Sidebar: PolitiFact Rates Itself "Barely True"

Selecting the photo links to the "file" below is supposed to tell you Abele's political affiliation.

Update April 20, 2011: It was noted in this post that Chris Abele was running for office of Milwaukee County Executive in a special election held April 5.  He handily won to the dismay of Scott Walker.

In gathering the data for my Politi-Score analyses, I often have to figure out the true political affiliation of a candidate, non-candidate, blog, chain e-mail etc., because PolitiFact (PF), the source of my data, does not provide any, such as for one Chris Abele, for whom PolitiFact Wisconsin gives a “None” in describing him as a “philanthropist running for Milwaukee County Executive, a non-partisan office”:

There might not be any more rulings for Abele if he loses this special election.

But PF has actually provided its own ruling which clearly describes Abele’s political bent:

The long paper trail left by Abele’s personal campaign donations since 2000 leaves no doubt he is a very loyal Democrat.

He has given heavily to Democratic Party office-seekers here and around the country, to the Democratic Party itself and in 2002 was on the campaign finance committee for Jim Doyle in his first race for governor…

His federal donations have helped Wisconsin congressional candidates Russ Feingold, Dave Obey, Steve Kagen and Tammy Baldwin, as well as Paul Wellstone of Minnesota and Michael Bennet of Colorado.

In 2004, Abele lined up attendees at a Ted Kennedy fundraiser for John Kerry’s presidential bid. And in 2008, Barack Obama got a check….

But we couldn’t find one dime in donations over a decade to a Republican candidate out of about $175,000. And Abele himself could not point out any to GOP candidates or incumbents in a partisan position.”

Writer Dave Umhoefer tries to offset Abele’s clearly Democratic support with "key issues"  which he paints as Abele's “stray(ing) from the liberal orthodoxy”:

Taxes. He has not adopted Walker’s strict "no new taxes" approach, but says tax increases should be a "last resort" until the county gets its act together. Specifically, a dedicated sales tax for parks or transit is out for the "foreseeable future," he told PolitiFact Wisconsin.

Privatization. He told us he is "wide open" to privatizing more county services if it saves money, preserves an important service or improves poorly delivered programs such as mental health. County employee unions have fiercely fought such moves.

Intergovernmental cooperation. He is open to letting other municipalities perform some of what the county now does, or have the county take over other things.

Employee benefits. With Lubar, he called for an end to lifetime health insurance for transit workers, and says getting employee costs under control is important. He says Walker didn’t go far enough, fast enough to trim pension liabilities.

Public education. He favors a mayoral takeover of the Milwaukee Public Schools, and urged Barrett to push for that. It died quickly but isn’t necessarily buried.

Sounds to me like he’s sort of another Bill Clinton…which would still make him a Democrat.

Clinton has been described as a New Democrat… Some of his policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance, while on other issues his stance was left of center…

So why doesn’t PolitiFact change the “None” descriptor in Abele’s profile? I mean, they already ruled that to say he was non-partisan was “Barely True.” If Abele was a typical “single ruling” politician, it might be okay to ignore this. But PF Wisconsin has done about six rulings on Abele since the beginning of the year. Whether the position Abele is running for is “non-partisan” or not, his political affiliation should be corrected in his profile to “Democrat" or "Liberal."