As we march to the April 5 election, we continue highlighting the races of general interest in our news pages. This week it is government reporter Joe Tarr weighing in on the county executive contest between Joe Parisi and Eileen Bruskewitz.
Now, in most places in the country this would seem like the prosaic race between two candidates who fall on either side of the middle of the road. Parisi would generally be acknowledged as falling on the left side, Bruskewitz on the right. As I said, in most places that's the way it goes, right versus left. But in Dane County, this is sort of strange. Conservatives, or righties, are usually hard to spot outside of Vicki McKenna's radio show.
Here at Isthmus Publishing, we have, through the years, maintained a conservative presence in our contributors' corps, all the better to fulfill our mission to present a full spectrum of perspective. These days that role is filled for the most part by Christian Schneider and the redoubtable David Blaska.
Of course we know that Bruskewitz made it past the primary because she was the only righty on the ballot and the county's solid third of conservatives was monolithically behind her. Good for second place in liberal Dane County.
Do I bemoan the lack of conservative dominance in Dane County? No. But I do like to see a race between contending views. I do like to see all points of view brought to a debate. I don't enjoy hearing two candidates of the same political shade trying to out-harangue one another.
The prospects for my seeing many such ideological throwdowns are not very good these days, seeing how Gov. Walker's shenanigans have put a crimp in the conservative prospects around here. Maybe we'll get some fireworks out of this county executive race.
