Wall Street to Main St. - All Politics is Local

As the Bush economy comes to a head, with Wall Street crumbling after eight years of de-regulation and corporate corruption, we are reminded of the old saying – all politics is local. While it’s easy to say that this is a federal problem, what our state legislators have done to either reign in corporations, or give them more “freedom” should be a major topic on the campaign trail. Wisconsin voters need to stop and think about where their local legislators stand on corporate accountability when they cast their votes.

Let’s take two Republican incumbent legislators, Senator Dan Kapanke of LaCrosse and Rep. Terry Moulton of Eau Claire. When a bill came up to force corporations to pay their fair share of property taxes and another one to hold Wisconsin corporations accountable for hiring illegal workers, both of these two supposedly pro-small business, pro-family legislators said no. Kapanke voted against each bill, and Moulton refused to even allow either bill to come to the Assembly for an up or done vote.

What does that say about their priorities? And what does it say about what they’ll do if voters send them back to Madison?