Voters, Delegates, Caucuses, Primaries, Frontrunners, Etcetera!

Thursday, January 24, 2008 12:24 PM CST

Joan Sanstadt, News Editor

If it seems as though the 2008 Presidential Election has already been going on for years n that’s not an illusion. It has!

There have been countless debates among candidates of each party. Many who participated in those first debates are no longer candidates n Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, to name a few.

But now the accelerated pace of caucuses and primaries (two or three a week at times) seems to have put the races right smack in our living rooms every night.

Maybe that’s good. I’m just not sure. It seems more like saturation to me. And plenty of repetition, too.

It reminds me of the story my grandmother used to like to tell. I’m sure you’ve all heard it n it’s about the little boy who called wolf. The first time he did it, it brought swift reaction; but there was no wolf. He repeated it and the reaction became less and less. The moral of the story, of course, is that when there really was a wolf, his cries were ignored. If we keep hearing the same warnings time after time, will we just keep turning a deaf ear?

There is at least one encouraging sign and it’s that the degree of civility among the candidates seems to be on the increase. In his remarks, conceding the Republican victory in South Carolina to Senator John McCain, Gov. Mike Huckabee kept his rhetoric on a higher plane.

It’s been many years since a presidential election did not include an incumbent. While African Americans have been earlier seekers of the highest office in the land, Barack Obama seems to be a very serious contender. Women have run for the office before (Shirley Chisholm and Elizabeth Dole come to mind), although none has reached the level that Hillary Clinton has.

And while we’ve had presidents with proud records of military service, we’ve not before had a candidate who endured more than five years as a POW.

Many if not most of the major candidates have written books n and have had books written about them. I’ve read a good number of them and have found them enlightening.

While the electronic media looks ahead to the Florida Primary and to Feb. 5 n Super Tuesday, I’m thinking the races in both parties may still be pretty open by Feb. 19, when Wisconsin holds its primary.

That should give us all plenty of time to think of questions we’d like to ask candidates that will be campaigning in Wisconsin.

A question I’d like to ask is what would be the first three steps they would take to make the U.S. independent of foreign oil n and more importantly, what is their timeline for taking those steps?

Ask not…

At his inauguration in 1961, President John F. Kennedy called for Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

That is the most repeated quotation from Kennedy’s many speeches and media interviews. It’s the one television newscasts show again and again.

In those intervening years, it seems to me as though we’ve seen far more of us asking what our country can do for us than what we can do to improve our country.

We’re bombarded daily with stories of people complaining about what they perceive to be diminishment of their individual rights. Far fewer are the incidents where citizens have been willing to set aside some of their individual expectations for the betterment of many.

Whether we like it or not until the November General Election we’re going to hear promise after promise of what they, as president, can do for us. Those words will be coming from the mouths of presidential candidates from both major and minor political parties.

What I’m waiting to hear is what a candidate n or candidates n might dare to ask citizens to do for their country.

I’m ready to pay careful attention to those words.

State of the State

Details in next week’s Agri-View will be about the governor’s State of the State address which once again comes between this paper’s deadline and when it is received by readers.

Of course health care n and more specifically health care costs and their transparency n will be on the governor’s “To Do List” for 2008. So will fixes to the state’s economy. Probably the specific area the governor will address is the paper industry that last week saw shut downs and curtailments of operations in Niagara and in Kimberly.

The paper industry has been a focus of renewable fuels projects, especially in Wisconsin, where cellulosic ethanol from wood pulp shows great promise. But how soon will this technology be ready to allow production and will it be too late for workers that are being laid off at the state’s paper mills?

Free grant money?

A Vernon County resident recently received a flyer stating that up to $25,000 in free, government grants were available to her.

The flyer listed a toll-free number to call, along with an official claim number to find out how to receive the money.

Rep. Lee Nerison (R-Westby) followed up on the call and found the toll-free number connects to a call center for the Landmark Publishing Group. The call center claims that what callers to the toll-free number will receive is a 360-page “Government Grant Guide.” Of course, they also have to pay a $59 fee.

As the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) points out, people who are interested in finding out about government grants can already obtain this information free of charge through the Federal Government Publishing Center. This center’s toll-free number is 888-878-3256.

Anyone who has received the mailing is encouraged to report it to the DATCP at their toll-free number 800-422-7128.

REMC will meet

The Rural Energy Management Council will hold its first meeting of 2008 on Feb. 7 at the DATCP offices, 2811 Agriculture Drive, Madison.

The meeting will begin at 1 p.m. and is expected to last until 5:30 p.m.

Updates on the “State Agency, Program and Regulatory Updates” portions of the agenda will begin about 1:20 p.m. These include:

- Office of Energy Independence (OEI) by David Jenkins, OEI;

- Focus on Energy Program by Preston Schutt, PSC;

- Rural Electric Power Services Program (REPS) at PSC by Mark Cook, PSC;

- REPS Program at DATCP by David Hansen, DATCP;

- Wisconsin Farm Center by Paul Dietmann, new Farm Center Director at DATCP;

- Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics Service’s (WASS) Stray Voltage survey by Audra Hubbell of WASS;

- State Electric Code review at Department of Commerce (DOC) by Joe Hertel, DOC;

- Status of Wisconsin’s Electrician Licensing Bill (AB 294 and SB 167) by Beata Kalies, Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives. (These measures are currently before the Joint Finance Committee.)

A discussion of REMC itself n its need and its future along with its format is planned for 4 p.m. The REMC structure, its chair and vice-chair, as well as the frequency of future meetings and intensity of its involvement of issues are some of the issues slated for that discussion.

Time has been set aside at 5 p.m. for public comment.

A decision will be made on the date and place of the next REMC meeting before its 5:30 adjournment.

The Midwest Rural Energy Council (MREC) is planning to meet Feb. 27-29 at the Radisson Conference Center in La Crosse.

There are two groups of sessions planned for MREC. One group is concerned with issues related to farm wiring, stray voltage and electrical distribution. The other will look at farm energy efficiency and renewable energy systems. The sessions will be repeated on Thursday and Friday so there will be opportunities for people to go to both groups.

More information about MREC is available at mailto:mrec@uwex.edu.

American Transmission Company

The American Transmission Company (ATC) got its wish last week when the Public Service Commission verbally approved the company’s request to construct a new substation and six miles of 138-kilovolt transmission line in Dane County.

The route approved for the transmission line will run primarily along Adams Road and Highway M, connecting an existing substation near the intersection of Highways M and PB in Verona to a new substation to be constructed near the intersection of Fish Hatchery Road and Irish Lane in Fitchburg. The commission said 65 percent of the approved route is along an existing electric facility corridor, with one mile of the six mile route running along Fish Hatchery Road.

Dan Ebert, PSC chair, said “Due to tremendously successful economic development and population growth in the cities of Fitchburg and Verona, the time for this project is now. This has been a long, exhaustive and thorough process with an extraordinary amount of public involvement. By moving this project forward, southern Dane County will avoid what would be very serious public safety and reliability issues as soon as this year.”

Commissioner Mark Meyer said he applauded “the collaborative efforts of all parties of this case. I believe that everyone involved agrees there has been tremendous growth in this area, requiring action by the PSC to meet the increased energy needs. The Commission would have been doing a disservice to energy customers and putting the public’s safety at risk if this project was not approved today.”

Commissioner Lauren Azar noted “Today’s decision was very difficult when you consider the individuals affected by it, however the Commission is charged with making cost-efficient decisions to meet the needs of all energy customers in Wisconsin.”

In addition the PSC asked the City of Fitchburg and ATC to work together to develop the best option to connect the new substation to an existing power line located approximately 1,500 feet away. Construction of the estimated $18 million to $20 million project will begin this spring. A written order finalizing the PSC’s Jan. 15 decision will be issued at a later date.

Capitol Notes:

- This is Radon Action Month and the EPA estimates one in 15 homes has a radon level that the agency considers high. It also says radon causes nearly 100 times more deaths each year carbon monoxide poisoning and is the second leading cause of lung cancer, right behind smoking. For more information visit: http://www.epa.gov/radon or call 800-767-7236.

- Preston Cole, the DNR Board member named by Gov. Doyle to replace Dan Poulson, was elected chair of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD). The MMSD Board provides wastewater treatment and flood management services for 1.1 million people in 28 communities. It is currently working on a $1 billion Overflow Reduction Plan that is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 31, 2010.

- Madison’s Commission on the Environment is expected to soon begin discussing a ban on the sale of bottled water at public events. It may also discuss the use of plastic grocery bags.

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