Branding Politix, Views on News, public relations • July 7th, 2008

WMC bashers cry: “Bring me the head of James Haney!”

by Chris Lato

Every time I think this story is slowly dying away, a fresh outrage emerges.

Some folks on the left in Madison are foaming-at-the-mouth desperate to symbolically score the head of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce on a silver platter. They’re in a massive snit over the fact that WMC got heavily involved in the last two state Supreme Court races – and backed the winning candidates both times.

Without pausing to take into account the intelligence and will of the voters, and the fact that the high court had shifted to a decidedly anti-business stance recently, WMC-bashers are convinced that James Haney and Co. have signed a deal with Satan to be the high court’s puppet masters.

Losing an election is tough and painful. The heat of battle leads to profound disappointment when your guy or gal doesn’t carry the day. You wonder what went wrong, what could have gone better, second-guessing everything that led up to election day. In some cases, you refuse to look in the mirror and instead seek out others to blame. That’s human nature.

However, I fear that for some of these rabid anti-WMCers, it may be time for an intervention. I’m getting concerned for their health and well-being.

Cap Times business columnist Mike Ivey is the latest one to take a swing at WMC. He singles out Epic Systems, and founder Judy Faulkner, for praise in announcing they will avoid doing business with companies that belong to WMC.

By all accounts, Epic Systems is a successful, Wisconsin-grown business that illustrates the entrepreneurial spirit at its finest. And they are perfectly within their rights to take a stance that rejects WMC. That is their decision to make, and they certainly got a good PR bump out of it thanks to like-minded bloggers and reporters.

But the disingenuousness here is troubling. Consider Mike Ivey’s first line: “If it was coming from the usual left-wing suspects, one could dismiss the latest attack on Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.”

Really, Mike? This info took me two minutes to find on Google. Five minutes later, I found this. Not a lot of conservatives on those lists. In fact, there are NO conservatives on those lists.

So, in short Mike, yes – we can dismiss the latest attack on Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. At the very least, we can put it into the proper context – a Democrat businesswoman flexing her political muscle against a pro-business, GOP-leaning organization.

Again, I am not criticizing Ms. Faulkner. She can support whichever political candidates she wants. Her candidate lost in the Supreme Court race, she’s not happy about it and is putting her money where her mouth is. Good for her.

But is Ivey really trying to imply that there is some bipartisan tidal wave of opposition to WMC? By extension, that the public was duped by the brilliant brainwashing contained in those WMC ads?

A question: if the election had gone the other way, would the WMC bashers have their knickers in an equally painful twist over WEAC, Wisconsin’s teachers’ union, buying a Supreme Court race and duping a gullible public?

Stop laughing. That was a serious question.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Branding Politix, Views on News, public relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.