Milwaukee Biz Blog

It will be interesting to watch how the debate over the expansion of southeastern Wisconsin’s mass transit system splits the region’s business community into two factions: those who want to invest public dollars to expand and improve the mass transit system, and those who do not.

The roster of the camp of supporters for improved and expanded mass transit reads like a who’s who of business in the region:

• “This is not a want, this is an absolute need for the community,” said Tim Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of South Milwaukee-based Bucyrus International Inc.
• “It’s critical that this legislation pass during the spring 2010 session,” said Robert Mariano, chairman and CEO of Milwaukee-based Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc. “It is foolish to ignore, this is an economic development issue. Transit builds the economy.”
• “For the vitality of southeastern Wisconsin, getting this bill through the legislature is critical,” said Scott VanderSanden, president of AT&T Wisconsin.
• “We believe regional transit and the KRM is an important investment in the future of our region,” said J. Fisk Johnson, chairman and CEO of Racine-based S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. “More efficient and more affordable public transit can help make a city an even more attractive place for business and can help the vibrancy of a community. The lack of accessibility to Milwaukee and Chicago is a big reason it is more challenging to attract key people to our company.”
• “It’s really frustrating to see the constant deterioration of public transit,” said Ed Zore, CEO of Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. “It’s really important for business to have a good public transit system.” Zore said about 700 of his company’s employees use public transit.

Add to this lineup the likes of Greater Milwaukee Committee president Julia Taylor and Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) vice president Pete Beitzel, and we’ve got a critical mass of business interests lining up in support of mass transit.

Beitzel says the debate reminds him of the conversation that took place when the Eisenhower administration embarked on the creation of America’s Interstate Highway system. Public dollars created a system that was not financially self-sustaining, but provided benefits for the common good - mainly interstate commerce and travel.

“This is the beginning of a sort of mini interstate of rail service, and Milwaukee is lucky because some forms of manufacturing and maintenance will be done here and that’s a major positive for job creation,” Beitzel said. “The work being done on the track before, during and after construction will create jobs here, it will reduce travel time, and the additional set of trains will allow us to eventually increase service frequency back and forth. People will say it’s a lot of money, but they said the same thing when we were establishing the interstate highway program. When initially establishing any infrastructure it’s not cheap, but for Milwaukee the facility is already here, we aren’t going to have to put a lot of extra money into the project.”

The new debate over mass transit escalated late last week, when BizTimes Milwaukee broke the exclusive story that the Obama administration intends to spend $810 million in federal bucks to build a high-speed railroad to connect Milwaukee to Madison.

Normally, the news that the federal government will spend more than $800 million in a state is warmly greeted by the local folks. However, look for the local impact of the federal gravy train to be a focus of debate in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race.

Critics of the high-speed rail project say the state will be left holding the bag for high maintenance and operating costs. Those fears will no doubt be fanned by Milwaukee’s talk radio hosts, who have been screaming for years against any public investments in things that go “Choo! Choo!”

We’ll explore the arguments both for and against expanded mass transit in future editions of BizTimes Milwaukee. Stay tuned.

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

Thesis #1: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 generated massive amounts of federal stimulus to the economy, saving or creating thousands of jobs and saving the country from the next Great Depression.
Thesis #2: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was a $1 trillion boondoggle that was not needed and will heap mountains of national debt upon future generations.

History will sort out which of those two assessments will ring true for the ages. For now, the only thing known is that intelligent people stand in each of the two camps.

Judging from the speakers at a recent Public Policy Forum Viewpoint Luncheon, there are plenty of elements of truth in both statements, even if they seem at once contradictory.

Sharon Robinson, director of administration for the City of Milwaukee, said that, if nothing else, the stimulus dollars so far have enabled public bodies to keep thousands of vital employees such police officers, firefighters and teachers on the payrolls. The city also used $20 million to repair streets that otherwise would still have potholes, she said.
“Our budget for 2010 would have been a whole lot worse if the stimulus had not come into play,” Robinson said.

Indeed, the roadbuilders have been rejoicing about the stimulus act. The industry was facing one of its worst years of all time with the recession until those stimulus funds came along, according to Pat Goss, executive director of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association.
“With the stimulus, it was one of the best (years for roadbuilders). From our perspective, it was a tremendous success,” Goss said. “In a short term, this is a jobs retention bill.”

Arthur Harrington, attorney at Godfrey & Kahn, said the stimulus act has not yet fulfilled President Barack Obama’s promises to provide funds for “shovel ready” projects and create thousands of new jobs.
“This is not a stimulus bill. In my mind, it’s a cushion bill,” Harrington said. “My concern is, what happens after (2009)? If you want to jumpstart private industry, there’s a different model.”

State Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) said the stimulus dollars have not reached the private sector, where true wealth and job creation is generated.
“Much of that money went into things to stabilize taxes,” Stone said. “My concern is that we may have extended into the future a little bit the day of reckoning (of balancing public budgets) … We haven’t produced jobs with the stimulus plan.”

Mark Wagner, vice president of government relations for Johnson Controls Inc., has a different take. His Milwaukee-based company landed a $299 million research grant to develop lithium batteries for the next generation of hybrid vehicles.
Without the direct stimulus from the federal government, the development of those batteries would have “gone to Asia,” Wagner said.
Wagner foresees additional stimulus projects to retrofit dozens of public buildings in southeastern Wisconsin in 2010.
“We expect to see a major amount of activity in the second quarter … It’s out there. It’s coming,” Wagner said. “We’re just kind of seeing the tip of the iceberg right now. The bulk of it is going to come (in 2010). It will be in 2010 that you’ll really start to see the impact.”

In the congressional elections of 2010, the Obama administration and the Democrats will no doubt paint the stimulus act as a great economic panacea. The Republicans will no doubt paint it as a catastrophic failure.

As with most complex political issues of our time, the truth is more complicated than either of those planks and lies somewhere in between.

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

The images from CNN's nightly coverage of Haiti are haunting me. Can't get them out of my head.

The 5-year-old boy pulled out of the rubble eight days after the earthquake. The woman lying outside the makeshift hospital, her foot amputated and her dead child lying next to her. The piles of bodies alongside the road and dumped into fields like garbage.

And the orphans. My God, the orphans.

I'm told it takes years and thousands of dollars for Americans to go through the adoption process to bring a Haitian child to America.

That must change. And it must change now. Right now.

Some brave American Congressman or Senator needs to stand up and stand out and propose emergency legislation to expedite and minimize the process by which dying Haitian orphans can be brought to loving families in the United States.

Right now.

Their lives are on the clock. Do it.

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

Last week, I wrote a blog about how Wisconsin’s economy has begun to rebound from the Great Recession.

I noted all of the economic indicators showing as much, and I documented how dozens of Wisconsin companies in recent months have been adding jobs, dating back to Mercury Marine’s decision to expand here, rather than move to Oklahoma.

What I did not share was the fact that Michael Knetter, Ph.D., a former presidential economist and the dean of the School of Business at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, agreed with my prognosis that a rebound has begun.

I also did not share that a panel of CEOs surveyed by Julia Taylor at the Greater Milwaukee Committee (GMC) also agreed that 2010 will be a year of recovery, to one degree or another.

We’ll share Knetter’s predictions and the GMC forecasts, along with outlooks from the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and many others at the Northern Trust Economic Trends Breakfast on Friday, Jan. 22, and in our special report that will accompany the event.

In my blog last week, I intentionally left out any of the political implications or ramifications of an economic recovery in 2010. That was by design. I wanted to stick to the facts at hand, and not pollute the analysis with any political interjections.

Nice try. Someone at Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Mark Neumann’s campaign posted a link to my blog on Facebook, with the introductory phrase as follows: "From BizTimes Media: ‘Wisconsin’s economic recovery has begun.’ Have you seen recovery in your business? Are you more optimistic for 2010?”

Given that serving of red meat, Neumann’s Facebook followers jumped in with a barrage of verbal assaults (verbatim):

• “Bullsh_t many jobs lost will not come back ever. spending because of christmas helped like tax returns help when they hit the mail boxes. what new companies opened? what new jobs are there replacing old ones? if so get my home back!”
• “I was downsized 11 months ago. Have been applying at different places since then and still no luck.”
• “You cannot take revenue from the private sector and give it to the gov for redistribution and expect positive results. Moreover, Americans and our companies are addicted to cheap credit.”
• “You would have a hard time convincing me and my customers that the recession is over and recovery is coming. Government pays lip service to creating mfg. jobs when it continuously throws up road blocks with more regulations, higher taxes, etc.”
• “None of the stimulus money goes into small businesses....just the leftist groups like ACORN and NAMBLA!”
• “(Wisconsin Gov. Jim) Doyle will be gone soon. Hopefully we will get a governor who cares about our state, right Mark?”
• “I saw the headline of this article when it came over my email! I just laughed - do these people think we are stupid? And just because they say it - we believe it?? It is truly pathetic!”

Then some enlightened genius calling himself Chuck Kramp called me a “dum ass” (his spelling) and another name that won’t be repeated here.

Nice folks.

That’s OK. I have developed very thick skin over the years. And of course, I realize that followers of a candidate in one party are not going to welcome the message that an economic recovery has begun under the watch of a governor and a president in the other party (which is not to say that the governor and the president in the other party should be given credit for that recovery).

Still, the abrasive responses of Neumann’s followers reflect the toxic political dialogue (on all sides) this country is engaged in right now.

Anyway, I’m sticking to my prognosis that an economic recovery has begun, regardless of the political consequences. And if those Neumann followers think they know more than Dr. Knetter and the GMC’s CEOs of Milwaukee’s largest corporations, well, there isn’t much I can say to convince them.

Maybe they would find it more credible to hear the same message from a different messenger … How about Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” who declared last week, “This darned economy is not only about to boom. I think it’s booming right now.”

Cramer backed up his assessment with positive news reported by Ford Motor Company and Boeing. The stocks of both companies recently posted new 52-week highs (as did the local BizTimes Stock Index, by the way). Ford reported a 42-percent increase in December vehicle sales, and Cramer said consumer spending is on the rise.

He said the economy will recover soon and “shock to the upside.”

Thanks for guarding my back, Cramer!

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

The controversy over Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed Clean Energy Jobs Act illustrates a deep philosophical divide that is emerging within Wisconsin’s business community.

In some ways, the emerging chasm pits the politics of tomorrow against the politics of yesterday.
On one side of the divide – in favor of the green jobs plan - stand the coalition for Clean, Responsible Energy for Wisconsin’s Economy (CREWE) and the Wisconsin Business Council.

The CREWE includes venerable companies such as CleanPower, Alliant Energy, EcoEnergy, Johnson Controls Inc., Xcel Energy, C5•6 Technologies, Axley Brynelson, Madison Gas and Electric, Orion Energy Systems, Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin Energy Corp., Poblocki Sign Company, Emerging Energies of Wisconsin, MillerCoors, American Transmission Co., WPPI Energy, DTE Energy Services and Kranz, Inc.

"CREWE strongly supports (Doyle’s) Global Warming Task Force recommendations and will support legislation that preserves the careful policy balance reached by the task force. We are currently reviewing the draft bill,” the CREWE companies said in a joint statement. “We appreciate the strong leadership of the sponsors and thank them for hard work in preparing the draft.  We look forward to working with them in the coming weeks and months to pass and implement legislation that will address climate change, increase energy independence, and create new, clean energy jobs for Wisconsin."

The plan also has the support of the Wisconsin Business Council, which includes leaders from several of the state’s key businesses, including American Transmission Co., Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, AT&T Wisconsin, Commerce State Bank, Dean Health System, Midwest Natural Gas, MillerCoors, Mortenson Construction, Orion Energy Systems and Park Bank (in Madison).

“Achieving the vision set forth in the Clean Energy Jobs Act will require diligence and innovative thinking,” said Scott VanderSanden, chairman of the Wisconsin Business Council and president of AT&T Wisconsin. “But we are confident that Wisconsin leaders in manufacturing, energy production, trade and service industries are up to this challenge. We look forward to the public discussion and the give and take that will be part of the legislative effort to fine-tune this proposal. The Clean Energy Jobs Act sets the stage for the creation of thousands of well-paying, family-sustaining ‘green jobs’ over the next decade, and if implemented in a way that recognizes the needs of our key industries, it will enhance Wisconsin’s business climate.”

The nonpartisan Wisconsin Business Council, which was formed last June, includes both conservative- and liberal-leaning people who believe that “better jobs and a stronger economy are critical to Wisconsin’s quality of life.”

Phil Prange, president and chief executive officer of the Wisconsin Business Council, held several key positions in the former Wisconsin Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson’s administration.

“The Wisconsin Business Council was established to provide a forum for business leaders to come together in the search for mutually beneficial solutions, and we’re cautiously optimistic about the potential of the Clean Energy Jobs Act,” Prange said. “A flourishing private sector is critical to our quality of life and it is clear that environmental innovation also makes sense from a competitive standpoint.”

On the other side of the divide stands the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), which is joined by 22 other business organizations, including the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), in opposition to Doyle’s proposal.

The WMC cited a study by the conservative Wisconsin Policy Research Institute that contends the proposed green legislation would kill 43,093 private-sector jobs in Wisconsin.

“Many families in this state are hurting,” said Scott Manley, director of environmental policy for the WMC, which has long supported conservative political candidates and causes. “We cannot afford to lose any more jobs, but that is exactly what this legislation will do.” Wisconsin has lost 160,000 high-wage manufacturing jobs since 2000, and the proposed legislation will continue the high-wage job loss. We need to reverse the current trend, and find a way to bring family-supporting manufacturing jobs back to our state. But hitting Wisconsin’s economy with the expensive new energy regulations proposed today will significantly increase our cost of electricity, and kill jobs while doing nothing to address global warming. Lawmakers must understand that increasing the cost of energy for Wisconsin families and employers is a recipe for further job loss.”

Adding even more intrigue to this philosophical divide among Wisconsin’s business community is the fact that many members of the CREWE and the Wisconsin Business Council in favor of the green jobs plan also are dues-paying members of the WMC, the MMAC and the other organizations that are against the plan.

“It’s really created massive fault lines within the business community between the deniers (of global warming) and those that think something must be done,” said Thad Nation of the CREWE. “It’s probably going to get messier before it gets better.”

As for Doyle, he said an economic assessment of the Clean Energy Jobs Act (State Senate Bill 450 and State Assembly Bill 649) found that the package would directly create at least 15,000 green jobs in Wisconsin by 2025. More than 1,800 jobs would be created in the first year alone, he said. Doyle’s assessment also found that between 800 and 1,800 construction jobs would be created each year from 2011-2025, and more than 2,000 manufacturing jobs would be created once the laws are fully implemented.

“Addressing climate change is not just an environmental issue, it’s about creating green jobs,” Doyle said. “The Clean Energy Jobs Act offers new standards to help accelerate Wisconsin’s green economy. I am calling on the Legislature to update renewable portfolio standards to generate 25 percent of our fuel from renewable sources by 2025 and set a realistic goal of a 2 percent annual reduction in energy consumption by 2015.”

What will really happen if the bill is approved? For now, I guess it depends upon whom you believe.

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

A look back at the cover stories of BizTimes Milwaukee magazine over the past year reveals the most important issues of the day, including the impact of the Great Recession, the federal stimulus, bankruptcy survival, health care reform, the H1N1 virus and the emergence of social media.
What will be the most important stories of 2010? Here’s an educated guess about the top one: Wisconsin’s economic recovery.

The recovery has begun and will pick up steam in 2010. It won’t come easily, and it won’t come quickly, but we're seeing some very promising trends: In recent polls, 86 percent of BizTimes.com readers say their company will either add jobs or at least maintain the status quo in 2010, and 76 percent say they are optimistic about how their company will do in 2010.

The number of first-time unemployment claims in the state is falling. The number of company job layoff notices filed with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development is falling. The BizTimes Stock Index of local stocks recently soared to a 52-week high.

Expect the fourth quarter national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to show continued improvement.

Looking back at early 2009, it was all we could do to keep up with the plant closures and the mass layoffs cascading throughout the state. The recession closed the General Motors Corp. plant in Janesville and the Chrysler plant in Kenosha in its wake.

Lately, however, Wisconsin has been winning more than it has been losing on the jobs front. The state has been stringing together these victories like pearls on a necklace in recent months:

• Mercury Marine decided to keep 850 jobs and move several hundred more to Fond du Lac.
• Republic Airways Holdings Inc., the new parent company of Midwest Airlines, will save 800 jobs in Oak Creek and move 800 new jobs to the region in 2010.
• AirTran Airways will expand its Milwaukee hub by adding at least 50 more pilots and 50 more flight attendants.
• At least eight biotech companies are moving to Wisconsin from Minnesota and other states (Biotechnology is the fastest-growing segment of Wisconsin’s economy, where it is an $8.7 billion industry with 400 companies and 34,000 employees).
• Uline Inc. of Waukegan, Ill., will move across the Wisconsin border to its new headquarters in Pleasant Prairie in 2010, bringing 1,000 jobs.
• Exacto Inc. has moved its headquarters from Illinois to Walworth County.
• North Chicago, Ill.-based EMCO Chemical Distributors Inc. plans to move to Wisconsin, bringing up to 125 new jobs to Pleasant Prairie.
• Bucyrus International Inc. will bring 400 to 500 new jobs to metro Milwaukee after it acquires Terex Corp.
• Telkonet Inc. is moving its headquarters and 50 jobs from Maryland  to the Milwaukee County Research Park in Wauwatosa.
• Helios USA, a startup solar panel manufacturer. plans to open a new plant in Milwaukee in 2010.
• Dickten Masch Plastics LLC in Nashotah will receive $293,000 in Economic Development Tax Credits from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce for an expansion project that will create 75 jobs and retain 160 existing jobs in Waukesha County.

The tide is turning for the better in the Badger State.

To be sure, we have our problems, including a $2.71 billion state budget deficit and a dysfunctional Milwaukee Public Schools system that reflects our society’s most disheartening shortcomings. The commercial real estate market for new development is flat, and some of our banks are not exactly on firm financial ground.

And because employment is a lagging indicator, it may take a few more months before we see a complete reversal out the Great Recession.

But the recession is over, and the future is looking brighter. Look for employment gains in the health care, technology, government and green sectors. And if Milwaukee can marshal its act together, with the help of cheerleaders such as Badger Meter Inc. chief executive officer Rich Meeusen leading the way, it can begin to transform itself as a fresh water technology hub that will add further fuel to its economic fire.

For a complete forecast about the year ahead in business, we invite you to attend the Northern Trust Economic Trends Breakfast on Friday, Jan. 22, at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee. Stellar panelists will provide their insights. Register to attend the event at www.biztimes.com/trends.

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

Among other things, 2009 will go down as the year that social media went mainstream and changed the way information is transmitted throughout the world.

Another reminder of that came to me this Christmas. My good friend Laura Monagle at Staples Marketing LLC in Milwaukee “tweeted” on Twitter recently that she was receiving as many e-mail Christmas cards as snail-mail cards this year. Me too.

And some of the public relations and marketing companies in the region went a step farther with their cyber cards this year.

For instance, Bob Welke and the folks at The Welke Group in Milwaukee sent this tasteful presentation: http://welkegroup.com/holidaygreeting.

Priya Barnes and Creatonomy in Milwaukee sent this one: http://www.creatonomy.com/holiday. (Although it should have come with a warning that it contains a funky earworm song that stays in your head for hours.)

The crew at Bader Rutter & Associates got jiggy with it: http://converge.baderrutter.com/blog/2009/12/21/who-knew-our-associates-were-so-naughty.html.

The ambitious people at Zizzo Group Advertising + Public Relations sent along this head-scratcher:
http://www.zizzogroup.com/holiday_greetings/?utm_source=Zizzogroup+Holiday+Greetings&utm_campaign=f6cfe6e2a8-Holiday_Greetings_from_Zizzo_Group_Advertising&utm_medium=email.

However, the ultimate prize for creativity this year goes to our ambitious Historic Third Ward neighbors at Core Creative. Their cyber card contains a complete local video rendition of the timeless claymation television classic “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Check out the “Classic Core Christmas” at http://web.me.com/dougbirling1/Core_Card/Results/Entries/2009/12/14_Rudolph.html. (The scene with the young bucks sparring is … well, it made me laugh out loud. Bravo! Author!)

These smartly done multimedia presentations enable PR companies to showcase their capabilities to their clients.

As for me, I have no time this year to create something so special. So, I’ll just close with my own holiday wish to all of our readers: Peace on earth and good will toward men. Merry Christmas!

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

Last week, I wrote a column about partisan media outlets with preconceived political agendas staining the process of critical thought in America.

The column made the point that the messenger does matter, and messengers such as MSNBC on the left and Fox News on the right are polluting this nation’s political discourse.

“Fair and balanced” and “We report, you decide” are nothing more than marketing slogans.
We owe it to ourselves to listen to and to give honest consideration to opposing viewpoints. To shield ourselves from messages we might not agree with is to blind ourselves from the truth.

Of course, that column irritated some folks on both the left and the right. So be it.

Later in the week, I received an e-mail from Conor Sweeney, press secretary for U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville). Sweeney forwarded me a link to a column written by Ryan in the latest edition of Forbes magazine. Ryan’s column was headlined, “Down with big business.”

Ryan’s column derided the “nexus” of big government and big business. He accused big business of wielding too much power, at the expense of small businesses and ordinary citizens.

His column took the Obama administration to task for making this happen.

I agreed to post Ryan’s column, at Sweeney’s request, as an entry in the Milwaukee Biz Blog at BizTimes.com. In reading Ryan’s column on Forbes, I offered some commentary of my own to Sweeney in an e-mail. I wrote that Ryan’s message was salient, although I found it a tad disingenuous to take the Obama administration solely to task for the rise of big business to power, especially considering that the banks that became “too big to fail” happened on the watch of the Bush administration, when the gap between CEO compensation and the wages of the ordinary citizen grew to an all-time high. And remember, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was enacted by the Bush administration. At the very least, this was a problem with bipartisan roots.

Not more than two minutes after I hit the “send” button on the e-mail, my phone rang. Sweeney was on the other end, explaining to me that Ryan indeed had taken both political parties to task for the corruption, but Forbes magazine had conveniently cut out Ryan’s references to the Republican Party’s shared offenses.

Sweeney sent me the original, uncut version of the Ryan column that had been sent to Forbes. The magazine selectively omitted some key paragraphs, including the following: “Neither political party is immune from fostering this pervasive culture of crony capitalism. My own party - the party of Lincoln and Reagan - neglected the principles it passionately championed in decades past. Republicans became more interested in securing political power as an end, rather than a means of limiting the federal government’s power over our lives. The Republican Party has recently confused being pro-business with being pro-market. The poisonous earmark culture was emblematic of businesses, large and small, working their connections to carve out political favors for financial gain.”

The Forbes version also cut out Ryan’s phrase, “Beyond the perversion of TARP …”

I will note that publisher Steve Forbes is a former Republican candidate for president and a frequent commentator on Fox News.

And I rest my case. The messenger, you see, does matter. Thanks to Congressman Ryan and Conor Sweeney for being straight shooters.

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

Is former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson seriously thinking about running for office again in Wisconsin, or does he just like to float those trial balloons to keep his name in the headlines, draw attention to himself and mess with people's heads?

Thompson recently said he will soon decide whether to run for governor, senator or the mayor of Elroy.
Governor? That really causes heartburn for declared Republican candidates such as Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and former Congressman Mark Neumann. I mean, after all the time,effort and dollars they've put into their candidacies, to hear Thompson just float the notion and steal away the spotlight - again - is insulting at this stage in the game. Furthermore, it can leave prospective GOP voters thinking, "They're OK, but neither one of them is Tommy Thompson."

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, said Thursday he would like Thompson instead to challenge Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold for his seat in 2010.

"I have talked to him about it. He's thinking about it," Priebus said at a Milwaukee Press Club Newsmaker Luncheon Thursday. "The door's wide open."

Mike Tate, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, said he was confident Feingold would survive a challenge by Thompson, should it come to pass. To be sure, Feingold has already raised a massive $9 million re-election warchest, which is one of the five largest of the senators seeking to return to office in 2010.

A poll of Wisconsin voters released Nov. 24 by Public Policy Polling claimed Feingold would win a hypothetical race against Thompson, 50 to 41 percent. The remaining 9 percent were undecided. Keep in mind, Public Policy Polling, which is based in Raleigh, N.C., only does polling for Democrats.

"Thompson's popularity is not what it used to be, and it looks like Russ Feingold is in a solid position," said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling.

As a journalist, I'm trying to imagine a debate between Russ Feingold and Tommy Thompson ... I think I would pay to see that one.

Meanwhile, look for the Republican gubernatorial primary to be sealed one way or the other on May 21-23, when all of the state's GOP delegates will gather at their 2010 convention in Milwaukee and make their endorsements. It remains to be seen if those endorsed candidates will gain the support of those in the Tea Party movement.

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

Just like in your business, it is important for us at BizTimes Milwaukee to know our customers. That’s why we periodically post survey questions for readers of the BizTimes Daily to answer.

Most of the time, those survey results come back much like we expected, based upon our conversations and other interactions with readers, who tend to be fiscally and socially conservative, with a streak of libertarianism, but with some notable and very forthright progressive exceptions.

For instance, the following unscientific survey results fell pretty much just as we would have presumed they would:

• Should the mayor of Milwaukee be allowed to take control of Milwaukee Public Schools? (Yes 67 percent; No 33 percent).
• Do you expect any more layoffs at your company? (Yes, 44 percent; No, 56 percent).
• Will you get vaccinated for the H1N1 virus? (Yes, 45 percent; No, 55 percent).
• When the vaccine for the H1N1 virus becomes available, will your company pay the costs to have employees vaccinated? (Yes, 33 percent; No, 67 percent).
• Are you worried about the financial health of your bank? (Yes, 37 percent; No, 63 percent).
• How much business travel will your company be doing in 2010? (More than in 2009, 47 percent; Less than in 2009, 53 percent).
• How much will your household spend on holiday gifts this year? (More than we did last year, 9 percent; Less than we did last year, 48 percent; About the same as we did last year, 43 percent).

Then there are those outlier responses, the ones that seem a bit counterintuitive:

• Should Milwaukee’s Hoan Bridge be replaced? (Yes, 53 percent; No, 47 percent). Comment: I don’t understand the business community’s lukewarm response to defend what has become a major link between downtown and the airport, much less a viable alternative to the freeway congestion. The Hoan also accommodates Milwaukee’s harbor for commerce. Considering the lack of development in the Park East corridor, I would have expected more support for keeping the Hoan Bridge as it is.
• Which airline would you prefer to use the next time you fly? (AirTran Airways, 71 percent; Midwest Airlines; 24 percent; Northwest Airlines, 1 percent; and “other,” 4 percent.) Comment: It is astounding to see how quickly and aggressively AirTran has solidified a customer base here, and it shows the work Republic Airways needs to do to restore Midwest’s brand. (Note, this survey question was asked before Southwest Airlines launched service in Milwaukee.)
• Should marijuana use for medical purposes under the direction of a physician be legalized in Wisconsin? (Yes, 80 percent; No, 20 percent). Comment: This one floored me. Must be that libertarian streak shining through.
• Do you think operation of the Milwaukee County Zoo should be transferred from the county to an independent nonprofit organization? (Yes, 59 percent; No, 41 percent). Comment: I’m a big fan of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and the county-run zoo and General Mitchell International Airport don’t seem to be broken in any way. In fact, they’re world class.
• Do you believe that access to basic health care in America is a privilege or a right? (It’s a privilege, 36 percent; It’s a right, 64 percent). Comment: This was the most surprising poll result of all. The answers imply overwhelming support for a health care system that provides universal care. My guess is that many readers, like me, would feel uncomfortable arbitrarily deciding which sick American kids go to bed sick tonight untreated and which ones will get medicine and treatment, simply based upon their parents’ level of insurance coverage.

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.