Sept. 14 Wisconsin partisan primary election overview: Part One
MADISON: Tuesday Sept. 14 is Wisconsin’s Fall 2010 partisan primary election. Unlike the Nov. 2 general election, voters are limited to voting for candidates within a single party. The winners of contested primaries represent their parties on the Nov. 2 ballots. Sometimes it can be politically strategic to vote outside one’s usual party choice.
The following is a look at some key primary contests. Because of length I will be publishing it in 2 parts. This information is by no means complete with so the many candidates and races. Reader input on candidates is appreciated.
As Madison NORML Examiner reported May 10, the likely Democratic nominee Tom Barrett, who faces only nominal primary competition, told a caller on Wisconsin Public Radio that he would sign a medical cannabis bill if elected Wisconsin governor this November.
On the Republican side, the real race is between Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann. While neither seems to have made any recent on record public statements regarding medical cannabis, it is likely they are opposed to an issue most Wisconsinites support.
In 1998, while serving in Congress, both Neumann and Barrett voted for H. Res. 117, “Expressing the Sense of Congress that Marijuana is a Dangerous and Addictive Drug and Should not be Legalized for Medicinal Use.” However, while Tom Barrett has evolved from opposition to willingness to sign a mmj bill, Neumann seems stuck in the past along with Walker.
It would be nice to have something definitive, so to that end, Madison NORML Examiner is offering a free Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act t-shirt for getting Walker and/or Neumann on record. Only a hundred of these shirts were originally printed a year ago. If you can get it on video, we’ll see that Jacki signs your shirt too!
