It's Friday, do you know where your governor is? Hopefully he's in his office looking for the pen he uses to actually sign bills rather than veto them.
Last night and very early this morning both houses of the state legislature did their part and passed the bill.
I know there was some wailing and gnashing of teeth over the governor's supposed inability to get Democrats to vote for the compromise, but be real people. It's not like we didn't have to use every means necessary to get him to seriously negotiate the compromise. Did we really expect him to campaign for a plan he didn't want in the first place?
So that meant the Republicans had to deliver the votes.
One of the more interesting aspects of the final vote was the Vukmir vs. Reynolds fight (which somehow got ignored by the Journal Sentinel after their columnists brought it the public's attention). State Representative Leah Vukmir stepped up and said she would run against State Senator Tom Reynolds in the primary if he refused to support the compromise bill. It got nasty, with Reynolds' supporters threatening Vukmir and Vukmir's supporters quickly jumped on board the plan to oust Reynolds. Reynold's people responded that he ain't no band leader. This was followed by the horse's head in the bed. Reynolds had "a Road to Madison conversion" and voted for the bill, probably saving him from a primary challenge that was likely to end his career in Madison.
Eye on Wisconsin would have you believe that all this demonstrates Reynolds is vulnerable to a moderate Democrat. He misses the point.
The conservatives put Reynolds into office, and the conservatives can take him out. Tom's base is the conservative movement, and his miscalculations in the school choice battle almost split his support. However, there is still a majority of conservatives in the district. It's unlikely any Democrat would be able to win that state senate seat unless the Democratic Party can find a pro-life NRA member that supports school choice and is opposed to higher taxes. Yeah, the Milwaukee County Democrats have a lot of guys like that...
