Friday Finishers Feb. 22, 2008

Friday, February 22, 2008 7:05 PM CST

Thumbs Up - When they totaled up the votes Tuesday night it was Barack Obama and John McCain who got a boost from Wisconsin and now the campaign juggernauts swirl away to other states — Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont. Locally, some candidates packed it up as they were eliminated from in the paring-down for the final April ballot.

Those who did well in the primary have the reward of campaigning some more and we hope they’re at their convincing best. They deserve a thumbs up, but so do those who didn’t make the cut — the citizens who put themselves and their views on the line for voters to judge. Their efforts and the choices they offer to voters make the process a better one.

Thumbs Up

Voters, too, get a thumbs up. They braved a chilly day to get to the polls, stood in lines at some places and did their civic duty. Countywide the voter turnout was about 42 percent. You can regard that as either a pretty good number compared to other primaries or a disappointment that more than half the registered votes in Racine County didn’t bother. For the ones that did, we give a salute — and a special salute to the Village of Wind Point where the turnout was just 58.9 percent.

Thumbs Down

On the thumbs down side of the electoral process, we now project the Wisconsin Supreme Court race could well be the most expensive and nastiest on record as special interests try to tip the scales in their own direction. Already, according to published reports, conservative and liberal “issue” groups have booked more than $200,000 in Milwaukee television ad time in the race between liberal Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler, Milwaukee, and his challenger, Judge Michael Gableman of Burnett. Plus, the charges and counter charges from the Butler and Gableman camps are starting to fly. Gableman’s campaign has blasted a state bar group set up to monitor the campaign as being biased in favor of Butler while one of the issue groups backing Butler is claiming Gableman contributed to then Gov. Scott McCallum’s campaign and ran fundraisers for him and then jumped ahead of local candidates to get McCallum’s nod for the Burnett County Circuit Court judgeship. And the winner is ... certainly not going to be repect for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Thumbs Up

Now there’s an honor few can replicate. Longtime Racinian Walter Stenavich brought the State Senate to a close Tuesday. They adjourned their floor session in honor of Stenavich’s years of service to Racine and to signal their appreciation of his service on the Wisconsin Veterans Affairs Board, from which he retired in January, according to an announcement sent out by State Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine. That’s a kudo that’s hard to top. Stenavich was principal at Horlick High School — and Mitchell Junior High School (times change) before that — until his retirement from local education more than two decades ago. A submarine veteran of World War II, Stenavich stayed busy with a stint at Marian College, volunteer work at Lincoln Lutheran — and then the Wisconsin Veterans Board work. According to our clip files, Stenavich started his work career picking onions in fields south of Racine. At the age of 14 he got his driver’s license and began delivering a rural route for The Journal Times. We join the Senate in their salute to one of Racine’s own.

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