The first issue is that he’s a carpet bagger. This is because he is building a house in the district, but doesn’t actually live in the district at the moment. I think this is a BS issue. Newcomer grew up and has lived his whole life in the Waukesha area. He is certainly familiar with the area. It would be different if he were from Milwaukee or Madison or something.Yes, it would be worse if he were from Milwaukee - by a couple of miles. He lives in Elm Grove and is not planning on moving to the district until July or August of 2006! As I've joked a couple of times, it's a good thing the governor has spared Newcomer the embarassment of having to show a photo id with his actual address on it when he votes. Worse, it was just a few years ago (2001) when Newcomer lost to Ted Kanavas in the special election to replace Margaret Farrow when she became Lt. Governor. That race occurred in a different district on the other side of Waukesha County than the one Newcomer is running in now.
Jessica McBride wrote in the Waukesha Freeman this past weekend about the problems of making the switch from lobbyist to legislator, and how it's affected Kent Woods.
He started losing me when I asked whether his positions as a legislator would differ from his positions as a lobbyist. "I don’t know if my position has changed," he said. "I won’t try to get the town exemptions. I would probably support it (TABOR) with the exemptions. But if they aren’t in it, it wouldn’t stop my support."
He says the towns group supported ethanol requirements because they would benefit farmers. He opposes ethanol requirements now.
"It was just a job," he stated of his lobbying.
If a person is willing to take the opposite position of what he believes for a job, then it’s fair for the rest of us to question how deeply he believes it, especially because other candidates don’t have his lobbying contradictions, such as Troy Fullerton, who has been endorsed by the Waukesha Taxpayers League.
