Great Lakes Compact Needs Statewide Republican Support

How the essential big ticket items dealing with our environment and natural resources, such as the Kyoto Accord on the international level, or the regional Great Lakes compact, get strangled by Republicans mystifies me.  How the bottom line for a “golf course expansion” as State Representative Frank Lasee said recently, is more important than the greater good for the Great Lakes and the states that surround them truly baffles me.  How can Republicans have such a disconnect from what most of us see as sound public policy?

As we well know the lakes need protection from large water diversions to faraway states, and to achieve this result the Great Lake states have banded together in an attempt to conserve the precious resource that we have long taken for granted.  The Wisconsin State Senate has shown the way by passing the measure, only to see it stall for the most base of reasons in the State Assembly.  That reason being pure politics, and the special interest money that comes along with it.

If the measure is not passed the concern is that others outside of the region will decide what is best suited for the Great Lakes.  Wisconsin Lt. Governor Barb Lawton made that point again recently in northeastern Wisconsin.

Lawton said failure to enact to the compact likely would result in lengthy litigation of that bill and it would eventually cede control of the lakes over to courts or lawmakers outside the region.

“(Lake Michigan) out here sparkles like a jewel and we can see the lust for it,” said Lawton, speaking in front of a 143-foot yacht under construction at Burger Boat Co. in Manitowoc.“For the first time in history there is a well-defined, regional effort to sustainably manage Great Lakes water inside the basin and it produced a regional agreement.”

The State Assembly Democrats failed in their effort to  force the Republicans to pass the bill, while providing many valid reasons to act at once. 

Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee) called the attempt to force a vote a last-ditch effort to pass the compact this session, saying there is no guarantee of a special session.“We are literally one act of Congress or one bad court decision away from those lakes having no protection at all,” Richards said on the floor.

The fact that this matter may have to be decided during a special session, which Governor Doyle has said he will call, is yet another sign that the political process is not working as the voters of the state wish.  Why waste money on a special session when the legislators are now under the dome?  Have the Sergeant-at-Arms pass out the Ritalin to the Republicans in the State Assembly and let us pass the Great Lakes compact!
Technorati Tags: GreatLakesCompact, FrankLasee, WisconsinLegislature, GreatLakes, JimDoyle

State Representative Frank Lasee Fails To Hear The Needs Of Deaf Children In Wisconsin

When a legislator has become so controlled and owned by the special interests that he can look at a deaf child and not seek a solution, then it is time to make a change. 

I hold to an old fashioned notion that governing should be about insuring that the lives of the public improve, and they be as productive as possible.  That the roadblocks which impedes the path of the public be lowered, if not totally eliminated.  And above all that the common good always be the primary reason to make a law.

It therefore goes without saying I would be opposed to a Wisconsin State Representative that would use a position of power to stop legislation that would require insurance companies from paying for hearing aids or surgery for a deaf child.  And it is fair to say I would be very upset if that same representative while working against Wisconsin families, was also taking campaign cash from the insurance lobby, and doing their shameless bidding under the statehouse dome.

But sadly that is the case with State Representative Frank Lasee.  As Chairperson of the Assembly Insurance Committee, Lasee is not shy about making sure his campaign contributors in the insurance industry are well taken care of.  In fact, the insurance companies are the third leading contributors to the ‘Lasee Largess’, better known as his campaign coffers.  When the industry gives to Lasee, they expect something.  

This month Lasee was adamant that a bill to deny insurance companies the right to use a persons credit score when setting premiums would never leave his committee. Now his lack of desire to see a bill enacted in Wisconsin that would require insurance companies to pay for hearing aids or surgery for deaf children is yet another sign that special interests have a hold on the member from the 2nd Assembly District.

The problem is more dire however than just the obvious fact that money and special interests has prevented the political process from working properly.  The end result of the collision between special interests and sound public policy in this case are the deaf children.   God forbid that Frank Lasee would want to do anything to help out the parents with such a situation.  I mean why would Representative Lasee want to help out a parent like Beth Lidtke when he has pals like Northwestern Mutual, and Sentry Insurance?

Beth Lidtke said her son Abraham was born with one deaf ear. At 2, he lost the hearing in his other ear, making it necessary for the family to spend $4,000 on hearing aids.

“It was a long and frustrating road figuring out whether insurance would pay for it,” Lidtke said. “You pay so much for insurance. It’s supposed to be about paying for the unknown things that come up in life. We finally needed it and they would not pay.”

Lidtke said that soon the hearing aid was no longer working well enough and Abraham needed a cochlear implant for that ear.

“The cochlear implant changed his life,” Lidtke said. “But dealing with the insurance company again just drained me.”

The costs have been substantial. Now 7, Abraham wears a $7,000 piece of equipment. The surgery for the implant was around $100,000.

After hearing stirring testimony such as this mother above how can any responsible elected official not schedule the bill for a vote at once?  He had the power to do so.  But Frank Lasee will never let this bill out of committee as his lobbying pals will not let him.

It is quite clear that the citizens in the 2nd Assembly District have a chance to help the entire state when they vote in November.  That is not only an honor for these voters, but also a real responsibility. By casting a ballot for Democrat Ted Zigmunt to replace Frank Lasee, the best friend to the insurance lobby, the voters can help place a truly concerned and ethical man into office. 

When a legislator has become so controlled and owned by the special interests that he can look at a deaf child and not seek a solution, then it is time to make a change.  And soon.

Ted Zigmunt will have the moral compass to make the right decisions for the people in Northeast Wisconsin, and deaf children throughout the state.

 

Technorati Tags: TedZigmunt, FrankLasee, Wisconsin, Madison, WisconsinStateAssembly

Ted Zigmunt, A Common Sense Candidate, For Wisconsin State Assembly

I have never before entertained the notion of endorsing a candidate for an election that is almost one year away.  However there is such a need for the people in Wisconsin’s 2nd Assembly District to again have a stable and competent member in the Wisconsin Legislature, that I offer this early political nod of the head.

The only thing one can say about the current State Representative is that he knows how to draw attention to himself.  Over and over Frank Lasee has offered notions such as arming teachers in schools with guns, working to drastically cut funding to the University of Wisconsin Law School, and wondering if there are just too many counties in Wisconsin.  All of these lame ideas generated much interest and discussion about Lasee, but did not assist the needs and desires of the people who Lasee is supposed to work for.  If Lasee has ideas about running for Congress, he should not use the people he promised to represent in Madison, as a stepping-stone for getting attention.   The voters deserve better respect than that.

When I read that Frank Lasee had a paternity suit brought against him and finally acknowledged he was the father, or when he used his office and position to investigate the sex lives of students in Brown Deer, I knew I had to commit myself to making a change in the ‘leadership’ that Lasee was providing.

Clearly the voters of the 2nd Assembly District deserve better.  They work hard, pay their taxes, and play by the rules.  They need a State Representative that will mirror their good qualities, and hopes for the future.  Ted Zigmunt is the person who can lead the way.

He proved his sincerity when running for the office in 2006.  So I was very pleased when I read his note this past August alerting me to his candidacy for the State Legislature in 2008.

Ted Zigmunt is a solid Democrat committed to making sure our education system functions with quality teachers and solid goals, that everyone has affordable health care coverage, and our Great Lakes are protected.

Too often Frank Lasee forgot his constituents in his zeal to make bold outlandish headlines in order to further his career.  What the voters of the 2nd Assembly District need is a common sense thinker who is comfortable just being their State Representative. 

When Ted Zigmunt takes the oath of office as a State Representative the voters will know they have one of their own truly working for the hopes and dreams of a better Wisconsin.

Technorati Tags: TedZigmunt, FrankLasee, WisconsinStateAssembly, StateLegislature, Wisconsin

Does Frank Lasee Want Hollow Point Bullets Too?

This is why backbenchers in the Wisconsin State Legislature should just sit quiet and let the grown-ups talk.

I was taken aback like so many across Wisconsin, and now thanks to cable news and the internet folks all over the country, by the notion of allowing school teachers to carry guns into our state’s classrooms.   A Republican State Representative who is not known for his intellect in the Statehouse, but instead for shooting from the hip before his brain is activated, hatched the idea.

Frank Lasee from the Green Bay area has always been just an idiot, but now is also an embarrassment to the entire political process in Wisconsin.  Advocating that teachers should be armed in the classroom as a way to curtail gun violence in schools shows Lasee is not a serious legislator.  I had to giggle today while driving around town doing errands that our whiz kid now thinks he needs to modify his idea. (I think the outrage from… well……everybody…. might have led him to understand the folly of his idea.)  Now he says, instead of a teacher packing heat like Gunsmoke’s Matt Dillon,  the little ole school teacher would go to a lock box somewhere in the school where a deadly weapon would be stashed for the time when all hell breaks out, and retrieve a handgun to slay someone.  What is in the head of Frank Lasee?

The outrage over this crap has now resulted in two write-in candidates to challenge this mentally inept legislator in the November election.  One is a Republican, Robert Dobbs, who joined the race last week, and now there is a Democrat, Ted Zigmunt, who also has decided to mount a challenge with only four weeks to go to the election. 

Everyone believes that Lasee is using the recent tragedy of dead school children and staff in Wisconsin and around the country at this time to advance his own career.  He can’t introduce any bill until next January so is now just making a fool of himself at the expense of very sad stories.  That is pathetic!  I think from the reaction in Wisconsin he might want to just sit in the back of the Assembly and stay quiet.  Let the grown-ups talk instead Frank.