The Noon headlines contained the news that Barbara Lawton dropped out of the gubenatorial horse-race. The timing was a shock to her supporters, since she held a fundraiser last week and left people believing as recently as Saturday that she still planned to run. Speculation is that Tom Barrett will heed President Obama's call for him to run, and Lawton got out while she could save face. She cited personal reasons, and the media quoted other Democratic Party figures (like Peg Lautenschlager) emphasizing that she did it for personal and/or family reasons. That is the usual face-saving excuse for a politician dropping out of a campaign. There is really no way to know what is going on in Lawton's head.
A more shocking and tragic story involving state government (presumably unrelated) also hit the news today. The Director of the State's Bureau of Investigative Services shot himself with his service weapon in his car Friday night.
An earlier version of the Wisconsin State Journal story mentioned that he was feeling overwhelmed at work and that the mandatory state employee furloughs had not helped the situation. The story has been updated to remove any reference to the furloughs. It still mentions that he sometimes worked until 2:00 a.m. I sincerely hope that this man's death is not used by AFSCME or others in their political arguments against the spending cuts. His family deserves better than that. I especially feel for his wife, who found him in his car. There are few experiences that could be more horrific.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Agreed re: the suicide. No matter what his own personal reasons were for doing what he did, his death shouldn't be used as a talking point by AFSCME.
Agreement here too, regarding the suicide. I see he worked for the agency dealing with crimes against children. I'm sure the things he's seen have been horrible, and it became too much to bear. Condolences to his family.
Post a Comment