However you feel about Obama, the guy does have a great speaking style.
Joe Klein
for Milwaukee County Executive
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday,
January 2, 2008
Statement of
Joe Klein, Candidate for Milwaukee County
Executive:
MILWAUKEE
— Joe Klein, candidate for Milwaukee County Executive,
made the following statement today:
“Scott
Walker is wrong for Milwaukee County. Looking at the numbers
this week, it became clear to me that I would not be able to
run the campaign necessary for County
Executive.”
“A
campaign that does not focus on Walker before the primary
will almost certainly ensure his re-election. To me, that
outcome is unacceptable. Scott Walker has broken many
promises. He broke his promise to hold the office to the
highest ethical standards, he broke his promise to clean up
the pension scandal, and he’s broken his promise to
step down after one term. Scott Walker has no vision for the
important issues facing Milwaukee County, and his lack of
vision for transportation has been a constant roadblock to
transportation progress.
“The
poll obtained by Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
shows Lena Taylor is within remarkable distance of
twice-elected Republican Scott Walker in the Milwaukee County
Executive race. There’s no doubt: Scott Walker is more
vulnerable than ever, and Lena Taylor is the person to
restore accountability and responsibility to the Milwaukee
County Executive's Office.
“I am
withdrawing from the race for County Executive. I give my
full support and endorsement to Lena Taylor.
“I
want to thank all of my extremely great supporters, my wife
Mary Jo, and my sons, Francis and John. They are always there
for me and they are a constant source of encouragement to
me.”
Authorized
and paid for by Friends of Joe Klein Mary Jo Klein -
Treasurer
"Our destruction, should it come at all, will be
from another quarter. From the inattention of the
people to the concerns of their government."
-- Daniel Webster
Our progressive tradition implores use to craft
government that serves the best long term interests
of our society.
From my prospective, that means building a
robust environmentaly sustainable economy, healthy
democratic institutions, and a strong multi-ethnic
middle class.
Any I-94 expansion funding, without funding for
alternative forms of transportation, is neglectful of
your fiduciary responsibilities to the citizens of
Wisconsin. Your assumption in the expansion study
regarding growth in traffic, fail to account for
current projected increases in the price of oil, and
fail to foresee our nation's probable inclusion in
future climate treaties.
It is time to take a stand for our children's
future. You should be building transportation systems
that wean us off of automobile dependency, not
solutions that enable automobile dependency.
Given the latest IPCC report and
current projections in the price of oil,
I-94 expansion without alternatives is the wrong
thing to do at this point in our nation's history.
Our state motto is 'Forward.' It is time to look
forward and do what is best for our future, our
children's future, and our children's children's
future.
We have ceded our democratic institutions to
special interests. Efficient government required
control of institutions by the voters rather than
special interests. Social scientific reasoning and
involvement of specialists in law, economics, and
social and natural sciences will produce the most
effective government.
The great
challenge for our generation is
to transition our economy to be environmentally
sustainable and economicly
robust. To do that, we a need clear 20/20 vision as
to what Milwaukee County will look like in 2020.
Given the increasing cost of oil and the global imperative
to reduce greenhouse gasses, this is the wrong time to be
investing in eight lane interstates while neglecting
rail transit. I side with the City
of Milwaukee on this issue. Clearly, WISDOT and
Scott Walker lack 20/20 vision.
To build the best future for our children, we must
craft public policy that stimulates energy
efficiency, stimulates
reducing greenhouse gases, and stimulates
environmentaly sustainable economic growth. In
the process of building an evironmentally sustainable
local economy we will create new globaly competative
industries and build a strong
multi-ethnic middle class. Green is the new gold!
James Madison gives us pause to reflect why
providing a more informative Milwaukee
County web site best serves the public interest.
After six years of dealing with a web site tragically
lacking in popular information, we humbly submit that
Scott Walker prefers the prologue. Just try and
findinformation about pension
buybacks.
A popular Government, without popular
information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a
prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps,
both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and
a people who mean to be their own governors must
arm themselves with the power which knowledge
gives.
-- James Madison,
Letter to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822
My clean money pledge:
I will accept no money from corporations,
political parties, or political action
committees; only individuals.Donations that
exceed $1000 over the campaign period will be
returned.
If I have reasonable cause to suspect that an
individual has contributed more than $10,000 in a
calendar year to any combination of Wisconsin
candidates or political action committees, the
donations will be returned.
Donations without name, employer, occupation,
and address will be returned; the only exception
shall be cash donations of less than $10 recieved
at fundraising events.
Any cash donations that violates my code of
ethics and can not be returned due to anonymity
will be donated to a local 501c3 nonprofit
organization.
Clean government
starts with a commitment to the elimination of
undue influence by special interests,
corporations, and contractors, who buy access to
politicians through political donations.
When money becomes the primary criteria for
political viability, we end up with the best
politicians that money can buy.
The urgency is for popular progressive groups to
grow and become strong enough so that centres of
power can’t ignore them. Forces for change
that have come up from the grass roots and shaken
the society to its core include the labour
movement, the civil rights movement, the peace
movement, the women’s movement and others,
cultivated by steady, dedicated work at all levels,
every day, not just once every four years.
But you can’t ignore the elections. You
should recognise that one of the two groups now
contending for power happens to be extremist and
dangerous, and has already caused plenty of trouble
and could cause plenty more.
The current Milwaukee County Executive is a friend
of the influential, not the average citizen. I am the
voice for the entrepreneur, the small shop owner, the
small business person, the restaurant owner, the
small food producer and the average citizen.
We can build a world class multimodal
transportation system in Southeastern Wisconsin with
a cooperative Milwaukee County Executive. The current
Milwaukee County Executive is our biggest roadblock
to transportation progress and must be removed. With
the growing cost of oil before us, with concerns
about global warming at the forefront, the time for
studies is over, it is time to build.
We can provide a government that actively works to
provide economic opportunity to all people, and have
that government operate on sound and conservative
budgets. The fact is that well run, efficient and
honest government can provide services as good or
better than private contractors.
We can have a more equitable distribution of the
tax burden. For the last twenty years we have
subsidized corporate tax rates by moving the burden
of taxation over to the property owner.
We can improve the economic viability of our
poorest neighborhood. Access to capital gives the
people bootstraps. Access to capital is the best way
to energize the entrepreneurial spirit of Milwaukee,
not government gutting tax cuts.
Here is my vision.
Bust up the old way of doing business in the
County Courthouse,
build a streamlined system of management, use
Internet technology to make government
transparent and accessible.
Develop a cooperative telecommunications
infrastructure between the County and the
Villages and Cities within the County.
Seek diverse sources of revenue so we can
relieve the burden of taxes on property
owners,
repair the parks and build,
with appropriate state and federal funding, a
modern multimodal transportation system.
Work as the "people’s lobbyist" in
Madison and Washington to insure that we get
funding for state and federal mandated
programs.
Work to expand opportunities in Milwaukee
County by using the bully pulpit to increase
educational opportunities for all and access to
capital for entrepreneurs.
End business development and job development
programs that have turned into corporate
welfare.
Make certain that the majority of the money we
spend on government supports our community and
doesn't flow to big businesses and consultants
in other counties, other states, and other
countries.
Insure that regional transportation and
regional planning are democratically controlled
and advocate for the elimination of appointed
boards for any regional government entity that
has taxing authority.
Joe Klein is an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran
who served in both Kuwait and Iraq. He supports
veterans and veteran organizations and is a member of
the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American
Legion.
Joe Klein also supports the good works of the
labor movement through his membership in the
Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO local
37083.
Vote
Joe Klein
Milwaukee County Executive '08
For an environmentally sustainable economy, strong democratic institutions,
and a robust multi-ethnic middle class.
This site is
authorized and paid for by Friends of Joe Klein, Mary Jo Klein, Treas.
3425 N. Bartlett Avenue, Milwaukee, WI. 53211; +1 414 375 0313
Labor Donated by member CWA Local 30783
