Compared to local grassroots organizations, Citizens for Responsible Government, whose Madison affiliate is spearheading the effort to recall Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, may appear to have an identity crisis.
Based in Milwaukee, CRG rose to prominence in 2002 after successfully leading a charge to unseat Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament on charges of corruption. Since then, the group has grown, and the CRG network has affiliates in several Wisconsin counties, Dane County being the latest.
CRG spokesman Chris Kliesmet said the goal of the Milwaukee-based CRG network is to have 'boots on the ground' in all 72 Wisconsin counties. There are currently 13 CRG affiliates in nine counties.
According to Kliesmet, CRG is dedicated solely to fiscal conservatism. 'We don't consider ourselves socially conservative,' Kliesmet said. 'But we are unabashedly fiscal conservatives.'
Heather Mees, head of CRG-Madison, said that fiscal conservatism is not the only reason her group is trying to recall Cieslewicz. 'There are a lot of issues that we have here that might not be fiscally conservative.'
According to Mees, Cieslewicz has not represented Madison interests with legislation such as the smoking ban and a recent attempt to buy the Overture Center for $1. She added that the smoking ban represents an attack on personal freedom. But Kliesmet said the smoking ban and the citywide minimum wage hike have hurt businesses, causing them to leave the city and weaken Madison's tax base.
Cieslewicz denies failing his constituents and his spokesperson George Twigg pointed out that 70 percent of Madisonians support the smoking ban. Kliesmet calls that figure 'a lie,' based on a poll conducted by the conservative Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.
Twigg also questioned the amount of local support that CRG-Madison actually has. 'If this was a real local grass-roots effort that was Madison-based, that would be one thing,' Twigg said, 'but we're not really feeling that.'
Critics have questioned the broader political aims of the CRG network. 'The joke is that CRG really stands for 'Citizens for Republican Government,'' Twigg said.
But Kliesmet, who is described as a 'conservative activist' on CRG's website, said she has no partisan affiliation. Kliesmet said, however, that in the upcoming gubernatorial race, CRG is split over Republicans Scott Walker and Mark Green. 'I would seriously doubt that there is anybody supporting Doyle,' he said.
For now, CRG-Madison is struggling to get the nearly 35,000 signatures necessary to force a recall election, and Mees said she has not even started to think about an actual election. But, she said, even if the recall effort fails to force another mayoral race, it will have made a point.
'It would be a big wake-up call,' she said.
