Loser

Robert McPherson Runs for Village Board for the 4th time.

Tomorrow’s Headline: 3 people other than Robert McPherson elected to Village Board.

It should be clear at this point for anyone who is paying attention that qualifications and competency are irrelevant when it comes being elected to any local office. No reasonable person thought that the top vote getter in 2020 was qualified through any instrinic factor to be elected as a Waunakee Village Board trustee.

I’ve told many people that I had many reasons for not bothering to run for the School Board again in 2021. The number one reason was seeing the proof in 2020 that actually being good at the job and being remotely competent was unnecessary to getting elected. So I got to spend the rest of my term being honest and unafraid of displeasing any of the people who wield influence in Waunakee.

Spoiler alert – It made some people angry.

When I was elected to the WCSD Board of Education in 2018. I wasn’t qualified either. I was just a local resident who ran as an uncontested write-in and talked my way into Peter Lindblad doing a profile of me in the Tribune to get enough name recognition to get enough votes to win the write-in campaign. I spent about $15 on Facebook ads. I didn’t even know that BOE members got paid!

Meanwhile, the 2022 school board election is rapidly approaching 5 figure spending, and everyone running says they are qualified. Dave Boetcher and Katie Dotzler have dumped money into their campaigns, while Jack Heinemann appears to be running simply on being known as “the conservative” on the Board. Katie’s supporters appear to also be pushing for Jack, largely because they just want Dave off the board.

It appears Katie has the support of local conservatives, given that her signs often appear with the Qanon-adjacent guy who is running for County Board. Her signs are hilariously out on Don Tierney’s vacant property, and one of her campaign donors (and a former Chamber of Commerce acolyte) keeps sticking her road signs on Village property. They even got around Facebook’s rules on political advertising by claiming they are a “school” organization on a campaign Facebook page.

Dave, as usual, has the backing of the local Teachers Union, veteran’s groups, the Dane Co. Democratic Party, and every former BOE member I know of. It should be obvious that of the 3 candidates for a Waunakee Board seat, Dave is not the one who uses the N-word, nor is he the candidate who says “All Lives Matter” constantly. He is not the one who recently referred to February as “colored month” and he is not the candidate who is hiding their intentions behind an absurdly false front of non-partisanship.

I don’t want to write this post about Dave, because Dave is not a loser. (EDIT – he actually now is. Oops.) Voters merely need to decide if someone who spent two years lying and undermining while talking about “collaboration” and “listening” is someone who is “qualified” to be a school board representative. Either way, this BOE race will produce a loser. And it might just be our entire community!

Robert McPherson is a loser.

Robert has run for Village Board four times. In dating terms, this is where the phrase “They’re just not that into you” comes into play. Robert will not simply take no for an answer. “It’s not about winning” Robert told me over messages this week. “It’s about keeping the change conversation going.” I asked him why he endorsed one of the other candidates, Angie Ramos, for the Board. “Because she brings a different voice. She’s not just another one of the candidates who will let the local power players do whatever they want. I would probably be trying harder to get elected if she wasn’t there.”

Chris Zellner publicly attacked Robert in 2021 and used a Village Board meeting to do it, stating that he was “afraid” of a person like Robert being elected. I still don’t know what Chris meant by that. I don’t know if he was referring to Robert that way because he doesn’t toe the party line, doesn’t act like a blithe cheerleader for the community, or because of something more insidious. Robert has been the target of anti-semitism, and Chris refuses to put Robert on any local committees, despite Robert being an expert when it comes to local financing, banking, and real estate regulations. A uniquely qualified person never put on committees that often beg for volunteers? Some Village committees have even picked non-Waunakee residents over Robert. So in short, Robert has enemies in Village Hall. Maybe that’s a good thing in an elected official. If anything, it provides a counterbalance to those who continuously fail to be honest about the hard issues in our community.

A loser like that is close to my heart. “Doing the right thing isn’t always popular, and I’m perfectly comfortable with being disliked, so long as I’m getting that hate in response to taking a moral stance.” Robert told me. “But a lot of the topics (diversity, housing, proper TIF handling) are still being discussed and some are moving forward.”

I will never live in Waunakee, so I’m never going to get to vote for him. Regardless if you agree with his politics, Robert is still worth your vote. He won’t get enough, mind you, and he’s aware of that fact.

But he’s going to keep losing (probably) for a good cause.