I would also like to add that I not only agree with the point made both by the CB (and in the comment section on the BH, probably by a CB reader), but wish I had thought of it before I submitted my column.

Taking Judge out of the mix, there are 0/19 students on the Council. Students are something like 50,000+ (including other schools) extra souls in a city of 200,000. Talk about screwed up representation.

I’ve heard Michael M. Johnson (of CB commenting fame…

Really the only place we have to learn anything about him from before he announced his intentions to run for the District 8 seat, is through his comments on the Critical Badger. I went back through the archives and found that he has said some pretty interesting things, some of which directly pertain to issues he will have to deal with in the election. Here are a couple of the highlights (Note: Due to wanting to limit the size of this post, not all of these are neccessarily in their full context. For that reason I have provided all of the relevant links):

On the issue of alcohol liscenses and the ALRC:

I think the law has some basis. If you want to be a bar, be one, if you want to be a fast food joint, be one, if you wanna be both, be an Applebees. Always thought bars were for drinking, and Ian’s and Jin’s was for eating. CB, we know they don’t follow up with the letter of the law, and have been accused of cooking the books on sales for years, as well as the underage problem awhile back. Do they need to be fined? Sure, but closed i don’t think so, sadly with the ADP, they can’t become a full fledged bar likely, which means they may have to close in the end which could be bad. Im not of bar age yet(one year to go!!!) but Madison does have a lot of bars already. That doesn’t mean they should close some or not open others, but this one can’t really shatter the whole scene can it?

A couple of different comments about crime in Madison:

Do I worry about crime??? Of course, it would be dumb not to, but I don’t go outside and fear my life is constant danger, with gangs, muggers and rapists on every corner and in every house…get real people…this isn’t darfur it’s freaking Madison!!!

Crime is a problem everywhere, but people in Madison make this place sound unlivable almost on these blogs and in the papers, I would be afraid, If i didn’t know any better. I watch my back everywhere, but it doesn’t keep me from living my life. I have never been a victim, but I know people who have. Only they live in Milwaukee, Chicago and Minneapolis. Im sorry crime happens to people, bu like the prevoius person said, Madison is not gonna be Mayberry, and police can only do so much. Sadly, student views of the Police in regards to alcohol have damaged their view of them in all other respects. They want cops around, only if they are not busting keggers and underage drinkers. I guess I would have a problem with being asked to protect people’s right to get alcohol poisoning too. Ive heard people who wish the cops would ease up, but wonder why there are not around all the time. You get what you pay for.

On the police and underage drinking:

I think students come here and expect something that is not possible, which is the absence of crime entirely…you can have it two ways CB and SV…you can have police State Street at night and leave Langdon to fend for themselves, or you can have them police Langdon and leave State Street in chaos…If you want more cops, pay more taxes and you likely will get them…while I think closing bars in dumb in a town like this, a balance has to be made…Your worry is that bar goers will just start going to unsafe house parties…its a good point, but If a large group of people shift from bars to house parties, the police will too,leaving State open to chaos…We all know them dumbest kids, who start fights, harass girls, and can’t hold thier liquor are underaged and it shows…they harm themselves and the people around them…people will drink no matter what, but a police balance to watch and protect them is key…

A medley from the comment section of this CB post:

Is this not like the fifth or sixth time this year a Jewish student has criticized the BH for something printed in their paper??? It’s starting to get out of hand…

Well, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu said “Jews must get over this victimization complex, and stop acting like they have a monopoly on suffering”…

It’s odd to me that for Jews the first comment is always has YOUR family been placed in the ovens…Jews are being treated poorly???

The funny things is the Jews seem to be so anxious to be treated poorly, they reach and make comments about blacks or brown people…

There are a couple more located here, here, here and a quite a capitalism throwdown with Sam Clegg here.

ASM APPOINTS DIVERSITY COMMITTEE CHAIR

‘Reshaped Mindset of Diversity’ Tops Chair’s Priority List

ASM appointed a new Diversity Committee Chair at the Student Council meeting late Wednesday, voting in first-year marketing major Steven Olikara. The decision came after a debate and question and answer section about how the candidates would improve diversity on campus.

Olikara said that although his official appointment took effect Wednesday, he has spent the last two months preparing to make an impact on the campus.

“I decided to meet with as many people in as many corners of the university as possible in order to broaden my perspective of diversity on the UW campus,” Olikara wrote in his proposal.

A common theme Olikara reverted to throughout the question and answer section was changing the perception of diversity on campus.

“My vision is a reshaped mindset of diversity at Madison so it is a natural (not separate) part of campus life, as well as a changed perception outside of Madison so we can attract larger applicant pools and a more diverse faculty,” Olikara’s proposal stated.

Olikara said he will work to establish a Diversity Committee Board that would consist of “outreach, communications, Senior Advisors, etc.”

When questioned about what he thought an ideal diverse campus would like, Olikara said that the idea of diversity extends beyond just race and ethnicity.

“Students who are constantly challenging each other’s ideas and views [create a diverse campus]” Olikara said.

As far as the content goes, the choice of a first-year student makes me a little bit uncomfortable. I’m skeptical that someone so new to campus is ready to lead such a committee or has the campus experience neccessary. I do however, really like his attitude on diversity. I for one think that race and ethnicity are some of the least important parts of diversity. The different experiences and worldviews that can be caused by differing racial makeups are what really contribute to diversity, not race itself.

Another perspective on this appointment is that despite beginning the 15th session of ASM in May, this committee is just now getting a chair. Literally halfway through the year. In a way through suceeding, ASM has just managed to highlight one of its failures. Maybe not the best choice of topic for a first press release.

Barack Obama’s transition team has announced the officials who will review personnel and policies at federal agencies for the new Administration, including dozens who will begin visits to examine the work of science agencies this week.

…

One reviewer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, parent agency for the National Institutes of Health, is former NIH Director Harold Varmus, who headed Obama’s scientific advisory group during the campaign. That group shaped the candidate’s stances on issues such as a proposed doubling of basic research over 10 years, lifting the limitations on stem cell research, and funding comprehensive sex education. Another is R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison, whose support for research using human embryonic stem cells reflects Obama’s position on the controversial work.

[Edit] More from the UW press release

I’d like to thank my editors for the great article title.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said Monday she’s building a relationship with the state’s largest business group, which her predecessor has slammed as an impediment to economic development.

Martin said she’s had separate meetings in recent weeks with the board of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and its president, Jim Haney. She said she’s tried to focus on common interests of improving the state’s economy.

…

WMC spokesman Jim Pugh would not comment on the impact of Wiley’s criticism. But he said the group was interested in building a stronger partnership with the state’s flagship university, which he said creates the workers and leaders of its members.

“We have a very strong and vital relationship and we think that’s only to grow under the leadership of Chancellor Martin,” he said. “We’re going to look for ways that we can partner on projects and ideas.”

Only time will tell if Chancellor Martin’s much heralded talents in building personal relationships will be able to repair the damaged relationship the UW has with the WMC. At this point both sides seem to be saying all of the right things, but that is to be expected.

But after growing criticism from Wiley and others, WMC toned down its tactics during this year’s election cycle in which Democrats won control of both houses of the Legislature.

Right now is about the only time we have to evaluate the effects of Wiley’s hardball strategy at the end of his tenure before the changes brought by Biddy’s tenure start to sink in. I think that analysis above is spot on. Compared to the Gableman-Butler election in April the WMC was virtually non-existent leading up to this November. While it obviously can’t be definitively attributed to Wiley’s scathing column, it definitely speaks well of his confrontational approach.

In my mind Ald. Eli Judge has now had two big proposals that he authored and really pushed to get passed: the photo ordinance and now the Downtown Residential Lighting Initiative (DRLI). The photo ordinance passed unanimously and now the DRLI passed 19-1. Agree or disagree with his political beliefs, I think this says quite a bit about our esteemed Alder. Either he has an innate ability to work accross partisan lines to gain widespread support for his policy initiatives or he only authors such common-sense proposals that people can’t help but support them. Both of which speak well to current state of representation on Madison’s Common Council in District 8.

This quote from the Cap Times live blog of last nights meeting sums it up pretty well:

Actually, I need to check through the final votes when the minutes for this meeting comes out, but if I had to guess at one alder that has consistently moved across the lines of council factions, it would be Ald. Eli. Judge.

But equally important indicators of his concern are the advisors he’s surrounded himself with during the long campaign. Here’s some of the folks whom we think might be leading candidates for the transition team or for senior positions in the Obama Administration.  All are top-notch, and all really care.  BTW, in no case has OOTS approached the folks listed below for confirmation; not after one insider responded, “If I told you who was on the transition team, I’d have to kill you.”
Here’s a baker’s dozen of the folks whose names OOTS hears are, or should be in play:

…

7. Becky Blank probably isn’t a transition team type, but if the Obama people are smart – and we know they are – Becky will be on the sort list for any number of cabinet or almost-cabinet-level positions in the new administration. Now at Brookings, Becky returns to Washington after a seven-year stint as dean at the Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy in Michigan, where she took a good program and made it great. Prior to moving to Ann Arbor, Blank served on Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors and taught at both Northwestern and Princeton. Arguably the nation’s top labor and poverty economist, Becky (a Spotlight advisor) is one of the folks leading the effort to overhaul the federal poverty measure. Smart betting is that she’ll succeed.

Democrats fared well in many state elections last week, with the party gaining full control of state governments (winning majorities in both chambers of state legislatures where Democrats hold the governor’s office) in three places where Republicans had led at least one part of those branches. The three states are Delaware, New York, and Wisconsin, according to stateline.org.

That brings to 17 the number of states where the governor is a Democrat and both houses of the legislature have Democratic majorities. Republicans control all three branches in eight states, says stateline.org.

The change in control of the Wisconsin Assembly and the New York Senate from Republican to Democrat means that two prominent leaders of higher-education committees will no longer hold their posts as chairmen.

In Wisconsin, Rep. Stephen L. Nass will no longer lead the Assembly’s Committee on Colleges and Universities. The Republican has been an outspoken critic of the University of Wisconsin, criticizing its decision to adopt a freshman-admissions policy directing campuses to consider the race and ethnicity of applicants. He also called for the system to fire an instructor who had argued that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were orchestrated by the U.S. government.

What will be your first piece of legislation?

Nass: I will re-introduce my proposal for a 4 percent, 4-year resident tuition and fee cap in the University of Wisconsin System. This proposal passed the Assembly in June 2007 as part of the state budget process. However, Gov. Doyle threatened to veto the provision by request of System administrators and it was kept out of the final version of the budget. The fight to control the cost of public higher education in this state is vital for middle-class families that can’t afford average annual tuition and fee increases of more than 9 percent.

While it’s nice that Steve Nass wants to keep higher education affordable, this would be a bad idea on so many levels. The first one is that the 4% cap would be completely arbitrary and makes no sense in light of inflation that has been at 4.9% over the past year. Secondly, the state legislature shouldn’t be tieing the hands of the UW administration like this. And if they are, there ought to be some kind of accompanying guarentee of minimum increases in state funding that would be needed to continue to subsidize low in state tuition rates. No one in the UW System wants to make tuition unaffordable (see the comments from Biddy Martin in my last post), but tuition increases are likely neccessary to avoid sacrificing the quality of education provided. If Steve Nass is really concerned about keeping tuition affordable, he has the power to do so, through the state budget every other year.