Government and Political Roundup: New polling gives Obama a bigger lead in Wisconsin

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President Obama has pulled ahead of Republican Mitt Romney in Wisconsin. A new poll from Quinnipiac University, C-B-S News, and the New York Times gives Obama a 51-to-45 percent edge in a survey of almost 15-hundred Wisconsin voters between Tuesday of last week and Monday of this week. The president’s six-point lead is more than twice the poll’s margin-of-error. Obama’s lead is also four-percent bigger than it was in late August, soon after Romney named Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan as his running mate. The Quinnipiac poll examines voter trends in three swing states – Virginia and Colorado being the others. Polling director Peter Brown says all the races are close, but Romney is losing ground in Wisconsin and Colorado. Voters in all three states rate the candidates about even in handling the economy – but they give Obama the edge in handling Medicare, health care, and an international crisis. Voters in each state also said Obama cares about their needs and problems, while Romney does not. In Wisconsin, 60-percent of those polled agreed that Obama cares about their needs – and in a separate question, 51-percent said Romney doesn’t care. The poll also said Wisconsin voters believe that the nation is worse off than four years ago – and by a 33-23 margin, they said they’re personally worse off as well.

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A bill has been introduced in Congress to lift the lid on school lunch calories that triggered a boycott this week of the food served to students in Mukwonago. Iowa House Republican Steve King said Michelle Obama’s campaign to reduce childhood obesity has become a directive from the U-S-D-A. King said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wants to put every child on a diet, just because some kids are overweight. Kansas House Republican Tim Huelskamp is co-sponsoring what King calls the “No Hungry Kids Act.” Mukwonago students objected to what they call a one-size-fits-all standard. The senior class president who plays football says the new calorie limit doesn’t even cover a-third of the calories he works off at school and football practice. But the U-S-D-A defends the new standards, which also include healthier foods. Under-secretary Kevin Concannon tells the Brownfield Ag News Service it’s a more focused set of meal standards, with different minimum and maximum calorie limits based on the students’ ages. He also said it’s important to remember that lunch is just one meal – and the school lunches should only cover a third of the calories that children consume each day. Still, Mukwonago youngsters complained about being under-fed, and paying a dime more for it. Concannon says some schools take part in a national snack program which makes snacks available to students.

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We’ll get a better idea today of how Wisconsin’s U-S Senate race is going. The Marquette Law School will release its second poll since last month’s primary, in which Republican Tommy Thompson won the right to face Democrat Tammy Baldwin. The last poll on August 22nd gave Thompson a nine-point edge over the congresswoman from Madison. But Democrats trotted out a pair of their own polls this week showing that Baldwin has a slight lead. Baldwin and her supporters have advertised heavily, while Thompson said he needed to raise money over the last three weeks. The former governor said his campaign was “broke” after he defeated three opponents in the August 14th Republican primary for the Senate seat being given up by retiring Democrat Herb Kohl. Campaigning in Milwaukee yesterday, Thompson promoted his record as governor and his ability to cut taxes – even as Democrats often controlled the Legislature. Thompson has also portrayed Baldwin as anti-business and one of the most liberal members of the House. But Baldwin said she was proud of her record on business – especially a bill in which she partnered with Sherwood Republican Reid Ribble to sanction Chinese firms which get heavy subsidies from their government. And both candidates vowed to cut through the partisanship and compromise when necessary.

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Wisconsin’s health secretary says he needs an extra 650-million-dollars in the next two-year state budget, to cover rising costs in the state’s health programs for the poor and the elderly. Governor Scott Walker told state agencies to submit spending requests with no increase from the previous two years. But Dennis Smith says the extra money is needed because more people are using Medicaid programs – those who had been in the programs are using them more – and the federal government has reduced its share of the tab. Smith’s proposals do not include any changes in benefits. He called his spending package a “starting point.” The Republican governor and the Legislature can modify it when they get their turns at setting the new budget during the first half of next year. Smith’s budget does not include any changes that might be needed under President Obama’s national health care reform law. The Supreme Court upheld the law this summer, but the Republican Walker is holding out hope that it can be repealed if Mitt Romney is elected president in November.

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Survivors of the Oak Creek temple shootings will ask a U-S Senate sub-committee today to have the government keep track of hate crimes against members of the Sikh religion. Harpreet and Kamaljit Saini lost their mother in the August fifth rampage at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin – and they’ll appear before members of the Senate’s judiciary panel. Besides more tracking of hate crimes, they want the federal government to more closely monitor purported white supremists like Wade Michael Page. He’s the gunman who killed six people and wounded four others at the Oak Creek temple. Kamaljit Saini told WTMJ T-V in Milwaukee that the U-S needs a stronger definition of terrorism. He said Page proved quote, “You don’t have to be a foreigner to be called a terrorist.” And he called the Oak Creek shootings “an act of terrorism.” The sub-committee will also hear from federal officials and others on the subject. Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl is on the panel, and he’ll be among those hearing today’s testimony. Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele will also be there. He said he applauds the Senate panel for quote, “taking the issue so seriously, and talking about solutions.”

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President Obama will add a public appearance to his Milwaukee fund-raising visit on Saturday. He’ll speak on Saturday afternoon at the Summerfest Grounds at Maier Festival Park, and tickets from his campaign offices will be needed to get in. The Democrat Obama had originally scheduled a campaign fund-raiser for Saturday at the Milwaukee Theatre. But until now, no public appearances had been planned. The fund-raiser is expected to bring in some big dollars for the president. Invitations said it would cost 25-thousand-dollars to watch Obama lead a roundtable discussion.

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Convicted felons would not be the only ones to give their D-N-A to law enforcement, under a new proposal from the state Justice Department that could be tucked into next year’s budget. In April, Governor Scott Walker asked the department for a plan to make those arrested for serious felonies and sex offenses provide their D-N-A to a national police database which helps solve crimes. But the budget proposal is much more expansive. It would take D-N-A samples from those arrested for any felonies and certain misdemeanors – plus all adults convicted of misdemeanors. Brian O’Keefe, the Justice Department’s law enforcement administrator, says D-N-A is the modern-day fingerprint. But Chris Ahmuty of the American Civil Liberties Union says it contains genetic information that could be dangerous for government to have if it’s not used as intended. Ahmuty also told the Wisconsin State Journal the plan quote, “turns the presumption of innocence on its head.” Right now, about 12-thousand convicted felons a year give their D-N-A to the national investigative data-base. The budget plan would increase that total to 68-thousand the first year, starting in October of 2014. It would initially cost around seven-million dollars a year – and the Justice Department wants convicts to foot the bill with a 250-dollar surcharge for all felony convictions and a 150-dollar surcharge for misdemeanor convictions. The proposal would also upgrade the State Crime Lab in Madison. Justice officials say 27 states and the federal government take D-N-A samples on arrest, but Ahmuty says the A-C-L-U recently won a new court hearing on a challenge to California’s law.

Tags: news, wisconsin, government, politics