Sinners and Saints

Someone said to me the other day that they liked the current television ad gubernatorial candidate Mark Green is running playing on a comment made by Governor Jim Doyle that Green was an "extreme" candidate.

I know that person and am sure they won't be basing their vote this November on the ad alone, but how many people take what's said in campaign ads seriously? Hopefully voters do a little research instead of vote on what's being said in television and radio ads. There's some truth to what's being said, but often there's much more to it.

Any congressional candidate who tells you they'll be able to do something about gas prices better take a look at what grandpa was paying and how much impact their predecessors have had over the last 35-40 years.

Watch out too for the candidates who tell you they did this and accomplished that. If their claim to fame is state or county office they had to work with a bunch of others. Being one of 99 assemblymen or woman or a county executive that works with a number of department heads should tell you that somebody isn't getting their fair share of credit.

I'm glad I don't have to vote in the 8th Congressional District race. Two Republicans and three Democrats are vying for Mark Green's northeastern Wisconsin seat in next week's primary election. Because Nancy Nusbaum, Jamie Wall, Steve Kagen and John Gard are running so many TV ads I've taken to comparing them to some people they look like. I haven't seen any ads for Terri McCormick.

Based on the look alike factor I'd vote for Nancy because she reminds me of Angela Landsbury's TV sleuth Jessica Fletcher. Jessica could solve any mystery and usually in less than 60 minutes. Gard reminds me of that Subway sandwich eating spokesman who lost all the weight. Wall, Howdy Doody. Kagen, I'm still working on. Of course voting for people based on who they look like is ridiculous, but people do have some strange reasoning for the choices they make at the polls.

When I was growing up in the U.P. a state legislator was an automatic for reelection. It didn't matter who ran against him. He was trusted and well liked, but he became a little disenchanted with the job. One night after a few drinks at the State Capitol he propositioned a woman. It was an undercover cop. That did what no challenger could do, it unseated him. Does that story have an unhappy ending? Bill Clinton would be proud. This man was forgiven by people from the town he called home and ended up serving another long stint as City Manager. The only woman he ever kissed, other than his wife, while holding that job was Tammy Wynette who appeared at the County Fair one year. He told me that was the toughest thing he ever did while holding the job.

I liked the guy, would I have voted for him?