Lori Compas' farewell message...

Lean Forward’s Amanda Sakuma: Lori Compas: 'We don't have government anymore, we have an auction.'

For those not up to speed about photographer and candidate Lori Compas, here’s a summary:

Lori Compas spearheaded a signature drive to recall her local state senator, Republican Senate leader Scott Fitzgerald—and ended up running against Fitzgerald herself, as a Democrat. 

Lori’s gift was that she had a simple message that didn’t just make sense, but could be felt in the gut. Here’s her insightful view of our current Democratic condition:

I think that if progressives want to make any kind of difference in Wisconsin or anywhere else, we have to work to get the money out of politics. We have to level the playing field. We don’t have government anymore, we have an auction. And that’s just not right.

I also think progressives need to get better at messaging. Even if it’s not true, Gov. Walker has been saying, ‘our government reforms are working, it’s working, it’s working,’ like a broken record. And of course his reforms are not working—anyone with two eyes can see that people are out of work.

Lori got to the heart of the Democratic problem. We need to reboot.

Lean Forward: What about the labor movement? If Walker can go after unions and not pay a political price for it, will that convince a lot of other Republicans across the country that they can do the same thing?

Lori Compas: I think that’s true unless we can figure out how to tell the story better. Do you enjoy the weekend? It doesn’t come natural. The five-day work week? We weren’t born with that—it was a thing that was hard-fought and won. And so was sick leave, and so was the 40-hour work week. All of these things that if you’re born into a world where that’s the norm, you just take it for granted. It’s easy for people to sit around all day Saturday and just gripe about how terrible the unions are, but they don’t realize that they are lounging around on a Saturday because the unions worked really hard to give them to you. If you’re in a Right-to-Work state, you’re more likely to have more people in poverty, more likely to have lower literacy rates. Unions raise the quality of life for everyone. Yes, there are big problems with the unions, and yes in some cases they might have too much power, but in general, life is better where unions exist.

It’s that simple isn’t it?

The Debate Audio: The Good (Lori Compas), the Bad and the really Ugly (Scott Fitzgerald)

Sen. Scott Fitzgerald is a bully, a misogynist, and a condescending, mean spirited, juvenile escapee from an anger management facility. He's also and a-hole, if you know what I mean. He didn't disappoint during his debate with Democratic challenger Lori Compas. WKOW:

Fitzgerald had to answer questions about past decisions.

"And we said, you know what? We can't continue to prop up this one sector of Wisconsinites that have not lost their jobs, have full benefits, both health and pension," said the Republican Senate majority leader. Fitzgerald continued to Compas, "So if you're hearing from the same people that are really hurting out there I can't believe you wouldn't support Act 10 or the reforms we put in place."

Compas responded by saying, "This is another example of this 'divide and conquer' strategy. You are turning neighbor against neighbor. What we're seeing here is a pattern of abuse of power and betrayal of trust, the Senator broke the Open Meetings Law," Compas said."

God that grating Fitzgerald voice, whining endlessly about how much he hates America. Compas said what even Mayor Tom Barrett isn't; the Republican Party is wildly abusing their power.

Compas was impressive and cared more about public policy, where Fitzgereld sniped about opposition to his ideological policy. There is a video of the debate, but the sound was awful, so I thought the audio version worked best. At the end of part 3, chants for Lori filled the room. Here's part 1 from WFAW, with more here:



Part 2 from WFAW: in a moment.........



Part 3 final WFAW:

Scott Fitzgerald's war on women.

Scott Fitzgerald would like everyone to think he really, really does respect women, but actions always speak louder than the lying words from his condescending mouth. Lori Compas is rightfully offended.

Fitzgerald: "I don't for one minute believe she is the organizing force behind this whole thing."

Lori Compas has (a) YouTube respond to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald's comment that he believes her husband is a driving force behind her recall campaign.

The video, posted Sunday with the title "Fitzgerald, welcome to the 21st Century," features a satirical re-enactment of Eric Compas putting his oblivious, subservient wife up to the recall of Fitzgerald.

"I've been talking to some union bosses and protest junkies, and that Senator Fitzgerald has got to go," he tells her. "What's a senator?" she responds, wearing an apron and holding a feather duster.

Lori Compas goes to the Capitol!

What's not to like about Lori Compas? Lori gave this speech at the Capitol protest on Saturday. This is how Democratic candidates should deliver the message, frame the issues.



Here's Compas on Upfront with Mike Gousha:

Lori Compas takes on Fitzgerald.

You have got to love her fight. From Channel3000:



Check out how she took on Sen. Scott Fitzgerald over his accusation that Compas was committing fraud on her recall petitions. Ed Schultz reports: