CAPITAL TIMES: Renew progressive tradition: Elect Ben Manski

Ben Manski first made a name for himself campaigning for economic and social justice causes as a student at West High School. He went on to organize University of Wisconsin students to demand adequate funding of higher education before emerging as a nationally recognized advocate for environmental causes. At the UW Law School, he developed a reputation as an innovative thinker on constitutional issues and developed a foundation dedicated to protecting liberties so that the promise of “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” is made real for all Americans.

Through it all, Manski has championed a vision of the American experiment rooted in a Wisconsin progressive understanding that, as Robert M. La Follette explained a century ago: “It is only as those of every generation who love democracy resist with all their might the encroachments of its enemies that the ideals of representative government can ever be nearly approximated.”

At a moment when democracy is as threatened as it was when La Follette joined the struggle, Manski understands that the fundamental principles of Wisconsin progressivism remain constant: Power must rest with citizens rather than special interests. And government’s role is to provide the tools citizens need to shape a fair and just society: great schools; civil liberties and civil rights; honest elections where ideas matter more than money; and protections for workers and communities so that they have control over their economic lives.

Manski’s record and his campaign in Assembly District 77 mark him as a young man who is ready not just to serve as an effective legislator but to take a lead in organizing the inside-outside coalitions that will be needed to defend public schools, maintain access to higher education, protect public services, and open a real debate about restoring a system of progressive taxation.

So it should come as no surprise that Manski has our endorsement as the best candidate to replace Spencer Black, a retiring Democrat who served as an independent progressive.

Obviously, the Democrat running for Black’s seat, Brett Hulsey, disagrees. We understand. Hulsey, a veteran county supervisor who has waited patiently to fill Black’s seat, carried our endorsement in his board races. We regard him as a determined player who could contribute to the Legislature.

But Manski’s better prepared to strike the necessary balance as a legislator serving at a perilous point economically and politically. He will fight for progressive ideals. Yet he makes the case that it will be easier for him -- as the state’s first Green legislator, rather than another Madison Democrat -- to jump barriers of partisanship and ideology and forge the unlikely coalitions that will be needed to protect public education and social services. If that sounds optimistic, consider Manski’s record as an organizer with groups that secured a mining moratorium, as an activist against UW tuition hikes, and as a campaigner to break ties between the UW and companies accused of sweatshop abuses. Manski helped build broad coalitions that claimed meaningful victories.

Manski is precisely the sort of progressive who will be needed in the Legislature over the next two years. This is why unions representing Madison teachers and firefighters have endorsed him, along with the current and former presidents of the Middleton and Madison school boards, county supervisors and Madison alders. This is why leading progressive Democrats — including former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and 1998 gubernatorial nominee Ed Garvey — have endorsed him.

And this is why we endorse him. Ben Manski has deep roots on the west side and in the progressive movement. The 77th District has an opportunity to make a powerful political statement by electing him; voters should seize it.