It is easy, after all the hype surrounding the November elections has passed, to kick back and forget about politics for a while. But spring in Madison signifies the arrival of local elections, and we'd like to take the opportunity to encourage you to vote in the primary today. With strong candidates running in both the mayoral primary as well as the state Supreme Court primary, combined with a historically low turnout, your vote could make a huge difference.
Linda Clifford is without question the most qualified candidate in the Supreme Court field. With more than 32 years of diverse experiences in courtrooms at the state and appellate level — which is more than both of her opponents combined — Clifford has a strong record of solving the problems facing real people across Wisconsin.
Her tenure as an assistant attorney general clearly illustrates her commitment to enforcing our laws and protecting the values we care about. Her experience, integrity and commitment to impartiality as well as the fairness that we as college students demanded last November are unparalleled, and the College Democrats encourage you to join us in supporting her in today's primary election.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has a strong, positive vision for Madison, and he believes in working together to keep our community moving forward. He cares about Madison, and he cares deeply about students and will work hard to address our concerns.
Mayor Dave is committed to ensuring that Madison is a safe city for us all. Over the past four years, he has added 26 new police officers and built Madison's first new fire station in 25 years. Though recent incidents around campus have raised concern about public safety, we remain confident that Mayor Dave will work aggressively to keep downtown and campus safe. Indeed, he has invested $100,000 in downtown campus safety initiatives and plans to continue to increase the size of our police force over the next few years.
Mayor Dave is also working to guarantee that downtown housing is safe and affordable for all students. During his tenure, an ordinance requiring landlords to install locks on all common entrances was passed. Moreover, he has worked tirelessly to increase the amount of affordable housing available throughout Madison and to end discrimination by landlords.
It is almost certain that the race for mayor will not conclude without mention of Halloween. The truth is that following successive years of rioting, the event was in trouble. Rather than taking the easy way out and canceling the event, Mayor Dave worked closely with student leaders and the community to ensure that Halloween would remain safe and legal for all students to enjoy. And while Halloween was a success this year, we're confident that Mayor Dave remains open to working with students and community leaders to continue to improve the celebration in years to come.
More important than each of these things, however, is Mayor Dave's love for the community and his commitment to keeping Madison moving forward. In his first four years, Mayor Dave championed recycling, which has increased recycling participation, reduced costs and helped the environment. Also, with the help of a generous donation from the Goodman Brothers, he ended a 60-year debate by building Madison's first municipal pool. And during his first four years as mayor, the citywide smoking ban was passed and upheld, and we raised the municipal minimum wage.
Mayor Dave has worked tirelessly to make Madison a dynamic and welcoming community, which will help the university to attract the most talented students, faculty and staff. But at the same time, he recognizes that Madison is growing quickly and that we need to anticipate future problems and address them now. He is therefore committed to pursuing development strategies and alternative forms of transportation to prevent the growing number of people and cars from congesting downtown Madison.
Finally, Mayor Dave understands the importance of young people to Madison, and he cares about what students care about. We saw this in action this past fall when Mayor Dave stood with us, aggressively and publicly opposing the constitutional ban on civil unions and gay marriage. He continues to stand with us by defending Madison's domestic-partner benefits and registry and by cosponsoring a supplementary statement to the oath of office that each of our civil servants must take. And, as he expressed in a January guest column, he values the time and energy we invest to improving our community.
Mayor Dave has the vision, energy and devotion we need to keep Madison moving forward. We are confident he will keep fighting for Madison and will continue to embrace and address the concerns of students. For these reasons, the College Democrats wholeheartedly endorse his campaign and hope you will join us in voting for Mayor Dave — as well as Linda Clifford for the Supreme Court — in both today's election and on April 3.
Andrew Gordon ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science. He is the communications chair for the UW-Madison College Democrats.
