Friends of Sheldon Wasserman
3487 North Lake Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53211
| Incumbent | Incumbent Web Page | Personal Web Page | Who funds the incumbent? |
Alberta Darling (R) |
Alberta Darling | Darling Personal Page |
Gets most of her money from banking, finance, lawyers/lobbyists, health care interests |
See the State Elections Board and new candidates HERE
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2008 Challenger |
Challenger Website |
Contact |
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| Sheldon A. Wasserman (D) | http://sheldonwasserman.com | Wasserman is currently a state assemblyman and you can see his voting record site HERE |
Friends of Sheldon Wasserman |
A+ - Public funding of judicial campaigns |
 (SB171)
Incumbent voted FOR passage
of public funding of campaigns for judges. In a recent study by Citizen
Action, in 75% of the cases reaching the Supreme Court level there was a
campaign contributor on one side or the other. Campaigns for judges are
being financed by attorneys and business leaders. How's that for
justice? ALL Supreme Court Judges came out in support of this bill.
2/19/08 Sequence No. 200
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Why am I not
surprised?
Sen. Darling voted to allow optional public funding of "judicial" campaigns, but says she wouldn't support them for state legislators because "there are First Amendment freedom of speech issues." What??? Then why did she support them for judicial campaigns? She must know that they have already been tested in the Arizona courts and found to be constitutional because they were voluntary! The truth is that Republicans know that if they face a strong challenger, groups like WMC will start pouring money into their campaigns and they don't want to have to compete with Clean Money candidates. How's that for clean government? In spite of the voter referendum in 2000 where over 90% of voters supported campaign reform, Darling says she prefers the referendum at the voting booth. So, let's send our message at the voting booth. |
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Why am I not
surprised?
Issue: The small Wisconsin wineries and the wine distributors wanted a law that forced larger wineries to sell only through distributors. This gives distributors more business in the state and it gives small wineries a big competitive advantage. The result: They got their way. The free market lost. The citizens of Wisconsin lost. SB485, which Darling co-sponsored, passed by both houses. The bottom line: This should never have been a bill in the first place. The free market should have driven it, but campaign cash got in the way. Sen. Darling received a half dozen campaign checks from executives at WOW Distributors, and more from other distributors and small wineries. For more details see: HERE and HERE. See the vote counts here: Senate and Assembly |
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For
the record...
Sen. Darling is my senator, and I actually think she'd be a pretty good senator if we had public funding of campaigns. Philosophically I'm conservative. But even more I'm against political corruption, which outshines all other issues, and today's conservatives haven't yet gotten the message. |
F - Healthy Wisconsin |
Incumbent
OPPOSED the Healthy Wisconsin amendment to the state budget. All
Democrats voted for it and all Republicans voted against it. Healthy
Wisconsin was opposed by the insurance industry and business
associations (though not the business members themselves). To understand
your representatives vote see Follow the Money
(upper right). For more on the benefits of Healthy Wisconsin see Sen.
Joe Leean's article
HERE |
A+ Ethics Reform |
(SB1)
Incumbent voted to pass an Ethics Reform bill (and also supported it in
2006).
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F - Healthcare - Aurora |
Incumbent
chose not to intervene in the planned Aurora
Healthcare acquisition of Advanced Healthcare in
Menomonee Falls which, if it completes, will eliminate health care
competition and likely pose harm to Community Memorial Hospital.
Incumbent received significant campaign contributions from Aurora
executives and employees, as well as the health care industry. |
F - Healthcare - HSAs |
Incumbent
supports Health Savings Accounts, which as a tax subsidy
benefit the wealthy. But they are detrimental to the low- and
middle-income population who face high health care costs, or have them
imposed by employers. See more
HERE.
HSAs are supported by the insurance industry, bankers, credit card
companies and bankruptcy attorneys, all of whom have given campaigns
significant contributions to this legislator. See Follow the Money
(upper right) |
Many politicians refuse to answer the questions in the Project Vote-Smart solicitation because they don't want voters knowing where they stand on the issues! They like being able to fudge and evade when being asked about an issue, and having it on record and posted on the web is the last thing they want. Especially when it can be compared to their voting record while in session.
Project Vote-Smart Rating |
INCUMBENT
REPEATEDLY REFUSED TO
PROVIDE ANY RESPONSES TO CITIZENS ON ISSUES THROUGH THE 2004 NATIONAL
POLITICAL AWARENESS TEST Ratings by Interest Groups: http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=BS021351 Votes by Category: |
Wisconsin Conservation VotersRated Incumbent at 11% acceptance |
Conservation Scorecard on your state
senator
at:
Vote Tracker -- SB1 Ethics Bill Past Scorecards:
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2006 record below |
F - Universal Health Care |
Incumbent has not been supportive of universal health care, and receives significant campaign contributions from the health care community. |
F - Campaign Finance Reform |
Incumbent has done nothing to move campaign reform forward. |
A+ Ethics Reform |
Incumbent voted to pass an Ethics Reform bill (SB1). |
From Rep. Mark Pocan: State Senator Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) sent a letter to Michael Rosen, Governor Doyle’s appointment to the Wisconsin Technical College System State Board, praising his credentials. She even said she “looked forward to working with” him in the future. That was April 27th. On May 4th, she votes AGAINST his confirmation in the State Senate. So did Alberta even read the letter she put out in April? Or was that a staff signature? Inquiring minds want to know...why her staff didn't put the letter in her bill file because she looked, ah, stupid. Sorry.
| Bill - SB1 (11/1/05 Sequence 239) | The Issue | How Senate Voted | Your Representative |
Senate Bill 1 - Establish a Government Accountability BoardIntroduced by Mike Ellis (R) in the Senate and
It was killed by the Assembly Republicans. This was a vote on whether to bring the ethics bill to the floor and allow a complete up-or-down vote. By voting against an open floor vote the assembly legislators effectively killed the bill and did not have to go on record as officially opposing ethics reform. |
Proponents claim: This bill would establish an independent ethics commission to oversee the state legislature and governor.
See www.wisdc.org
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Passed by a vote of 28 to 5 Voting for reform:
Voting to block reform:
See entire assembly roll call vote here and the senate roll call here. |
+ + + + + + + * Incumbent voted FOR bringing SB1 to the floor for a vote (this was the vote preferred by reform advocates) + + + + + + + |
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Opponents claim: It is too intrusive, requiring the disclosure of personal finances.
(Isn't that what ethics is all about? How can they legitimately vote on an issue without disclosing any conflicts of interest?)
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Republicans voting against reform were Grothman, Lasee and Reynolds, Democrats voting against reform were Decker and Taylor