It’s against the law to buy a person’s vote in Wisconsin. But there’s no law against warping the opinion of every man, woman, and child with a steady stream of glossy media.
I was browsing a worthwhile piece by Bill Lueders on where and how the recall cash was spent when I ran into this tidbit about the “Art for Gov” campaign:
“Finally, there was a single outlay for “Candidate Expense – Clothing.” The campaign for Arthur Kohl-Riggs, a young Madison man who challenged Walker in the GOP primary, spent $104.45 at the Jazzman on State Street. He says he bought a shirt and tie for a public appearance.
Overall, Kohl-Riggs spent $1,933 and snared 19,939 votes (3 percent of the primary total), an economical 10 cents per vote. In all, about 3,830,000 votes were cast for governor in the primary and general elections. If $80 million was spent, that’s more than $20 per vote.”
Arthur may not have gotten past the primary, but he won each vote with humor, creativity, authenticity and thrift.
In the video below he says, “As far as I’m concerned, protesting is a way to draw attention to whatever is wrong with what’s going on. So I’m participating as a candidate –as a legitimate Republican candidate for governor — while also protesting the fact that 90% of the time the candidate with the most money wins.”
I am happier than ever that I voted for Art in the recall primary. To me, he represents so much of what has been right about the movement to recall Walker: intelligence, creativity, humor, determination, humility.
I badly want somebody like Arthur to have a chance to win higher office without having to spend $40-$80 million dollars doing it. *big sigh* Arthur’s campaign was a very happy time. I hope he decides to run for office again.