The polling project between the UW-Madison Political Science department and the state’s shrillest right-wing, corporate-friendly think tank has turned out to be as suspicious as we first feared.

Documents obtained by One Wisconsin Now through the state’s open records law reveal that political considerations were front and center in the decision making surrounding the polling project and the publication of the poll’s results. The results of the poll showed statewide opposition to private school vouchers, but the press release from both UW and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) played up figures that showed support for school vouchers in Milwaukee.

According to the email we obtained, in the day before the release of materials on the poll, the head of WPRI pushed to have the statewide opposition to vouchers to be removed and to use the Milwaukee County numbers instead. When UW professor Ken Goldstein pushed back, saying the change would go against standard operating procedure, George Lightbourn of WPRI pushed back even harder, saying:

“I’m not concerned about journalists. I’m concerned about the Scott (sic) Ross types who would enjoy being able to portray WPRI’s own data as showing lack of support for choice. I know it’s a pain in the ass but I’ve been burned a couple of times and I don’t need to be the one holding the gas can.”

Five.

Five people remain under investigation for casting an improper ballot on Election Day in Milwaukee County.

Five. Out of nearly 500,000 votes cast.

And the crusade to criminalize voting continues. The de-facto leader this time around? Milwaukee County Assistant DA Bruce Landgraf. Despite the lack of any substantiated evidence of a “wide-spread conspiracy” to commit voter fraud and contrary to every non-partisan study about voter fraud that consistently debunk conservative claims of voter fraud, “leaders” like Landgraf and Wisconsin AG JB Van Hollen continue to try any means necessary to trump up charges of voter fraud in a wide-spread conspiracy to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters.

Tuesday was a Happy Day in Milwaukee as most of the original cast of the popular show came to town for the unveiling of the Bronze Fonz. There was a full schedule with a dedication/unveiling, a parade through downtown and a ceremony at Miller Park just before a Brewer game. During the television coverage of the Brewer game the man of the hour, Henry Winkler, was interviewed in the stands. While most of the interview focused on the show and the days activities, the interviewer briefly opened the door to Winkler’s passion, education. Noting that Winkler’s daughter is a teacher that earned her degree in Wisconsin, the interviewer asked him why education is so important to him. For a brief moment he got very passionate and said the following:

We have No Child Left Behind which is leaving every child behind. Children are raining through cracks in this country. If we don’t do something now - and not just lip service – if we don’t take care of children now, this country is in trouble.

Pro-corporate soulmate Supremes Mike Gableman and Annette Ziegler get closer by the day.

The latest revelation, Gableman’s going to pull a Ziegler and rule on cases where Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce is involved – despite WMC dumping nearly $2 million during his run to get on the high court.

Ziegler earned front page headlines after she provided the deciding vote and wrote the opinion on the WMC-backed Mensha Corp. case – costing taxpayers $265 million and making WMC’s $2 million investment in Ziegler’s ascendency to the top court a worthwhile investment.

Now Gableman tells wispolitics.com that he makes distinctions between those special interests which filled his campaign coffers and those special interests which dumped $2 million in smear ads. Sounds like WMC is getting let off the hook on a technicality. And we know how they hate technicalities.

Joe Leibham, State Senator from Sheyboygan just won’t stop trying to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters with his hair-brained voter ID scheme. Even as a new audit of the April 1 election found “nearly error-free voting,” Joe “Still Can’t Prove a Voter Fraud Case” Leibham keeps up the voter ID rhetoric.

“I still think there are people getting around those processes,” Leibham childishly retorted when asked about the April election. I once again call on Sen. Leibham to produce one incidence of voter fraud that would have been prevented by his “voter ID” scheme. I don’t expect an answer. Then again, I don’t expect him to end his crusade to stop a problem that doesn’t exist either. I guess that’s the difference between the truth and a Leibham.

Having looked all over my house for my missing driver’s license, it was clear that I needed to make a trip out to the DMV in Madison to get a replacement—a perfect chance to spell out what goes into a trip to the DMV, like thousands of Wisconsinites will have to do if state leggies and “voter ID” advocates Jeff “Poll Tax” Stone and Joe “Can’t Prove a Voter Fraud Case” Liebham had their way and passed a ridiculous voter ID law in Wisconsin.

The DMV office in Madison I went to is open from 8:30-4:15 MWF, and from 10-5:45 Tuesday and Thursday – not exactly convenient for a 9-6 working man. But hey if I want to vote, I need an ID, right Jeff? So I bit the bullet and took off from work at 3 pm on Thursday. So I’m already being charged for my right to vote – losing at least 3 hours of work time, and using 3 hours of my vacation time. So far, total estimated cost: $50.

On “normal” days, I walk to work. But today, since I need my car to get to the far-east side DMV, I had to pay to park - $6 more.

Upon sitting out the vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) remarked that what women really need is “education and training.” Puzzling, because in 2007 Sen. McCain avoided the vote on the America COMPETES Act and voted against the College Cost Reduction Act. The America COMPETES Act promotes education in engineering, technology, and science—fields not typically pursued by women—and was supported by the American Association of University Women (AAUW). The AAUW also supported the College Cost Reduction Act—which aimed to increase Pell grant awards to restore the grant’s purchasing power and reduce subsidized student loan interest—given the fact that “because women are more likely to borrow money for college than men are and will earn less on average after graduation, female graduates are more likely to struggle with their loan debt.”

The UW-Milwaukee Chapter of Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters. SHAC and University Housing are hosting a river and litter clean up this Saturday in River West. The events will take place at Sandburg and RiverView dorms at 10:30am. Afterward, join other community organizations and newly elected Alderman Nik Kovac for an Eco-Jam (live music) at the new RiverView dorm.

For more information please contact Adrienne Roach at adrienne@conservationvoters.org

To see a flier, visit the WLCV blog http://www.conservationvoters.org/blog/?p=58

On Monday the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s strict voter ID law. The most direct and accurate analysis of this decision was by Representative Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee). She said that the decision was “an unconstitutional solution in search of a problem.” This is such a good statement because it is accurate and gets directly to the heart of the matter.

There is simply no widespread voter fraud problem in Wisconsin, Indiana or in the country as a whole. An exhaustive study was done on the slew of allegations made by Republicans in the 2004 presidential election and the vast majority was found to be totally without merit. In fact, in giving an example of significant voter fraud, one of the concurring justices in Monday’s decision had to reach all the way back to 140 years ago. Not even the State of Indiana was able to present evidence of the type of voter fraud that the law was supposedly devised to deter.