Updated - Why County Board Elections Matter!

(This is an updated and expanded version of an earlier post. In addition to my previous environmental ratings of Dane County Board Supervisors, I've added ratings based on human services and other issues. Don't forget to vote on April Fool's Day!)

It's easy to overlook the importance of the Dane County Board, and County Board elections, when we think about politics here in the Madison area. But the Board determines environmental, land use, and human services policy for the entire county, including Madison. As these ratings show, there's an enormous difference in the way liberal and conservative County Board members vote on these issues.

The first two charts show ratings for every County Board Supervisor based on their votes on environmental (1st chart) and non-environmental (2nd chart) issues since August 2006. I've grouped the liberal Supervisors (blue) and the conservative Supervisors (red) so you can see the rather astonishing contrast. The average score is more than 90% for liberals verses less than 20% for conservatives. Click on the charts for larger versions.



Below are the individual voting records of each Supervisor for every issue I used in my ratings. I ignored absences and abstentions when I calculated the percentage ratings, but they're shown in the vote records. Some County Board members miss a heck of a lot of meetings, and you should consider that when you evaluate them.



Finally, here's info about each vote that went into these ratings. The numbering corresponds to the charts above. For more details go to the Dane County Board Minutes and Agendas web page, and use the dates in the tables below to find the appropriate minutes. Keep in mind that many of these votes are on amendments or proceedural moves, so you may have to work backwards through the history of the issue to really understand what's going on.

ENVIRONMENTAL VOTES:

Vote #	Date	Minutes Page	Item	Significance
1	8/17/2006	108-109	Res. 73	Purchase of conservation land - Dunn, Pleasant Springs.
2	9/21/2006	147-148	Res. 102	Delay action on purchase of land next to Brigham Park.
3	9/21/2006	150-151	Res. 103	Independent study on power lines.
4	11/15/2006	193	Budget	Cut conservation fund from $5 million to $1 million.
5	2/1/2007	269	Petition 9335	Zoning change to permit development adjacent to Military Ridge Trail.
6	2/1/2007	270	Petition 9632	Re-refer loosening zoning restrictions - Blue Mounds
7	3/1/2007	294-320	Ord. Am. 26	Loosen floodplain restrictions. (Sub. 2).
8	4/5/2007	371-372	Ord. Am. 34	Delay effective date of Coal tar sealcoat restrictions.
9	5/2/2007	26-28	Res. 290	Delay action on Bio-Ag, Town of Dunn.
10	8/16/2007	107	Petition 9721	Zoning change to permit construction - Vermont.
11	8/16/2007	114-116	Res. 57 Sub. 2	RTA - Adoption of Res. 57 Sub. 2.
12	9/6/2007	134-135	Petition 9611	Zoning change to permit construction - Vermont.
13	9/20/2007	146-147	Petition 9474	Re-refer zoning change to permit development - Springfield.
14	9/20/2007	155-157	Res. 94	Motion to cut Conservation Fund.
15	11/1/2007	207-209	Res. 127	Delay action on Saddlebrook purchase.
16	12/6/2008	244	Petition 9474	Zoning change to permit development - Springfield.
17	12/20/2008	271-274	Ord. Am. 26	Postpone action on Transfer of Development Rights (TDR).

HUMAN SERVICES & OTHER VOTES:

Vote #	Date	Minutes Page	Item	Significance
1	6/1/2006	47	Res. 36	Retirement incentive for county employees to reduce need for layoffs.
2	8/17/2006	110-111	Res. 35	Honor US Troops - includes troops home language.
3	9/7/2006	131-134	Ord. Am. 7	Forbids housing discrimination based on receipt of "Section 8" assistance.
4	10/5/2006	174-175	Res. 110	Opposition to WI referendum banning gay marriage and civil unions.
5	1/4/2007	244-245	Ord.Am. 27	Right of nursing mothers to breast feed in public locations.
6	4/19/2007	8	Ord. Am. 17	Motion to permit "Section 8" housing discrimination, would reverse #3.
7	6/21/2007	62-63	Ord. Am. 2. Sub. 1	Requires county contractors to comply with fair labor standards.
8	8/16/2007	118-121	Res. 60	Impeach Bush & Cheney.
9	9/20/2007	153-155	Ord. Am. 12	Forbids county from profiting on phone calls and other services provided to jail inmates.
10	10/4/2007	167-169	Ord. Am. 18	Strengthen fair housing requirements and enforcement.
11	10/18/2007	189-190	Ord. Am. 19	Family medical leave
12	11/12/2007	217-224	Budget	Add 12 new sheriff's deputies without offsetting revenue

Notes:

1. Due to his voting record I listed Richard Brown as a conservative despite the fact that he was endorsed by the Democratic Party in his last run. The Dem Party actually endorsed Lisa Subeck against him this time around, and Brown was eliminated in the primary.

2. Although I did the ratings and made the charts, I didn't compile the actual vote data. Many thanks to my co-conspirator who did most of the hard work to make this post possible.

3. I apologize for using images rather than tables, but blogger has a hard time dealing with anything other than very simple tables.