July
2006
Reynolds Only Senator to Get NEGATIVE Ranking from Police
Had State Senator Tom Reynolds just stayed home, he would have only gotten a zero but his open hostility to law enforcement actually earned him a negative ranking from the Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA). In order to be rated that low, you really have to work at it.
Of all of the State Senators, Reynolds ranked the lowest with an incredible -1.75 total score. My own Senator, Alberta Darling garnered an unimpressive 7.75 and Sheboygan's Senator Leibham who is up for re-election garnered just 43.25 points.
The top legislators according to the WPPA are Lassa (104.75), Olsen (104.74), Roessler (104.50), Hansen (102.75), Breske (100.75) and Jauch (100).
Jim Palmer, Director of Governmental Affairs for the WPPA, pointed out that this was the first legislative session that they implemented a report card. "You need to have a mechanism by which to hold legislators accountable. We get calls from our members each fall asking why we supported different legislators and we wanted a way to show them".
After getting kicked in the teeth by anti-cop legislation one too many times WPPA was looking for a way to quantify who did what to them.
But how does a legislator get points or lose points? The WPPA lays it out on their website:
How Legislators Will Be Scored
Points Co-sponsoring legislation which we support 1 Co-sponsoring legislation which we oppose -2 Committee votes for legislation which we support 1 Committee votes against legislation which we support -1 Committee votes for legislation we oppose -1 Floor votes for legislation which we support 2 Floor votes against legislation which we support -2 Floor votes for legislation which we oppose -2 Floor votes against legislation which we oppose 2 Procedural votes which bar floor consideration of legislation we support -2 Procedural votes against barring floor consideration of legislation we support 2 Procedural votes which bar floor consideration of legislation we oppose 2 Procedural votes against barring floor consideration of legislation we oppose -2 Offering amendments which we support 2 Offering amendments we oppose -2 Leadership Criteria (for Majority party leaders and committee chairs) Failure to schedule legislation which we support -2 Failure to schedule legislation which we oppose 2
Clearly Reynolds holds an open hostility to issues of importance to the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect the likes of Reynolds. So why does Tom Reynolds hate cops? That's a question for voters to ask him if and when he ever goes out and knocks on a few doors in his re-election bid this fall.
When asked what Palmer thought of Reynolds, he simply said, "Reynolds is just a different type of creature".
Jim McGuigan
Jim McGuigan, Reynolds Watch, Watchdogging Criminal Justice
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Jim…
This is absolutely fascinating. I caught a sniff of this more than two weeks ago and thought it worthy of mention. CNI Publications printed my letter to the editor on June 29th. I’m looking forward to seeing how Bob Dohnal spins this and what conspiracy he will attribute it to.
Anyway the letter is reprinted below:
The non-partisan Wisconsin Professional Police Association recently published its 2005-2006 Legislative Report Card. This 11,000 member organization, representing more than 375 local law enforcement organizations, reviewed legislation that impacts Wisconsin’s law enforcement community. I was amazed to see who scored dead-last; my State Senator Tom Reynolds (R–5th). Astonishingly, Reynolds was the only Senator to receive a negative score.
Law-abiding folks place a high value on law enforcement. Yet my impression has been that the Senator has placed a high value on pandering to the extreme elements of the right and extraneous issues such as the sexual orientation of his constituents. The result has been that the essential matters of good governance get short-shrift. The Senator’s performance of his duties is wanting.