Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is under attack. Madison Citizens for Responsible Government launched an effort Friday that will attempt to unseat the mayor through an eventual recall election.
However, although MadCRG is entirely right to express their dissatisfaction with an elected official, the claims they make against the mayor are entirely wrong.
MadCRG has started gathering the 35,000 signatures need for a recall election and will have 30 days to collect the signatures so an election can take place. The group has been moving from bar to bar, eliciting support from bar owners, patrons and anyone else willing to listen.
Both of the group's major complaints rest with their dissatisfaction with the smoking ban and hardly carry enough merit to warrant an action as serious as a recall.
They accuse the mayor of being anti-business, of destroying jobs and failing to protect civil liberties. While the repeal of the smoking ban was narrowly defeated in the city council by a 10-9 vote, it enjoys overwhelming support among the 85 percent of Madison residents who are nonsmokers.
Looking beyond the smoking ban, the mayor has carefully compromised with business and protected civil liberties. The mayor supported last spring's minimum wage increase for the first time in seven years and announced a healthy business plan in May 2004 that focused on sustaining long-term businesses and attracting biotechnology and high-tech firms to the Madison area, a plan that thus far has worked.
He added an Office of Civil Rights to the city's administration to address minorities' concerns with the quality of life in Madison, and has consolidated offices within the city's administration to cut back on costs.
By choosing to fight the smoking ban with a recall, MadCRG shows a profound lack of knowledge on how Madison works. It was the City Council who first reviewed the smoking ban and passed it, not the mayor. It was the City Council who denied a repeal of the smoking ban. It would be more beneficial for MadCRG to wait for the next mayoral election'when they have a chance to oust not only the mayor, but the city council too.
