There are many issues voters in Wisconsin can point to where a change in policy would allow for a better outcome. From voting rights, lax environmental regulations, union rights, or women’s health we have witnessed Governor Scott Walker advancing the most convoluted reasoning for passing his proposals. There are a whole raft of legitimate reasons why voters want a change in governor come this November’s election.
When sorting my way through the choices for the Democratic nomination I kept coming back to an issue which was front and center since Walker’s first inauguration. In an attempt to further his national profile he used public employees in the state as a weapon. Walker worked to demonize them, trying to make teachers, scientists at the DNR, and public safety workers somehow unworthy of their roles or their wages. In attacking public workers he split families into opposing camps, drove wedges through communities, and in so doing tarnished the reputation of our state.
I continuously hear from friends scattered across the country about their lack of respect for this state based on what Walker and his Republican legislatures have done. Wisconsin was once viewed as the place of open and clean government, unblemished natural resources, and a populace that was generous in spirit and deed.
Walker did not find those attributes of the type which could garner his bona fides with national conservatives who give money and support for presidential nominations. Instead, Walker needed to dig deep and mean with divisive policy proposals in order to capture the imaginations of those he needed to impress in his climb upwards as a politician. That political climb, is after all, the only career field he has ever known.
But for the sake of Wisconsin, it must end.
We need to have a state where, once again, competing ideas can be discussed in civil ways. We need to lower the voices and rancor which has, sadly over the past eight years, not been the norm. I have listened, read, talked with countless others and learned much about the many candidates who have cared enough for the future of our state to try and make a difference. They all are selfless women and men who deserve our thanks. But we need to win this election, and win for right reasons.
We must get back to the point where at the end of the day–whether we agree or not–we can grab a meal together or play a round of golf as friends. Too many stories of hostile Thanksgiving meals due to Walker pitting one group against the other must end.
The person to help take the steps leading us back to the Wisconsin we all knew as younger men and women is Tony Evers. I will conclude my heartfelt endorsement of Evers with his words which echo my hopes. And our collective needs.
“We have divided this state politically to a high level of partisanship where we can’t even figure out how to fix our roads. It started with pitting people against each other during Act 10 and it’s continued to this day … that has to end and that can end as long as we have the right governor. I’ve been elected by Democrats and Republicans and Independents. I can certainly work with people from across the aisle and make that happen.”
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
An endorsement worthy of the Caspar D. Milquetoast candidate it fetes.