{news} Fwd: [media-states] Wisc. antiwar measure led by Greens wins in most towns (Milw. Journal Sentinel; Wash. Post; NY Times)

[Green Party-CT]

Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at yahoo.com> wrote:  From: Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at yahoo.com>
To: media-states at lists.gp-us.org, lavender-caucus at green.gpus.org
Subject: [media-states] Wisc. antiwar measure led by Greens wins in most towns (Milw. Journal Sentinel; Wash. Post; NY Times)
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 22:19:38 -0700 (PDT)

23 cities & towns in Wisconsin voted yea; 9 voted
nay on the April 4 referenda to bring US troops
home from Iraq. Rough estimate (unchecked): 64%
of all voters on April 4 voted yea.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel referendum results
page:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2006/by_state/WI_Page_0404.html?SITE=WIMILELN&SECTION=POLITICS


* * * * *


Majority of 32 Wisconsin Towns Vote for Iraq
Pullout

By Kari Kydersen
The Washington Post, April 5, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/04/AR2006040402317.html


SHOREWOOD, Wis., April 4 -- Voters in the
majority of 32 Wisconsin towns with local
referendums on the Iraq war voted Tuesday to
bring the troops home.

A call to withdraw from Iraq by the end of the
year passed overwhelmingly in the liberal
Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood, while in
conservative Watertown, where the City Council
had opposed having the referendum, it was voted
down by 75 percent.

Although the referendums are nonbinding,
organizers with the Green Party and other antiwar
groups said they hope they send a message to
Washington.

"This sort of reminds me of Vietnam," said Nicole
Bartelme, 22, a student at the University of
Wisconsin at Milwaukee who voted in Shorewood. "I
have some friends in Iraq, and I think we should
bring them home. I don't know realistically if
this will have any effect, but hopefully
someone's listening."

Under a 1911 state law granting municipalities
the right to "direct legislation," Wisconsin
residents can place a referendum on a local
ballot by collecting signatures equal to 15
percent of the number that voted for governor in
the last election. Most of the referendums called
for a withdrawal of troops immediately. In
Evansville, there also was a referendum
supporting President Bush.

The City Council in Watertown, a town of 23,000
that went strongly for Bush in the past two
elections, tried to block the referendum from the
ballot but was overruled by a judge after the
Watertown Peace and Democracy Coalition filed a
lawsuit.

The referendum passed in La Crosse, near the
Minnesota border, where the City Council had been
split over the issue. Council President Joe
Ledvina said he was surprised by the vote.

"The council felt overwhelmingly that it wasn't
our jurisdiction, that we don't want to send a
message that we aren't behind our president and
the troops," Ledvina said.

In Shorewood, retired government worker Rick
Westphal said he opposed the war "like everyone
else" but didn't know whether it was appropriate
for a local ballot measure.

"Is this really the arena for this?" he asked.
"People are just coming here to vote for the
school board. I'd rather see this on the national
ballot."

Shorewood resident Keith Schmitz, a 55-year-old
public relations consultant, spent the weekend
going door to door with literature about the
town's referendum, which calls for a pullout by
year's end.

"This is truly a grass-roots effort," he said.
"None of us are James Carvilles; it's just
do-it-yourself politics. We're just doing our
best and seeing what happens."

Ruth Weill, co-chair of the Wisconsin Green
Party, which coordinated the statewide referendum
drive, said she saw the movement as a victory
regardless of the outcome.

"This is a true democratic exercise," Weill said.
"I'm sure before this a lot of people didn't even
know what a referendum was."


* * * * *


Wisc. Communities Vote on Iraq Withdrawal

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:10 a.m. ET
The New York Times, April 5, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Iraq-Referendums.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Eighteen Wisconsin communities
approved referendums Tuesday calling for the
immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq,
while six others voted against such measures in
early returns from 32 communities weighing in on
the war.

People in communities large and small gathered
signatures on petitions that put the referendums
on the spring election ballot, urging President
Bush to bring home the troops. Though the
referendums carry no weight -- municipal
governments can't dictate the federal
government's actions -- organizers hoped to send
a message.

Terri Librizzi, 78, of the Milwaukee suburbs of
Shorewood, was among the 70 percent of voters in
the village to approve the measure. "Maybe if
George Bush's daughters would have to go into the
service, the war would end tomorrow," Librizzi
said.

But Sister Bay resident Peter Trenchard said he
wasn't surprised voters in his village voted down
the measure. He said many people there did not
approve of the war in the first place, but they
don't see pulling troops out as a solution.

"Logic tells you you can't pull out of there. It
would be a mess," said Trenchard, 67.

Most of the referendums asked whether the voters
supported withdrawing the troops immediately, and
Evansville also had one urging support of
President Bush.

In the Columbia County town of Newport, voters
rejected a referendum asking whether the United
States should hand operational command of Iraq's
national security over to the Iraqi government
before the end of 2006.

Bush has refused to set a deadline for the
withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Fifty-one
soldiers from Wisconsin have died in Iraq since
the invasion three years ago.

Geralyn Lu, 50, of Madison, voted to withdraw the
troops in that city's referendum. "So many lives
lost in a futile war. I didn't want them there in
the first place," she said.

But Katy Hampton, 53, of Monona, said if the
soldiers leave Iraq, the country will descend
into chaos. That's why she voted against bringing
the soldiers back, she said.

"There's still not a firm government in place,"
Hampton said. "I don't want it to be a mess. They
should follow it through."




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