My column in The Platteville Journal about Tuesday’s election takes a position different from the majority of letter-writers to The Journal since I started as editor.

To date, as I predicted, I have seen only The Capital Times in Madison endorse Tom Barrett Tuesday. The Ripon Commonwealth Press is not:

The desire to answer injustice with retribution argues against giving voters a recall for a reason other than moral malfeasance.
Today’s recall against Gov. Walker, in 12 months and six days, could be transformed into an effort to unseat Gov. Barrett.
Aside from encouraging ongoing political instability and the spending, nay wasting, of millions of dollars to sully reputations, recalls risk encouraging timidity in politicians, often at the very time circumstances require bold, politically unpopular decision making.
Recall attempts recall courage.
They recall trust. They recall patience. And in their place?
Cynicism. Distrust. Revenge.
While Section 12 of Article XIII of the Wisconsin Constitution permits recalls against publicly elected officials, common sense argues that the recall is a dangerously divisive, politically immobilizing, outrageously expensive tool. …
The ability to organize has given workers the collective leverage they’ve needed to force their employers to sit down and negotiate with them regarding pay, benefits, working conditions and employment policies.
But over time the exploited learned to do their own exploiting.
A former Ripon mayor not too long ago, upon being asked whether city workers enjoyed a “Cadillac” health insurance plan, was quoted in this newspaper as saying, “No. It’s a Rolls-Royce plan.”
And a Ripon Superintendent of Schools quietly bemoaned the fact that teachers for years have been intractable in their allegiance to WEA Trust, despite the district offering comparable health insurance benefits at a lower cost that, if accepted, would either have saved taxpayers money or enabled the district to minimize layoffs.
Local units of government now are able to exercise the judgment they should never have lost of being able to act on an individual’s employment status based on merit rather than tenure and seniority.
That’s how it is in the non-unionized private sector, where accomplishment can be rewarded, mediocrity addressed and the worst employees can be fired.