Firing It Up

Seems like a good time to be starting the TAA Politics blog, with this year being one of the most important in our history for our political work.

In 2008, the TAA - along with thousands of other students and progressives - will be working to elect our endorsed candidate for president, Barack Obama. To win the White House, Barack Obama is going to need to win Wisconsin's electoral votes - and to do that, he'll need massive turnout not only on-campus with UW wards, in Madison's city limits, and in Dane County, but also in the other areas of South Central Wisconsin where Democrats can rack up votes at the top of the ticket.

So the TAA political program will be ramping up to turn out the grad student vote, the student vote, and the labor vote in South Central Wisconsin. From the war to the economy to education to climate change, we need a generational change - and that's why Barack Obama offers us. That's why we were one of the first to endorse Barack Obama before the Wisconsin primary - and that's why we'll be working hardest to elect him our next president.

But it doesn't stop with the White House. The Wisconsin state legislature is up for grabs, and we need to elect a pro-labor, pro-education, pro-UW majority in the State Assembly. The difference between the progressive majority in the State Senate and the regressive majority in the State Assembly is stark. We need to elect a State Assembly majority that will help return Wisconsin to its progressive roots.

We are three or so seats short of making that happen. And six of the most important seats are right here in South Central Wisconsin. So the TAA political program will be working to organize, educate, activate, and mobilize union members and their families here in our neck of the woods to take back the Assembly for the people of Wisconsin.

This year couldn't be more critical to the health and well-being of our country, our state, and our university - as well as the people that make up those communities. So we are going to work hard together as a union, exercising our collective power for our common good - mobilizing the largest political program in our history. Stay tuned here to the TAA Politics blog for more information, updates, commentary, and ways to get involved.