Ward Level voting data for WI's 5th district now online

I am planning to put an interactive google maps app together to help people better understand their neighborhood's political layout based on readily available census data. As part of my experimentation I created kml files that anybody can feel free to download and use in Google Earth, change them around, edit them to fit their needs or just use the links on the right hand panel of this blog to access the information through Google Maps. There are errors in the data I haven't thoroughly worked out yet. By posting comments to this thread you can help me remedy those errors and I'll try to fix them as fast as possible.

Waukesha's 35th Ward: A Sign of Things to Come?

As more and more republicans realize that they were taken for a ride by the right wing they begin to turn. Even the WSJ crowd started to sense the changing winds and in their panic and desperation that the party is over start to send signals to an increasingly out of touch republican leadership. This is from yesterday's issue:
"Christmas-tree grower Arlene Frelk, of Merrillan, Wis., says she was unsuccessful recently when trying to meet in Washington with Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.) to discuss immigration. Ms. Frelk, a Republican, did meet with a Sensenbrenner aide; she came to Washington as part of a "fly-in" organized by the American Agri-Women and wanted to tell the lawmaker that the House-passed immigration bill he sponsored would harm her business.
On the way home, she says she and her daughter saw the Judiciary Committee chairman at the airport baggage claim. When they approached him, Ms. Frelk says, Mr. Sensenbrenner told her that "this is his free time and he didn't want to be bothered" and walked away."

Cracks in a Republican Base?

So we are not all that surprised by the news release coming from the Kennedy campaign:

WAUKESHA – Twenty-eight percent. That's how much of the vote Democrat Bryan Kennedy garnered in the city of Waukesha's 35th ward in 2004. Drive or walk through the area today, however, and you'd believe Kennedy, not Jim Sensenbrenner, won the ward handily.

That's because the citizens of Waukesha are displaying their new allegiance proudly – in their lawns – and Kennedy is clearly a popular man. There are now over 20 homes in the 35th ward with Kennedy's yard signs prominently placed in front of them and it appears the tide is turning – against Sensenbrenner.

“I'm amazed by the response I get when talking to people throughout the district,” Kennedy explained. “These areas, which have been Republican territory for so long, are fed up. The people are tired of the divisiveness, the corruption, and the lies that officials like Sensenbrenner have been feeding them. They want a new direction.” In some of the most Republican areas of the district, Kennedy is told by voters that Sensenbrenner is “arrogant” and has “been in office too long.”

Kennedy, who grew up in a Republican household, has appealed to voters of all political stripes, and has assembled the most aggressive campaign ever run against Sensenbrenner.

“Even Republicans are now telling me that 'Sensenbrenner is past his sell-by date.' Being from the dairy state, that distinction means a lot to us,” Kennedy stated. If wards such as Waukesha's 35th are a bellwether, his departure may not be far off.

Bryan Kennedy is running for the Congressional seat currently held by Jim Sensenbrenner in Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District. The 5th Congressional District includes all of Ozaukee and Washington counties, and portions of Milwaukee, Jefferson and Waukesha counties.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jordan Aberman
Phone: 414-807-2983
Email: Jordan@bk2006.org

Democracy republican style

"Labor unions, immigrant groups and the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union say they want a chance to talk about their vision of immigration reform. They want to see changes that would help reunite immigrant families, protect workers and provide illegal immigrants with a means of obtaining legal status.

They're upset that tomorrow's U-S House Judiciary Committee hearing in the Statehouse will allow only five invited witnesses to speak.

The committee, led by Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner, is holding hearings across the country on immigration reform, an issue that has split Republicans and led to competing proposals in the House and Senate."

That's what one would expect from politicians who shut down microphones and are just scared of americans learning the facts.

Sensenbrenner the "dissembler"

Typical right wing propaganda hit the Us Newswire yesterday afternonn.. The statement reads:
"We are now just beginning to see a glimpse of the staggering burden on American taxpayers the Reid-Kennedy immigration legislation contains. Twenty-four-and-a-half billion dollars for the earned income and child tax credits. Medicaid costs of $11.7 billion. Social Security costs of $5.2 billion. Medicare costs of $3.7 billion. Food stamps costs of $2.4 billion. The list goes on and on. This new social spending -- in the hundreds of billions of dollars later on -- will all be paid for by U.S. taxpayers. Additionally, this CBO report actually underestimates the Reid-Kennedy costs because the millions of illegal immigrants provided amnesty will not become citizens and thus, eligible for all social benefit programs, until after the 10-year time frame reviewed by CBO.

"Providing a massive amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants -- over half of whom have an educational level of a high school degree or less -- is unfair, unwise and unaffordable. It's unfair to the millions of people playing by the rules, waiting patiently in line, trying to immigrate legally. It's unwise because it sends a message that the U.S. will condone, and in many ways, reward illegal immigration. And, the Reid-Kennedy amnesty is unaffordable because of the hundreds of billions of dollars in costs that will be shouldered by hard-working American taxpayers."

2 things:

1) the CBO report does have a caveat that suggests that the bill would actually bring in federal revenues if the wording in 1 particular section would conform precisely with the intent of the legislators. Here is what the CBO actually says as opposed to what Sensenbrenner wants us to beleive it says:

"Enacting S. 2611 would have several effects on federal revenues, including changes in collections of income and payroll taxes, certain visa fees that are classified as revenues, and various fines and penalties. Taken together, the Joint Committee on Taxation and CBO estimate that those effects would reduce federal revenues by about $79 billion over the 2007-2016 period. However, it appears that the effect of one tax provision would be significantly different from what was intended; if the language were modified to reflect that intent, the act would increase revenues by about $44 billion over the 2007-2016 period, JCT and CBO estimate.

The large difference between the two revenue estimates results from subsection 601(b), which would exempt employers from all civil and criminal tax liabilities arising from the employment of aliens applying for an adjustment of status, without limiting the period to which the exemption applies. This provision would reduce receipts of payroll taxes because employers would not be required to pay such taxes for alien employees. Because the legislation does not specify a period of exemption, for purposes of this estimate, JCT has assumed that the exemption would have both a retroactive and prospective effect. Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee have indicated that the exemption was intended to apply retroactively—to periods of employment prior to the filing of an application for adjustment of status—but not prospectively to the period after the application is filed and until adjustment of status is granted."

So it's clear that the main culprit is the very businesses who are the cause of the "illegal immigration" problem to begin with and are main constituents of the Republican party. That little detail unfortunately never made it into Sensenbrenner's announcement.

2) I am waiting for the final word on this bill, perhaps Senators Reid and Kennedy will respond to this as well.

3) I am waiting for the CBPP to crunch the numbers, that will shed some more light on the real issues.

See all their work on the subject here.

Stop the illegal spying!

ACLU Action Alert! Cheney wants to read your email, listen in on your phonesex. Tell the creep to back off!!

Sensenbrenner's dog and pony show

Sensenbrenner is in Texas peddling H.R. 4437 which beside being divisive, hateful and useless in helping low income workers get back their high paying union jobs, it's also a trojan horse smuggling in our lives a "show your papers" society. Not a coincidence that Sensenbrenner was the proud recipient of the 2005 "Pavlik Morozov" award from the "Madison Stalinist Society" ;)

This is from the AP report:
After the hearing, Sensenbrenner defended H.R. 4437, his controversial House immigration bill passed last year, and countered accusations he was being racist.

"When you can't argue the merits, you call names," he said. "I authored the voting rights extension bill ... signed by President Bush. Racists don't do that."

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, a Houston Democrat and the ranking minority member on the Subcommittee on Immigration, called the series of Republican-led hearings a "traveling road show."

Throughout the morning hearing and in a brief press conference afterward, Jackson-Lee urged her Republican counterparts to meet with the Senate to create a unified bill. The Senate passed an immigration reform bill this year that included a path to legalization.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/15298186.htm

Starting this blog

Hi, I am lpsz, a software engineer living in Wisconsin's 5th district. My mission with this blog is to support the democratic candidate Bryan Kennedy to win against James Sensenbrenner on November 7th.