Why Republicans Hate Madison

Downtown Madison, WI with the Monona Terrace in view. Photo by Mariiana Tzotcheva.

Why don’t Republicans like Madison?

Short answer: People keep moving there, like it there and many of them vote Democratic.

The documentation?

Well, start with deep-blue Madison’s successes:

Hiring, wages and profits all rise, Madison-area business leaders say in survey

Then take a peak at who wants to live there:

Why Madison, Wisconsin Attracts More Millennials Than Any Other City

And, finally, how they just voted:

Report: Tony Evers carried young Wisconsin voters by 23-point margin

Is the GOP’s answer to this better policies that attract members of the largest generation of Americans in history?

Nope, it’s to grab power away from local governments, and elected Democrats.

And to restrict convenient, early voting statewide – – but aimed at Madison and Milwaukee – –because too many of those otherwise ideal, productive Madisonians voted for Democrats last month.

And when offering up one of the GOP’s talking point justifications for the [power grab] bill to The New York Times last week, Vos came up with these words:

“If you took Madison and Milwaukee out of the state election formula, we would have a clear majority,” he said.

Now that, of course, is pure nonsense. It was word salad that went bad.

It’d be like someone calling Chicago sports talk radio and saying, ‘If you took Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers out of the record books, the Bears would have a clear majority’ of wins between the two teams.

Or, ‘If you took Madison and Milwaukee out of the state population formula, Wisconsin would be without its two biggest revenue donors. And its biggest economic, cultural, financial, educational, commercial and transportation centers.’

And, of course, Republicans can be counted on to back voter suppression in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s only major urban center, as has been done with voter ID laws. 

James Rowen, a former journalist and mayoral staffer in Milwaukee and Madison, writes a regular blog, The Political Environment.