[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: [usgp-dx] Third Party [not the Greens] Thrives in Madison, Wisconsin

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>
>Hi:  This is interesting ... and a bit disconcerting.  Why couldn't the
>Greens do this?  This appeared in today's The Progressive Review.  Peace.
>Richard Walton.
>
>THIRD PARTY GAINS POWER IN MADISON, WISCONSIN
>http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=wsj:2005:02:20:404437:FRONT
>
>DEAN MOSIMAN, WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL - Brenda Konkel, Austin King and
>their political buddies used to pour their souls out -- mostly in vain --
>for the poor and voiceless. Now their leftist political party, Progressive
>Dane, is changing Madison, recently helping pass controversial, landmark
>laws to raise the city's minimum wage, force developers to build
>lower-cost housing, and ban smoking in bars and restaurants.
>
>"For all intents and purposes, they are the (city's) governing party right
>now," said Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, who joined Progressive Dane when he ran
>for mayor three years ago and is mulling whether to actively help shape
>its agenda and tactics. The party may be gaining momentum, endorsing four
>candidates in Tuesday's primary and advancing all to the general election
>in April.
>
>But Progressive Dane is making some prominent enemies, too, especially in
>big business. "They're ignoring the people who pay the bills," said former
>Mayor Paul Soglin. "They're creating an economic doughnut hole in
>Madison.". . .
>
>Progressive Dane emerged from the local chapter of the Wisconsin
>Labor-Farm party, which was patterned after Germany's progressive Green
>Party. PD has thrived in liberal Madison partly because local Democrats
>concentrate on state and national electoral politics. Democrats don't do
>grass-roots work on leftist social justice causes or issues like low-cost
>housing, tenant rights and good land use, members said. . .
>
>The party is far more active on local issues and elections than local
>Democrats or Republicans. With more than 400 dues-paying members, PD has a
>$30,000 annual budget, a part-time paid organizer, a detailed data base,
>and a legion of volunteers willing to make phone calls, distribute
>literature and knock on doors for candidates, even in the dead cold of
>winter. It also offers campaign training for candidates and campaign
>managers, helps with finance reports and can deliver invaluable phone
>lists and even yard sign locations. . .
>
>The party's sweeping platform is a leftist vision promoting causes such as
>treating drug abuse as public health rather than law enforcement concerns.
>A growing list of successes includes the minimum wage, a zoning law that
>makes developers build lower-cost housing, the smoking ban, "living wages"
>for employees on city and county contracts, and a city affordable housing
>trust fund that's hit $2 million.
>
>PD helped nix a controversial anti-loitering law, improve the public's
>access to campaign-finance reports, make lobbyists register and forced
>landlords to put exterior locks on most buildings. The party helped pass
>the 2003 Madison schools referendum. And last fall it successfully pushed
>to restore $1.2 million in cuts to the county's Health and Human Services
>budget, while failing to add another $2.4 million for inflation.
>
>
>	"The only way out of our crisis (terrorism) is to reduce the 
>anger of the
>most rational, thus also reducing the constituency of the least rational."
>Sam Smith.
>
>	"When they come for the innocent without crossing over
>your body, cursed be your religion and your life."  Anon.  But often
>quoted by Dorothy Day.
>--
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>"Richard Walton" <richard at soup.org>
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand