Mielke Continues to Embarrass Himself, Republican Party in Losing Primary Battle

I've written countless times about the not so appealing candidate Dan Mielke.  In fact, I've written about him so much that I should change the name of this blog to The Mielke View.  But try as I might I cannot escape this topic when there are so many gems to report on. 

During the Americans for Prosperity event Mielke and Rachel Duffy got into an argument.  Mielke was, in my opinion, knowingly stating materials that misrepresented Sean's position on gay marriage - something both Sean and I oppose.  Rachel, from the accounts I have received, wanted Mielke to remove the materials and when he didn't she got a bit feisty and tried to remove one of the false signs.

That's when Mielke "violently grabbed" her arm (as reported by the WisPolitics blog here).  Now let me remind you that Rachel is neither a large frightening person or a physical threat being 8.5 months pregnant.  I don't care what the deal is - you never lay your hand on a woman, especially a pregnant woman.  I think that this is just another tactic of Mielke playing double agent for the Democratic party and trying to hurt Sean's campaign against Obey.

Later Mielke called 911 - why?  Because he got in an argument with a woman half his size and twice the man that he is (the last part being my personal opinion which I feel is widely shared).  His stated reason from the WisPolitics blog is "I was not trying to create an incident. My goal was not to turn this into a political thing".  I can smell a rat here.

I think that Mielke called the police, who left without arresting anyone, so he could generate some publicity and further damage the Republican party.  In fact, I am going to do some digging to see if I can come up with any connection between Obey and Mielke because I have a strong sense that Mielke is simply running to hurt Sean after Sean won the district endorsement.  To me, this speaks strongly of a Mielke-Obey connection somewhere (perhaps donors in common?).

In other news, Mielke is alleged to have violated campaign law.  Get that story here.

Mielke Identifies Reason Why Sean Duffy Will Win The Primary

Mielke For Congress

Sean Duffy is an Attorney, his father is an attorney, his grandfather was an attorney and a judge, his brother is an attorney and a judge.

Dan believes that attorneys serve a valuable and necessary part of our society. But Dan
also realizes that 43% of congress is already made up of attorneys. "There is a danger in
having too many attorneys in Washington. Sean was raised to think and reason like an
attorney. To insure a fair and impartial balance of thinking in the legislature we need
representations from all walks of life . Presently we are seeing the danger in too many
attorneys in Washington. The bills being voted on are confusing and legalistic in nature,
often leaving way too many legal loopholes and hidden agendas which come out after the
bill has passed. Bills need to be simple and clean without so much legalese in them. This is
why our founding fathers were concerned about the harmful influence lawyers could have
if they became too powerful in congress."

It seems that Mr. Mielke believes that since 43% of Congressman are attorneys that we shouldn't send another attorney, even a successful and respected one like Duffy, to Washington.  I'm going to leave this statement alone for just one second while I touch on one that I think is important.

First, the job of Congress is to pass legislature (aka laws).  In order to be effective at writing new laws one must first understand the old ones, right?  I mean, how can we create something if we don't understand what that something is?  If Mielke got sent to Congress he could, unwittingly, introduce legislation that would be struck down by the courts as illegal - or worse yet, let the Democrats pull on over on him. 

He said that 43% of Congressmen are lawyers and the Democrats have the majority so I say let's fight fire with fire.  Now coming back to Mielke's comments here lawyers are paid to argue the facts, present their case and persuade others.  Extremely similar to the role of politicians in Congress. 

Politicians in Congress must also argue the facts, present their case and persuade others in other to get legislation to pass.  Now that Sean has been raised to think like a lawyer, someone who makes a living persuading others, I would think that he would have mountains of experience over Mielke. 

In fact, experience is very abundant.  Duffy has been in office for four terms as a DA - an elected position.  What experience does Mielke have serving in public office?  I will give you this - he certainly knows how to lose an election.

Mielke Has a Snowball's Chance

Time Magazine – Republican Surprise: 10 More Scott Browns « Sean Duffy for Congress

In a normal year, Wisconsin Democrat David Obey, the powerful head of the House appropriations committee, would not have to worry. But normal years do not bring challengers like Sean Duffy, a successful district attorney who also happens to be a former star of MTV’s The Real World (the Boston season), a champion lumberjack competitor and an ESPN commentator. Obama won Wisconsin’s 7th District in 2008 by a decent margin, but Bush managed to win 49% of the vote in the largely Democratic district in 2004. Obey does not seem ruffled by Duffy’s harping on his role in the stimulus or statements that Obey is helping to create a “greater crisis” in terms of deficit spending. In fact, the Congressman’s campaign website isn’t even up and running yet. With plenty of media attention, strong fundraising and a very fresh face — he wasn’t even born when Obey first took office, in 1970 — Duffy will likely win the Republican primary, barring a surprise showing by the self-proclaimed Tea Party candidate Dan Mielke. Of course, that would mean facing the third longest-serving member of the House in the general election, a man whose smallest margin of victory in 18 elections was seven points.

I think it is safe to say that Daniel Mielke has no chance at winning the primary.  I mean, how many people are going to be willing to send a farmer up against Obey - especially one who has already lost once against him? 

In 2008 I was a Republican volunteer manning my county's headquarters.  During that election cycle Mielke's campaign appeared from the outside to be in a state of disarray.  All the materials, in my opinion, looked like they were made at home on a cheap inkjet printer.

Mielke's message didn't resonate with voters either - he failed to carry a single county during the 2008 election against Obey.  Not one single county was willing to say "Yes, I want Dan Mielke to represent me in Congress".  Now let's fast forward to today's race.

Mielke and Duffy are squaring off in a primary - something that Mielke did not experience in 2008, at least not from my perspective.  Now Mielke has to face a successful attorney in a primary, and one who is extremely well funded.  Duffy is getting national recognition, not to mention being the first House challenger to be endorsed by Sarah Palin.

What has Mielke been up to?  Not much... a Google news search for Daniel Mielke's name does not turn up anything that is very interesting, most of his mentions are alongside of Sean Duffy's mentions.  Conclusion:  Duffy is making news while Mielke is trying to be in the news.

A lot of people are saying that this is going to be an interesting primary but I don't see it happening.  I'm going to say that Mielke has as much of a chance as winning this primary as Congressman Ron Paul had of winning the 2008 Presidential primary.

To the anonymous commenter from the other day... please, wake up and take a look at reality.

The Reality of Mielke's Campaign

National Review Online – Could Obey Be Coakley’d? « Sean Duffy for Congress

Q: What does Senator-elect Brown mean for your race?

A: If Scott Brown can win in a state that President Obama won by 26 points, I can win in a district that Obey won by just 20 points against an unknown, underfunded challenger in the Democratic landslide of 2008. It means there is not a single Democrat in the country who is safe. And, as the author of the failed stimulus bill, David Obey will be at the forefront of the debate about jobs, the economy, and wasteful government spending. If he continues to tax and spend our country into bankruptcy, he’s going to get Coakley’d.

I think the above statement - the first sentence of the A: text - sums up Mielke's campaign very nicely. "Unknown, underfunded" are not two adjectives that describe a successful campaign for Congress.  The sad part is that Mielke had to have known before filing his candidacy papers for this race that he was repeating the same mistakes he made in 2008.

Sorry Mr. Mielke, but a political career is not something that just anyone can have.  From one campaign loser to another, please just go home, lick your wounds and figure out what you did wrong.  You can try again when you learn your lesson from your mistakes.

Mielke's Poisoned Poll

Northwestern Wisconsin congressional race headed for Republican primary | FOX 21 Online

But if Duffy is getting the limelight, Dan Mielke says the GOP is trying to force him off the stage, despite being the party's candidate in the last election. Mielke says he’s been excluded attending, speaking at, or handing out literature at Lincoln Day dinners. Mielke says he’s been a lifelong Republican, and wonders if he’s ruffled the GOP’s “feathers a little bit."

The socially conservative Mielke commissioned a poll of 7th Congressional District voters, and the results show him leading both fellow Republican Duffy and Democrat Obey. Mielke says he's in the race to stay, and that means a contentious Republican primary before Obey faces the winner in the general election.

I'm sorry Mr. Mielke but I don't trust any polls commissioned by any candidates. I'm sure that if I polled 10 of my best friends that I would find that I am leading both Mielke, Duffy and Obey in the race for the 7th Congressional district and I'm not even a declared candidate.

Why should we trust a poll that was commissioned by a candidate?  The notion of truth in this country has become synonymous with who ever pays the bill.  Therefore, since Mr. Mielke paid the bill the pollsters have a responsibility not to the truth but to Dan Mielke.  This includes only polling Mielke supporters with a few non-supporters thrown in to make it look legit.

In fact, the title of the document that reports the results says "Polling Results of the 7th Congressional District Produced for the Dan Mielke Campaign".  Note the key phrase "Produced for the Dan Mielke Campaign". 

I also take issue with a paragraph in this document that is highly subjective, emotionally charged and overall not conducive of a scientific method.  The paragraph copied from the document verbatim follows.

It is doubtful that Duffy will be able to overcome this strong of a lead by Mielke.  But it is possible that an aggressive fight between Mielke and Duffy could hurt Mielke's run against Dave Obey, if Duffy's supporters choose to vote for Obey over Mielke.  We see this as unlikely, but it could happen if emotions run high during the primary race.

For run thing, Mielke is not going to have a run against Dave Obey despite what this "poisoned poll" says.  Second, it is still too early to say that Duffy is definitively going to lose the primary.  He's not - not with the qualifications he has over Dan Mielke.  I know I would rather have a successful DA in Congress than an organic farmer who's lost every election in the last 5 years that he has run in.

Finally, the last issue I have with this poll is that it polled 35% Democrats and only 37% Republicans.  I know that if I was being polled and the questions were asking me to compare two Democrat candidates against a Republican candidate that I would show strong support for the weaker Democrat candidate in hopes of making the general election easier for the Republican candidate.
 
Click here to read the results for yourself and you will see how one sided this poll really is.

Another Politician That Gets It

The Daily Press - Ashland, WI > News > Political newcomer Sean Duffy eager to battle Dave Obey

"There are several messages," he said. "First off, we need to bring fiscal sanity and responsibility back to Washington," he said. "We have a debt that is $12 trillion. We had a deficit last year of $1.4 trillion. This year we are looking at $1.3 trillion. We are mortgaging our children's future; we need to balance our budget. We can't keep spending, there are dire consequences for our children."

Maybe it's just me but looking over the campaign messages of all the candidates that I will have the opportunity to vote for in November the only ones I see with values that most align with Wisconsin are the conservative Republicans.  Perhaps the effects of higher taxes and higher spending for the last however many years are finally catching up to us and people are getting a rude wake up call.

Perhaps people are just tired of the arrogance of the Democratic party.  In the 2008 election cycle I worked with people in Wisconsin's 8th congressional district and came across quite a few videos of Rep. Kagen's arrogance and disregard for the voters.  Working in the 7th congressional district I see the same thing with Obey.

I don't know about you but I think that the person who signs the check would ultimately be responsible for how the money is spent.  The easiest way to prevent the administration from making poor spending choices: DON'T GIVE THEM THE MONEY IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU IDIOT!

Mielke Having Hard Time Selling Voters

It appears that, at least according to campaign finance reports, that Daniel Mielke is having a difficult time selling his story to the voters.  In the summary report from the FEC it is stated that Mielke has total receipts of $366,863 with $332,750 of that total amount coming from his personal contributions.

Mielke so far as had to contribute 90.7% of his total campaign funds while only raising 9.1% from individual voters and less than 1% from the party committees.  For those that don't know the Republican Party will fund candidates that it believes has a strong chance to beat a Democrat incumbent.

Looking at these hard numbers really paints an interesting story.  First, it says that Mielke's story is not resonating with the voters.  Second, it shows that Mielke is almost completely self-funding his campaign.  Finally it shows that he does not have the ability to raise funds to generate needed cash to kick up the campaign in high gear to challenge Obey.

Sean Duffy, on the other hand, has raised 99.8% of his total cash from individual contributions.  Digging deeper we see that Duffy raised an average of $850.43 from each of the 164 individuals who contributed to his campaign.  People don't spend that much money on something they don't believe in.

In comparison Mielke was only able to garner contributions from 30 people for an average of $1,112.37 per contributor.  Not only does Duffy gather more individual contributors than Mielke but the average is also lower.  This says, at least to me, that Duffy is gaining more traction with middle class and lower middle class working people than affluent citizens like the crowd Mielke solicits from.

Why Should Obey Care About Us?

Dave Obey is at it again, this time trying to spend money on a neighborhood in Rhode Island.  Did we elect him back before I was even born to the Representative for Rhode Island?  I guess Wisconsinittes back then thought, "You know, we have plenty of Representatives and Rhode Island could use an extra one.  Let's give them Obey."

You see, our sky rocketing unemployment rate doesn't merit the attention that some struggling neighborhood in Rhode Island does.  That's why Obey went to visit to see how the federal government could spend more money there. 

This is yet another example of how Obey has turned his back on us.  We need to stop giving this guy a job.  Let's pretend that you owned a company and had an employee working for you that was concerned about everything except what you hired him to be worried about.  What would you do?  I would fire the employee and replace him with one that I could trust to focus on the items I want him to focus on.

Well that wayward employee is Obey - and we are his boss.  Nancy Pelosi is not his boss.  President Obama is not his boss.  Harry Reid is not his boss.  We are Obey's boss. 

In my opinion Obey needs to be replaced or retired.  The guy is certainly old enough to retire and nobody wants him around anymore.

Check out this quote from the WSJ:

"The only real opportunity you have to prevent something stupid from happening is to have the protection of the staff who know the most about these programs and can fight something if they think it smells," Mr. Obey told reporters, while trying to explain why he won't be disclosing earmarks in spending bills despite the promises made by Nancy Pelosi while lambasting Republicans last year. Instead, Mr. Obey declared that he and his staff would vet the earmarks themselves and then disclose them all in the Congressional Record some day. -- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118169705674733307.html

What that says for those playing the home game is that Rep. Obey and the people he hires, the ones that owe their livelihood to him, not us, will be vetting all expenditures.  And this was posted back on June 13, 2007!

Obviously Obey is out of touch with the job he was hired to do. 

Let's fire him come November and elect a real representative who is not afraid of doing his job.

Let's elect Sean Duffy to Congress.

Democrats Show Contempt for Public Opinion

It's no small secret that the Democrats don't care about public opinion - at least not the current Congressional Democrats or the current occupant of the White House.  Their determination to get a public health care plan pushed through the legislative process in spite of the public being against it is pretty damning evidence.

I've known about this for quite a while.  Democrats didn't fool me.  In fact I even tried to tell people that if Obama won the election they could expect broken promises and an era of government that reminds the older generation of the Carter administration.

But what really bothers me is when people still defend the Democrats to this day.  Wake up people!  They don't represent you - they use you.  Consider this quote from Kristin:

"Russ Feingold isn't listening. Wisconsinites are showing up in droves to Feingold's listening sessions to ask him to vote 'no' on a government health care takeover but he insists we're evenly split on the issue. If Feingold continues to support the current spending bill laden with special interest favors and shrouded with secrecy, he can expect a pink slip in November." –Kristin Ruesch, Republican Party of Wisconsin Communications Director

Some people at least are starting to wake up.  The Midwestern Republican is calling for Sean Duffy to easily beat Dave Obey, the king of the big spenders, in November.  I hope that when Sean Duffy is elected he will insist on open debate and allow the public to voice their opinion in a meaningful way.