Candidate info
Are you looking for the League of Women Voters of Dane County Candidates’ Answers? These are included in Isthmus for general elections, but for primary elections, including Tuesday, Aug. 9, you can find the candidate responses, answers to questions about voting and links to candidate interviews on our website: lwvdanecounty.org.
Brook Soltvedt (via email)
Losing game
Wisconsin Republicans, you are playing a losing game. Your constant devastating cuts continue to ravage our beloved University of Wisconsin. I was deeply distressed when I learned in the recent Isthmus article “Time to Leave” (7/28/2016) that two more high-profile UW-Madison professors are departing for a more supportive university. Even worse, they are the co-directors of the groundbreaking UW-Madison Games + Learning + Society (GLS) Center. Ten million dollars in grants and another $1 million in private industry contracts will leave Wisconsin with them.
This loss is personal for me. My daughter-in-law works at Filament Games, a Madison business founded in 2005 by two graduates of GLS. I have watched Filament grow rapidly. Today 40 employees create imaginative digital learning games, including some that help players learn about topics in U.S. government such as the Bill of Rights and immigration.
Carrie Scherpelz (via email)
DA race
Bill Lueders’ article about the Dane County DA’s race was important and timely (“A Heated Battle for Dane County DA,” 7/28/2016). It is heartening to see scrutiny brought upon the office. The elephant in the room: the gross racial disparities that continue to be perpetrated under Mr. Ozanne’s administration. Spouting racial justice language is different from actual justice. As the Race to Equity Report makes clear, Dane County continues to be a perilous place to be black. Embedded unjust legal processes — hidebound prosecutorial ways that go back decades — have only worsened under Mr. Ozanne’s tenure. Race-driven charging decisions, overzealous prosecutions, extreme disparities in sentencing, all continue unabated under Ismael Ozanne. Voters have a chance to put a stop to it on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016.
Michael D. Barrett (via email)
Bill Lueders has done again what he’s done so often before — take an involved issue and break it down, give accurate information, share all sides, and give the readers/voters what we need to decide who will have our vote. Journalism doesn’t get any better than this.
Bob Kasieta (via comments)
Correction
A story in last week’s issue, “Nature Nurtured,” misnamed the group Outdoors 123 in two references.
