Earlier this week, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that Governor Jim Doyle's campaign forgot to check their facts and proceeded to air a false advertisement against Mark Green claiming he votes with George Bush 92 percent of the time.
With large groups of people working around the clock on a political campaign, factual errors should just not occur. What's more, not only did the governor fall from this mistake, he took UW's College Democrats down with him, since they decided to trust the facts that their friends provided and proceeded to continue the false advertisement all over campus.
The claim that 92 percent of the time Mark Green supports George Bush was not accurately portrayed. In reality, the study by the non-partisan Congressional Observer Publications does not measure how often federal lawmakers supported the president but how often members of Congress voted with colleagues from their own party. This minor confusion misrepresented two completely different voting policies.
Fact errors are not acceptable at any level of writing. The punishment at many colleges for fact errors is failing an assignment, but the punishment as a politician is minimal. The embarrassment of being caught in a vicious mudslinging scandal is not bad enough.
Despite the ad airing for almost two months, College Democrats still obnoxiously colored the streets and classrooms of campus with 92 percent fliers. How could such a huge factual error make its way into such a huge advertising campaign? Because that is what the governor wants the public to think. So instead of finding actual numbers and finding out what bills his opponent voted for, he took the easy way out, hoping that he wouldn't get caught. Well, it's too late for that.
Two bi-partisan groups have conducted studies, so for those looking for the actual breakdown of numbers, here they are:
According to HillMonitor, in 2005 and part of 2006, Mark Green ranked 190th among 234 House Republicans in his level of presidential support. He voted with Bush 83.5 percent of the time compared to the average House Republican with 88.5 percent. Mr. Green's numbers are different for Bush's previous term with 91.1 percent for the 2003-04 session, and 93.2 percent of the time in 2001-02. He votes on the issues, not on the president's agenda.
The group that revealed the 92 percent earlier, Congressional Quarterly, also found that Mr. Green's score ranged from a low of 82 percent in 2002 to a high of 93 percent in 2003.
What's wrong with agreeing with the president anyway? Citizens voted him into office, and while expressing different opinions is one thing, not supporting him is another. In wartime it is understandable why presidential support is low, but most wars, including the one in Iraq, are lose-lose situations for the government. If the United States wins, great; if not, blame the president. The same situation can occur regarding involvement on the war at all, as the president would be accused of letting other countries bully us if he had not done anything. We are supposed to be united, but we are not.
Governor Doyle's campaign and the College Democrats are simply irresponsible for allowing inaccurate facts to enter into a mass advertising campaign. If Democrats want to play the numbers game, a number that UW-Madison students should be aware of is the 52 percent increase in our tuition since Doyle took office four years ago.
With elections just weeks away, numbers are the only accurate predictor of the truth — that is, when portrayed accurately. Maybe on Nov. 7 the public will trust the numbers and a governor that does not alter them.
Joelle Parks ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism and Spanish.
