Jim Burkee and Jeff Walz both understand that compromise is necessary for government to work; that’s why, as two candidates who have little in common with one another, they are able to cooperate to bring American ideals back to Washington.

Those seeking an alternative to Jim Sensenbrenner as congressional representative in Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District, listen up: Democrat or Republican, you have a choice.

This election year, a dual and bipartisan effort to unseat the incumbent (who has held the seat since 1979), is taking place in our own backyard.

Two college professors from Concordia University – Jim Burkee (R) and Jeff Walz (D) – are both launching a campaign to take over Sensenbrenner’s seat.

The catch? The pair are campaigning together.

In what could be an unprecedented event, Burkee and Walz have established a campaign together in the hopes that one of them may unseat the controversial Republican Sensenbrenner.

Recognizing their differences, the key to their campaign is a pledge in which Burkee and Walz both promise to uphold the tenets of fiscal responsibility during economic growth, to have term limits (both promise to not seek election after three terms), to deny gifts from lobbyists, to hold daily debates, to refrain from issuing negative campaign ads and to refuse all PAC (political action committee) money.

The candidates invited Sensenbrenner to sign the pledge as well, but he refused to do so.

The campaign is a welcome change to the 5th Congressional District. Year after year, Sensenbrenner has won over the mostly conservative electorate.

However, how he won them over is a question worth asking: Were the voters inspired to vote for Sensenbrenner, or were they worried that a liberal alternative would be worse for them?

Were they supportive of Sensenbrenner, or were they against the Democratic candidate?

Jim Burkee is the Republican member of the campaign. He is running on the idea that he would restore the ideals of conservatives – small government and fiscal responsibility.

Republicans in Washington (Sensenbrenner included), are out of touch with their constituents’ conservative ideals, argues Burkee, and a vote for him would be a vote to restore those ideals.

Jeff Walz is a self-described Roosevelt Democrat. A social moderate (which appeals to WI-5 more than a social liberal), he feels the Democratic Party has become too alienated from the voters of his district.

He is pro-life – a position traditionally unlike most Democrats, but one which may help him win the district.

Walz wants the Democratic Party to return to representing the working American, laborers and the poor, and feels if he upholds these ideals that he has a shot at winning next November.

But why should voters want to unseat Sensenbrenner? The long-time incumbent is about as stubborn as any politician could be. After the events of Sept. 11, he was the one who sponsored the USA PATRIOT Act that was rushed into law to help combat terrorism.

No one paid any attention to the fact that the act severely curtailed civil liberties for Americans through warrantless searches.

When this was brought up five years later in a House Judiciary committee hearing, Sensenbrenner abruptly ended the meeting before Democrats could bring up key points about the act.

Ordering that TV cameras and microphones be turned off, he left the meeting without the motion to adjourn without objection.

Still not convinced? After an animal fighting bill was unanimously passed in the Senate in the fall of 2006, Sensenbrenner blocked it from reaching the floors of the House.

The bill had 324 co-sponsors within the House alone (more than 74 percent of the legislative body), but Sensenbrenner’s stubbornness stopped it from becoming a law.

Jim Burkee and Jeff Walz both understand that compromise is necessary for government to work; that’s why, as two candidates who have little in common with one another, they are able to cooperate to bring American ideals back to Washington.

If you like what you see right now with Jim Sensenbrenner, then by all means vote for him.

But if you want change in Washington, and you’re from the 5th Congressional District, consider voting for either of these two men.

> Comments