I could be wrong. God knows, I’ve been wrong about most things political in the last 12 months.
But it seems to me that Democrats and liberals are taking all the wrong lessons from their historic, mind-blowing defeats of last November. The latest idea seems to be that they should all become grumpy, old socialists.
But it’s a pretty big leap to say that Bernie Sanders’ Democratic primary win in Wisconsin last year means that a Sanders-like candidate would defeat Gov. Scott Walker.
First and most importantly, there’s that “primary” qualification. Sanders did not win the general election because he didn’t get the nomination. Hillary Clinton did and she became the first Democrat to lose our state since Walter Mondale. Would Sanders have won? Who knows? Most Democratic politicos I talk with think not, but they all thought Clinton would win easily as well, so take that with a boulder of salt. My point is that just because Sanders won a Democratic primary doesn’t mean that he would have won a general election.
Second, the gubernatorial election will always happen in the off year — that is the election between presidential races. Historically, that has meant a lower and more conservative turnout. That doesn’t seem to argue for a fire-breathing liberal type.
Third, I would argue that Sanders’ main appeal wasn’t that he was old, grumpy or a socialist, but that he didn’t sound like every other politician. He had at least that in common with Donald Trump. What voters seem to be looking for these days is authenticity. So, almost by definition, any candidate who says in effect, “I want to be like that guy,” is missing the point.
What the Democrats really need is somebody who can win in the north. That’s where Walker’s approval numbers have fallen off the cliff and that’s where the recession is still in full force. The unemployment rate in Iron County is 7.4 percent. The idea that somebody from Madison can show up and make a winning case that they can bring Madison’s 2.2 percent rate north is as credible as the idea that we can move the UW or Epic to Wausau.
Look, the Democratic candidate is going to get his or her share of votes in Madison and Milwaukee just based on anti-Walker sentiment. And the governor will have a lock on the Milwaukee suburbs. The race will be decided north of Highway 29.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that that candidate has to be from the North Woods, but a guy (or gal) who knows his way around a deer blind and a chainsaw sure wouldn’t hurt.
So, what about a guy like Jim Holperin?
Holperin, 66, of Eagle River, served in the state Assembly and the Senate. Walker likes to tout the fact that he is the first governor in history to survive a recall election. Holperin’s got him on that score. He is the only legislator in history to survive two recall elections.
Both would serve him well in a Democratic primary. In 1990, as a state representative from the North Woods, he stood up for Native American treaty rights amid the ugly controversy over spearfishing. In 2011, after he had returned to Madison as a state senator from Eagle River, he was threatened with recall again for being part of “The 14” senators who fled the state to stall a vote as Republicans rushed to shut down public input and debate over Act 10. In both cases, Holperin took incredible heat back home, but still survived.
In both stints in the Legislature, Holperin was well liked and respected by his colleagues on both sides of the aisle for being smart and practical but principled as well.
In between he served as state tourism secretary, and he’s currently a small business owner in Eagle River, which should adequately check the business sensitive box.
I stopped by his store the last time I was in Eagle River and asked him if he would consider running for governor. He laughed at the suggestion. “They changed the game on me,” he said.
I asked him what he meant by that. These are my words, not his, but I concluded that Holperin likes his independence. He doesn’t like party hacks from Madison telling him how to run his campaigns in the north, how much money he has to raise, how he has to go negative. Basically, he’s fed up with all the consultant-driven nonsense that has gotten the party into the mess it’s in right now. All the more reason he’d be the kind of real guy the Democrats need.
I like Bernie Sanders. I voted for him when I had the chance. But the notion that a Sanders-light candidate could win back the governor’s office just doesn’t hold much water. The Dems have to win the north and a guy like Jim Holperin could do that. First rule, let’s not nominate anybody who has never shot a deer.
