From Maureen "Mo" May-Grimm
Mineral Point
To the editor:
With Dale Schultz announcing his retirement, the 17th Senate Seat is getting a lot of attention. Dale won the trust and respect of many, including Democrats like me, casting tough votes that generally reflected the will of this district. It saddens me that we will be losing him as a senator. He clearly has little respect for the current 51st Assembly representative, the Republican running for his seat.
The GOP'er hoping to replace Schultz pulls in lots of cash from big money donors, but consistently votes against his constituents. He promised to fight fraud, waste and abuse but has been silent on numerous scandals and millions of taxpayer dollars squandered by the WEDC. He panders to private school interests at the peril of our public schools, then tells us spending money on vouchers has no impact on public school funding. Having served on the Mineral Point School Board for six years, I've seen our public schools take hit after hit since he's been in office
So that leaves us with two very disparate options on the Democratic side. Just as Dale Schultz showed political courage in speaking up when his party leadership was wrong, I feel compelled to break the "play nice in primaries" rule and break with some in Madison, because this one is just too darned important. If you value elected officials who say whatever you want to hear and raise lots of money from people who don't live here, you should consider the tall, young guy who started running for state office shortly after moving here from Milwaukee a few years ago. Is he a better option than the fellow mentioned above? Yes. Yes, he is. Is that good enough? No. No, it is not.
I will be proudly casting my vote for Ernie Wittwer. I've gotten to know him personally and know he will stand strong for our public schools, women's rights and local control. He's an unassuming man of integrity. I'm tired of the "that's politics" excuse for behavior we wouldn't accept from other professions. We deserve better. If you're looking for someone better than "politics as usual," I encourage you to vote for Ernie Wittwer on Aug. 12 and again on Nov. 4.
Mineral Point
To the editor:
With Dale Schultz announcing his retirement, the 17th Senate Seat is getting a lot of attention. Dale won the trust and respect of many, including Democrats like me, casting tough votes that generally reflected the will of this district. It saddens me that we will be losing him as a senator. He clearly has little respect for the current 51st Assembly representative, the Republican running for his seat.
The GOP'er hoping to replace Schultz pulls in lots of cash from big money donors, but consistently votes against his constituents. He promised to fight fraud, waste and abuse but has been silent on numerous scandals and millions of taxpayer dollars squandered by the WEDC. He panders to private school interests at the peril of our public schools, then tells us spending money on vouchers has no impact on public school funding. Having served on the Mineral Point School Board for six years, I've seen our public schools take hit after hit since he's been in office
So that leaves us with two very disparate options on the Democratic side. Just as Dale Schultz showed political courage in speaking up when his party leadership was wrong, I feel compelled to break the "play nice in primaries" rule and break with some in Madison, because this one is just too darned important. If you value elected officials who say whatever you want to hear and raise lots of money from people who don't live here, you should consider the tall, young guy who started running for state office shortly after moving here from Milwaukee a few years ago. Is he a better option than the fellow mentioned above? Yes. Yes, he is. Is that good enough? No. No, it is not.
I will be proudly casting my vote for Ernie Wittwer. I've gotten to know him personally and know he will stand strong for our public schools, women's rights and local control. He's an unassuming man of integrity. I'm tired of the "that's politics" excuse for behavior we wouldn't accept from other professions. We deserve better. If you're looking for someone better than "politics as usual," I encourage you to vote for Ernie Wittwer on Aug. 12 and again on Nov. 4.
