Part two of the Recall Summer of 2011 includes two Republican primary elections and the first general recall election. (Or whatever it’s called.)

The two primaries are in the 12th and 22nd Senate districts, where voters should choose the best choices to unseat Sens. James Holperin (D–Conover) and Robert Wirch (D–Kenosha), respectively, on Aug. 16.

Both Kenosha County Board vice chair Fred Ekornaas and former small business owner Jonathan Steitz have the correct positions on taxes, jobs and Second Amendment rights. I prefer Steitz’s position on education slightly more than Ekornaas‘, which is why if I lived in the 22nd I’d vote for Steitz Tuesday. I would, however, be comfortable voting for either against Wirch Aug. 16.

A similar matchup can be found in the 12th Senate District between Lincoln County Sup. Robert Lussow and Northwoods Patriots founder Kim Simac. I’d like to be able to refer you to Lussow’s website, but he doesn’t have one, which makes one wonder how competent his campaign is in this century of ours.

There is one issue on which I prefer Lussow’s position to Simac’s, on term limits. Lussow opposes them, Simac favors them, and I believe that the best term limit is one applied by voters on Election Day. But that’s not a deal-killer for me.

One reason I prefer Simac (who does have a website) is her much more realistic position on the environment than those who regulate the environment:

Here in the Northwoods, our natural resources are one of our most precious commodities and they must be protected for the enjoyment and utilization of future generations. Our lakes and our forests offer a wealth of opportunity to those of the 12th District. Therefore, I believe local government should play an equal role in determining how our natural resources should be managed.

You’d have to be a moron to not grasp the importance of the environment to Wisconsin’s economy and quality of life. But environmental management in Wisconsin comes from the top down, and that has led to the state’s environmental agency being known as Damn Near Russia. The environment is not helped when the state expands its land purchases each year, spreading its environmental management resources thinner while simultaneously taking more land off the property tax rolls. If I lived closer to the North Pole than the Equator (which seems a bit attractive this week), I would vote for Simac.

That leaves the 30th Senate District race between Sen. Dave Hansen (D–Green Bay), one of the Fleeing Fourteen, and David VanderLeest of Green Bay.

First: Under no circumstances does Hansen deserve your vote. (Nor do Holperin nor Wirch.) And that is not merely because of the cowardly move to bug out of Wisconsin to avoid a vote Democrats were going to lose. Let us recall that under Democratic leadership of state government, this state had some of the worst finances of any state in the nation, as in:
A $2.9 billion GAAP deficit at the end of the 2009–10 fiscal year, second largest in the entire nation in per capita terms and in percentage of gross state product.
A GAAP deficit every year during the first decade of the 21st century. Thirty-five states never had a GAAP deficit in the past decade, but only Wisconsin and Illinois had GAAP deficits every year during the past decade.
Unrestricted net assets of $9.46 billion in the hole, better than only seven states in dollar amounts and, at 3.7 percent of GDP, better than only five states.

And all that occurred while Hansen voted for the $2.1 billion tax increase his party foisted on us overburdened taxpayers back in 2009. You would think a self-styled champion of the middle class wouldn’t increase taxes on the middle class, but Hansen voted for exactly that. (And I wonder how Hansen’s vote against concealed-carry went over in his district.)

Hansen’s watch also included various state business climate rankings that put Wisconsin in, at best, the bottom quarter of the states. Since employees prosper when their employers prosper, Hansen doesn’t win a friend-of-the-middle-class award here either. (Then again, Hansen appears to believe that state employees are part of the middle-class, but at $71,000 in salaries and benefits on average, they’re not.)

The problem for 30th Senate District voters is that VanderLeest doesn’t appear to be the candidate to vote for either. I can’t comment on the specifics of his relationship with his ex-wife and son, but attacking your ex-wife in print and filing lawsuits left and right don’t appear to me to be the correct solutions.

So who deserves the 30th Senate District vote if neither Hansen nor VanderLeest? State Rep. John Nygren (R–Marinette), who was removed from the Republican ballot after the state Government Accountability Board threw out petition signatures that left him two short of qualifying for the ballot. Political professionals might guffaw about that, but it’s worth noting that 89th Assembly District voters have voted for him three times.

Nygren opposes the job-killer known as combined reporting, which increases the tax burden of Wisconsin businesses, which (since businesses don’t pay taxes, their customers do) increases the cost of the products or services sold by Wisconsin businesses. Nygren also supported, before it became popular to do so, ending the Wisconsin Education Association Council’s monopoly on employee benefits.

Based on his record and accomplishments, Nygren deserves the write-in vote of 30th Senate District voters over both Hansen and VanderLeest. (That’s J-O-H-N N-Y-G-R-E-N for those writing in or using a touchscreen.) Yes, winning a write-in campaign is difficult, but this election “year,” anything’s possible.