Leadership, Messaging, Views on News • December 4th, 2009

Blasting away at the DNR

by Chris Lato

Whoa. The wrath of the Men (and Women) in Orange is swift and fierce.

It was a dismal deer hunting season, not only anecdotally but also based on the raw numbers. Now, when one of the most powerful politicians in the state is calling for your head, the need to manage the environment versus the need to keep license/tourism revenue flowing in is coming to a head, politically speaking.

This is not some tiny corner-office government operation here. We’re talking a multi-billion dollar industry that impacts the economy at the local and state levels. With more than 638-thousand gun licenses sold this year, this is a loud constituency that will not be ignored.

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Branding Politix, Leadership, Messaging, Strategic Blueprints, Views on News • August 17th, 2009

Doyle’s decision

by Chris Lato

From a political junkie’s perspective, the news about Gov. Doyle is seismic. It blows all the current conventional wisdom out of the water and makes this anybody’s race (with a definite advantage for the GOP).

And yet, Gov. Doyle’s announcement that he will not seek a third term is not necessarily cheery news for the state in the short term. The governor is leaving Wisconsin in worse shape than he found it. There’s no joy or gloating in that statement. We have deep problems that need a fresh perspective ASAP.

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Strategic Blueprints, Views on News • March 12th, 2009

Recall Doyle? Really?

by Chris Lato

Apparently a debate is raging that I just haven’t been paying much attention to…on whether to seek a recall election against the governor. Kevin Fischer has a recap and his own thoughts on the idea.

I daresay Gov. Doyle’s loyal opposition has far more important things to worry about – and this is coming from a former flack for the state GOP. The mood of the state is not inclined to embrace the recall of a politician who, while not universally loved, is no Blago either. It’s a waste of effort that would be better spent organizing now for 2010.

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Views on News • February 23rd, 2009

The devil’s in the details

by Chris Lato

Yes, the title to this one is a cliche, but reporters statewide are now sifting their way through Gov. Doyle’s next budget, and to say it has a lot of potentially controversial components is the understatement of the month – kinda like saying Sean Penn’s political views lean a tad leftward.

Consider the idea of releasing prison inmates early – Republicans are hopping all over this one as an example of former attorney general Doyle being soft on crime. This is fraught with political dangers, as UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin rightly notes – heaven forbid an inmate on furlough commits a heinous crime while on the streets. Michael Dukakis can tell you all about how a similar furlough program worked out in his state.

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Views on News, wispundits • February 19th, 2009

Raiding the penny jar

by Chris Lato

Interesting. Gov. Doyle is proposing to get rid of the state’s film tax credit program.

Gov. Doyle may be stinging from the criticism of the tax credits, which brought the upcoming Christian Bale/Johnny Depp flick “Public Enemies” to Wisconsin for filming in 2008. After all, critics - including the state Commerce Department - questioned whether the big tax breaks were worth the resulting economic bump.

Doyle may also be smacking his lite guv down a notch after Barbara Lawton after she stepped into the limelight with very vocal public support of the film tax credits.  

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Views on News • February 13th, 2009

Minimum markup runs out of gas

by Chris Lato

For now, at least, Wisconsin’s archaic minimum markup law is down for the count. The Depression era law, which requires gas stations to markup the wholesale price of gas, was seen as a way to prevent some (read: larger) gas station chains from slashing their prices to drive others out of business, then hiking prices back up.

In reality, the minimum markup is anti-competition and deserves to die, especially at a time when the economy is hurting. Granted, the price savings wouldn’t be huge (estimated at up to 8 cents a gallon) but there will be an impact.

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Branding Politix, Leadership, Messaging, Views on News • December 2nd, 2008

D’oh!

by Chris Lato

You just knew some enterprising reporter would start digging this stuff up. It doesn’t make much of a difference now, but candidates and potential candidates always need to remember that any public statements, including blogs and definitely remakes said during a campaign, can always bite the speaker in the behind later.

If Hillary Clinton had no substantive foreign policy credentials nine months ago, why has Barack Obama suddenly reversed course and decided Clinton is fully qualified to become secretary of state? Read the Washington Post link for an example of how Obama is now trying to brush it all off as the press ‘having fun.’ Apparently he was let off the hook after that, because the story doesn’t offer much more on Obama’s response.

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Views on News, wispundits • November 14th, 2008

Freaky Friday

by Chris Lato

Gov. Doyle got a call from the Obama team? Shocker! I trust we’ll be hearing a lot more about what was discussed, and how Doyle is (or isn’t) preparing for a potential Washington move in the days to come. I’ve been saying all along that if I was a bettin’ man, I’d put money down that the guv is heading east, but time will tell.

Milwaukee represents…on the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, that is. We’ll see whether that is enough to address concern that Milwaukee will not get its due in the upcoming legislative session.

Dan Shelley vs. WTMJ. This is fascinating on so many levels.

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Leadership, Messaging, Strategic Blueprints, Views on News, wispundits • November 13th, 2008

Let the turf war begin

by Chris Lato

Interesting stuff...the first real sign that as Democrats take over the Legislature, it’s still going to be a bumpy ride.

Locking Milwaukee lawmakers out of leadership roles sends a message, suggesting that it will be a Milwaukee vs. the-rest-of-Wisconsin session as the new majority grapples with a multi-billion-dollar budget hole.  

The Assembly Speaker will be Mike Sheridan, a rep from Janesville who used to be a UAW president. Other Dem Assembly leaders come from Kaukauna and Wausau.

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Views on News • November 10th, 2008

Meeting of the minds

by Chris Lato

Oh, to be a fly on the wall at this meeting. ..especially when their first meeting went like this.  Still, even if the two disagree completely on just about every key issue of the day, President-elect Obama had to get some value from talking to the current President.

It certainly behooves President Bush to go out with class – and despite the extraordinarily heated rhetoric directed at him, there’s no reason to believe he won’t deliver on his pledge to make the transition to President Obama ‘the smoothest in modern history.’ Remember eight years ago? The transition didn’t go very well.

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