Pubdate: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 Source: Marshfield News-Herald, The (WI) Copyright: 2002 Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers Contact: http://www.marshfieldnewsherald.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2236 Author: Gary Storck PLEDGE SIGNING WAS ONLY A GESTURE Editor: Regarding the June 19 letter from Steven Schmidt of Americans for Tax Reform, lauding state Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, for signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge sponsored by Schmidt's group. While Suder's signing the pledge was a nice gesture, that it all it really is, a gesture. It should not be seen as reason to vote to re-elect Suder this fall. Suder is neck deep in the caucus scandal, the kind of politician who does what Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen tells him to do, with no questions asked. That is how he came to be the chair of the Assembly's Criminal Justice Committee despite only first being elected in 1998. Suder used his position as chair of the committee to carry out Speaker Jensen's orders to bury this session's bipartisan medical marijuana bill in committee to make sure it never received a fair hearing. Suder and Jensen's actions came despite the findings of a February 2002 Chamberlain Research Poll that found over 80 percent of Wisconsinites support the legislature passing a bill like the one Suder so coldly killed in his committee. While the poll found little difference in support for medical marijuana between Democrats, Republicans or Independents, Jensen and Suder insisted on making it a partisan issue, leaving sick and dying Wisconsinites forced to continue breaking the law, risking arrest and jail, and being forced to obtain their medicine from drug dealers in back alleys, or to not break the law and suffer needlessly. In examining voting habits of respondents, the poll had more interesting findings; for those who said they voted in every election, support for passing a bill was 75.9 percent, for those who said they voted in almost every election, the figure was 82.9 percent, and those saying they voted only in major races, it was 83.1 percent. Suder may be there to sign meaningless gimmicky pledges about taxes, but when it comes to real flesh and blood issues like medical marijuana, he follows orders and exhibits a total lack of compassion. Suder could have been a hero to sick and dying Wisconsinites, had he given the bill a fair hearing, and let patients, doctors, families, caregivers and others weigh in. Instead he was nothing but Scott Jensen's hit man. It's time to clean up state politics, and that means it's time to vote Scott Suder back to private life. Gary Storck Madison - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom