Weekly Update November 9, 2012
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WWEEEEKKLLYY UUPPDDAATTEE WSTA would like to recognize our 2012 GOLD and SILVER Annual Partners: GOLD – Finley Engineering Company, Inc. SILVER - Interstate Telcom Consulting, Inc., Kiesling Associates LLP, and National Inform ation Solutions Cooperative, Inc. (NISC) Thank you National Information Solutions Cooperative and HickoryTech for your sponsorship of WSTA electronic publications! Associate members, click here to join them! Weekly Update November 9, 2012 Legislative and Political After a long career, Tommy makes his political exit Tammy Baldwin's victory over Tommy Thompson for the U.S. Senate marks the end of the former governor's political career. From humble roots in small-town Elroy as the son of a grocery store owner to the corridors of power in Madison and Washington, D.C., Thompson, 70, built a career unlike any other in modern Wisconsin political history. In a concession speech to his supporters Tuesday night, Thompson made it clear he wouldn't fade away but wouldn't run for political office again. He said he decided to run for the U.S. Senate because he thought America, the land of opportunity, was slipping away. "I wanted to so much help lead back America," he said. "To be the country of growth and opportunity. To build America for future generations. I certainly didn't need the job. And I guess I'm not going to get it." For decades, he was simply known as "Tommy," a name that put him on a first-name basis with generations of Wisconsinites. When he visited a Wisconsin town, village or city, he seemed to know everyone by their first name, and often had a story ready to share from his long career. "There is no more important or significant political figure in Wisconsin in the last generation than Tommy Thompson," said Mark Graul, a veteran Republican strategist. "He accomplished lasting and monumental reforms as governor with a legislature that was either Democratic or split- controlled. He got things done." Walker on election: Wisconsin is very independent Gov. Scott Walker, reflecting on Tuesday's election, particularly the race for president and U.S. Senate, said Wednesday that Wisconsin voters are very independent. "Every election, we vote the person," Walker said to reporters in Milwaukee. "On a night when Tammy Baldwin is elected to the U.S. Senate, you saw two of the closest House seats two years ago, both members of Congress win by very comfortable margins, Sean Duffy and Reid Ribble. You saw a state, not only was the Assembly majority upheld, but you added two seats to the state Senate. What that tells me is that voters in this state are independent. They listen race by race to what the candidates have to offer. And they're not going to be swung one way or the other but rather by what they think is important by that given race." In Tuesday's election, U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) defeated former governor Tommy Thompson in the race to replace U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), who is retiring. Baldwin, a liberal legislator, won just two years after sate voters elected Republican Ron Johnson, a conservative, over former senator Russ Feingold. Ticket splitters weren't there for Tommy Thompson In the end, Wisconsin’s marquee election contests – for president and senator – bore a striking resemblance to each other. Democrat Barack Obama won Wisconsin’s presidential vote by 6.6 points. Democrat Tammy Baldwin won her Senate race by 5.5 points. It was once thought these races might go in different directions. Early in the year, almost 10% of likely voters said they planned to split their tickets and back both Obama for president and Republican Tommy Thompson for senator. But these ticket-splitters became a vanishing crowd as partisan lines hardened in the Senate race and Thompson, battered from the right and the left, lost his crossover support. In the exit polls Tuesday, Obama-Thompson voters represented just 3% of the electorate. Only 6% of Obama voters backed Thompson – which was barely greater than the share of Romney voters that backed Baldwin. In short, ticket-splitting was scarce, and it was only marginally helpful to Thompson. Thompson was winning 16% of Democrats back in June, according to Marquette Law School’s polling. He won 5% of Democrats in the exit polls Tuesday, and just 38% of moderates. It was the hope and expectation of the Thompson campaign that he could survive a modest Obama victory (not one this big, but maybe a three- or four-point Obama win). The assumption was that Thompson, based on his image, familiarity and past popularity, would run several points ahead of Romney in Wisconsin. Instead, his share of the vote – 46% -- was slightly lower than Romney’s (46.15%) in Wisconsin. And he got fewer votes than Romney, 1,370,664 compared with 1,403,038 (partly because fewer people voted for Senate than president). Four counties played big role in Baldwin's Senate win Four big Wisconsin counties played crucial roles in Democrat Tammy Baldwin's victory over Republican Tommy Thompson in the race for U.S. Senate. Baldwin performed significantly better on Tuesday in Kenosha, Racine, Brown and Milwaukee counties than did fellow Democrat Russ Feingold when he lost two years ago to Republican Ron Johnson. There are numerous reasons for Baldwin's win against the former governor, who was the front-runner going into the race. A day after the election, experts attributed Baldwin's victory to the coattail effect of the presidential race, her funding edge in the early going and her ability to exploit issues such as Thompson's lucrative career in business built on government connections. These and other factors helped Baldwin pick up votes in key counties that were instrumental to her victory. Baldwin campaign defined Thompson as corporate sell-out If there’s one phrase that explains U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin’s win Tuesday in Wisconsin’s Senate race, it could be this: “Tommy. He’s not for you anymore.” From the earliest days of the race, Baldwin, D-Madison, hammered on the theme that the state’s popular former long-time governor, Tommy Thompson, was a multi-millionaire who had sold out to corporate interests and no longer cared about average people. In mid-August, Thompson emerged from a bruising four-way primary in which his fellow Republicans painted him as a big spender who was not conservative enough. As Baldwin cranked up her campaign, Thompson was out of money and unable to respond to the onslaught or the image of Baldwin as a champion of working people and the vulnerable. Wisconsin's new US Senate delegation a study in contrasts Wisconsin will soon have what could be one of the oddest pairings of U.S. senators — tea party favorite Ron Johnson and proudly progressive Tammy Baldwin. While Republican Johnson and Democrat Baldwin represent near opposite ends of the political spectrum, they also are a fair picture of the state of politics in Wisconsin, UW-Madison political science professor David Canon said. Consider that voters here ousted liberal Sen. Russ Feingold of Middleton in favor of Johnson two years ago, but on Tuesday voted in Baldwin, one of the most liberal members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Mark Miller to step down as Senate Democratic leader Mark Miller has decided to step down from his post as Senate Democratic leader. Miller's office issued a statement Wednesday saying he plans to quit his post when the current legislative session ends in December. The Monona Democrat ran unopposed in Tuesday's elections. The statement doesn't say why he chose to quit his leadership position and his spokeswoman didn't immediately return telephone messages. Miller served as Senate Democrats' leader when they fled the state in 2011 to protest Republican Gov. Scott Walker's contentious law that stripped most public workers of nearly all their union rights. He helped Democrats seize the Senate majority last June in recall elections stemming from the union law fight. Republicans took the chamber back in Tuesday's elections, though. Regulatory and Industry AT&T to Invest $14 Billion in Networks, Lifts Dividend AT&T, the top U.S. telephone company, said it will invest $14 billion over three years to improve the networks that deliver wireless communications, high- speed Internet access and television services. The company is devoting $8 billion to the network that handles mobile data and calling and $6 billion to wireline equipment, Dallas-based AT&T said today in a statement. It also forecast that per-share earnings will rise at a mid-single digit percentage rate in the coming three years, while lifting its quarterly dividend by 2.3 percent to 45 cents a share. Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson is taking steps to help AT&T fend off phone competitors led by Verizon Communications Inc. as well as cable providers such as Comcast. The upgrades will help the company reach a wider customer base, bringing the potential market for U-verse TV, Internet and calling packages to 33 million locations. A Deeper Dive on AT&T’s Investment Plans I watched the entire webcast of AT&T’s analyst conference yesterday, where the big news was the company’s plan to invest $14 billion over three years to bring broadband to 300 million customers located in largely rural areas. We reported on the basic facts about the company’s new program, dubbed Project Velocity IP (VIP) yesterday, but today I thought I’d take a deeper dive into the topic, drawing on some of the additional details that were revealed at yesterday’s event.