Fair Wisconsin NOT Fair To Local Candidates In Madison
UPDATE
Fair Wisconsin made the following known to city council candidates in Madison today who were not allowed input into their endorsement process.
“…we are reopening the endorsement process for incumbents and would like to invite you to fill our PAC questionnaire to seek a dual endorsement.”
“I know that there have been confusion about our process and please know that we intended to provide you with the same opportunity as your opponent to seek our endorsement.”
A dual endorsement?
As stated in my post below any endorsement at this point from Fair Wisconsin is meaningless.
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Fair Wisconsin has a blemish on it’s face today over endorsements that it made for the Spring 2011 Elections.
Call me old-fashioned or too process oriented, but I think all would agree that every candidate should be able to address questions or concerns of an interest group prior to endorsements being made.
That however was not the way FAIR Wisconsin handled the matter, and now lots of local politicos are wondering how a simple process could go so dreadfully wrong.
A phone call from CP to the executive Director of Fair Wisconsin was not returned in time for this post late Thursday afternoon.
My sources inform me that Fair Wisconsin started having problems when they sent their questionnaires out way too late to allow busy candidates the time to respond. As such the endorsements were made based on the fact that one candidate managed to scramble and get a questionnaire in, and the other did not.
I also became aware today that most, but not all of the candidates, were called – no mail, no emails. In the call, the candidate was asked if he/she wanted a questionnaire, which would be sent by mail or email, if requested. Alders Marsha Rummel, Steve King, Brian Solomon, Chris Schmidt and Paul Skidmore did not receive a call or letter and were unaware of the endorsement project in process. All these alders have contested races. Didn’t anyone at Fair Wisconsin wonder why they didn’t hear from five incumbent alders??
Lets be clear about one thing.
Any endorsement from Fair Wisconsin is meaningless. (I know, you are shocked.)
Fair Wisconsin made a major miscalculation when entering into this realm of local politics, and has needlessly destroyed bridges by this action.
Frankly, I am not sure why this organization feels compelled to make endorsements for local offices in the first place!
The political acumen of this organization has been called into question in the past, and this latest blunder will only add to the discourse. These endorsements, and the way they were handled, only adds to the mixed feelings many have with Fair Wisconsin.
Soglin never received the call. Fair Wisconsin PAC’s policy is to go with the incumbent in executive level elections where the incumbent has been friendly to LGBT issues, so they didn’t call Soglin. Mayor Dave hasn’t specifically mentioned LGBT issues during the campaign until Tuesday evening, after the endorsements were published.
Dear Fair Wisconsin,
I am a bit dismayed at the fact that your endorsements for 2011 are just about meaningless. It would seem from all with whom I have spoken that many of the local candidates for public office (such as my alder, Marsha Rummel) were not afforded the opportunity to participate properly in the process which you outlined for receiving an endorsement. And yet, you went ahead and made endorsements in these races anyhow? Furthermore, I see quoted on a local blog, your organization which stated:
“…we are reopening the endorsement process for incumbents and would like to invite you to fill our PAC questionnaire to seek a dual endorsement.”
“I know that there have been confusion about our process and please know that we intended to provide you with the same opportunity as your opponent to seek our endorsement.”
What could a “dual endorsement” possibly mean? What could “we intended to provide you with the same opportunity” imply?
What troubles me is that we as a gay population already have a hard time being taken seriously in society. And now, we can’t even get a simple process for endorsements done correctly, stripping us even further of legitimacy.
I must conclude by saying that I am a more than a bit disappointed.