Anyone who reads The Capital Times, The State Journal, The Journal Sentinel or that fantastic website, WisPolitics.com, will read constantly of one scandal or another: the caucuses this, Brian Burke that; Chuck Chvala this, Scott Jensen that; Gary George, Dan McMurray; the list goes on and on. Wisconsin, whose political observers have long admired the state's tradition of clean government dating back to the reforms of \Fighting Bob"" La Follette, can only despair at Wisconsin's continued decline into the ethical dumps. It is important, however, to add a different perspective: you call this stuff scandal?
As a native New Jerseyan, this author is continually shocked at just how high the standards of conduct are in Wisconsin. Milwaukee County, the most Democratic in the state, recently elected a Republican executive in response to some improper, though not clearly illegal, pension deals passed by the entrenched county board when nobody was looking. My own Essex County, the most Democratic in New Jersey, saw no reason for a rotation of power until the executive went to federal prison. Milwaukee Mayor Norquist's sexual peccadilloes have made headlines, but Newark, N.J. mayor Sharpe James can openly race-bait and use housing authorities and police to intimidate his opponent's supporters, yet nobody bats an eyelash. Wisconsin's Russ Feingold is a widely admired champion of campaign finance reform, respected by all for his commitment to principle. By contrast, the senior senator from New Jersey, Robert ""Torch"" Torricelli, D-N.J., headed for a likely re-election, has admitted to accepting gifts from contributors such as suits and gold watches, and is the first member of Congress to be reprimanded by the ethics committees of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. That's right, he was reprimanded in the House and we promoted him to the Senate anyway. Compared to New Jersey's normal way of doing things, Wisconsin's scandals are a fantastic standard for ethical government.
Before one dismisses New Jersey as a great abnormality and, Wisconsin as the norm, consider the current investigations of the legislative leadership in Maryland, the infamy of places like Illinois, Louisiana and Texas or the ward politics of Boston, Chicago, New York and a plethora of other cities throughout the country. The Wisconsin tradition of clean government is just that, a Wisconsin tradition, starting around Beloit and ending near Superior.
Now the Republican nominee for District Attorney, former Dane County sheriff Rick Raemisch, is challenging incumbent Brian Blanchard, alleging that Blanchard has a conflict of interest in the caucus investigations since the Democratic Party actively helped him in his election. Suddenly, a prosecutor elected in a partisan election is being looked on suspiciously for an affiliation with his political party!
In all fairness to Raemisch, he does have some decent ideas on reforms for state capital county district attorney offices, but if this sort of charge gets traction in Wisconsin, it does show a certain over-sensitivity on the matter.
On the other hand, Wisconsin doesn't have a lot of the problems that face other states. New Jersey politics is riddled with endless special interest pork, whether it is a recently proposed wholly unneeded stadium in Newark or former Governor Christie Whitman's turning the office into a virtual fiefdom of the auto industry. Enron used to have quite a say in Texas; insurance companies rule Connecticut; the state government of Delaware is a subsidiary of the credit card business. Wisconsin, on the other hand, while host to biotech companies, Oscar Mayer, auto plants and other valued industries, cannot be said to be dominated in any way by one group or another, except possibly the abomination of building a new stadium for the Brewers.
Simply put, it's good Wisconsin is so wimpy about the everyday corruption that other states are used to. It means we can produce people like Russ Feingold, actively police our local government at the ballot box and generally avoid a lot of the messes other states fall into. We do have some corruption, and it will never truly go away, but let's not get used to it. Let's stay wimps.
