1/18/06 Mccabe Sees Tipping Point On Horizon
Mccabe Sees Tipping Point On Horizon In State Politics
The Capital Times :: METRO :: 1C
Friday, January 13, 2006
Rob Zaleski
There are days he still can't believe it.
How could a state once known for its squeaky clean politics have degenerated into the cesspool that it is now -- and in a relatively short time -- Mike McCabe wondered aloud during an interview this week at a downtown coffee shop.
And yet, while he hates to sound naive, the 45-year-old executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign believes there are definite signs that the public is finally waking up, and that we may be in the early stages of a "throw the bums out" movement.
One sign was the October survey by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute that showed just 6 percent of state residents believe elected officials are representing their interests, says McCabe, whose nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog group has been fighting Capitol corruption since 1995.
Another was the recent state poll -- largely unreported, he notes -- that St. Norbert College did for Wisconsin Public Radio in which political corruption was cited as often as gas prices when people were asked to name the No. 1 problem facing Wisconsin.
"As often as gas prices! That was pretty stunning to me," McCabe says.
Why are people suddenly paying attention?
Because the stench emanating from the Capitol has gotten so bad that even TV could no longer ignore it, McCabe says.
"Most people out there -- even after the caucus scandals broke, and even after there were criminal charges filed -- didn't really didn't have political corruption on their radar screen," he says. "But once you get this parade of lawmakers into courtrooms and actually get convictions, it becomes TV news. And, sad to say, that's when it started getting on the radar.
"And so that group of people who were completely clueless is shrinking. No question about it."
A former farm kid from Clark County, the boyish-looking McCabe -- who has a journalism degree from UW-Madison and once dreamed of becoming an investigative reporter -- has never been one to pull punches. And he was in top form during our hourlong interview.
Some excerpts:
So you're actually encouraged right now?
"I have no doubts that we're approaching a tipping point. The problem with tipping points is that you don't know exactly when it breaks. It can take months, it can take years.
"But I do think this public awareness, this public awakening, is something that's irreversible. Something has to be done to restore public faith. Those kind of concerns aren't going to go away unless there's some sort of political response."
Judging from media reports, you weren't very impressed with the ethics reform package recently proposed by Gov. Jim Doyle.
"They're all good things, but if all of them were put in place tomorrow, it would be a pretty modest step forward. And I also don't think it would stop the bleeding. I don't think it would make the public feel that clean and open government had been restored and that the political corruption dragon had been slayed. I think people would still feel that there's some pretty serious things wrong."
Many Democrats feel betrayed by Doyle. Why do you think he's reneged on his promise to make campaign finance reform a major issue?
"It's impossible for me to look into his heart. He's really the only one who could answer that. But from a distance, it seems that Doyle is a very conventional politician. He practices politics by the book. He ran as a reformer, he said cleaning up government and restoring integrity to state government was going to be a top priority -- and then ran screaming from the issue as soon as he got inaugurated.
"And it wasn't until he was into an election year and under investigation that he finally came back to this and put forward an ethics reform package -- and even then it was a very tepid step.
"What all that says to me is that as soon as he was elected, he realized that as governor he could raise a boatload of money and that he could play the game in the conventional way. And I think his strategy must be that he's just going to raise boatloads of money and be able to define his opponent with a blizzard of ads...and that that's going to carry him through.
"And maybe he'll be right. Maybe that tipping point won't arrive in time for it to effect the outcome of the 2006 gubernatorial election. But I think we're getting to a moment when conventional politics goes right out the window. And one day you're going to see the electorate behave in surprising, maybe even astonishing ways -- and conventional politicians aren't going to see that coming in time."
A lot of people figured veteran Republican Sen. Mike Ellis would run against Doyle. But last week Ellis said he can't afford to run because he's not rich and he doesn't sell out to special interests. I take it you weren't surprised?
"No. And I don't know how seriously Ellis was thinking about running. But he was thinking about it, and it's a daunting task to think you're going to compete in a race statewide. The cost of the last governor's race was $23 million. And this one's going to cost more -- probably more than $30 million.
"The one thing I wonder about though is, if the right set of conditions surfaced in time for the 2006 elections, you could see a situation where somebody wouldn't need $10 million, which is what the consultant told Ellis he'd need.
"Think back to 1976. When people first saw Jimmy Carter, they all wrote him off because he was the unlikeliest of candidates. And yet a set of circumstances compelled him to the presidency.
"Carter had a smile, a manner, a demeanor that was the antithesis of Richard Nixon and the Beltway politicians. And so you had Watergate, and in response to Watergate, people turned to this figure that they saw as very trustworthy and very anti-Washington. And Jimmy Carter became credible and electable -- not because of Jimmy Carter, I think, but because a set of circumstances that made him the right guy at the right time.
"Well, who knows what Jack Abramoff and all the rest of this stuff is going to do to the political terrain?"
But anyone running for governor would still need a boatload of money, wouldn't they?
"Not necessarily. What happens if Doyle is still under a serious cloud -- or, God forbid, is criminally charged? You don't have to follow the money very far and you see similar concerns for (Republican gubernatorial candidates) Mark Green and Scott Walker. What if the voters are faced with a field of conventional politicians, all of whom are operating under a cloud of scandal?
"And then somebody emerges and says I'm not going to play the game this way, in sort of Jimmy Carter fashion. How do voters respond to that, if they see all these people with $10 million as unacceptable options?"
Some say they'd love to see Mike McCabe run for governor. (McCabe ran for the state Assembly in 1998 and lost in the Democratic primary to Mark Pocan.)
"I'd rather not. It's just not me. One of the things that's really important in life is knowing where you fit in best and not letting your ego get the best of you.
"To me, a good elected official is like a mirror. When voters look at that elected official, they should be able to see themselves in that person. And I don't think I'm all that representative.
"How many people grew up on a farm, for crying out loud. And my life experiences aren't that much like the life experiences of most people. For instance, I don't have any debt. That's positively un-American.
"I don't owe a penny to anybody. I don't have credit card debt, I don't have a home mortgage, I don't have a car payment. I'm absolutely 100 percent debt-free. It's because of the lifestyle that my wife Marilyn and I have chosen to live."
Some would suggest that's a wonderful thing -- something we should all emulate.
McCabe laughs.
"But nobody's emulating it."
\ E-mail: rzaleski@madison.com