What a week!
As some of you know we (okay "I") were/was deeply involved in the issue with the State party chair.
He resigned his position as a lobbyist on Saturday.
Here's the surprise: I/we probably didn't have anything to do with it.
I suspect that the motivation for his resignation came from a "higher" source and I can only speculate as to where that might have been but I won't do so openly. Lee Rayburn at WXXM, The Mic 92.1 had some very interesting thoughts on what happened at the 2nd CD Convention in Beloit last Saturday. Here's his entry:
Saturday 06-02-2007 6:16pm CT I think I may have been the ONLY member of the media in attendance at today's 2nd Congressional District of Wisconsin's Democratic Convention at Beloit College. State Democratic Chairman Joe Wineke began this morning by announcing that he has resigned his lobbyist position with AT&T. As a result, two resolutions from the 2nd CD asking Wineke to step down were taken off the table. Because I had publicly disapproved of his apparent conflict of interest, he kept telling me that I should know better. Hopefully, he'll join us on the radio, I'll ask him about it & we can move forward together. During one of the elections for officers, there were accusations of ballot-stuffing which forced a recount. The accusations ended up being unfounded. I will have the full story for you with accompanying audio on Monday morning. Seriously, I can't wait...
I'm starting to think the resignation was a one-two punch combination. I think the "higher authority" (whoever that may have been) saw that the 2nd CD was ready to a pass more than one resolution and that it was likely to get to the floor of the State Convention and turn into a nasty little fight that would pit the Madison-Milwaukee complex against the "Outstate" interests and the party didn't want any part of that kind of fight.
If that's the scenario...well...us locals were just a sideshow.
