WI 2012 NOVEMBER WISCONSIN INTEREST Polar Opposites DANE WAUKESHA COUNTY COUNTY Captive Dane and Waukesha School Boards Counties are Magnets BY MIKE NICHOLS for Opposing Views What Makes BY TORBEN LÜTJEN Wisconsin so Exceptional? BY WARREN KOZAK Conservatism’s Day of Reckoning BY RICK ESENBERG Editor > CHARLES J. SYKES The Badger paradox WI WISCONSIN INTEREST Winston Churchill once described counties, the Waukesha/Dane divide best Soviet Russia as “a riddle wrapped in a illustrates what is happening to the country mystery inside an enigma.” demographically and politically. Publisher: Wisconsin Policy Research Apparently, so is Wisconsin: We are a Addressing a second intriguing Institute, Inc. state that elects and re-elects conservative part of the Wisconsin puzzle, Warren Editor: Scott Walker as governor and then five Kozak explores the roots of the state’s Charles J. Sykes months later sends über-liberal Tammy current political prominence, asking, Managing Editor: Baldwin to the Senate; a state that delivers a “What is it about big ideas and the state Marc Eisen big win for Barack Obama while returning of Wisconsin?” In his piece, “Badger Art Direction: a bigger conservative majority to the state exceptionalism,” Kozak traces the history Stephan & Brady, Inc. Legislature. of Wisconsin’s unique role as a laboratory Contributors: Our cover story deals with one aspect of of democracy from the days of “Fighting Richard Esenberg Michael Flaherty this duality — the alternative universes of Bob” La Follette to the rise of Walker and Warren Kozak deeply red Waukesha County and deeply Paul Ryan, young leaders who are “writing Torben Lütjen Mike Nichols blue Dane County. We’ve asked German whole new chapters of the state’s history Christian Schneider political scientist Torben Lütjen to examine books… and the country’s as well.” Sunny Schubert the way the two counties embody the As I argue elsewhere in this issue, the Charles J. Sykes deep political divide of our divided state. results of the November election mean that Board of Directors: Professor Lütjen, who is in the midst Wisconsin will continue to play a central CHAIRMAN: James Klauser of writing a book on such polarization, role in American politics as an incubator of David Baumgarten argues that of the country’s 3,000-odd conservative ideas, reforms and leadership. Ave Bie Catherine C. Dellin Jon Hammes Thomas J. Howatt Michael T. Jones WPRI David J. Lubar Maureen Oster The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Inc., established in 1987, is a nonpartisan, not-for- Timothy Sheehy profit institute working to engage and energize Wisconsinites and others in discussions and Gerald Whitburn timely action on key public policy issues critical to the state’s future, its growth and prosperity. Edward Zore The institute’s research and public education activities are directed to identify and promote George Lightbourn (President) public policies in Wisconsin that are fair, accountable and cost effective. Through original research and analysis and through public opinion polling, the institute’s Contact Information: work will focus on such issue arenas as state and local government tax policy and spending ADDRESS: and related program accountability, consequences and effectiveness. It will also focus on P.O. Box 382 health care policy and service delivery; education; transportation and economic development; Hartland, WI welfare and social services; and other issues currently or likely to significantly impact the 53029 quality of life and future of the state. PHONE: The institute is guided by a belief that competitive free markets, limited government, private 262.367.9940 initiative, and personal responsibility are essential to our democratic way of life. EMAIL: To find more information regarding The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, any article in this [email protected] publication or questions and comments, please go to www.wpri.org. WEBSITE: www.wpri.org Wisconsin Interest © 2012 Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Inc. CONTENTS > departments Pg. 36 Howard Fuller: WI Still fighting after all these years Editor’s Note The Wisconsin Paradox. BY CHARLES J. SyKES ����������Inside Cover Dispatches Badger State (Still) Rising. BY CHARLES J. SyKES ���������������������� 2 Culture Con Conservative ideas are more important than ever now. BY RICHARD ESENBERG ������������������ 10 Frontline Report Howard Fuller: Still fighting after all these years. BY SUNNY SCHUBERT ��������������������36 The Closer The GOP’s Hispanic problem. BY CHRISTIAN SCHNEIDER � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 40 Photo by Charles Auer/Waukesha Freeman CONTENTS > features Photo by Allen Fredrickson Badger Power Up Exceptionalism How we managed to keep the lights on. What is it about Wisconsin and BY MICHAEL FLAHERty� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �20 new ideas? BY WARREN KOZAK�������������������4 30 Miles –and a World Serving Whose Apart Wisconsin’s polar opposites: Dane and Interests? Waukesha Counties. Our hopelessly conflicted BY TORBEN LÜTJEN �� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 28 school boards. by MIKE NICHOLS ������������������12 Dispatches > CHARLES J. SYKES Badger state (still) rising Well, that happened. After a year in which Wisconsin’s conservative revolution seemed to gather momentum — from Gov. Scott Walker’s house. They gained two seats in the state Senate, where decisive reaffirmation in the June recall to the selection they now have an 18-15 majority. of Congressman Paul Ryan as the GOP vice presidential So while other conservatives are licking their wounds, nominee — November’s election came as a harsh reality Walker finds himself empowered to continue to pursue check: Wisconsin is still a decidedly purple state. the kind of conservative agenda that has already made A mere two years earlier, Wisconsin had sent him a national political figure. conservative Ron Johnson to the U.S. Senate. But then it turned around and paired him with Tammy Baldwin, How about some good news? one of the most liberal legislators outside of the steamy In October, a national survey on business climate precincts of Madison. Voters who re-elected Walker in ranked Wisconsin the 13th most attractive state in the June dealt a stinging repudiation to GOP icon Tommy country. The ranking, by Site Selection magazine, was Thompson in November. yet another indication that attention was being paid to But all was not lost amid the rubble, and therein lies a changes at the top in a state once known more for its paradox that is Wisconsin. high taxes than for its friendliness to business. (Michigan Even in the midst of defeat at the top of the ticket, was 23rd, Iowa was 25th. Illinois and Minnesota failed to conservatives found themselves still ascendant after the make the top 25.) election. Walker not only remains governor, but voters gave him even stronger control of the state Legislature, ensuring Something seems to work continuing support for his agenda. In 2010, no state switched as decisively from blue to red as Wisconsin. Before And even as the candidates criss-crossed the land, the 2010 election, Democrats controlled the governorship, breaking campaign spending records and filling the both houses of the Legislature and all the levers of power in airwaves with attack ads, the state announced that because state government. After that election, they controlled none. of unexpectedly good revenues, the Walker administration As a result, Walker was able to advance one of the boldest was able to deposit $108.7 million into the state’s rainy agendas of any governor in the country. day fund. That marked the largest such deposit in state And now in 2012, as our own Christian Schneider history. “Because of our actions,” remarked Walker, “the noted in his column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, next generation will not be buried under a mountain of economically crippling debt.” Walker emerged with The move was unmarked either by drum circles or even stronger control of vuvuzelas. the Legislature. Trouble in paradise I the political landscape is “exactly where it was two years In September, the owners of one of the oldest businesses ago, when Republicans swept into office, Walker took on in Madison’s Meadowood neighborhood announced that the state’s public employee unions and the state devolved they were closing their hardware store. A newspaper into a Mad Max-style, futuristic, lawless wasteland. Over account described them as “frustrated by plummeting sales the past two years, we have been recalled and petitioned, over the past three years and a neighborhood plagued with Prossered and Koched, and ‘shamed’ and marched into gunfire and negative perceptions.” submission.” In November, Republicans picked up a Blogger David Blaska was blunter: “The hardware store seat in the Assembly, giving them 60 votes in the 99-seat is not leaving the Meadowood neighborhood. It has been 2 Wisconsin Interest Dispatches driven out, victim of the societal version of Gresham’s law is a constitutional right for public employees to form in which bad behavior drives out good. It is a tragic opera associations and advocate for their common interest, Act that has been played out in countless neighborhoods and 10 places no limitation on that right. classrooms since the Great Society. The fat lady is singing.” “This decision is unlikely to survive appeal. If it doesn’t, it won’t be because of politics. It will be because Trouble in paradise II it is wrong.” This episode would seem to be a matter of some import for the city’s police, but Madison’s police chief had other Civility update preoccupations. Even though the mass protests at the Capitol are Chief Noble Wray was described as “contrite” as now a distant memory, a small group of professional he apologized to a group of homeless people for the annoyers continued to ply their trade. One of the more confiscation of belongings that they had left strewn notorious, named Jeremy Ryan (nicknamed “Segway about a Madison park. “From the bottom of my heart, boy” because he glides around on one), reportedly stood on behalf of the Madison Police Department, I’m sorry outside the Capitol pressroom singing the words, “Dick that happened,” he explained to five aggrieved hobos.