CAPITAL TIMES: Campaign seeks to change politics, open up Legislature

The founders of the American experiment did not anticipate or desire a two-party system. They feared a hardening of the democratic arteries into a pair of rigid factions without the ability or will to allow the flow of new ideas.

The wisest of their number hoped America would develop a pluralistic system in which leaders sang from a variety of partisan and ideological hymnals to create a governing chorus.

Unfortunately, as the centuries passed, we ended up in most places with a tone-deaf democracy defined primarily by the limitations of what Wisconsin Socialist Congressman Victor Berger defined a century ago as “the old parties.”

To a greater extent than most states, Wisconsin has resisted conforming to the two-party system. Well into the 1940s, our Legislature had three party caucuses. From the start of the century into the early 1930s, most legislators were Republicans, while the second-largest party was usually the Socialists, with the Democrats struggling to be a presence. In the mid-1930s, the Progressive Party of Robert M. La Follette Jr. and Phil La Follette dominated the Legislature, and Progressives continued to win in the 1940s. Even after the three-party system collapsed, the state’s Democratic and Republican parties made room for mavericks — there were still Republican legislators in the 1980s who maintained 100 percent AFL-CIO voting records, and Democrats who rejected even minimal guidance from their party’s constipated national leadership. Today, aside from Sen. Russ Feingold, there are few major-party politicians who display such independence.

So the need for able third-party candidates could not be greater. And the hotly contested race to fill the seat of retiring state Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, just got one. Last week, Madison attorney Ben Manski, the veteran Green Party activist and nationally recognized advocate for democratic reform, entered the competition in the west side district where he cut his political teeth.

Manski, who worked closely with Black over the years, argues, “This is one of the most progressive districts in the state, really the nation. It’s a place where voters think hard about the issues and are willing to push the boundaries politically. It’s the district that shaped my values and I want to make sure that it is represented by a legislator who is a real leader on democracy issues.”

There’s a crowded Democratic field in this traditionally Democratic district, and several of the candidates — most notably attorney Fred Wade — share Manski’s stances on a host of issues. But Manski says that, at a time when “the Legislature just isn’t working,” the addition of not just a new member but a new party is needed. “This is the Green moment,” he says. “The other parties are borrowing ideas, even language, from the Greens. But they are so busy fighting one another that progressive change doesn’t happen. I want to open up the debate and open up the process.”

Simply by running, Manski is doing that. He is, as well, adding a new dimension to what is already one of the most interesting and important election campaigns of 2010.

John Nichols is the associate editor of The Capital Times.