So a guy strides up to Tom Barrett on the street the other day, looking to lecture the mayor of Milwaukee.
"I don't want to say he accosted me," Barrett recalls with a laugh, "but he pointed his finger at me and said: ‘You should have won that election!' "
Barrett's good-natured retort: "I didn't get enough votes."
He was beaten by some 125,000 votes, and that outcome gave a fellow Milwaukee-area politician, Republican Scott Walker, the governor's office by a 52-46 percent margin.
In the nearly half-year since the November election, the former Democratic gubernatorial candidate has kept a low profile in Madison.
In an interview, Barrett says he visited the Capitol Square three times during the height of the protests against Walker's assault on public sector collective bargaining. He says he came as a civics lesson for his high school daughter and because his wife is a teacher. "I did so not looking for fanfare," he says. "We just wanted to see what was going on. I didn't seek any public role."
Some are wondering, however, whether that might change in the expected recall effort against Walker.
Two weeks ago, Barrett delivered a campaign-style attack on Walker in a speech to an audience of partisan Democrats in Milwaukee. It caused some to wonder if he is interested in running again if there is a 2012 recall vote.
"When you drop a bomb, what do you expect to happen?" he asked the appreciative crowd, referring to Walker's anti-union effort, according to a video of the event. "You either expect to obliterate people or if they survive they're going to come back and fight like they've never fought before. I'm here to tell you tonight I'm not, and we're not, done fighting for progressive values in this state."
For the record, Barrett says he loves being mayor and announced the day after losing that he is running for re-election next year, but the tone of his speech before the Founder's Day dinner and the fact that he emailed a video link of his remarks to his supporters are read as clues by some political insiders.
But it could also be that Barrett simply feels besieged and outraged by the anti-Milwaukee meddling of Walker and fellow Republicans. If you haven't been watching, it pretty much resembles the anti-Madison version.
The latest anti-Milwaukee measure is a bill in the Legislature to lift a 1938 requirement that Milwaukee police and fire employees live in the city. Barrett points to Detroit, which dropped the requirement in 1999 and now has 53 percent of police officers and firefighters living outside its city. During that period, Detroit has lost 25 percent of its population compared to only 0.4 percent for Milwaukee (from 596,000 to 594,000), Barrett says. Milwaukee has no trouble hiring workers with the residential requirement, and besides, isn't it Republicans who devoutly champion local control? (In case you wonder, Madison police officers and firefighters negotiated away the requirement many years ago, according to City Attorney Michael May.)
"Why the Legislature wants to single out Milwaukee to go after is very troubling," says Barrett.
But not surprising.
Remember last winter, when Walker and allies thought themselves oh-so-clever for exempting police and fire employees from the collective bargaining bombshell, only to have their ploy backfire when bagpipe-blowing firemen chose to support the besieged unions, producing goose bumps at Capitol protests? (Republicans try to woo public workers who wear military-style uniforms; not so much those greedy elementary school teachers.)
Whether Barrett is or is not consciously climbing onto the statewide stage again, he has become, as they say, "part of the conversation" in this Democratic year of damage control. A move to recall Walker cannot officially start until November, so the short-term focus is on state senators vulnerable to recall. But there is no harm in thinking ahead.
Another Democrat mentioned for governor, predictably, is Russ Feingold, the former U.S. senator who lost the same night as Barrett. Feingold has stayed active since the election by founding Progressives United, whose mission is fighting corporate influence in politics. One poll had Feingold running about even with Walker in a hypothetical matchup.
And then there is Ron Kind, the western Wisconsin congressman who appeals to fellow Democrats not only because he survived the 2010 GOP tidal wave but because he might have crossover appeal statewide, as he has demonstrated some independence from organized labor.
Then last Friday, things grew much more fluid when U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl announced he would not seek a fifth term, provoking waves of speculation among fellow Democrats.
For now, Democrats must content themselves with combating a governor who pushes uncompromising, extremist policies and an in-plain-view assault on Democrats' ability to wage future electoral wars. The assault includes marginalizing public employee unions, disenfranchising Democratic-leaning students and other voters at the ballot box and possibly rushing through a radically partisan version of election remapping.
Barrett, preoccupied with Milwaukee concerns, does acknowledge his surprise -- from his months on the campaign trail with Walker -- that things have gone this far.
Barrett says he was concerned last fall, "and frankly, those concerns have been amplified rather than lessened. He (Walker) never brought up the most extreme measures."
Barrett says he was surprised at a Milwaukee Press Club luncheon in early December when the governor-elect first talked about decertifying public unions. "Wow, that didn't get mentioned" on the trail, Barrett recalls thinking. Then, right after the Super Bowl, he says, Walker dropped what the new governor described as "the bomb" on collective bargaining.
In both his Founder's Day speech and in the interview with me, Barrett says his key disappointment is that Walker has consistently tried to divide instead of unite people.
"People have awakened to what is going on," Barrett says to me. "I always felt this was going to be a very ideological administration and that has been borne out."
Barrett is a veteran campaigner, having been in the Legislature and Congress before the mayor's office. In 2002, he lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary to Jim Doyle, who went on to win the general election. Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk was also in the primary race.
Barrett says he sensed public discontent on the trail last year. "I think what happened because of unemployment and the labor givebacks in the private sector, there was a sense, I think of, ‘OK, and when is everybody going to share?' "
"This is one of the things that the governor tried to seize on as other people were hurting," Barrett says. "I think that was part of the strategy."
But, he adds: "What I saw early this year (in Madison) was not our Wisconsin. You clearly had ideological forces trying to divide rather than bring us together."
Another example of dividing people is Walker's effort to try to split the "flagship university" from the rest of the system, a reference to the plan Walker developed with UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin to separate the UW-Madison campus from the rest of the UW System.
Walker is acting more as a king than a governor, according to a Barrett speech line.
Barrett hopes the pendulum that slammed Democrats in 2010 is about to swing. Ever glib, Barrett says: "I will be the first to attest to the pendulum effect because the pendulum hit me in the side of the head."
So here's to a future -- in full swing.
"I don't want to say he accosted me," Barrett recalls with a laugh, "but he pointed his finger at me and said: ‘You should have won that election!' "
Barrett's good-natured retort: "I didn't get enough votes."
He was beaten by some 125,000 votes, and that outcome gave a fellow Milwaukee-area politician, Republican Scott Walker, the governor's office by a 52-46 percent margin.
In the nearly half-year since the November election, the former Democratic gubernatorial candidate has kept a low profile in Madison.
In an interview, Barrett says he visited the Capitol Square three times during the height of the protests against Walker's assault on public sector collective bargaining. He says he came as a civics lesson for his high school daughter and because his wife is a teacher. "I did so not looking for fanfare," he says. "We just wanted to see what was going on. I didn't seek any public role."
Some are wondering, however, whether that might change in the expected recall effort against Walker.
Two weeks ago, Barrett delivered a campaign-style attack on Walker in a speech to an audience of partisan Democrats in Milwaukee. It caused some to wonder if he is interested in running again if there is a 2012 recall vote.
"When you drop a bomb, what do you expect to happen?" he asked the appreciative crowd, referring to Walker's anti-union effort, according to a video of the event. "You either expect to obliterate people or if they survive they're going to come back and fight like they've never fought before. I'm here to tell you tonight I'm not, and we're not, done fighting for progressive values in this state."
For the record, Barrett says he loves being mayor and announced the day after losing that he is running for re-election next year, but the tone of his speech before the Founder's Day dinner and the fact that he emailed a video link of his remarks to his supporters are read as clues by some political insiders.
But it could also be that Barrett simply feels besieged and outraged by the anti-Milwaukee meddling of Walker and fellow Republicans. If you haven't been watching, it pretty much resembles the anti-Madison version.
The latest anti-Milwaukee measure is a bill in the Legislature to lift a 1938 requirement that Milwaukee police and fire employees live in the city. Barrett points to Detroit, which dropped the requirement in 1999 and now has 53 percent of police officers and firefighters living outside its city. During that period, Detroit has lost 25 percent of its population compared to only 0.4 percent for Milwaukee (from 596,000 to 594,000), Barrett says. Milwaukee has no trouble hiring workers with the residential requirement, and besides, isn't it Republicans who devoutly champion local control? (In case you wonder, Madison police officers and firefighters negotiated away the requirement many years ago, according to City Attorney Michael May.)
"Why the Legislature wants to single out Milwaukee to go after is very troubling," says Barrett.
But not surprising.
Remember last winter, when Walker and allies thought themselves oh-so-clever for exempting police and fire employees from the collective bargaining bombshell, only to have their ploy backfire when bagpipe-blowing firemen chose to support the besieged unions, producing goose bumps at Capitol protests? (Republicans try to woo public workers who wear military-style uniforms; not so much those greedy elementary school teachers.)
Whether Barrett is or is not consciously climbing onto the statewide stage again, he has become, as they say, "part of the conversation" in this Democratic year of damage control. A move to recall Walker cannot officially start until November, so the short-term focus is on state senators vulnerable to recall. But there is no harm in thinking ahead.
Another Democrat mentioned for governor, predictably, is Russ Feingold, the former U.S. senator who lost the same night as Barrett. Feingold has stayed active since the election by founding Progressives United, whose mission is fighting corporate influence in politics. One poll had Feingold running about even with Walker in a hypothetical matchup.
And then there is Ron Kind, the western Wisconsin congressman who appeals to fellow Democrats not only because he survived the 2010 GOP tidal wave but because he might have crossover appeal statewide, as he has demonstrated some independence from organized labor.
Then last Friday, things grew much more fluid when U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl announced he would not seek a fifth term, provoking waves of speculation among fellow Democrats.
For now, Democrats must content themselves with combating a governor who pushes uncompromising, extremist policies and an in-plain-view assault on Democrats' ability to wage future electoral wars. The assault includes marginalizing public employee unions, disenfranchising Democratic-leaning students and other voters at the ballot box and possibly rushing through a radically partisan version of election remapping.
Barrett, preoccupied with Milwaukee concerns, does acknowledge his surprise -- from his months on the campaign trail with Walker -- that things have gone this far.
Barrett says he was concerned last fall, "and frankly, those concerns have been amplified rather than lessened. He (Walker) never brought up the most extreme measures."
Barrett says he was surprised at a Milwaukee Press Club luncheon in early December when the governor-elect first talked about decertifying public unions. "Wow, that didn't get mentioned" on the trail, Barrett recalls thinking. Then, right after the Super Bowl, he says, Walker dropped what the new governor described as "the bomb" on collective bargaining.
In both his Founder's Day speech and in the interview with me, Barrett says his key disappointment is that Walker has consistently tried to divide instead of unite people.
"People have awakened to what is going on," Barrett says to me. "I always felt this was going to be a very ideological administration and that has been borne out."
Barrett is a veteran campaigner, having been in the Legislature and Congress before the mayor's office. In 2002, he lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary to Jim Doyle, who went on to win the general election. Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk was also in the primary race.
Barrett says he sensed public discontent on the trail last year. "I think what happened because of unemployment and the labor givebacks in the private sector, there was a sense, I think of, ‘OK, and when is everybody going to share?' "
"This is one of the things that the governor tried to seize on as other people were hurting," Barrett says. "I think that was part of the strategy."
But, he adds: "What I saw early this year (in Madison) was not our Wisconsin. You clearly had ideological forces trying to divide rather than bring us together."
Another example of dividing people is Walker's effort to try to split the "flagship university" from the rest of the system, a reference to the plan Walker developed with UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin to separate the UW-Madison campus from the rest of the UW System.
Walker is acting more as a king than a governor, according to a Barrett speech line.
Barrett hopes the pendulum that slammed Democrats in 2010 is about to swing. Ever glib, Barrett says: "I will be the first to attest to the pendulum effect because the pendulum hit me in the side of the head."
So here's to a future -- in full swing.
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