Earlier this week we received in the mail two giant sized political postcards each with the same message “ROBIN VOS is BLOCKING an agenda that will help Wisconsin families”. The cards had “RoadBlockRobinVos.com” in bold print and “Paid for by The Wisconsin Initiative. Inc.” in fine print under the address.

The three main concerns were “Making childcare more accessible and affordable” (September 2023), “Expanding Medicaid to 90,000 more Wisconsinites” (March 2021), and “Providing 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave” (February 2023).

Researching online a little further, I found that The Wisconsin Initiative had one more slogan not published on either of the cards: “He’s a pothole to progress”. And, along with the three concerns previously mentioned this organization wants “Equitable access to the ballot box”. It appears this effort is relatively new as 2024 is the earliest date I can find online concerning them.

On the surface, it appears that we might want to thank Speaker Vos for helping to prevent Wisconsin from becoming another California? Or, maybe we should be thanking him for all the legislation developed and passed on election integrity and the excess taxes collected that was passed only to be vetoed by the Governor?

One postcard stated “Tell your representative…” while the other stated “Call Representative Billings at (608) 237-9195. Tell them (sic)…”

Why was Representative Billings (D-95th District) targeted? The majority party has the biggest voice in naming the Speaker. If we want to critique Speaker Vos then let’s talk about the newest redistricting map which puts a significant part of Monroe County in the 95th which stretches all the way to the Minnesota border and includes a large chunk of the City of La Crosse? Previously, the 95th was virtually the City of La Crosse.

While I question the expansion of Medicare and the seemingly lengthy paid family and medical leave, legislation making childcare accessible and affordable needs further discussion (and action). This recently came to light in the Sparta Area School District when they extended 4 year old kindergarten to all day. To this grandparent, all day kindergarten sounds more like babysitting than education! The legislature does indeed need to look at this issue –as I assume it is state-wide—and come up with some creative ways to encourage the private sector to increase the accessibility of child care at affordable prices. Otherwise, as in the Sparta Area School District, it appears that the taxpayers will be paying for childcare.

I must confess, Speaker Robin Vos is not on my “most favored list” but what is right is right! To only cite three incidents in his over ten years as speaker is hardly noteworthy. These cards were, in my opinion, a waste of money. If the Wisconsin Initiative, Inc. truly wants to be effective in their efforts, then they need to target Representative Vos’s home district before the upcoming election and then the 99 elected Assemblymen after the election.

These cards are just an example of the money spent on questionable political advertising. Or, maybe the intent is to make Speaker Vos a campaign issue in all (or targeted) 99 Assembly election contests in 2024? Perhaps a better campaign issue is “Why did the Governor veto all the legislation on election integrity and excess state funds?