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 2002.11.03 EPISODE 8, in which technology is a beautiful thing
here's something tremendously gratifying about downloading porn over a wireless campus Internet connection while the crazy Libertarian candidate for Governor pumps fists mere feet away. "I really need your vote," shake, shake, shake. Ed Thompson, brother of former Governor and current Secretary of HHS Tommy and also the current Mayor of Tomah, is not going to be elected Governor, not even if every hand he grabbed in the Memorial Union turned into a vote. I think he knows this but I also think he believes the bulk of the state is with him and that he really does want to be Governor. It's a nice change of pace in a time when most third party candidates clearly are interested only in shit-stirring and don't actually have any desire for the office at stake. But like I said, Ed's crazy. Imagine if Roger Clinton had a couple drops of political acumen and had turned his family fame into the mayorship of a small Arkansas town instead of a series of drug arrests. Imagine if Billy Beer had been championed as one of the country's top micro-brews, giving Billy Carter the platform from which to advocate his pro-partying stance. Imagine if Neil Bush wasn't a complete fuck-up. Ed's managed to turn his name into 10% in the polls -- probably more like 6-7% in the final tally -- during an election the Republican is likely to lose by 5% or less. The Republican is Tommy's successor, Scott McCallum, who had to sit and wait for the former Governor's endorsement. When Democratic Attorney General Jim Doyle takes over as Governor, Ed's going to be happy with Doyle's social programs but he's going to hate what's likely to happen with his taxes, given the $1.3Bn the state is lacking at the moment. It's not just crazy daisy Ed that's ramping things up on campus. With just a few days left before the day 60% of us say, "Shit, there was an election today?" chalk has taken over our sidewalks. There was a Thompson supporter meeting on Halloween night marked all over the place as "GHOULS 4 THOMPSON" -- I actually wanted to go check it out but I had a class to be in. Also, I think they might balk at my Doyle button. My favorite chalking was a two-parter. Campus Republicans, presumably, put a number of simple "GREER 4 CONGRESS" messages around -- that's Ron Greer, by the way, right-wing idealogue and equator of legal abortion to Nazi-style eugenics -- under one of which some Dems had added "TAMMY 4 THE PEOPLE." That's Representative Tammy Baldwin, left-wing idealogue and my favorite member of Congress. She won her first term in 2000 on the back of what The Wisconsin State Journal called a "youthquake." The campus loves her. I worked on a lit drop for the campaign on Saturday but it was a little unsatisfying because, honestly, she's going to win going away. I'll be doing some more on Monday night for the Baldwin and Doyle campaigns, hopefully sewing up the latter. I'd been hoping to pollwatch again this year but you can't really call in sick to class for that the way you can to work. I'm about 95% certain all my candidates are going to win but being here in Madison, it's a lot harder to measure the zeitgeist of the big picture. Two years ago, I was trying to push Democrats in conservative Green Bay; the outcome then was the re-election of arch-conservative Representative Mark Green -- who actually had brass enough to use the slogan "He'll vote like you" -- and a flood of Bush bumper stickers underneath Gore's squeaky statewide victory. I'm concerned that Democrats here have reached the point of diminishing returns and that I'm simply consuming electoral empty calories, which somehow seems lesser than tilting at electoral windmills. Aaron Veenstra is the managing editor of Etc. House Productions and a Master's student in Journalism at the University of Wisconsin. |
