Tag: Tommy Thompson

Gov.-elect Tony Evers’ pick for transportation secretary is in limbo after Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Friday he has serious concerns about the appointment. Within hours of Evers announcing Craig Thompson, the director of an influential transportation advocacy group, as his selection, Fitzgerald, whose GOP-controlled chamber must confirm all Cabinet appointments, flashed a warning Thompson may be the wrong person for the job. “Gov.-elect Evers has made a wise choice in this selection of a bipartisan consensus builder to tackle the significant transportation challenges facing Wisconsin,” he said in a statement. Other industry and government groups, such as the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, Public Works Association and Operating Engineers, offered their full support of the nomination, referencing Thompson’s leadership in the field and understanding of the critical role of infrastructure to the state. Fitzgerald’s comments came after Evers announced four new agency appointments Friday in Madison as his Cabinet takes shape less than three weeks before inauguration. In addition to Thompson, Evers named Brad Pfaff as secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection; Rebecca Cameron Valcq as head of the Public Service Commission; and Mark Afable as Commissioner of Insurance. During a news conference Friday, Thompson said all options are on the table as transportation funding solutions, declining to offer specifics. Those concerns were echoed by consumer advocacy group Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, or WISPIRG. On Wednesday, Evers announced four other Cabinet appointments in Milwaukee. They are: Preston Cole, a member of the state’s Natural Resources Board and a Milwaukee city official, as Department of Natural Resources secretary; Joel Brennan, CEO of Milwaukee’s Discovery World science and technology museum, as Department of Administration secretary; Kevin Carr, a U.S. marshal, as Department of Corrections secretary; and Sara Meaney, chief marketing officer for Milwaukee Film, as Department of Tourism secretary.

Scott Walker watched as former Gov. Tommy Thompson exhorted a friendly Republican crowd to help Walker prevail in his surprisingly precarious race for a third term. “The recipe is Scott Walker. You know like a good chocolate chip cookie, it sort of melts in your mouth? You know it really feels good.” But the old recipe for victory may not be working in a midterm election where Democrats appear poised to do well across the country. Ominous polls have Walker in trouble, and he’s sounding the alarm to supporters. Democrats, after years of failure and frustration, are daring to hope that they may finally slay their political white whale. If the onetime presidential candidate and Republican rising star loses, it would qualify as one of the bigger upsets of the midterm election because of his record in difficult situations before — winning election and re-election despite two victories in his state by Barack Obama, and turning back a 2012 recall attempt by Democrats incensed by his attack on public-sector unions. A Walker loss to Tony Evers, the bland 66-year-old state education superintendent who enjoys Egg McMuffins and playing the card game euchre, would also give Democrats hope for the future in a state that Republicans have had a firm grip on for eight years. Walker’s approval rating remains below 50 percent and President Donald Trump’s is worse, even though Trump carried the state two years ago.

Tommy Thompson and former University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Donna Shalala, a Democrat, both say Wisconsin Republicans are in for trouble come November. Thompson went so far as calling Trump "a bully." She is running for Congress in the Miami, Florida area. "Governor Thompson and I worked together in an era in which it didn't matter whether you were a Republican or a Democrat," Shalala said. Democrats have good ideas. Republicans have good ideas. Republicans have good ideas. Thompson won the gubernatorial election in 1994 with 67 percent of the vote by appealing to Democrats and independents as well as Republicans. Thompson said. "There clearly is unhappiness with the current leadership and it's being reflected across the country in local elections as much as it is in national election," she said.