Marginal Utility

by Tom Bozzo

A while back, the Angry Sicilian had asked what I thought of the Madison smoking ban. Short answer: I like it!

Yesterday morning, I woke up (not counting an early rise from Julia) to a Wisconsin Public Radio news item to the effect that the group Citizens for Responsible Government wants to organize a recall of Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz [10/17/05: See note below on CRG's role]. CRG is perhaps best known around here for recalling some Milwaukee County officials in the wake of some egregious pension shenanigans, but more recently has focused on haranguing members of the state's legislative majority as "RINOs" over perceived failings of anti-tax orthodoxy.

The Madison effort seems to have been spearheaded by the local Libertarian Party, driven to a rage over the abrogation of the so-called right to smoke, but the WPR report says CRG is also citing the recently rolled back increase in the city minimum wage as well as a program to provide loans to the city's illegal immigrant population among the offenses.

Here's a taste of the CRG tactics:

1) About 35,000 valid signatures of eligible voters in the city of Madison need to be collected. The exact number equals 25% of the number of votes cast for president in Madison in 2004. To make sure enough signatures are valid, and for PR purposes, it would be better if 50,000 were collected. Most UW-Madison students are eligible voters. These signatures must be collected within 30 days. Each Recall petition must contain the reason for Recall. "Destroyed Madison Jobs" would likely do the trick. Signature collectors do not need to be Madison residents. As a safety valve, it's legal to pay signature collectors. Disgruntled employees seeing their tips shrink, might volunteer to collect 50 signatures for $50.

2) The Recall can succeed because the backbone of the Recall, the Madison hospitality industry, has an economic incentive to collect signatures. The employees and patrons of these small businesses will also be motivated, as well as republicans, libertarians, independents and smokers.

3) Talk radio loves Recalls. Can you imagine WIBA host Vicki McKenna reporting live from a Recall rally? And this Recall would be interesting statewide and even nationally. I'm sure that Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly would be licking their chops, promoting the Recall of one of the most socialist mayors in the history of the United States. Talk radio drove the Milwaukee Recalls a few years ago, and could do so again in Madison.

Sure, paid signature collectors plus the right-wing noise machine should make for a clean and high-minded campaign (/sarcasm).

I think it will be tough to generate (or regenerate), let alone sustain, broader public outrage over the ban. For one thing, the suggested "Destroyed Madison Jobs" tagline makes it clear enough that if the battle is framed as a smoking issue, the ban's opponents will fail. For another, the smoking ban is susceptible to similar public opinion dynamics to gay marriage in Massachusetts, in that the perceived need for radical action diminishes with each day the world fails to end. Even my good buddy Bryan Smith, who opposes the policy, concedes that the ban makes Madison taverns more kid-friendly. The go-for-broke tactics of the anti-ban lobby would hardly be beyond valid criticism in a recall campaign. Last, the analogy with the Milwaukee County pension scandal is basically nonexistent, as policy disagreement doesn't imply corruption.

That is not to say that "Destroyed Madison Jobs" holds water as a substantive critique of the policy. At this point, it's unclear what the citywide picture of bar and restaurant sales is. For all I know, places like the Harmony Bar, which I understand to be doing well and happy with the ban, are typical. Plus, the bulk of the hospitality establishment was already smoke-free both in the city and the immediate suburbs. However, if the missing patrons of the squeaky wheel taverns are simply drinking and smoking in surrounding jurisdictions, then the worst case is that there hasn't been a destruction of demand that's relevant, in the not-much-longer term, for the local labor market. It is just not that difficult to replace one bar or restaurant job with another.

The Libertarians do offer some political comedy, too.

For example, former Mayor Paul Soglin, who has publicly opposed the smoking ban, can beat Cieslewicz in a Recall election. Recall elections create a media circus which increases voter participation.

While it's true that Soglin, who's been working as an investment advisor since leaving the mayor's office, ran as the "conservative" candidate in the last mayoral election, that means he was center-left rather than left, in a city where half the likely voters identify themselves as liberals. Still, please share a mordant chuckle with me over area conservatives pinning their hopes on the guy formerly known as Red Paul.

Or try on:

Unfortunately for those subjected to experimental socialist utopias, scientists like Galileo, Newton and Einstein are a lot smarter than the Madison city council. Plus, the city council is influenced by non-scientific considerations such as money, power, and WEAC.

Uh, sure, raising the minimum wage is the surest road to money and power.

Recalls give power to the people, and takes [sic] it from the hands of lobbyists and politicians.

Not counting the Tavern League.

If the smoking ban is allowed to continue, there's no telling what other social engineering schemes the People's Republic of Madison will ram down the throats of business owners.

Oh, the poor business owners!

But if a Recall of the mayor succeeds, newly registered voters can force the limousine liberals on the Madison city council to concentrate on the civil liberties side of their left-wing agenda. And that is a good thing.

What?

All I can say is, go ahead, throw your money away. Ha ha ha ha ha. (I don't know how to put the Kang and Kodos tone into text.) At least it'll stimulate the economy.

10/17/05 Addendum: In comments, Chris Kliesmet of CRG notes that CRG mainly assists local groups with recalls, and has only filed one recall itself. To clarify, the recall tactics described above are excerpted from a local Libertarian Party press release.