Man bites dog: Beil backs Doyle

The Capital Times reports:

WSEU backs Doyle
Calls Green too extreme

Despite getting off to a rocky start with Gov. Jim Doyle, the largest state employees union has endorsed the Democrat for re-election this fall.

The 22,000-member Wisconsin State Employees Union announced its endorsement of Doyle today, citing his willingness to work with the union in recent years.

"There's been a noticeable shift over the past 18 months, not only in our relationship with him but with the entire administration," said WSEU executive director Marty Beil.

Beil was sharply critical of Republican gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Mark Green, who has embraced Republican lawmakers' efforts to establish a constitutional limit on state and local spending, for being out of step with Wisconsin values.

Beil said Green was "pretty moderate" as both a state lawmaker in the 1990s and after he was elected to Congress in 1998.

"But over the years, and especially since he began running for governor, he's moved directly to the right," Beil said. "It's not that we won't support candidates with conservative viewpoints, but when they get beyond a certain threshold to the right, we have issues with that."

Beil noted, for example, that the union endorsed Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson's three re-election bids in 1986, 1992 (sic), and 1998.

But Beil said Green "is a different animal from Tommy. Some of this right-wing stuff" such as the proposed constitutional spending limits "would have never crept out under Tommy."