Political Heat

State rankings and wage increases were higher under Gov. Doyle's last year of office We knew Wisconsin’s job numbers were pretty bad. But recently released data sheds some light into how rough they really are. From September 2011 to September 2012, Wisconsin jobs grew at an annual rate of just 0.9 percent. Only seven states and territories did worse than Wisconsin, ranking the Badger State at number 44 in the nation in terms of job growth . A Walker-vs-Doyle comparison on jobs 
Regionally, although not by huge margins, neighboring states did better than Wisconsin . Minnesota (1.0 percent) was the closest to Wisconsin’s rate, while Michigan more than doubled our growth (2.0 percent). Illinois and Iowa (1.4 and 1.3 percent, respectively) also showed higher rates. Wisconsin also fared worst of the states in the region in terms of private sector wage losses . In all, in the one-year time period our state employee yearly wages dropped by $884 -- or about a 2.2 percent decre...

Highlighting the "greatest hits" for one of Wisconsin's worst It's a standard for presidential candidates to write books about their lives and philosophies, so it's no wonder really why Gov. Scott Walker is planning to write one himself. According to the National Review , Walker recently hired former President George W. Bush advisor Marc Thiessen to help write the project. Since Walker has to spend all his time making Wisconsin better , creating economic conditions that make jobs , traveling across the country and ignoring his home state, he may need some help coming up with chapter titles for his book. Here's some suggestions: My Dad was a pastor, how about that?! Didja know I’m an Eagle Scout too!? (or, how I achieved a remarkable feat as a young person but failed to live up to the standards it represented in subsequent years) My years at Marquette Nothing to see here ! Becoming Scott Walker: Recalls are an important fixture of Wisconsin’s identit...

Gov. Walker's excuses for slower job growth carry little merit Revised jobs numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that growth in Wisconsin has been disma l, demonstrating that Gov. Scott Walker’s record on job creation is mediocre at best and lackluster at worst. When lined up against the rest of the states in our region, there is no comparison: the annual rate of change in job growth in Wisconsin barely squeaks past 0.8 percent per year since 2011, while states surrounding Wisconsin all have rates between 1.1 and 1.8 percent. States whom Walker has been openly critical of have also done noticeably better than Wisconsin -- both Minnesota and Illinois have higher rates as well as higher numbers of jobs created during the same time period as our governor’s first term. Minnesota ranks 10th overall nationally in job growth since 2011, and Illinois ranks 30th. Wisconsin , on the other hand, remains in the bottom ten, ranking 44th in job growth over the past two yea...

Restoring the Earned Income Tax Credit would benefit the state better Scott Walker’s tax cut is a terrible plan for Wisconsin’s working families. Now I know what you’re thinking: how can a tax cut be a bad thing, especially for middle and lower income families? The answer is simple: when it fails to work in their interests, an income tax cut won’t do them any good. A simpler, much less expensive plan, would do much more good for working class Wisconsinites. To explain this point further, some background is needed: in 2011, Gov. Scott Walker reduced the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for working families . The 2011 budget reduced the EITC by $56 million total . Keep that number in mind for later. The gutting of this popular tax credit amounted to significant losses for the middle class and poorer Wisconsinites -- a single mother with three children working minimum wage, for example, saw her tax credit reduced by more than $500 last year . A two-parent household with two chi...

Current governor once called for the removal of former gov. following criminal investigation The fallout from the John Doe investigation seems to be the job of Graeme Zielinski , the (now) former Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s Communications Director. Zielinski, who made malicious tweets comparing Gov. Scott Walker to serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, was promptly removed from his position on Monday to a lesser role as “media consultant” for the DPW. While his demotion was understandable, all of the hubbub from the Zielinski tweets seems to have masked the bigger picture: what does the closure of the investigation really entail? Though conservatives across the state saw the end of John Doe as vindication for their beloved governor, the end of the investigation does not necessarily mean he’s innocent. We need to keep in mind that a handful of his workers, in the very same office that Walker himself was occupying, have since been found guilty of using taxpayer dollars for political...

Comments from communications director among the many challenges the party faces The history of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin is remarkably shorter than some realize. Largely dormant for much of the state’s lifetime, the party itself didn’t become a significant player until after World War II. Before that time, the Republican Party and the Progressive Party (founded by Fighting “Bob” La Follette) sparred for the votes of the Badger State. The Progressives eventually merged with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin mid-20th century, and since that time the dual-party system consistent with the rest of the nation has been in place: Democrats representing the left and Republicans representing the right. To say that the DPW's presence is relatively young in our state would be no exaggeration . Though the Democratic Party is the oldest political organization in our nation’s history, in Wisconsin it’s still considerably new, despite always being around in the background. It’s relev...