The number one single today in 1956:
Britain’s number one single today in 1960:
The number one single today in 1962:
Today in 1964, a fan at a Rolling Stones concert in Cleveland fell out of the balcony. That prompted Cleveland Mayor Ralph Locker to ban pop music concerts in the city, saying, “Such groups do not add to the community’s culture or entertainment.” Kind of ironic that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ended up in Cleveland.
Lost between the Brewers’ season and the start for the Bucks is the underwhelming 3–3–1 start for the Packers, a mark likely to drop to 3–4–1 after Sunday’s Patriots game.
So, of course, there are calls to fire coach Mike McCarthy. My opinion in such circumstances is to …
But a Facebook Friend who, unlike 99 percent of football fans, played both college (Badgers) and NFL football, passed on a post in a couple of parts I found at FootballsFuture.com about firing McCarthy if the Packers don’t make the playoffs:
- I have a suggestion. Fire Mike McCarthy and then hire Mike McCarthy. God you guys. Be careful what you wish for. We already have a very good HC. I understand the frustration we had a lost season last year. This year also not so great. Last year Aaron was gone. This year Aaron is playing on a bad leg. It’s not MM it’s Aaron. Team is making good progress. Pettine is turning the Defense around. On Offense they are OK but not great. A lot of this is because of Aaron. Give him major credit for playing through the injury but it is clearly affecting his play. MM had the team ready to go. We have had a few bad breaks this year. Is what it is. Firing the HC is not the answer IMO. If they were coming out flat like that first half of the opener I’d be on board. The team is playing hard. MM has not lost them. Listened to Aaron’s presser see no problems there. Barring a complete collapse I’d like to give him at least another season to turn this thing around.
(The first sentence sounds stupid, but that actually happened once in the NFL. Los Angeles Rams owner Dan Reeves — unrelated to the Broncos, Giants and Falcons coach — fired coach George Allen Dec. 31, 1968 for what Reeves called a “personality conflict,” despite Allen’s 11–1–2 and 10–3–1 records the previous two seasons. Twelve days later, after several players threatened to retire, Reeves, who had said that “winning with Allen wasn’t fun,” rehired his former coach. Allen was fired two seasons later, then rehired by the Rams’ next owner seven years later, only to be fired during the preseason due to a revolt by the players.)
- Moving on from MM isn’t the problem – moving on to who is the problem. Do you want a guy like Dan Devine, Bart Starr, Forrest Gregg, Lindy Infante, Ray Rhodes, or Mike Sherman? All of those guys were supposedly solutions to the problem. It’s a fricken crapshoot. LIS elsewhere, loosely speaking, 90% of head coaches fail. For every Sean McVay there are 10 Marc Trestmans. Watch some games from last year and ask yourself if it was coaching or talent. That’s the best argument I can give. I’m glad I don’t have to make the decision. Choose poorly and you burn up the rest of Rodgers’ career. I think I want to see one more year with the revamped receiving corps and a draft with two number picks that doesn’t suck azz like TT’s last few drafts which depleted the roster.
- 11 of the past 15 years we have drafted above # 20. Be careful blaming either the GM or the Head coach for the lack of talented difference – makers. Ted made great picks in bad positions in the beginning but then had three bad years in a row. With his philosophy on FA it is no surprise that I believe we have below level talent in a lot of spots. A dearth of talent with respect to ones opponents will begin to weigh heavily. I think we would be in the middle of a long drought without Rodgers. I thin MM has done well with what he has had. I favor keeping him with two # 1s and Gutekunsts new FA philosophy.
From the resignation of Packers general manager/coach Vince Lombardi to the hiring of general manager Ron Wolf is known as the Gory Years for good reason. Packers.com writer Cliff Christl was asked why the Packers were so bad between Lombardi and Wolf, and Christl gave this answer:
Twenty-four years of mediocrity (1968-91) can’t be explained in black-and-white terms. It’s an all-gray story and the fault lies everywhere.
I recall writing at some point in the 1980s that the Packers had become victims of their own inertia. The point I was trying to make was that no matter what they did, it made no difference. They were stuck in a rut and couldn’t get out of it for more reasons than one could ever address in a forum such as this.
I remember having lunch with Wolf soon after he was hired. He had been a good source of mine for years when he was in Oakland and Tampa Bay. Anyway, at that lunch, he asked me what I thought about having some of the Packers’ former greats serve as honorary captains for games the next season. I didn’t say it, but my initial reaction was: Are you kidding me? For 13 years, while Bart Starr and Forrest Gregg were coaching, one of the most often heard complaints was that the Packers were living in the past and unable to cut ties with the Lombardi era. Now, here was Wolf, with no previous ties to the franchise, primed to make it his cross to bear.
But that’s what it took for change to occur. Wolf went further than Starr or Gregg ever did to promote the Packers’ rich tradition and feed off their glorious past. And he got away with it because he was an outsider. Not only that, it played a huge part in his effort to restore the Packers’ image and credibility across the country.
That’s why I wouldn’t blame the executive committee any more than the coaches or players for how bad things got. At the same time, that’s where I’d start because the committee was 0-for-4 when it came to hiring coaches.
Although Vince Lombardi might have named Phil Bengtson as his coaching successor without consulting anyone, the executive committee gave Bengtson the added title of general manager a year later. That made a bad mistake worse. Hiring Devine and Starr as combination GMs/Head Coaches were terrible mistakes. Stripping Starr of his GM title in 1980 and then not following through on the decision by hiring a credentialed GM only complicated a bad situation.
Four years later, the executive committee signed off on hiring Gregg as coach and all but paved the way for his paranoia to run amok.
Gregg admitted as much to me during an interview in his second to last season as Packers coach. In Cleveland, where he cut his teeth as a head coach, Gregg’s personnel director, Bob Nussbaumer, was caught spying on him at the behest of owner Art Modell. Worse yet, Gregg felt he was undermined by a handful of veteran players there.
Still haunted by those memories almost a decade later, Gregg said it was a factor in some of the most important decisions he made in Green Bay. “You bet your sweet apple pie it was,” he confessed to me in 1986.
More than a year earlier, Gregg had hired Chuck Hutchison, one of his former players and assistant coaches, to be his right-hand man in Green Bay’s front office. What’s more, Gregg insulated himself from some of the competent holdovers from the Devine and Starr regimes, creating schisms in the Packers’ personnel department and other areas of the front office that festered for up to another eight years.
In an interview last fall, Packers radio play-by-play man Wayne Larrivee questioned me about the executive committee’s interference during those dark days in the ‘70s and ‘80s. My answer was something to this effect: I know Bob Harlan has talked about that being a problem, but I don’t buy it. I told Larrivee that Harlan was just being kind. The problem was incompetence, not interference, all the way up the ladder.
Just recently at a meeting, I informed Bob of what I said. He laughed and acknowledged that I was spot on.
The only coach during those two decades who might have suffered from interference was Devine. Bengston, Starr, Gregg and Lindy Infante were victims of their own flaws, not executive committee interference.
Given Devine’s apocalyptically disastrous decision to send five draft picks (including “a-one and-a-two and-a-three”) to the Los Angeles Rams to acquire the recently benched John Hadl (who played for the Rams between Allen and Allen) as quarterback, maybe the Executive Committee should have interfered more with Devine.
Lombardi replaced himself as coach with defensive coordinator Phil Bengtson, who was fired in 1971 because he didn’t have anywhere near Lombardi’s success. (For one thing, GM Lombardi’s players got old and neither he nor Bengston successfully replaced most of them.) Devine, previously the Missouri coach (and chosen after Allen turned down the Packers supposedly because his wife didn’t like cold weather and instead of Penn State coach Joe Paterno), produced one playoff season, then left for Notre Dame perhaps a season before he would have been fired, replaced by former Packer quarterback Bart Starr, for whom it’s a stretch to say he was qualified to be the head coach or GM, particularly given the nonexistent draft picks Devine left him.
As with Devine, Starr had one playoff season, though he had three near-playoff seasons, the last of which resulted in his replacement by his former teammate Forrest Gregg …
… who unlike Starr had head coaching experience (including leading Cincinnati to a Super Bowl), but like Starr had no GM experience. Gregg duplicated Starr’s last season twice, then blew up the roster but failed to improve the roster, then left for his alma mater, Southern Methodist University. Gregg’s replacements were GM Tom Braatz and coach Lindy Infante (Gregg’s offensive coordinator in Cincinnati), who produced one near-playoff season, but that was it.
Wolf waited until the day after the 1991 season ended, then fired Infante. Wolf hired the right coach, Mike Holmgren (Wolf’s second choice when Bill Parcells turned him down, as Lombardi was the second choice after Iowa’s Forest Evashefski turned them down), but had to replace Holmgren when Holmgren decided he wanted to be a GM/coach too. Wolf’s next, Ray Rhodes, lasted one 8–8 season. Hire numb3er three, Mike Sherman, lasted one season as coach, then got promoted to GM/coach (wrongly, but for understandable reasons) when Wolf retired. Sherman’s GM replacement was Ted Thompson, who was Sherman’s boss for one season before firing him and hiring McCarthy.
With a new general manager, Brian Gutekunst, there is historical precedent for McCarthy’s firing if for no other reason than Wolf and Thompson wanting their own coach. But as the first Facebook post says, be careful what you wish for. Gregg was not a better hire than Starr, and the NFL has a long list of coach firings that were not improvements, unless you believe that Ed Biles was a better coach than Bum Phillips, or that Barry Switzer was a better NFL coach than Jimmy Johnson.
There is a school of thought to fire McCarthy and replace him with one of his coordinators, both of whom, Joe Philbin on offense and Mike Pettine on defense, are former NFL head coaches. The head coaching records of Philbin (24–28 in Miami) and Pettine (10–22 in Cleveland) do not suggest them as promising repalcements for McCarthy.
If the Packers intend on firing McCarthy, that’s an obvious sign that the Packers are starting over, which means forget about 2019 and probably 2020. Recall that McCarthy took two seasons to get to the playoffs with Brett Favre, and needed two more seasons with Aaron Rodgers to get to the playoffs. So McCarthy’s firing, if it takes place, would be a sign that Rodgers, arguably the best in the NFL (though the Patriots’ Tom Brady has four more Super Bowl wins), is not long for the franchise. The chances of the Packers’ successfully twice replacing a quarterback who at one time was the best in the league is not good.
Ranker has an interesting, though not entirely accurate, list of bands that changed musical genres, including …
Many bands changed their sound over the course of their careers. Whether it’s due to personal growth, members leaving, or pressure from their label, bands that switched genres aren’t uncommon. Pop stars explore different sounds all the time. But it’s different when a band switches genres and then becomes massively successful.
When a band’s breakthrough hit sounds totally different than their earlier output, it can be jarring for fans and critics alike. Sometimes the new direction is a natural progression, and older fans are completely okay with it. Other times, fans get a little heated. This is a list of 19 bands that changed genres before they made it big.
Fleetwood Mac
Even if you’re not familiar with their catalog, you might at least know singer Stevie Nicks from her appearances on American Horror Story: Coven. But before Stevie joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 and brought along a poppier sound, the band released several albums as a blues band. “Black Magic Woman,” which was released in 1968, was a modest hit in the UK. Their early blues albums performed well in England, but they never achieved much crossover success in the US.
Several personnel changes brought about a new pop sound, and Nicks announced herself as a formidable presence on her very first album with the band, 1975’s Fleetwood Mac, by writing and performing two of the band’s most famous singles: “Rhiannon,” which she sings in the AHS clip linked above, and “Landslide.” The band became wildly popular in the US, and Nicks’s second album with them, Rumours, has sold over 40 million copies worldwide and is the eighth-best-selling record of all time.
Yes, the same group that did …
… also did …
Genesis
This entry is a little different from the rest on the list: despite the fact that you may know them only as “that band my dad likes,” there are two very distinct versions of Genesis. And both of them were really successful.
From 1967 to 1975, Genesis was fronted by Peter Gabriel. During the Gabriel era, the band had a considerably more theatrical sound and look, and was more popular in their native UK than the US. Genesis helped pioneer the genre of prog. Gabriel’s last album with the band, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, was a concept album about a young Puerto Rican man named Rael living in New York City. “The Carpet Crawlers,” one of the singles from the album, shows off the band’s sound at the time. After Gabriel left to spend more time with his family, drummer Phil Collins took over on lead vocals and shifted the band’s sound.
The Collins era of Genesis produced most of their iconic songs, like 1983’s “That’s All.” Collins’s lyrics were more straightforward, dealing with aspects of everyday life. Gabriel’s prog influences faded, and Collins took the band in a more commercial rock direction. While the band continued on until 1997, fans are still deeply divided over the Gabriel and Collins eras. Despite the division, Genesis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
“Shifted the band’s sound” is an understatement.
Journey
It’s probably a safe bet that if you heard Journey’s first single, “To Play Some Music,” (which you probably haven’t, because it didn’t even chart) with no context, you’d have a hard time identifying them as the same band that later released “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Before Journey became a universal guilty pleasure, they released two poorly-received jazz fusion albums. Pressure from their record label caused them to switch up their sound and bring in a powerhouse singer; they first brought in Robert Fleischman, who lasted less than a year, before settling on Steve Perry. With Perry, the band went on to achieve massive success as a rock band with songs like “Wheel in the Sky” and “Any Way You Want It.”
Until now I had never heard this:
Too bad they went away from that to how people now know Journey. (Just go to your local high school if you want to hear “Don’t Stop Believin’.”)
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees were actually really popular as a folk band in the late 1960s. Many of their songs relied on Robin Gibb’s straightforward vocals, which reflected the kind of music that was popular at the time. They had multiple songs and albums that hit the top 20 of the Billboard charts (including “New York Mining Disaster 1941,” which was their first big hit), so the fact that they’re now almost exclusively remembered as 1970s disco megastars shows just how influential their new sound was.
The Bee Gees broke up in 1970, but after reforming later that year, they found that their folk sound wasn’t connecting with audiences the way it used to. They turned to disco to try and regain their former popularity. Their secret was Barry Gibb: with arguably one of the most iconic falsettos of all time, Gibb turned the tides of public favor and crafted the iconic disco sound the Bee Gees are known for. They wrote and recorded the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever, the hugely successful 1977 John Travolta film, which included the hit “Stayin’ Alive.” The soundtrack went on to become the highest-selling soundtrack of all time until Whitney Houston’s soundtrack for The Bodyguard surpassed it in 1992.
The problem with that last paragraph is that it completely ignores the post-folk pre-disco Bee Gees, without which the group’s involvement with “Saturday Night Fever” may never have occurred …
… along with what followed “Saturday Night Fever”:
Iron Maiden
British heavy metal titans Iron Maiden have always had a pretty metal aesthetic (see the torture device the band is named after), but their first album had a decidedly punk sound, even if the band will never admit it. Iron Maiden, the band’s first album, was plagued with production and personnel problems. The band was unhappy with the production on the album and blamed producer Will Malone. Steve Harris, the band’s bassist, told Guitar World, “We were all young and naïve and we didn’t know about producers and what they do – or don’t do, really. And [Malone] was just a waste of time. He didn’t do anything. He just sat there with his feet up reading Country Life. So in the end we just bypassed him and dealt straight with the engineer.” The low production value is what lent songs like “Sanctuary” their punk sound.
But current lead singer Bruce Dickinson told Spin, “The first Maiden album sounded punky because it sounded like a sack of s–t. He hates that record. The first singer [Paul Di’Anno] gave it a little bit of that kind of vibe, but the punk thing was nailed to the band by the press. The band absolutely hated it, because there was no way on God’s green earth Maiden were ever, even remotely, a punk band.” If classics like “The Trooper” are any indication, Iron Maiden may be the only band on this list that was ever accidentally a different genre.
Black Keys
This is another case where the band simply evolved and matured beyond their original sound. As a blues duo, the band released eight albums, but the earlier ones were, well, a lot bluesier than the later ones. Consider “I’ll Be Your Man,” from their first album, and “Fever,” from their most recent album, Turn Blue. “Fever” has a much more accessible blues-pop sound, which is apparently what audiences wanted to hear, because in addition to winning heaps of Grammys, Turn Blue debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Dexys Midnight Runners
The band best known for “Come On Eileen,” a divisive earworm of a song, started out as a semi-political soul group. Dexys Midnight Runners has gone through numerous lineup changes over the years, with singer Kevin Rowland being the only consistent member. He was frequently argumentative with the music press, often taking out ads in magazines and newspapers to espouse his thoughts. Rowland wrote songs about issues facing Irish immigrants in Britain, which led many critics to brand them as overly serious.
He was also insistent that the band have a consistent look, though that look changed a few times over the years. When “Come on Eileen” was released, the band was wearing overalls and no shoes, which in combination with the use of violin in the song, gave them a decidedly pop-country feel. According to Rowland, “I told everyone that Eileen was my childhood girlfriend. In fact she was composite, to make a point about Catholic repression.” But whatever point he was trying to make got overshadowed, as the band became a one-hit wonder with a pop song that most people think is just about a guy trying to convince a woman to go out with him.
Wisconsinites know that the first radio station was what now is WHA in Madison. Today in 1920, the nation’s first commercial radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, went on the air.
The number one British single today in 1956 is the only number one song cowritten by a vice president, Charles Dawes:
The number one song today in 1974:
The number one British album today in 1985 was Simple Minds’ “Once Upon a Time” …
Tony Evers’ campaign for governor and every Democrat’s campaign for the Legislature is an effort to undo everything that has happened in this state since the 2010 election.
First (not necessarily in chronological order), Act 10, of which M.D. Kittle writes:
Gov. Scott Walker knows he has a tough campaign battle ahead against Democrat opponent Tony Evers, superintendent of the state Department of Public Instruction.
But Walker, a two-term Republican who has survived three gubernatorial contests in nearly eight years (including his unprecedented victory in the 2012 recall election), says he can beat Evers and the predicted “Blue Wave” if his campaign focuses on the success stories of his tenure.
The campaign will surely point out the positive impacts Walker’s landmark Act 10 reforms of 2011 have had on Wisconsin taxpayers.
As MacIver News Service has reported, the public sector collective bargaining reforms have saved local and state governments well north of $5 billion. Most recently, MacIver News reported on new numbers from the state Department of Administration that show Wisconsin school districts alone have saved more than $3.2 billion in benefits costs, thanks to Act 10.
What hasn’t been as widely known or appreciated – until now – is how much money taxpayers in Wisconsin’s 422 public school districts have saved through a key Act 10 provision that opened up bidding to new insurers for the first time in years.
Once effectively locked into no-competition contracts, districts have largely moved to more taxpayer-friendly health plans, ultimately freeing up more money for education.
Act 10 also changed expectations. No longer would the entire burden of ever-escalating premiums be placed solely on the backs of taxpayers.
Public employees are required to contribute at least 12 percent of wages to their health care costs. That provision has delivered huge cost savings to taxpayers.
Before Act 10, 43 percent of all school districts in the state paid their employees’ entire premium on single plans. That number has dropped to 6.4 percent, according to the latest data.
“(School Districts) were able to use our reforms in bidding on health care insurance and making other changes, and asking for reasonable contributions for health care premiums for insurance that is far better, more generous for these employees than many employers have in the state,” Walker told MacIver News Service this week on the Vicki McKenna Show. “Our reforms put more actual dollars into state aid to our schools than ever before.”
Evers last year joined a crowded field of Democrats running for governor promising to work toward repealing Act 10.
The Republican-led biennial budget for 2017-19 includes record education spending, including a $639 million increase. Evers early on called the budget a “pro-kid budget.” He stopped calling it that after he declared his campaign for governor. The superintendent of the state Department of Public Instruction doesn’t much care for Walker referring to himself as the “education governor.”
Evers has pledged to make the “largest investment in early childhood education that our state has ever seen.” He also wants to see the state pick up a larger share of education funding. Such pledges, it appears, would require a huge infusion of tax dollars.
Walker said results-driven education budgeting isn’t just about spending, it’s how you spend.
“We do believe in education. That’s why I am the education governor,” he said. “I just believe it should go in the classroom to generate positive results for our students because they are the ones who are going to help us build the workforce of the 21st century.”
One of the biggest things “the education governor” did was expand private school choice, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported earlier this year:
Private schools, most of them faith-based, continue to flock to Wisconsin’s taxpayer-funded statewide voucher program that serves students outside of the Racine and Milwaukee school districts, according to new state data.
According to the state Department of Public Instruction, 222 schools have signed up to take part in the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, an increase of 68 schools from this year and nine times the 25 that enrolled when the program debuted in 2013-’14.
School choice advocates celebrated the numbers, saying demand for the program remains strong.
“The more people find out about the program, the more popular it becomes,” Jim Bender, School Choice Wisconsin, said in a statement responding to the data.
The Journal Sentinel story then said:
Public education proponents voiced concerns that the program diverts funding from public schools, many of which are already strained by declining enrollments, which limit state funding, and revenue caps that control how much they can levy from taxpayers.
“The more schools are added to the Choice program, the more it continues to shrink the overall piece of the funding pie everyone gets,” said Kim Kaul, executive director of the Wisconsin Alliance of Rural Schools.
“We are now funding around 700 schools out of the same pot of money we used to fund 424 schools.”
Speaking of paying, there are the several tax cuts passed since Walker has been in office. None were supported by Democrats. Apparently Evers must have figured out he was behind in the race because he came out magically with his 10 percent “middle class” tax cut, of which no specifics have been forthcoming. Anyway, what Evers says about taxes is not believable given that he has laid out plans to increase taxes by between $4.5 million and $7.2 billion.
(Evers claims he can increase school spending by $1 billion and not increase taxes. He has not said what he plans to cut to reach that $1 billion.)
There was also the $100-per-child tax rebate early this year and the sales tax holiday in early August, neither of which were supported by Democrats.
Walker also made Wisconsin the next to last state in the U.S. to approve concealed-carry. Evers claims he doesn’t want to change the law, but his party has a difference of opinion, and there is no doubt a Democratic governor and Democrat-controlled Legislature would not change CCW, but end CCW.
There is also Foxconn, about which Democrats have been lying for months even though they’d be dislocating their shoulders patting themselves on the back had they gotten Foxconn. Foxconn, remember, receives no money from the state until those 13,000 jobs get created. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either mistaken or lying.
These and other things have happened to benefit this state (like record low unemployment and, finally, wage growth) during the past eight years. Voting for Democrats means that everything you have read here goes away in the next four years, replaced by, once again, the tyranny and thuggery of teacher unions and the destruction of this state’s economy by the environmentalist left. That is the bottom line of Nov. 6.
Marquette University, Oct. 29, 2014:
A new Marquette Law School Poll finds Republican Gov. Scott Walker leading Democratic challenger Mary Burke 50 percent to 43 percent among likely voters in the Wisconsin governor’s race. Another 3 percent say that they are undecided or that they do not know whom they will support, while 1 percent say that they will vote for someone else. Likely voters are those who say that they are certain to vote in the November election.
Among registered voters in the poll, Walker receives 46 percent and Burke 45 percent, with 4 percent undecided and 1 percent saying that they will vote for someone else.
Walker won with 52.3 percent of the vote to Burke’s 46.6 percent.
Marquette University, Nov. 2, 2016:
A new Marquette Law School Poll finds 46 percent of Wisconsin likely voters supporting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and 40 percent supporting Republican Donald Trump in the race for president. Libertarian Gary Johnson is supported by 4 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein by 3 percent. Six percent do not express a preference, saying that they will vote for neither candidate, will not vote or don’t know how they will vote. …
The new survey, the final Marquette Law School Poll to be conducted before the Nov. 8 election, additionally finds a very close U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin, with 45 percent of likely voters supporting Democrat Russ Feingold and 44 percent supporting Republican Ron Johnson. Libertarian candidate Phil Anderson has 3 percent support, while 5 percent do not express a candidate preference, saying that they will vote for none of the candidates, will not vote or don’t know how they will vote. In the poll conducted Oct. 6-9, Feingold held 46 percent to Johnson’s 44 percent, with Anderson at 4 percent and 5 percent without a preference.
Trump won Wisconsin with 47.22 percent to Clinton’s 46.45 percent. Johnson won the Senate race with 50.2 percent to Feingold’s 46.8 percent.
Marquette University, Oct. 31:
A new Marquette Law School Poll of Wisconsin voters finds a tie in the state’s race for governor, with incumbent Republican Scott Walker and Democrat challenger Tony Evers each receiving 47 percent support among likely voters. Libertarian candidate Phil Anderson receives 3 percent, and only 1 percent say they lack a preference or do not lean to a candidate. One percent declined to respond to the question. Likely voters are defined as those who say they are certain to vote in the Nov. 6 election. In the most recent Marquette Law School Poll, conducted Oct. 3-7, Walker was supported by 47 percent, Evers by 46 percent and Anderson by 5 percent among likely voters.
In the race for Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate seat, Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin leads among likely voters with 54 percent supporting her, while 43 percent support Republican challenger Leah Vukmir. Only 2 percent say they lack a preference or do not lean toward a candidate and 1 percent did not respond. In early October, Baldwin was supported by 53 percent and Vukmir by 43 percent.
In the race for Wisconsin attorney general, Republican incumbent Brad Schimel is the choice of 47 percent and Democrat Josh Kaul is the choice of 45 percent of likely voters. Seven percent lack a preference in this race and 2 percent did not respond. In the early October poll, Schimel held 47 percent and Kaul 43 percent of likely voters.
Among all registered voters surveyed in the poll, Walker receives 47 percent in the race for governor, with Evers receiving 44 percent and Anderson at 5 percent.
In the Senate race, among all registered voters, Baldwin receives 52 percent and Vukmir 42 percent.
For attorney general, registered voters give Schimel 45 percent and Kaul 43 percent.
Draw your own conclusions.
Today begins with a non-music anniversary: Today in 1870, the U.S. Weather Bureau was created, later to become the National Weather Service.
Tomorrow in 1870, the first complaints were made about the Weather Bureau’s being wrong about its forecast.
Today in 1946, two New York radio stations changed call letters. WABC, owned by CBS, became (natch) WCBS, paving the way for WJZ, owned by ABC, to become (natch) WABC seven years later. WEAF changed its call letters to WNBC.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is seemingly in the fight of his political life—again. Elected narrowly in 2010 and 2014 (and surviving a recall election in 2012), he trails state education superintendent Tony Evers by a few points in his quest for a third gubernatorial term. One summer poll showed that just 34 percent of Wisconsin voters believe Walker deserves re-election, although his numbers have since modestly rebounded.
It is not surprising that a Republican governor of a purple state is struggling in 2018. The surprise is that Scott Walker may lose despite building a record of achievement that should be the envy of any governor, even Democratic ones in some respects. (Full disclosure: I was born and raised in Wisconsin, and I occasionally advised Walker a few years ago.)
After succeeding Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle in 2010, Walker inherited a free-falling state with a $2.5 trillion structural budget deficit, rising taxes, and an 8-percent unemployment rate.
Faced with a state balanced-budget requirement and soaring public employee costs, Walker pushed through the “Act 10” reforms that required public employees to contribute to their own pensions and pay at least 12.6 percent of the cost of their own health insurance premiums. Act 10 also limited collective bargaining between the public employee unions and the state—which had driven benefits to exorbitant levels—and also allowed school districts to shop around for employee health care providers. These reforms helped balance the budget while requiring little of public employees that is not already required of private sector workers.
Walker has since maintained these balanced budgets while nearly freezing property tax collections for eight years, and reducing income tax rates across the board. Tax rates were cut the deepest in the bottom bracket, which is now at its lowest rate since 1985.
And yet public services were not starved.
Start with health care. Although Wisconsin turned down the federal Medicaid expansion funding, Walker enacted his own health care expansions that completely eliminated the health coverage gap for low-income families. This past summer, he won federal approval for a $200 million reinsurance program for 2019 that will result in a 3.5 percentdecline in costs for the average family on the ACA marketplace exchanges (11 percent lower than without this program). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services now ranks Wisconsin fourth in overall health care quality.
Walker has since maintained these balanced budgets while nearly freezing property tax collections for eight years, and reducing income tax rates across the board. Tax rates were cut the deepest in the bottom bracket, which is now at its lowest rate since 1985.
And yet public services were not starved.
Start with health care. Although Wisconsin turned down the federal Medicaid expansion funding, Walker enacted his own health care expansions that completely eliminated the health coverage gap for low-income families. This past summer, he won federal approval for a $200 million reinsurance program for 2019 that will result in a 3.5 percentdecline in costs for the average family on the ACA marketplace exchanges (11 percent lower than without this program). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services now ranks Wisconsin fourth in overall health care quality.
Moving to education, Wisconsin’s per-capita education spending has remained near the national average, as have teacher salaries and benefits (despite Act 10). The state’s average starting teacher salary—$36,983—is in line with neighboring states.
More boldly, the University of Wisconsin system—which enrolls more than 170,000 students across more than a dozen universities—is now in year six of a historic 10-year tuition freeze for in-state undergraduates. In the 11 years before the freeze, tuition had jumped between 6 percent and 18 percent every year. At the flagship University of Wisconsin at Madison, in-state tuition is now 26 percent lower than the University of Minnesota, 27 percent lower than the University of Michigan, and 33 percent lower than the University of Illinois.
Finally, Wisconsin has balanced its books while maintaining a state pension that is 99-percent funded—tops in the country and dwarfing neighboring Minnesota (53 percent funded) and Illinois (36 percent). Illinois in particular has been brought to its knees by a long-term pension shortfall estimated between $130 billion and $250 billion.
Wisconsin’s economy is also roaring. Despite the aforementioned 8 percent unemployment rate when Walker took office, Wisconsin’s rate has fallen below 3 percent for the first time ever measured even despite a higher-than-average labor force participation rate. The state also ranks second in the country in manufacturing jobs created over the past year.
The University of Wisconsin’s Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy (CROWE) reports that per-capita incomes are growing fasterthan nearly all neighboring states. In fact, Wisconsin’s average private earnings rose by 6.6 percent last year, compared to 1.8 percent in Minnesota. CROWE research also shows that, since 2010, Wisconsin families have enjoyed real income growth of 13.1 percent (14.3 percent including tax relief), which well exceeds the national average and represents $11,200 in new income per family.
To recap: under Governor Scott Walker, Wisconsin eliminated its budget deficit while significantly cutting taxes and maintaining America’s top-funded pension system. Health care coverage is expanding while health premiums are falling. University tuition is enjoying a historic ten-year freeze, and K-12 education spending remains healthy. The state is benefiting from its lowest unemployment rate ever measured, and family incomes are soaring.
Yet only 34 percent of voters consider this record to be worthy of re-election. Three reasons have emerged.
First, Trump’s unpopularity—even in Wisconsin, which he narrowly won—is driving many voters to punish all Republicans.
Then there is voter complacency. It is not uncommon for voters to get the “eight-year itch,” and begin to take strong economic and budgetary progress for granted. Anyone can find some priority they want further emphasized, and a challenger candidate can promise all things to all people. Specifically, surveys show that Wisconsin voters want even more spending on schools, roads, and health care, and are skeptical of $4 billion in incentives that lured Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn to pledge a $10 billion investment in Wisconsin. Many others have never forgiven Walker for Act 10 (which brought the aforementioned recall election), even though eliminating the state’s $2.5 billion structural deficit left few plausible alternatives.
Finally, Scott Walker has long been considered a polarizing figure. He has certainly not backed down from partisan fights. Across the state, scars remain from the 2011 Act 10 debate that brought massive liberal protests and even State Senate Democrats fleeing the state to deny the necessary quorum to pass the legislation. Walker’s brief 2016 presidential run was widely criticized by Wisconsinites as an act of hubris from a governor who had been on the job for only six years (even he now admits it was a mistake).
Legendary baseball manager Casey Stengel famously declared that “the key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided.” Roughly 45 percent of this purple state’s voters have long been committed to Walker’s defeat. Despite an extraordinarily successful gubernatorial record, holding the remaining 55 percent together will require Scott Walker surviving the Trump effect, a tendency to polarize, and voter complacency.
Regardless of how you or I feel about everything Walker has done, it should be obvious that if you want the state to return to the days of a cratering economy, vote for Tony Evers and other Democrats.
Today in 1963, Ed Sullivan was at Heathrow Airport in London just as the Beatles deplaned to a crowd of screaming fans and a mob of journalists and photographers.
Intrigued, Sullivan decided to investigate getting the Beatles onto his show.
Today in 1964, Ray Charles was arrested at Logan Airport in Boston and charged with heroin. Charles was sentenced to one year probation after he kicked the horse.
Oct. 30, 1938 at 8 p.m Eastern time on your favorite CBS Radio station:
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 
