Members of the Wauwatosa West Suburban Association of Commerce (WWSAC). the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce who had hoped to attend a gubernatorial debate about Wisconsin’s economy this fall can cool your jets.
It won’t happen.
A coalition of the three chambers, the Milwaukee Press Club, BizTimes Milwaukee and WisPolitics.com had scheduled the Wisconsin Gubernatorial Candidate Economic Forum, a debate between the Republican and Democratic nominees for governor, to take place at Wauwatosa West High School on Thursday, Sept. 16.
The coalition planned to promise its members to get first dibs on the seats at the event. The Press Club was prepared to assemble the media panel for the forum. And the venue was set. All three major candidates – Republicans Scott Walker and Mark Neumann and Democrat Tom Barrett – had personally agreed to attend the event.
Something to be said about the best laid plans of mice and men, Mr. Steinbeck …
The campaign for Republican Scott Walker called to ask for the event to be rescheduled, because it would take place less than 48 hours after the Sept. 14 GOP primary, leaving Walker little time to prepare for a debate – should he win the primary.
That was a reasonable request. However, it started a logistical nightmare, as school has begun, and the availability of the Tosa West auditorium would be limited
The best that could be done was to reschedule the event for the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 2. The Walker campaign quickly committed to the new date. Plans were being made to contact the Neumann camp as well.
However, the Barrett campaign decided not to send their guy to that event and instead proposed a separate slate of debates to the Republican campaigns.
So it goes. But we wanted to let the chamber members know how the whole thing unfolded. We’re hopeful that the future of the economy will be a major emphasis in the other debates.
It’s just that we know that would have happened at this one.
Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.
