Wisconsin State Journal endorses Dan Kapanke

Which confuses the liberals in my town who think of La Crosse as "little Madison."

Kind has done some good things, such as challenging wasteful farm subsidies and pressing for outcome-based payments in the new health care law. We've endorsed Kind in past elections.

But Kind hasn't done enough to change Washington's bad habits and misguided priorities.

Kapanke deserves a shot to do better.

Kapanke helped lead a principled push last year to strip all non-fiscal policy items from the state budget. Kapanke favored financial disclosure for groups that run nasty issue ads before elections. And he was one of the first and relatively few state lawmakers to return his legislative pay raise during tight times.

Kapanke also showed he doesn't follow the marching orders of the GOP and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce when he opposed a gimmicky constitutional amendment on spending and taxes in 2005.

Wis State Journal

Like a battered wife afraid to leave her husband, the La Crosse Tribune endorsed Ron Kind who even by liberal standards has done nothing noteworthy in his political career in Washington. 

Ron Kind said to require campaign cash to meet with doctors concerned about Obamacare

A couple of Eau Claire doctors are trying to shake up the sleepy congressional race in southwestern Wisconsin with their claim that they were told to come up with campaign cash before U.S. Rep. Ron Kind would meet with them to discuss a bill detrimental to their hospital.

The pay-to-play allegation has certainly roused the seven-term Democrat.

"Never in my time as a public servant have I asked or required people or organizations to make a contribution to my campaign in order to meet with me," Kind said in his written statement last week. "This claim is a lie and is an attack on my character."

Two doctors at OakLeaf Surgical Hospital contacted No Quarter last week with their three-year-old charge, which they detailed in affidavits provided to the paper. Kind's staff countered with their own set of affidavits challenging the doctors' story.

"I don't know the legalities," Michael Smith, one of the OakLeaf doctors, said in an interview. "But this is an official elected to represent us. What does this mean - if I don't have the money that he won't even meet with me to hear my side of an important issue for our district?"

Another surgeon at the physician-owned facility maintains in his sworn statement that an unnamed Kind aide in his Eau Claire office explained that the veteran politician "typically requires a contribution of $10,000 for a 1-2 hour personal meeting and $25,000 for a half day meeting."
 
The surgeon, who organized the event, asked that he not be named in exchange for providing the Journal Sentinel with his affidavit through his attorney, John Behling, a former aide to Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson. The surgeon declined to be interviewed, Behling said.

OakLeaf doctors wanted to talk to Kind about a bill, called the Champ Act, which would have banned the creation of any new physician-owned hospitals while prohibiting the existing ones from expanding their facilities. It also would have limited the percentage of a hospital that doctors could own individually and collectively.

Read the rest from Daniel Bice at JSOnline

HT Coulee Conservatives

Funny that the paper on the EAST side of the state has to break this story.  What does that say about the media in Western Wisconsin.  Makes a person wonder what else has been going on. 

Pro-Life Kapanke closing gap on Kind

CHARLIE COOK CHANGES RATING!

Great news! The authority on predicting the outcome of political campaigns, Charlie Cook, has moved this race from "Likely Democrat" to "Leans Democrat." This shows that this race is getting significantly closer with Kind clinging to a single digit lead. See what Charlie Cook's says about this race:

WI-03 Ron Kind (D)

Lean Democratic. As statewide races have deteriorated for Democrats, this usually sleepy Western Wisconsin district has become a tantalizing target for GOP outside groups, including the 60 Plus Association, which has purchased $565,000 in ad time (that goes quite a long way in Eau Claire and La Crosse) to blast Kind for voting for health care reform. GOP state Senator Dan Kapanke, who has won two elections in Kind's Democratic-leaning home base of La Crosse, has steadily raised $684,000 over the course of the cycle and is hitting Kind on spending and party-line votes.

Kind, who grew up on a dairy farm and was a high school football standout, is tough to demonize and has never had much trouble since winning the district in 1996. But he has never had to run against a well-funded campaign in a horrendous political environment. Democrats have been hitting Kapanke on relatively minor campaign finance discrepancies in press releases all year, but look for them to ratchet up their hits by pointing out that Kapanke, who owns the La Crosse Loggers collegiate summer baseball team, used lobbyist donations to his community nonprofit foundation to finance stadium improvements. Internal GOP polling shows a single-digit race, but Kind still has a lead.

This is awesome news! I know that if I keep executing my plan to win, we will knock off Ron Kind and get this country back on track. Help me keep the pressure on Kind. Do what you can to support my campaign by making a donation here.
Kapanke for Congress

Wisconsin Pro-Life candidates pulling away in polls

Walker is above 50 percent for the first time in this campaign, and any gains it looked like Democrat Tom Barrett had made in the Aug. 24 poll seem to have evaporated. Walker's campaign is portraying this as a big win, as they should, things look good for the Republican.

HT David Bohlander

Also on the Sort-of-Pro-Life Ron Johnson:

After a decisive win in Tuesday’s Republican Primary, businessman Ron Johnson now holds a seven-point lead over incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold in Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race.

Rasmussen

Also the media is hoping to give the pro-life Dist 3's Dan Kapanke a black eye, but considering Ron Kind is probably one of the least enticing incumbents (he's been in office for 14 years and has done nothing in his time there, except an occasional nod to DNC barking orders), it's still an uphill battle for Kind.  And I think the Kind people in the media also know that the congressman before Kind held the seat for 16 years.  In other words, a pro-life win here could mean a pro life win for the next couple decades.  Let's face it, we have Kapanke who is a farm boy and baseball team owner(who worked his tail off to bring baseball to La Crosse only to have mystery men set fire to part of the stadium) up against Kind, a lawyer and career politician.... If I have any sense of the political climate today, I'd say that is a recipe for Kind-kabobs.  The only thing Kind has is alot of money in the bank and can run ads replaying his news articles. 

Ron Kind by the numbers

2009 Representative Kind supported the interests of NARAL Pro-Choice America 100 percent in 2009.
2008 Representative Kind supported the interests of Planned Parenthood 92 percent in 2008.

2007-2008 Representative Kind supported the interests of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association 100 percent in 2007-2008.

2007-2008 Representative Kind supported the interests of the National Right to Life Committee 0 percent in 2007-2008.

2007 Representative Kind supported the interests of the NARAL Pro-Choice America 100 percent in 2007.

2006 Representative Kind supported the interests of the NARAL Pro-Choice America 100 percent in 2006.
2006 Representative Kind supported the interests of the Planned Parenthood 90 percent in 2006.

2005-2006 Representative Kind supported the interests of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association 100 percent in 2005-2006.

2005-2006 Representative Kind supported the interests of the National Right to Life Committee 0 percent in 2005-2006.

2005 Representative Kind supported the interests of the NARAL Pro-Choice America 100 percent in 2005.

VoteSmart.org 

He is a WELS Lutheran which makes it a bit surprising that he is so radically pro-abortion.  I know a lot of good WELS people, and it's the most conservative Lutheran Synod out there.  But like most liberals, their politics are made into their religion.