Alan J. Borsuk – Page 115 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

The Negative News About Positive Political Ads

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:October 27, 2010
Post category:Political Processes & Rhetoric Speakers at Marquette

Near the end of Tuesday’s “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session at the Law School, Gousha asked Mike Tate, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, and Reince Priebus, chair of the Wisconsin Republican Party, whether they thought candidates can win while running positive campaigns.

Neither directly answered the question from Gousha, the Law School’s Distinguished Fellow in Law and Public Policy. But Tate came closer. You have to have to draw contrasts with your opponent, he said. And when one campaign launches an ad that is arguably negative, “it’s an arms race,” Tate said. If you don’t respond, you risk losing. Voters remember negative ads, Tate said.

Priebus responded by criticizing Democratic campaigns for playing what he called “small ball” this fall, focusing on minor matters that they could use to attack Republicans instead of on major issues, like jobs, the economy, and the growth of government spending.

What neither said to Gousha’s question was, yes, you can win by staying positive.

Thornton Confident MPS “Can Crack the Code” to Overcoming Poverty’s Effects

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:October 13, 2010
Post category:Milwaukee Public Schools Speakers at Marquette

Gregory Thornton is looking for the code. Poverty makes it harder to figure out. But he thinks it can be done. He’s determined to do it.

The code the new Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent referred to in an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session Tuesday at the Law School’s Eckstein Hall, is the way to achieve substantially higher levels of academic success with children from low-income homes.

Gousha, distinguished fellow in law and public policy at the Law School, asked Thornton if the impacts of poverty were too great to succeed in school districts such as MPS.

“I see the sting of poverty every day,” Thornton said. “It’s devastating.”

Heck and Esenberg: What’s Worse, Campaigning or Campaign Reform?

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:October 6, 2010
Post category:First Amendment Political Processes & Rhetoric Wisconsin Law & Legal System

For Jay Heck, the disease needs a cure. For Rick Esenberg, it’s doubtful there is a disease and, even if there is, the cure is worse.

If Tuesday’s “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program at Eckstein Hall had been a meeting of foreign diplomats, the statement afterward would have described the session as “cordial but frank.” Two of the most prominent Wisconsin voices in the debate about whether to and how to regulate money spent on political campaigning presented their views with wit and warmth, but with no masking their widely different positions.

Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, said elections in Wisconsin and nationally had devolved over the last several decades and regulation of election spending was a matter of restoring confidence in the political system.

Esenberg, a professor at Marquette University Law School and an attorney involved in a case currently challenging regulatory plans in Wisconsin, did not accept that the damage being done by current levels of spending was so serious. Limiting free speech related to elections presents, among many things, a constitutional problem and is a bad idea that often has unintended negative consequences.