Can we recall the candidates?

As the November elections approach, I'm having a hard time trying to decide who to vote for, in regards to who will be the next Senator representing my awesome state of Wisconsin.

Everyone who keeps an eye on politics knows, Wisconsin has been a pretty active place when it come to politics. With special elections, recall elections, protests, counter protest, and on and on; voting has become so time consuming for me, I see the township election officials more often than some of my family.

Currently the Senate is pretty much split right down the middle between two parties, that only know how to blame all the nations problems on the other party. The next Senator for Wisconsin could play a pivotal role in which party will hold the majority in the Senate. With all of this at stake, I would like to ask: Can we recall the candidates? Seriously, can we please choose between to other people?

I am tired of trying to choose between two career politicians. Career politicians are why our government is a giant, bloated, wasteful, out of touch, incompetent, corrupt, gridlocked, mess that only makes things worse even when it tries to make things better. We need fresh people with good ideas and leaderships skills, who are in touch with the people they represent, because they are the people they represent. Kind of like what our founding fathers wanted our congress to be in the first place.

Congress was not intended to be a career for someone. It was intended to be a civic duty for citizen leaders to temporarily step away from their normal jobs as businessmen, farmers, doctors, laborers, community leaders, etc. and represent their fellow citizens for a few years in Washington. Kind of like a voluntary jury duty, but with a title. Get in, do your part, get out, go back to your day job.

Now it's a career with life long benefits, where people come in and stay, grabbing and holding on to as much power as they can for as long as they can. Many may go fully intending to help fix the problems of big government, but they soon become part of the problem. Two products of that system are what the citizens of Wisconsin now have to choose between.

One one side of the political spectrum is the Democrat candidate, Rep. Tammy Baldwin.

Rep. Baldwin is currently representing Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District and has been since 1999. Before that she was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the 78th district from 1993 to 1999. Baldwin was first elected to political office in 1986 when she was elected to the Dane County Board of Supervisors, a position that she held until she went to the Assembly. She also served for one year on the Madison City Council. Of her fifty years on this planet, she has spent close to twenty six of them in public office. About half her life.

Rep. Baldwin is running on the platform of: she is not a Republican, and she will help fix our broken federal government that she has been a member of for the last decade.

Then over on the other side is the Republican candidate, former Gov. Tommy Thompson.

Gov. Thompson was Governor of Wisconsin from 1987 to 2001. Prior to being Governor, he was in the State Assembly since 1966. Thompson left the Governor office when he was appointed by President George W. Bush as HHS Secretary until resigned January 2005. Of his 70 years on this planet, he has spent over 39 years in public office. Also, about half his life.

Gov. Thompson is running on the platform of: he is not a Democrat, and Wisconsin was great when he was Governor.

Interesting side note: way back in 1978, incumbent Republican U.S. Congressman William Steiger of Wisconsin's 6th congressional district died at the age of 40 from a heart attack. There was a special election in 1979. In the February 1979 Republican primary, Thompson was defeated by Tom Petri. Petri won the general election and still represents the 6th district today. While 33 years in office is a long time, it's short of the tenure of my former Congressional Representative Dave Obey's tenure of 42 years. Obey spent two more years in Congress than Congressman William Steiger lived!

So those are my choices come November. Either a career politician from the far left, or a career politician from the far right. I'll ask again, can we recall the candidates? These two people are examples of why I'm in favor of 12 year term limits for Congress. Get in, do your part, get out, go back to your day job.

Please don't get me wrong, I believe both of these people are qualified for the job. They are both intelligent and experienced leaders. But we need people in office with a majority of their experience out side of politics. A vast majority, like all of it. We, as a nation, need now more than ever politicians that do not want to be politicians for the rest of their lives.