View from the Green
Bob is a retired education administrator who was an academic administrator for a local university for 28 years and spent almost 10 years as an administrator/manager at an educational association in Brookfield. He and his wife now run a small consulting business called DeRoche Consulting LLC.
Greendale Spring Elections
Some time ago I expressed my concern here about incumbents running for local elections with no opposition. It just didn’t seem right to me that in a democracy no one except the incumbent would step up and run for election so people could a choice, in other words, a real election. So I was elated to learn that in the up-coming Greendale elections voters will have some choices.
The Recall
I am not a big fan of Governor Scott Walker. In my opinion, he and the legislature have done a few good things. However, they have passed many bills which I do not think were necessary nor in keeping with Wisconsin’s progressive tradition, e.g., voter ID, the conceal carry law, and rejecting federal high speed rail money. BUT does that mean we should take another vote on him before his term is over? I don’t think so. A recall election is going to cost a lot of money – upwards of nine million or more is what they are telling us. If the state wanted to spend nine million or more, it could do it in a lot better way; we have lots of needs. The other option was not to spend it at all; thus, no recall and a lot of savings. In addition, research shows that recall elections are usually not successful. Recall elections are appropriate in some situations, for example, moral ineptitude, stealing, or some other great scandal, but to call an election just because you don’t like some of the things the newly elected official has done or not done seems not appropriate to me. We have regular elections; there are plenty of opportunities to elect other people during the normal election cycle if that’s what we want. The legislature should take a look at changing the recall election laws.
