Why County Board Elections Matter - Environmental Issues

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 environmental issues and land use.

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


The full environmental voting record of each supervisor is shown below, followed by info on each of the votes used in the ratings.

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).

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. I ignored absences and abstentions when I calculated the percentage ratings, although all absences and abstentions are shown in the vote record above. Some County Board members miss a heck of a lot of meetings, so I encourage you to check out their individual voting records.

3. 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.

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

5. I'll cover County Board votes on other issues in a future post. Watch for it...