Some Questions For Francesca Hong

At this point, based on the latest Marquette poll results, it looks like a certainty that Francesca Hong will be the Democratic nominee for governor. Tony Evers’ Hail Mary in the form of David Crowley looks to be either falling to the end zone turf or being intercepted and run back the other way by Hong.

According to the results, Hong is now at 38%, up from 26% last week while undecided voters went from 45% to 34%. All of the other candidates who were in both polls stayed the same. Crowley essentially replaced Sara Rodriguez, but she was at 11% and he’s at 7%. So Evers’ support cost the leading moderate four points and Hong picked up all the undecideds who made up their minds.

In other words, it’s over. And it will be Hong versus Tom Tiffany in November.

Hong is a proud member of the Democratic Socialists, so it’s natural and fair to ask her about her (other) party’s platform, among other things. So, candidate Hong, here goes:

1. The DSA calls for essentially eliminating all checks and balances at the federal level. The Senate would be eliminated altogether and the House would appoint both the president and the supreme court, so there would be no independent judiciary. Do you support that? Do you support the same thing at the state level? What if MAGA were to control the House? Would you still support this plan?

2. The platform calls for the elimination of the police and jails and “disempowering police unions.” Do you support that? What other unions would you disempower? If police and jails are just the means of white supremacy, then how do you explain support in black neighborhoods for more police presence there?

3. The platform calls for free college, forgiveness of all student debt, free child care, Medicare for all with no copays, reparations and more. How would you pay for that? If it doesn’t all happen at the federal level, will you try do it in Wisconsin? Again, how will you pay for it? If your answer is higher taxes on the rich, how much more than the current 40% of federal income taxes should the top one percent of earners pay? What effect will this have on economic growth and job creation?

4. The platform calls for a 32-hour work week with no reduction in pay or benefits. If there’s a decrease in productivity with no corresponding decrease in pay, what effect will that have on the economy?

5. The platform calls for universal rent control. Won’t that worsen the housing shortage? If you were a developer why would you build any rental housing when you don’t know what the government will allow you to charge in rent over the lifetime of your loans? Why would banks loan you the money?

6. The platform calls for the closure of all overseas U.S. military bases. If North Korea — with its brutal dictatorship (do you even agree that it’s a brutal dictatorship?) –were to attack South Korea, would you just let that happen? What about Taiwan? Would you end U.S. military aid for Ukraine? Do you then also support Donald Trump in his efforts to back out of NATO? Would you allow Vladimer Putin to invade more countries?

7. The platform accuses Israel of genocide, yet makes no reference to Hamas’ October 7th attacks or to the “from the river to the sea” assertion that is essentially about wiping Israel from the map. Do you support Israel’s right to exist? Is vowing to destroy Israel genocide? If Benjamin Netanyahu came to Wisconsin would you have him arrested?

8. A recent poll found that, among all the Democratic candidates, you have the lowest support with nonwhite voters and the highest support among those with college educations. If you’re the candidate of the marginalized, how do you explain that?

9. This summer, in your Assembly district. a career criminal with a violent history was resisting arrest when he pulled out a knife and slashed a Madison police officer. When a taser failed to stop him, an officer found it necessary to use deadly force. Within hours of the incident, and with only sketchy information, you pronounced this “an execution.” Is this the kind of judgement and temperament we can expect from you as governor?

These are some of the questions Tiffany will raise between now and November. They’re good and fair questions and ones we should all have.

And here’s another one: if the primary is over now, is it also a done deal for a Tiffany victory? Not necessarily. From my perspective, and that of most moderates, the political world has gone mad. In an era when Donald Trump can be president (twice) and Graham Platner had secured the Senate nomination in Maine before self-destructing and DSA members won primaries in New York and a few other places and now Hong can take over the Democratic Party here, anything can happen. Some significant part of the electorate just wants to blow everything up.

A crucial question for Hong is how many Democrats like me are out there. Because just as there were Never Trump Republicans in 2016, I’m now a Never Socialist Democrat. I may not vote for Tom Tiffany, but I certainly will not vote for Francesca Hong. Like the Never Trumpers, I’ll choose my country over my party every time.