Well, what do you know. As mentioned right here a few days back, Rep. Sheldon Wasserman is taking on Sen. Alberta Darling for her seat in the Wisconsin State Senate.
Clearly, a blog such as this with literally TENS of readers had something to do with the timing of his announcement, right? Clearly. Hah.
Wasserman says:"When Alberta first ran she pretended to be something she is not, a socially moderate and fiscally responsible leader. Her record over the years has drifted further and further from that ideal," Wasserman said in his statement, adding:
"She now follows a hard right-wing Republican agenda. This is the same agenda that ignores real issues while making gay marriage extra illegal and banning stem cell research and the life saving hope it may offer."
Can't quibble with most of that. As Darling climbed the leadership in the Senate, she did seem to tack further right as the years went on.
But .. Wasserman has a tough road ahead, I think. As I said earlier, I like the guy. But a comment on the JS article (
here) caught my eye:
"Not content to be a below-average Assemblyman, Rep. Wasserman now apparently wants to be below-average Senator. After 12 undistinguished years in the Assembly, this guy has nothing to offer."While it pains me to copy/paste that, I think it has a ring of truth. While I think Wasserman is honest and fair, I struggle to remember anything he's done that made the papers .. besides the odd law about health care.
Taking a look
at his current legislation .. Antibiotic drug treatment for chlamydial infections (AB318) .. Automated external defibrillator: persons required to complete course in use of specified (AB262) .. Mother may breast-feed her child in any public (AB109) .. Health professional shortage (AB90) .. Of course, being the only physician in the WI Legislature, I can understand he's tapped for these medical type bills. But honestly, those aren't the kind of bills most citizens actually give a hoot about.
Now .. I do recall a few bills Wasserman floated that I think were very worthy .. he tried to get legislators to
give up their preposterous sick leave accumulations (AB23) .. and he did try to
reduce the number of Wisconsin counties reduced from 72 to 18 (AB428). And I want to say he was a co-sponsor of an attempt to
eliminate the minimum markup boondoggle for gasoline merchants, but can't find the bill.
But you know what unifies those three pieces of great legislation? NONE of them got done.
Zero. So .. Rep. Wasserman: Let's hear your case. Let's see how you do over the next 15 months before November 2008.
This region is one of the wealthiest in Wisconsin, which means we're the footing a large part of government, too. Pick an issue, say, taxing and spending, and make some noise.
Signing the "Americans for Tax Reform's tax pledge" was a great step, albeit completely unadvertised. (I'd have sent you a thank you note had I known you'd done that.)
In the end, having Wasserman take on Darling is really great for this region. Both of these legislators have been cruising along with safe seats. When you’ve got a safe seat, it’s pretty easy to relax and go along with your party.
If Wasserman wins? My guess is that he’ll be more responsive to the district as his margin of victory will be small, and he’ll need to govern from the middle to keep getting elected. And that’s great for Wisconsin.
