Vouchers and Revenue: The Two Biggest Issues Facing America’s Families?

The Coalition for America’s Families (CFAF), a well-funded conservative advocacy group whose name is hardly applicable, has jumped out of the woodwork to start a statewide radio ad campaign that simultaneously attacks Jim Doyle and urges support for an amendment to restrict public revenue in Wisconsin.

Many may recognize CFAF from its role in the school voucher debate a few months back. It’s the group that picked-up and distributed statewide the ridiculous ad by Charlie Sykes and Mikel Holt that alleged Jim Doyle was akin to racist governors like Orville Faubus and George Wallace because he didn’t want to blow the cap off the voucher program.

(And, if you haven’t seen them already, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has published a couple of good articles in the last two days, here and here, that demonstrate exactly why blowing the cap off the voucher program would’ve been a really bad idea.)

CFAF is certainly no stranger to running anti-Doyle ads. Last year at about this time the group drew some heat for publishing an anti-immigration television ad and another TV spot that blatantly mischaracterized Doyle's support for domestic partner benefits.

The radio ad CFAF is pushing now is about par for the course.

First, it makes it seem like the revenue amendment is about limiting property taxes, which is just not true. This amendment is about restricting nearly all government revenue. There’s a big difference.

Second, it makes it seem like Jim Doyle and “the teachers’ union in Madison” are the only opposition to the revenue amendment in the state. As this list makes clear, that’s hardly the case.

Third, as you’ll notice from the list above, Jim Doyle isn’t on it. To be sure, Doyle has refrained from publishing a formal statement on the revenue amendment because he has nothing to do with its passage—aside from voting on it like every other citizen in the state if it ever makes it to the voters (which is highly unlikely, particularly in its current form).

Mark Green, on the other hand, is trying his best to use his support for the amendment as proof that he’s willing to go all the way with the far fiscal right in the state. Charlie Sykes was hoping that this support from Green would provide some necessary leadership to drive the amendment through the legislature.

Unfortunately, the problems with the amendment have nothing to do with leadership—they stem from ideology. More specifically, Sykes & Co. are on the extreme right while the majority of the state GOP is moderate. No amount of leadership is going to change that.

Nevertheless, welcome back to the public debate, CFAF.

We’ll just go ahead and assume that America’s families haven't faced any other issues this year besides school vouchers and restricting governmental revenue...oh, and let's not forget campaigning for Mark Green.

Side-Note: The new anti-Doyle radio campaign by CFAF also makes this post by Brian Fraley look even more ridiculous.

UPDATE: As usual, I wasn't the first to cover this issue. Xoff had a post on it late Friday. I need to quit tuning out so much over the weekend--it leaves way too much ground to cover for a Monday morning.