Rep. Dick Spanbauer has introduced a bill that finally may have "bipartisan" support. Many of us reading this post have probably asked ourselves and others, in past elections, why is the Office of Sheriff partisan? In a county race for Sheriff, that race in many cases is the hottest draw, but under present law, voters in a "primary" election had to vote on one side of the partisan ticket or the other.
In a race for Sheriff in one unnamed county here in Wisconsin a Sheriff Candidate ran as a unanamed partisan candidate during one election and lost. The next election this same Sheriff Candidate ran as a different unnamed partisan candidate and won. This particular political election begged the question; were the voters voting for a "partisan" candidate or a "qualified" candidate? This bill, listed as AJR51, if passed by both houses of the Wisconsin Legislature and then signed into law by the Governor should finally allow county voters to elect the "most and best" qualified sheriff's candidate.
However, past history has shown that "Republican" Sheriff Candidates bring voters over to the Republican side of the "primary" ticket and in some cases, the general election as well. So now will come the real battle, will today's present Wisconsin Republicans, aside from Rep. Dick Spanbauer, be able to let go of the sheriff's races sometimes helping them in their vote gathering?
Sheriff Candidate's must run on how they will enforce the laws and protect their communities within their jurisdiction and communicate their experience, knowledge, training and education to support their ability to be a sheriff. They should not be compelled to have to declare that they are of a "partisan political party" just to get votes, when in fact their personal values may be that of another partisan political party, as it is so widely speculated in Milwaukee County.
Lets hope that this bill, AJR51, gets the proper and fair attention and support that it needs.
Posted by Steven Williams
Political Education Legislative Coordinator
AFSCME Council 24 AFL-CIO
WisPolitics.com: Rep. Spanbauer: Introduces constitutional amendment to make county elections nonpartisan
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
This blog is created to not only keep you informed, but to receive feedback from you as well. Please feel free to comment on any posts. We reserve the right to remove any post we deem inappropriate in language and/or content.