Election 2012
Weekend of woes Wisconsin hockey loses a star player while being swept +SPORTS, page 8
The Daily Cardinal’s Editorial Board weighs in with its endorsements +Opinion, page 6 University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Monday, November 5, 2012
U.S. Senate race sees historically high spending By Adam Wollner The Daily Cardinal
on campus
Hips don’t lie
Bellydancing UW performs at the Fall Ball, an annual fundraiser held by the UW-Madison Society of Women Engineers. The event was held in Gordon Commons Friday, Nov. 2. + Photo by Shoaib Altaf
Outside groups have spent a recordbreaking $45 million in the showdown between U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin and former Gov. Tommy Thompson, helping to make the race the most expensive U.S. Senate election in Wisconsin history. Dozens of outside groups have sought to influence one of the most competitive races in the country throughout the course of the campaign, including nine Super PACs, nonprofits and political action committees that have each independently spent more than $1 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Only the U.S. Senate contest in Virginia has seen more third-party spending— about $51 million—than the BaldwinThompson race this cycle. In Wisconsin’s last U.S. Senate race two years ago between Russ Feingold and Ron Johnson, outside spending barely topped $5 million. Mike McCabe, the director of the campaign finance watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said the influx of outside money in this election is largely due to the landmark 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal
spending page 3
Green Party’s presidential race rooted in Madison By Jack Casey Daily Cardinal
While both major party presidential candidates have canvassed the state in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s election, the lesser-known Green Party and its candidate, Jill Stein, have been operating directly out of their Madison headquarters on State Street. The campaign’s Madison connection is no surprise, as Madison native and local progressive Ben Manski currently works as Stein’s campaign manager. Manski made an unsuccessful but closely contested run for the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2010 against current State Rep. Brett Hulsey.
“Dr. Stein approached me to run her campaign because she has seen what we have been doing in Wisconsin and Wisconsin’s leadership potential,” Manski said. Manksi also said the city was an attractive option because of Wisconsin’s progressive political history as the birthplace of “Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party.” The campaign has attracted young people with progressive ideologies to staff and volunteer at their State Street office by focusing on, among other things, decreasing student loan debt and combatting climate change. Many of the volun-
green party page 3
Young Americans for Liberty makes waves at UW, nationwide By Taylor Harvey The Daily Cardinal
University of Wisconsin-Madison senior Joe Diedrich changed his conservative political views to embrace the independent, Libertarian party in his later high school years, when he said he realized the Bush administration’s continued shipment of U.S. soldiers and supplies to fuel warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan “didn’t make any sense.” “It didn’t make any sense for myself, didn’t make any sense to our national security, it didn’t make any sense for our economy to be in that war,” Diedrich said. Former President George Bush’s instituted foreign policy in the Middle East merely served as a “jumping board” for Diedrich, who further embraced a libertarian identity his freshman year at UW-Madison when he joined Young
Americans for Liberty. YAL, an issues-based, nation-wide organization, was founded after the 2008 presidential election by the Students for Ron Paul movement, according to YAL Wisconsin State Chair Jordan Krause. Since then, Krause said the organization has picked up momentum among a large wave of young people across the country. “People are starting to find out what Libertarianism is, Krause said. “They are attracted to the ideology.” YAL focuses on educational outreach about freedom of speech, peaceful foreign policy, civil rights and economic freedom, according to Diedrich. Diedrich said young people seek alternatives to traditional republican and democrat dichotomies because they
libertarians page 3
Graphic by Dylan Moriarty
County announces initiatives to aid homeless Dane County Board members announced initiatives for the homeless Friday that include a temporary warming shelter and housing. Dane County Board Vice Chair John Hendrick said the County Board voted to create a temporary warming shelter, although the specific location will not be decided until Nov. 15. Options for a warming shelter include renting space at the now vacant Lussier Teen Center, located at 827 East Washington Ave., or using a county-owned building on Wright Street. Hendrick said the site on Wright Street would require applying for a city conditional use permit, while the East Washington Avenue location does not require a permit and is closer to downtown and services that homeless people use. But the disadvantage of the East Washington Avenue location, according
to Hendrick, is the close proximity to the Rainbow Project, which is an organization that provides services for children who have been victims of crime. Hendrick said members of the Rainbow Project are worried that people suffering from alcohol and drug abuse might be in the area and frequenting businesses. Also proposed in the 2013 county budget is a permanent day center, which would include restrooms, laundry facilities, showers and storage lockers, that would cost $600,000 to build and $150,000 to operate, according to a county press release. Supervisor Carousel Bayrd introduced another initiative aimed to address homelessness, which would include building a single-room apartment building that would cost the county approximately $1.7 million over two years. —Abby Becker
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”