Representative Sandy Pasch and Citizen Action of Wisconsin

UPDATE 2: Via Blogging Blue. The campaign treasurer for Sandy Pasch campaign is also treasurer for Citizen Action of Wisconsin.

UPDATE: GOP files complaint into Pasch-Citizen Action tie

Via a couple of tweets from Charlie Sykes:

Sandy Pasch is on brd of directors of group spending big $ backing her campaign. Coordination between candidate and indy groups illegal

And

Dem Sandy Pasch is listed as a member of the Board of Directors of Citizen Action: the group that organized this protest http://t.co/UdStJ9H

That Sandy Pasch is on the board can be seen here. All the way near the bottom of the page is:

Sandy Pasch
State Representative

Sandy Pasch is a concerned citizen, right? Great.

Well, except for Wisconsin statute 11.06 (7)(a):

Every committee, other than a personal campaign committee, which and every individual, other than a candidate who desires to make disbursements during any calendar year, which are to be used to advocate the election or defeat of any clearly identified candidate or candidates in any election shall before making any disbursement, except within the amount authorized under s. 11.05 (1) or(2), file with the registration statement under s. 11.05 a statement under oath affirming that the committee or individual does not act in cooperation or consultation with any candidate or agent or authorized committee of a candidate who is supported, that the committee or individual does not act in concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, any candidate or any agent or authorized committee of a candidate who is supported, that the committee or individual does not act in cooperation or consultation with any candidate or agent or authorized committee of a candidate who benefits from a disbursement made in opposition to a candidate, and that the committee or individual does not act in concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, any candidate or agent or authorized committee of a candidate who benefits from a disbursement made in opposition to a candidate. A committee which or individual who acts independently of one or more candidates or agents or authorized committees of candidates and also in cooperation or upon consultation with, in concert with, or at the request or suggestion of one or more candidates or agents or authorized committees of candidates shall indicate in the oath the names of the candidate or candidates to which it applies.

A lot of legalese to say that an organization who makes an oath of independent disbursements is not acting in cooperation or consultation with the candidate or committees connected with the candidate.

See, Citizen Action of Wisconsin has made such an oath. For Sandy Pasch. And Sandy Pasch is on the board. And they stage demonstrations like this.

Independent? Hmmmm…

I’ll let the legal eagles take over from here, cuz I’m not a lawyer, or anything…

Cartoon of the day 2011-07-18

Happy Birthday, John Glenn

Today is John Glenn’s 90th birthday. Yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a nice article about him in the Crossroads section (Don’t ask me why there; I just read the paper).

He was a hero in two of America’s wars, then a fabled test pilot, a four-term senator, a presidential candidate, finally a party elder. But in mind’s eye and in history, John Herschel Glenn Jr. is frozen in time.

I was a lad when Glenn went up in Friendship 7, the third flight of the Mercury program, the first one that actually orbited the earth.

Sometime after I came into possession of a 33 1/3 rpm recording of the highlights of the flight. Sadly, it’s long gone.

Space captured my attention, as it did many, during those early years. I would watch the liftoffs on TV, I tried to take pictures of the moon landing, I continued to follow the space program down through the years.

I haven’t agreed with all of the issues in his political life, but he was and is an American hero; maybe one of the last we’ve had.

God speed, John Glenn.

Political Cartoon of the day 2011-07-13

Why most polls suck

Any one who reads me, or even hangs around me for any length of time, will find out I’m not a big fan of polls.

There’s just too many things that can tilt a poll one way or another.

Oh, you want me to name some? Gladly. Size of the sample, who’s in the sample, how the question is worded, the order of the choices, if my wife mouthed off to me this morning, if I woke up with a headache, if I’m getting ready to go out, ideological leaning of the one taking the poll, You want me to go on?

This is not to say there’s no value in polls. For example, I will use polling results in responding to liberals about some issue they are big on. I do this because liberals love polls.

For example, only 27% Americans believe abortion should be legal under any circumstance, in other words like it is now.

But I’m just playing with them.

Long prelude to get to this:

A new Gallup Poll finds that just 26% of GOP voters think a deal to lift the debt ceiling should consist entirely of spending cuts.

The vast majority of Republicans believe that at least some tax revenue increases are necessary, which is contrary to the current position of the Republican congressional leadership.

Nate Silver: “The Republicans in the House of Representatives are extremely conservative on fiscal matters and are significantly out of step with the public as a whole.” [emphasis mine]

via Most GOP Voters See Need for Revenue Increases.

I’m like, “Whoa. Really?”

So I looked up the poll. Here’s the table:

This is one of those (frankly useless) polls that both sides can get something from. I guess pollsters do this so no one will get mad at them.

Because what Mr. Goddard wrote is correct. Because tax increases are included in every choice but one.

Clever, eh? I love how they did that!

And Republicans can say, “Half of the American people want the deficit to be reduced by mostly spending cuts.”

See how easy that is?

The more choices there are, the better chance to find a majority that favors your point of view.

But sometimes it’s hard to tell anything from a poll. In that same Gallop poll (3rd question), 51% of Americans are concerned the government would raise the debt ceiling without cutting spending. And (4th question) 46% trust Republican leaders rather than Obama (43%) to handle the issues concerning the budget and debt ceiling.

And everyone knows that web polls are even more useless, right? Like this one. I wouldn’t mind voting but they don’t have a choice that matches mine.

Related articles

• Gallup Poll: Public Overwhelmingly Prefers Spending Cuts to Tax Increases (themoderatevoice.com)
• Poll: Tax changes unpopular solution to debt (politico.com)

The McConnell Plan

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered a new plan to allow the president to demand up to $2.4 trillion in new borrowing authority by the summer of next year in three separate submissions.

via McConnell: Give Obama New Powers on Debt Limit.

You can find the details here.

Basically it

allows the president to demand up to $2.4 trillion in new borrowing authority by the summer of next year in three separate submissions.

House and Senate could disallow these requests in 15 days and the president could veto any “disallowals.”

The Heritage Foundation argues against it. The Wall Street Journal seems to like it. Zogby says voters will blame the president.

Republicans had already been called out by The Economist:

IN THREE weeks, if there is no political deal, the American government will go into default. Not, one must pray, on its sovereign debt. But the country will have to stop paying someone: perhaps pensioners, or government suppliers, or soldiers. That would be damaging enough at a time of economic fragility. And the longer such a default went on, the greater the risk of provoking a genuine bond crisis would become.

The Journal op/ed sees what’s happening:

Mr. Obama is trying to present Republicans with a Hobson’s choice: Either repudiate their campaign pledge by raising taxes, or take the blame for any economic turmoil and government shutdown as the U.S. nears a debt default. In the former case Mr. Obama takes the tax issue off the table and demoralizes the tea party for 2012, and in the latter he makes Republicans share the blame for 9.2% unemployment.

The McConnell Plan avoids both of these.

It may work…