The snow has been great for snowshoeing. Yesterday, we spent a wonderful day up in Door County enjoying Peninsula State Park. If you've never been there in winter, it's a whole different world. Snowshoeing and knitting or "playing with the sticks and strings" as the cats would say, has been keeping the chicks out of trouble.
I want to call your attention to the posting on Eye on Oshkosh regarding the endorsements recently done by the Winnebago County Labor Council
http://eyeonoshkosh.blogspot.com/2007/02/winnebago-county-labor-council-endorses.html
It's interesting that the union endorsements are drawing some attention in the City Council Campaign. Especially the endorsements of Wisconsin AFSCME PEOPLE. AFSCME PEOPLE, for the uninitiated, is the Political Action Committee for the AFSCME councils that represent the City and County AFSCME employees around the state. The State employees (WSEU), also an AFSCME Council, has a separate Political Action Committee, SEPAC, and does not participate in City/County races unless a WSEU employee is running.
Anyhow, seems on some of the blogs, folks and at least one candidate are trying to equate an AFSCME endorsement with the City Employees trying to buy a candidates vote on the council. The candidate who is suggesting this should observe that PEOPLE also endorsed Frank Tower for Mayor. Obviously, those who are implying this have never participated in a candidate interview or the endorsement process. The process has nothing to do with telling the candidate what you want, the interview process involves finding out where the candidate stands on issues that are important to the members of the organization. It also gives participants a chance to get to know the candidates if interviews are conducted. Those who get endorsed are the candidates who have views that fit most closely to those of the organization making the endorsement. Sometimes, there are no candidates that fit the needs, and no endorsement is made (the Labor Council did not endorse a candidate for Mayor).
Endorsements are valuable to a candidate, no doubt. Yes, sometimes they can involve a monetary contribution from the group. In the Labor Council case, we do not have a PAC, so we cannot offer money to candidates. So, there is no way we're "buying" votes on the council. We can offer the support of our members, and we also use our ability to spread the word on our endorsement to AFL-CIO affiliates in the councils jurisdication.
Hope that helps clarify some misconceptions that are out there.
LC2
