Sunday, October 15, 2006

Political Advice for Bill McReynolds

As a third place finisher in the race for Racine County Executive, I am probably ill suited to offer political advice to the winner, Bill McReynolds. But I will anyway.

I have in the past complained that Republicans have not presented an alternative to the Democrats educational policy preferences. The Democrat's answer to education problems is to spend more money on education. Local Republicans have offered no alternative suggestions. Thankfully, this is beginning to change. Robin Vos supports school vouchers. Does Bill McReynolds? If he does, he has not been particularly vocal about it.

A Michigan based group called All Children Matter apparently believe that McReynolds would be more inclined than John Lehman to support school vouchers. I doubt they would be spending money slamming John Lehman if they did not think that a McReynolds victory would help their cause.

I can understand the reluctance of Republicans to come out in favor of school vouchers. Unions will muster all their financial and political resources to defeat any such candidate. But this cat is already out of the bag. A union led group has filed a complaint against All Children Matter for violating state campaign laws. The purpose of the complaint, from a political perspective, is to harm McReynolds election hopes by suggesting to voters that he is receiving political support from corrupt and secret out of state sources.

My suggestion to Bill McReynolds is to articulate to prospective voters his stance on school vouchers. It is only fair that voters know what a candidate stands for. Some vocal Democrats already have concluded that he supports school vouchers. They will make it an issue. Very well. Make it an issue. A strong case can be made for vouchers. Many people are rightly disillusioned by the high cost and poor results of the Racine Unified School District. The "we need more of your money" policy offered by Democrats is not working nor will it. Voters are ready for a new idea. Go for it!

3 comments:

Brenda said...

A little off the subject - but do you think the campaign literature that All Children Matter crosses the line legally?

Now back to the topic at hand, I agree with you that McReynolds is probably avoiding the school - choice issue in hope to gather more votes in November.

Hopefully some upcoming forums will discussions on this matter.

The Badgerland Conservative said...

No.I don't believe it did. This is yet another straw dog set up by desperate lefties. Another shiny object to divert the attention of voters.

Denis Navratil said...

I must plead ignorance on Wisconsin election law, though it sure seems like anything goes. ACM claims that they have followed the law, and I hope they did. But I think Peter Digaudio is correct. The idea here is to attempt to portray McReynolds in a negative light, whether deserved or not. Politics is ugly. Ignoring it will make it uglier.