After a very quiet fall, GOP Gov candidate Mark Neumann has started the new year with a five point plan for reforming Wisconsin government.
Discuss: Are these the best 5 points to lead with? What practical impact are they likely to have? What campaign strategies will they support in opposition to Walker or Barrett? How would you use these to push your candidate?
I have to say that I do not think these 5 points are the smartest to lead with. Right now the public is focused on job creation, taxes, health care, and also transportation issues. These issues are what Republican Governor candidates in Virginia, and New Jersey ran on and they won big. I believe that many votes do not have strong opinions on these issues in one direction or another. The couple issues that may get some traction, in my view, would be term limits and also the posting of major spending programs before they are acted on.
ReplyDeleteWhile these are both good points that will probably get strong support from both sides of the aisle, both are missing some details and would need to be cleared up. Term limits are something that has been proposed in the past but it is hard to get through the legislature and some reps. from the republican side will be against this as well as some dems and it seems more of just a political ploy more than anything. For the posting of major expenditures, first off what constitutes a major expenditure, and second is 5 days long enough of a period of time or should it be more? These are the questions I would have for these main points.
Mr. Neumann is clearly trying to run as someone who is running as an outsider trying to bring an end to politics as usual. With these 5 points it seems he is trying to set up a more transparent government and it has a kind of populist ring to it.
One of the issues I do not understand fully because the explanation is vague is his “Let the People Decide” plank. It sounds like something that the campaign has not put much time thinking through and was just thrown out there, because of the vagueness of how it would be set up and what percentage needs to be met to meet the bar. Also if I were advising the Barrett or Walker campaign I would bring up examples of California and how such statewide referendums has paralyzed the state and as some say, made it almost impossible to govern and control huge budget deficits.
All in all I believe that the Neumann campaign had to release a program that set itself apart from the Walker campaign to gain some traction in this race. I have not seen any poll numbers but the feel from living in this state, is that Mr. Walker is the front runner in the Republican primary, and that Mr. Neumann needed to do something to get some press and set himself apart from his opponent. With that said I still think they could have issued a release like this and focused on more popular and pressing issues and made comparisons and contrasts to themselves and Mr. Walker regarding the issues of: job creation, taxes, health care, and transportation.