Now that Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has entered the ring, things are looking less promising for, well, just about everyone else. Dane County Executive and Democratic candidate Kathleen Falk is pissed, and Gov. Scott Walker has a little more reason to start looking through the classifieds. But especially, this means the candidates I think would do best, Kathleen Vinehout and Douglas La Follette, don’t stand a chance in hell. Not that they ever did.
Vinehout has the most wide-reaching experience and influence. She’s not like Falk (too local) and she encompasses both big-city and small-town Wisconsin as well as legislators and farmers alike. Of the four candidates, she was the only one to outline a decisive plan for what her tenure might entail. And La Follette is a thoughtful and measured man who refuses to fundraise and organized the first Earth Day.
These are qualities I think would actually make for a good governor. But that’s not what the office is about nowadays. So Vinehout and La Follette, I urge you: If you want to become governor someday, make a splash. Be a dick to someone. Defund something. If you want to keep being an honorable and hardworking politician, then the governorship really isn’t for you anyway.
Taylor Nye ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in human evolutionary biology and Latin American studies.
