Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

I like to ply Wisconsin trout streams. I think I should pay my fair share for the privilege. So does Trout Unlimited. The organization’s Wisconsin chapter is lobbying the Legislature to increase the trout stamp from $10 to $15. When you buy a Wisconsin fishing license you have the option of purchasing an inland and/orContinue reading “Midwest: Tax Me For Trout”

Both sides are wrong in the blowup over guns in the Tennessee Legislature, but the Republicans are more wrong. Let’s play a little YSDA tennis, smashing the ball of insanity over the net of reasonable behavior. We start with yet another senseless school shooting, this one in Nashville where six students and administrators were gunnedContinue reading “Madness in Tennessee”

It’s Good Friday and I’m going to church. I belong to the Church of Augusta National. This year it so happens that the Masters coincides with Easter weekend. (Is that what we’re supposed to call it? Easter Weekend? Hurry in for big Easter Savings before prices rise on Sunday morning!) Today I’m missing my friend,Continue reading “The Church of Golf”

Last August Kansas voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have made abortion illegal there. That proposal went down 41% – 59%. Liberals rejoiced. Then only three months later those same voters elected Kris Kolbach, a hard-right election denier, to be their Attorney General and they returned overwhelming majorities of conservative Republicans to their LegislatureContinue reading “Limits on Abortion”

We wake up this morning to election results that really don’t contain many surprises. Supreme Court. As expected Janet Protasiewicz won an easy victory over Dan Kelly. The only surprising thing was Kelly’s concession speech. It was curious to hear a guy lament the loss of dignity on the court as he called his opponentContinue reading “Not A Lot of Surprises”

When election results come flowing in this evening there will be a lot to keep an eye on, even if the results seem foreordained. To put it in the simplest terms this is the abortion election. If Democrats are right, they’ll run the table. If they miscalculated, there will be some surprises. Protasiewicz’s margin. I’dContinue reading “What to Watch For Tonight”

Tomorrow’s election is filled with likely outcomes. If you live in Madison, the one vote that really counts is for school board and the clear choice is Badri Lankella. I would be shocked if Janet Protasiewicz and Satya Rhodes-Conway didn’t win their races for Supreme Court and Madison Mayor, respectively, and by comfortable margins. IContinue reading “Lankella For School Board”

I try not to dwell on the past. I resist introspection, having spent much of my early life doing way too much of that. But I’ll make an exception this morning to recall that 20 years ago I woke up to find that I had been elected Mayor of Madison the night before. It hadContinue reading “The Joy of Politics”

It’s only the top half of the first inning of the Trump indictment game, but his challengers for the GOP nomination have taken the early lead. The coming indictment from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was a fastball right down the middle for Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence and Nikki Haley. DeSantis said it was, “theContinue reading “A Gift to Trump Challengers”

Almost all of the political oxygen in this April’s election has been taken up by the Supreme Court race, But, as the campaigns enter their final weekend, there are other contests to keep an eye on, most notably races for mayor in Green Bay and Racine. Here in Madison we have yet another mayoral raceContinue reading “Watch G.B. and Racine”