Wisconsin State superintendent race is incumbent Tony Evers' to lose

Jack Craver:

Last week, Senate Democrats lashed out at a Republican bill they said was intended to weaken the already enfeebled Office of the Secretary of State, currently held by Democrat Doug La Follette.

"It's directed to take the one Democrat elected to statewide office and cut him out of the legislative process," state Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, says of the legislation, which would remove the secretary of state's ability to delay the publication of a bill for up to 10 days after passage, as La Follette did following the controversial passage of Gov. Scott Walker's collective bargaining bill two years ago.

Technically, Risser is correct. The secretary of state, which Gov. Tommy Thompson long ago relegated to obscurity, is the only statewide office held by Democrats.

But while the superintendent of public instruction is technically a nonpartisan position, current Superintendent Tony Evers, like his predecessors for the past 30 years, is supported by Democratic-affiliated groups and has been an outspoken opponent of many of Walker's policies.

And unlike La Follette, Evers has a meaningful platform to influence one of the most important issues facing the state.

It's noteworthy, then, that Evers does not seem to be a significant target for conservatives, even though his lone challenger in the April 2 election for another four-year term is a GOP member of the Assembly: Don Pridemore.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 5, 2013 1:32 AM
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