to all Wisconsin residents.

Using a template that interchanges of the names of Waelti, Trish O'Neil of the 47th District, Tom Crofton of the 50th and other Democratic candidates, the organization has blanketed their districts with fliers and radio and TV ads insisting that these Democrats want to give health care to illegal aliens.

"It's enough to make you sick," the ads proclaim.

Neither Waelti, O'Neil nor Crofton was in the Legislature last year, but even if they were, Healthy Wisconsin says nothing about insuring illegal aliens. I suppose an undocumented immigrant could theoretically slip through the system to see a doctor -- just like with any other state service -- but to claim that the three candidates are actively supporting benefits to them is a bald-faced lie.

Why is All Children Matter using the health care issue when its mission is to promote private school vouchers?

Because universal health care is one of those wedge issues that resonate with some voters. It probably wouldn't move the political needle much to charge that Waelti et al. want to deny children vouchers, but giving insurance to those dastardly illegal aliens, now that's red meat for a real smear. And since none of those candidates is too keen on shipping taxpayer dollars to private schools, if the smear succeeds in defeating the candidate, the mission is accomplished.

When John Waelti left Monroe to help train a new generation of college students, elections were focused on real issues -- how best to help family farmers, a fair taxation system, help for the elderly and poor, how to make life better for small businesses.

He's discovered that that isn't the way it is today.

Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times.

Dave Zweifel  —  10/29/2008 4:07 am