Perhaps La Follette couldn’t recall. Or perhaps he wanted to downplay how long he has held the job....One of the candidates running for Wisconsin secretary of state is running to eliminate the office. What does a state's secretary of state do anyway? Here's a Wikipedia article on that subject. Basically, it varies from state to state, and 3 states (Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah) don't have this office at all.
Over the years, the Legislature has gradually reduced the duties of the secretary of state. La Follette said in the interview his office once had 50 employees and now it’s just him and one other full-time employee....
When we contacted La Follette about his statement, by the way, he said he would have to "do a little calculation." Then later he emailed us, saying: "Wow, I did some math. It looks like it is more like 40 years; let me say, time flies when you’re having fun. Thanks for calling this to my attention."'
July 30, 2018
"Doug La Follette says he's been Wisconsin secretary of state about 25 years, but it's been nearly 40."
Reports Politifact.
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28 comments:
is this one of the heritable posts that you're born into?
Many run the elections and voter registration. Those are important.
Wisconsin’s doesn’t do elections.
..give or take..mostly take
Is he one of those La Follettes?
50 people? Crikey- suckers...
Politifact has nothing better to do?
Guess not.
Massachusetts cuts with the charade and they’re called no show jobs. I suspect if there was once 50 people in tue SoS office WI had those too.
In Illinois the SoS office is a leading collector of graft. Paul Powell was found with $800K stuffed in shoe boxes, after he died. If I recall correctly, the was in the 70's.
It is a bipartisan effort in that George Ryan (if you consider him a Republican) was also found to be a crook.
As with Illinois governors, only the idiots get caught.
It all has to do with "well" being a source of water AND a source of starting a statement in a way allowing the nourishment a sip of water in a needy water-wise situation one might, uh, well, find themselves thrust within.
Run elections in Montana. And run the notary public thing.
Guess who'se back....
[Verse 1]
Guess who's back
I used to be broke, Confused, No Joke
Got used, Smoked Dope
Paid Dues, Refused, To give up quick
Now there's 10 Million Motherfuckers on my dick
Sold what
Say how, Say who
Fuck what, Fuck me?
Fuck you!
Come clean You know I will, drink a fifth of Jim Beam
And still stand still
I'm the illest fool
Cooler than the water in a swimming pool
Fly like a seagull kicking like a mule
More jams than a Beatle from Liverpool
I deliver fool, Now who the fuck are you?
I'm Kid motherfucking Rock from the old school
Got more money than Matchbox 20
Get more ass than Mark McGrath
[Chorus]
They say I'm cocky and I say what
It isn't bragging motherfucker if you back it up
They say I'm cocky and I say what
It isn't bragging motherfucker if you back it up
[Verse 2]
I'm from the outskirts of Detroit Rock City
A-Shirts,Cadillacs,Big titties
Skinny models you can keep those
I like big corn fed Midwestern ho's
Don't you know
Talk fast
Pimp slow
Show up to black ties in t-shirts & slippers
Sipping liquor, fuck models love strippers
Known as the big tipper with the big dipper
I got queens holding keys to my zipper
Fuck a real good girl
I've got the baddest bitch in the world
[Chorus]
They say I'm cocky and I say what
It isn't bragging motherfucker if you back it up
They say I'm cocky and I say what
It isn't bragging motherfucker if you back it up
[Verse 3]
You think you got it good in Hollywood
I got acres of land laid back in the woods
Holding shares cool like Fonzie
Rolling Lake St. Clair in my forty foot Donzie
You got a Bentley Wow
I got jets with wet bars
And trucks with gold plows
Bitch bow when I pimp thru
For the Kid, the Rock the Red, White and Blue
Who knew the Kid would be
Everything from old George Jones to Jay-Z
Baby I'm sick of getting ripped off
So pissed about to be pissed off
Macking me because you know I'm payed
That's why I'm slapping my gardners,and fucking my maids
Never mind my age but if we're taking numbers
Fifteen million sold motherfucker
[Chorus]
They say I'm cocky and I say what
It isn't bragging motherfucker if you back it up
They say I'm cocky and I say what
It isn't bragging motherfucker if you back it up
Cocky and I say what
It isn't bragging motherfucker if you back it up
They say I'm cocky and I say what
It isn't bragging motherfucker if you back it up
Back it up, back it up
Back it up, back it up
Back it up, back it up
Back it up, back it up
Dammit, now he has to use another set of fake birth/school/military/medical records under a different name, to continue his immortal work.
I have a perverse sense of admiration for him. He parlayed his name into a cushy lifetime job.
Back it up, back it up
He's a database administrator, whatever else he is.
nn Althouse said...
Wisconsin’s doesn’t do elections.
Sometimes they do corporation registration. They do in California.
That should be a good source of graft.
Cool Moose party founder and fabulous agitator Robert J. Healey ran for Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor in 2010 on the platform of abolishing the office. I voted for him.
In 2014, Healey ran for Governor on the Moderate Party ticket.:
Healey spent a total of only $35.31 on his entire gubernatorial campaign, which he said went to purchase a prepaid mobile phone and a phone card, items he purchased himself.[16] Healey's only advertisement during the campaign was a minimalist billboard featuring a caricature of his face, which he painted himself on the side of his friend's house overlooking Interstate 95 in Providence.
Healey came in 3rd with 21.4% of the election votes.
Lotsa do-nuthin jobs in all governments, everywhere. Probably more than do-sumthin jobs. Eventually you come to realize that most government exists to serve those who work for it.
Geez while he was sleeping in his office 47 employees died or retired.
Michael K is right--in California the Secretary of State actually does have several worthwhile functions.
You know another LaFollette that is even more obscure these days? Phil LaFollette.
In about 1937 Phil founded the National Progressive Party. According to a German National Socialist magazine publisher, its platform seemed to be modeled on the National Socialist Party of Germany. This was while most progressives still saw German National Socialism as a positive thing and the way of the future.
The Wisconsin Historical society characterizes its emblem as a "Circumcised Swastika" Picture here: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM35032
This to is from the society. It is a picture of Mussolini modeling for a bust. Inscribed by the sculptor "To Phil La Follette Go as far as you like I'm with you Jo Davidson Paris 1927"
https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM10662
Love them Wisconsin progressives.
Thankfully, they seem to be a dying breed. Or perhaps saw the light, repented and helped deliver WI for Trump in 16.
John Henry
Ella Grasso, former Governor of Connecticut, was the first woman elected Governor who was not the spouse or widow of a former Governor. Ella Grasso was Connecticut's Secretary of State for 12 years before being elected to Congress, and later Governor.She was neither the first, nor the last CT Secretary of State to later be elected to Congress or Governor. In Connecticut, the Secretary of State has two divisions that basically deal with registration: registration for elections and registration of corporations.
Doug LaFollette has a Wikipedia entry to prove his relevance. Someone asked if he was one of those La Follettes. Turns out that he is, but just barely.
From Wikipedia
His great-grandfather was an uncle of Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette.[3] Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette's grandson, former Wisconsin Attorney General Bronson La Follette, has described Doug La Follette as a "second cousin, three times removed" from "Fighting Bob" La Follette.
john Henry
When I was growing up in Georgia in the 50s and 60s, the SoS was a man named Ben Fortson. In the late 1940s, there was a state constitutional crisis known as the "Three Governors" controversy. Eugene Talmadge was elected governor but died before taking office. The legislature decided it was within their power to select a new governor, so they elected Talmadge's son, Herman. However, the newly elected Lt. Gov, Meldrim Thompson, said he should be governor. Finally, the outgoing governor, Ellis Arnall, decided he should remain governor until the controversy was resolved. During this time, so no one claiming to be governor could conduct state business, Fortson took possession of the official state seal and hid it. No one knew what he had done with it and he wouldn't tell. When the state supreme court finally issued a ruling he brought it out and gave it to the new governor (the court decided in favor of Thomspon, until a special election was held, when Herman Talmadge was elected). Fortson had been a paraplegic since he was a young man and had hidden the seal under the seat cushion of his wheel chair. He sat on it the whole time knowing no one would ever think to look there.
I thought Secretary of States got schlonged?
I saw an ad in the mail at work for a central Florida political candidate. It had a picture of George Washington kneeling at Valley Forge on the back and said, "If term limits were good enough for George Washington, they should be good enough for Florida politicians." Needless to say, the candidate is not an incumbent. She is, however, an extremely pretty woman and if looks have anything to do with who gets elected, she should be a shoo-in.
I remember this from a few years back: Secretary of State Project.
From Ballotpedia: "History
The Secretary of State Project originated due to the culmination of frustration, anger, bitterness and overall resentment Democrats felt towards Republicans in the wake of President George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004. Still plagued with memories of Katherine Harris and Florida from the 2000 presidential contest, Democrats placed the blame for Senator John Kerry’s loss squarely on the head of former Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, who ruled that provisional ballots in the state would not be counted if they were submitted in the wrong precinct, a decision upheld by the United States Court of Appeals. Bush’s victory in the state – a relatively slim 118,000+ votes – gave him the necessary electoral votes (twenty) to cross the victory threshold of two hundred and seventy.
Democratic founders of the SoS Project saw conspiracy in Blackwell's decision, insisting that those individuals who were elected on the principle of upholding and enforcing election laws were, in fact, political operatives. But rather then push for reform so that the offices of the Secretaries of State reflected a level of neutrality, perhaps making it so holders of those positions were elected on a nonpartisan basis, they instead sought to implement an aggressive agenda exactly the same in nearly every respect that they had just accused Republicans of performing. Through the strategic process of placing specific candidates, ones that met a certain liberal or progressive criteria set down by the organization, in positions of power that oversaw and administered state elections, the Democratic Party would be "better positioned than in the previous elections to advance traditional Democratic interests," particularly when it came to the administration of election laws."
Also from Ballotpedia - "The SoS Project has not been active since 2010. It spent just over $50,000 in 2012 and its website was taken down.
LaFollette (who only holds his office because of his name) and Risser (ditto) both should have been voted out of office years ago. Risser was elected in 1956 -- before I was born -- and I'm old!
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