Can Sheridan Save the Assembly Democrats?

At this rate, Assembly Democrats might as well rent a single room at the Inn on the Park for the few remaining members to bunk. Two carts will be all that is needed for room service. Can their numbers fall any lower?

Sure. And one of their own is pushing them off the cliff.

Madison’s liberal (redundant, I know) loon Rep. Spencer Black encouraged pundit chatter by suggesting he may primary his Party’s incumbent governor next year. Despite holding just 40 seats in the 99 member Assembly, Black sees an opening. His Party, at least his wing of the Party, has been routinely rejected with each passing 2-year election cycle. Yet, Spencer Black believes areas like Edgerton or South Milwaukee will respond to his screeching liberal rhetoric.

Um, Spence, those areas, while Democrat, are seats held by Republicans.

Remarkably, Governor Jim Doyle is responding. Just the talk of liberals sitting on their hands next year is painful to the man who won the office with just 45% of the vote. How else does one explain the governor’s quote that he will veto any bill that bans cloning?

Couch it any way you want – the governor wants a cure for ALS, Diabetes, paralysis, amputation – but the words are now out there in the public domain; the governor supports cloning.

Doyle’s Party has been whiffing so badly that nearly no local personality wants to run for the state legislature carrying the Democrat banner. If the Assembly is considered the People’s House, then the people have rejected the Democrats’ whacky social agenda – at least in 59 of 99 districts.

OK, so I am a Republican paid to beat-up on Democrats. But some of my best friends are Democrats. Most of my family and friends are blue-collar union workers. I was elected to local government, in a town where Ronald Reagan received just 37% -- in 1984!

I get it. Rep. Mike Sheridan from Janesville might be the only member to help his Party get it.

Right now, he is a freshman learning the game and following the Party line. But soon, Sheridan will see that the success he has as UAW Local 95 President needs to be launched in his own caucus.

My dad’s union wages made my family middle class and got me through college. Sheridan should talk about the health plan negotiated by his union, or the vacation time and pension plan my dad receives, in terms of promoting traditional family values.

And lastly, show mainstream voters that at least one Democrat state representative can support a conscience clause or a ban on human cloning.