Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Clarke's Wasted Effort

Yesterday, at Milwaukee County First, I wrote about Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, who has decided to scrap some of the programs designed to help inmates to deal with their issues so that they hopefully don't return to prison. Clarke's idea is to replace these programs with the same programs, but in a manner less conducive to success.

I wondered if this stunt was simply because this was an election year for Clarke. If it was just a political stunt, he has wasted his time twice. First with reinventing the wheel, but making it square.

But if he is trying to play to his conservative base, he might also be spinning his square wheels.

Wisconsin does not have open primaries, meaning that the voter can only choose between Republicans or Democrats. For example, the voter would not be able to vote for a Democratic gubernatorial candidate and a Republican sheriff. It's all one or the other (or some other party).

Since Clarke, even though running as a Democrat, relies heavily on his conservative (read Republican) base, this spells trouble for him, if his opponent, Chris Moews, can get his message out.

As everyone with the least interest in state politics is already aware, there is quite the contentious race going on between Mark Neumann and Scott Walker. That means that both candidates will be fighting tooth and nail for every vote they can get. (Yes, despite Walker's boasts that he is sooooo far ahead, the truth is that they are very nearly tied.)

This leaves very few Republicans that will be willing to cross over to the Democratic side of the ballot, just to vote for Clarke.

That said, Clarke's best hope is that the opposite happens, and a lot of Milwaukee-based Democrats switch over to put the screws to one of the Republican wannabes. This would take away potential votes for Moews, and give Clarke a better chance of winning re-election.

But no matter what, I don't know how his acts of bravado is going to help him this year.

11 comments:

  1. (Yes, despite Walker's boasts that he is sooooo far ahead, the truth is that they are very nearly tied.)
    You do have evidence of that and of course you would like to share that evidence, wouldn't you?

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  2. Great, you don't like Clarke, I get that. But what is Moews going to do that's going to be SO much better? Also, I think you assume that Clarke doesn't have Democrat support...Clarke may not have the extreme-left of the Democrat party but to say he relies solely on his conservative support is quite misleading.

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  3. Anonymous,

    It's not what Moews would do as much as what he won't do. Such as not bring down tons of class action lawsuits for the tax payers to pay for. I'd rather have a Sheriff that just does his job competently.

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  4. So capper, you're personally guaranteeing that Meows won't have a single lawsuit brought against him as Sheriff? So to you it's not whether or not a sheriff keeps the freeways, parks, and beaches safe it's about the number of lawsuits. Is there an over/under as to how many lawsuits is too many?

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  5. I never said that Moews won't get sued, but I do find it unlikely he could attract as many as Clarke.

    Are you referring to the Sheriff Clarke which cut patrols in the parks until the bloody Memorial Day weekend when all those poor people were gunned down? That's the same Sheriff that trashed Wackenhut and then wanted to give them a contract worth millions, only to have it turn out not to save any money.

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  6. I almost forgot, Clarke also wanted to end freeway patrols and make the state do them. He also tried to cut the number of bailiffs. And to top it off, tried to help a drunk driver out of a snow bank. When that story broke, he tried to cover it up by scapegoating the deputy that arrested the suspect.

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  7. The number of Lawsuits that are brought on by Sheriff Clarke is not the main point - it is his arrogant manor of being better than anyone else and not caring of the cost to the public that is so harmful! An example would be his not caring if the Judges agree with his new proposed "Boot Camp" program - if you really cared about making a program like this working he would need to work together with the other branches of law enforcement rather than just doing it for a political reasons to fool the public into thinking he want to better our community! He puts on a powerful, dangerous and deceptive facade - he acts as though he is the second coming of Christ behind the scenes but beware of the number "666" - He is nothing more than a political figure fighting only for what his own vision my be at the time - He is no "Street Cop" as he claims but rather just taking the County and all those that he is able to fool for a ride to benefit himself! I fool you not - Beware as Hitler started out as well using Bible quotes to fool the masses as well! He is dangerous for all in any political office or any position of power. You will know this to be the real truth through your religious beliefs and prayers as well as through the fact the the real truth shall set you free! Do not fall for all his lies and deception as he is not really a friend, a true man of "God" or a good leader in any manner!

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  8. So now the State Patrol is incompetent at doing their jobs of patrolling Wisconsin freeways? Clarke looked at that POSSIBILITY as a cost-cutting measure since the State Patrol is funded by the state and they're qualified, sworn officers. So what?

    I suppose you're also in favor of metal detectors at every county park to make sure people don't bring weapons since you brought up the Memorial Day situation. Or all 1,400 deputies patrolling every single park 24 hours/day. Then why not blame Chief Flynn for every single murder that occurs in the city of Milwaukee?

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  9. Clarke is getting millions of dollars to do the highway patrol. His "cost cutting" measure will only cut his revenue and do nothing regarding the cost.

    There were enough deputies to prevent tragedies like that holiday weekend's. Clarke took them off of park patrols and put them into his GRIP program that netted a grand total of six guns. MPD can do that in an hour.

    He is a grandstanding blowhard that needs to go.

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  10. Show me where he wants to cut freeway patrols. It was likely talked about as a way of maximizing patrols in the county and possibly cost-cutting. It obviously never happened, but go ahead and act like it did.

    Also, please tell me how the deputies would have prevented what happened in the park that day. Frisk everyone as they walked in? The GRIP program was a tiny number of deputies, maybe 2-10 at most. So again, will you now blame Flynn for every murder since there's more than enough cops?

    I guess you'd prefer a cow-towing, inexperienced, low-level lieutenant who is in the back pocket of the union. I guess that is fitting for you.

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  11. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel archives, June 7, 2006:

    Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. on Tuesday asked the governor to order the State Patrol to begin covering Milwaukee County's freeways this summer, freeing up 50 of his deputies to police parks. Clarke said he has proposed that the State Patrol handle freeway duties in Milwaukee without success before, but he is again pushing the idea after Gov. Jim Doyle came to Milwaukee on Friday with a promise of $700,000 in state money for police overtime and teen jobs.

    Anyone with the faintest idea of law enforcement know that just mere presence will stop a lot of crimes.

    And if Moews would happen to lose in the primary, then I will vote for the Republican.

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