After attending the huge rally yesterday at the Capitol (easily the largest yet, and not by a small amount, either), it's time to take the movement into the next level. And some of that is political action, with recalling any Senator who voted for this abomination (I live in Madtown and therefore, I'm out of that game), and making sure JoAnne Kloppenburg wins the Supreme Court seat on April 5 (which we all can do something about).
But there's a better way to hurt Walker and his supporters, and that's in the pocketbook. I put together an original boycott list last May, but a lot has happened since then, and it's time to give it an update. So without further ado -
1. Use the information from the Facebook group that lists the big hitters to the Walker campaign. This includes Sargento Cheese, Menard's, Kwik Trip, Johnsonville Brats, anything from Koch Industries, and a number of other big names. Good starting reference, and locally, you can combine it with the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's campaign finance database to bring it down to your commmunity.
2. M&I Bank- These guys are a special case all their own. And not just for having its CEO Mark Furlong, execs in the Kuester family and numerous employees bundling their donatations to Walker. It also took $1.7 billion in TARP money that it never paid back, gambled away a lot of depositors' money on risky real estate, lost a combined $2.9 billion in 2008 and 2009 and had to be bought out by Bank of Montreal, costing Milwaukee a huge corporate headquarters. And what does M&I CEO Mark Furlong get for presiding over this failure? An $18 million payout. And these people have the nerve to elect and support the WisGOPS who demonize public employees making $50K? Well, as the bank with the largest market share in Wisconsin, they rely a lot on those people to keep their business around. And they're finding out the hard way, as the M&I branch in downtown Madison had to close after numerous public employees pulled hundreds of thousands in deposits out on Friday in protest of Walker's bill. Beautiful.
3. Continue to put pressure on businesses that do work with companies that help Walker and co. For example, I have told UW Athetics a few times that being on a radio station like WTMJ is counterproductive, as they give TMJ a benefit from higher ratings for its anti-Madison, anti-UW shows. Why not encourage them to use their power to get their stations to knock off the rhetoric, or move to a station that won't denigrate the university at every turn? UW officials have told me they don't get involved in station content, but maybe they should. And if we let them know that the economic hardship that this bill will cause will lead to a lot of their fans not being able to donate as much as they'd like, or attend fewer games than we thought. You can do the same with the Brewers and the Bucks (obviously, the Packers are a different story- everyone always finds time and money for them :P). These are the businesses that can put the squeeze on the sqwauk radio stations that went a long way toward tricking people into voting for Gov. Dropout, and they won't stop their antics till they get it in the pocketbook.
4. Leff's Lucky Towne, Wauwatosa- This one hurts, because as a Tosa East grad that went to HS with family of the owners, I've actually liked going to this place. But they gave thousands to Scotty, and being from Tosa, they knew as well as anyone what this clown was about. The fact that they think it's OK means I can't be OK with giving them any of my money when I'm back in town, and I've gotta tell others about it.
5. Lastly, avoid the 262 area code any way you can. Kenosha, Racine, Walworth, Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee Counties voted by a combined 67-33 for Walker, and gave him more than 1/4 of his voting total for the state. These are counties that frequently feel they can insulate themselves from the big city of Milwaukee, that Milwaukee hate radio gears its programming to instead of the diverse population in the largest city in the state and generally denigrate people who believe in things beyond a few more dollars. Well, let's have them lose our business for a number of months, have Lake Geneva suffer through a miserable tourist season, and have them enjoy the economic drain that $4 gas causes commuters. Then we'll see how much they enjoy the Walker regime. Besides, does anything exist in those counties that you can't get in other, more decent parts of Wisconsin? No, of course not, so why not go to Milwaukee, or Madison, or western Wisconsin (which was closer to 50-50) for your Summer enjoyment? I haven't stopped to get gas and limited any food I've gotten in these places for business travels, and I highly recommend you do the same.
I could expand this further, but I'll leave it there. I'll gladly add to this over the next few weeks if you like.
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