September 18, 2006

Green-Doyle Debate I

Friday night is the worst night to hold a political debate. It's the beginning of the weekend when people begin relaxing and doing things they want to do not the stuff they're told to do. People are going out, taking in one of Wisconsin's famous fish fries, or seeing a movie. News-wise it isn't good either. Saturday newspapers are the least read of the entire week. Why do you think Gov. Doyle vetoed so many bills on a Friday afternoon? A governor's debate on a Friday night makes little sense. So I saved my post-debate analysis until now when people are back into the swing of thinking about "serious" subjects like politics.

Rep. Mark Green understood the debate's timing and unleashed his assortment of sound bites as answers to questions from an audience put together by We the People/Wisconsin. (To spice it up they should have some webloggers take on the candidates.) Friday night's debate was on taxes and the economy. Green jumped on his anti-tax soapbox to tell the audience that "the problem in Wisconsin is we're over-taxed." When asked to rank his preference among various kinds of taxes he said, "I'm unable to say that any of them are too low. All of our taxes are too high." In every answer to a question Green mentioned taxes. He's banking on anti-tax sentiment and hoping enough people will vote on that issue.

For Gov. Doyle every other word out of his mouth was "education." He made the case that he worked very hard to write a budget that protected education and taxpayers. He attacked Green for Washington, D.C.'s fiscal irresponsibility saying, "They haven't made the hard choices in Washington. We have made the hard choices in Madison." He mentioned how previous governors led us to our current budget problems and how federal policies were harming Wisconsin job creation.

Green countered Doyle's budget acumen by pointing out how he borrowed from the transportation fund and other pools of state money to put the budget into balance. Yes, it's easy to claim you put together a balanced budget when: 1) it's required in the state constitution; and 2) you take money from other funds pushing spending cuts and/or tax increases into the future.

On the budget Doyle said that Green's plan to freeze taxes and spending would mean "deep cuts." But in politician-speak that means slowing the rate of growth, something Green stated he wanted to do.

One of Green's goals was to make himself the anti-tax candidate. He succeeded. Gov. Doyle was forced to talk about the taxes he did cut. Doyle's goal was to connect himself with education even if the second debate would focus on that topic. He talked about how we have "got to make sure we have decent schools." He said he has a "full commitment to education."

Throughout the debate Gov. Doyle appeared staid, fairly competent and, well, boring. But being boring doesn't necessarily hurt you when trying to get re-elected. However, near the end Gov. Doyle finally got irritated by Rep. Green constantly accusing him of not caring about high taxes. When talking about a tax freeze that he vetoed three times he said, "I've got to be the grown-up in this." Remember that. Gov. Doyle doesn't think you're serious and an adult if you think taxes should stop going up. Imagine what he thinks of people who want their taxes cut. We caught a glimpse of the real Jim Doyle.

Green hasn't gone after Gov. Doyle's ethical problems. That's the elephant in the room for the two debates. Because the debate organizers have the debates structured around topics--Friday's on taxes and the economy with the 10.22 debate on education and health care--it could be difficult for Green to ask Doyle tough questions about state contracts given to campaign contributors or to go back in time and remind voters the 2002 Doyle campaign kissed up mentally ill people with pastry and small cash prize bingo games or even about how his staff thought it would be a good idea to send a bad of used needles to State Assembly Speaker John Gard's office. He has to find a way to talk about improving the dignity of state government and its office holders. Gov. Doyle's record is an embarrassment to Wisconsin. Mark Green needs to make sure he's held accountable.

"Taxes and Economy Focus of First Guv Debate"