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Another View | Bipartisanship

The math favors a turn toward a centrist caucus

State Sens. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) (left) and Tim Cullen (D-Janesville) have emphasized bipartisanship.

Journal Sentinel files


The arithmetic of Wisconsin politics says that three people are all that's needed to build a bridge across the state's wide partisan divide.

The issue of how to restore bipartisanship is raised again by new polling data. This led the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to report that Wisconsin's partisan divide is wider than any other state. And the newspaper's Editorial Board to opine: "The Wisconsin canyon: Time to bridge the divide" (Our View, March 12).

Here's how three people are all that's needed to build that bridge.

Republicans control Wisconsin's state Senate, outnumbering Democrats 18 to 15. Imagine that two Republicans and one Democrat defect from their respective parties, declaring themselves a new Independent Centrist caucus.

The arithmetic is now 16 Republicans, 14 Democrats and 3 Centrists. Since it takes 17 votes for a majority, neither Republicans nor Democrats would have a majority without Centrist support.

But either party would have a majority in coalition with Centrists. That gives this new group, small as it is, the power to act as a bridge across the partisan divide.

To make the scenario a bit less fanciful, imagine the three senators are named Dale, Mike and Tim. Any resemblance to state Sens. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center), Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) and Tim Cullen (D-Janesville) is purely intentional.

This is an exercise in political arithmetic, not psychology. I don't know if these men - each with a long political career and strong independent tendencies - can tolerate each other on a personal level. If more join, all the better.

Why would a political progressive (such as me) want any defections from the Democrats? One, the need to work with Centrists would be a setback for right-wing Republicans. Two, it would allow progressive Democrats to step forward with their own identity distinct from the centrist Democrats who control the party.

Why would Republicans (such as Dale and Mike) want to defect? They're both former Senate leaders who have been marginalized within their own party. They'd gain significant power as the missing link needed for a majority. And with a bit of help from Democratic voters, they'd be able to withstand an election challenge from the right.

Political polarization is one of the bad things that can happen with a two-party system. A third force - with the ability to deliver enough voters for a majority coalition - can help. The United States is the sole large democracy with a two-party system.

It's true that third parties (or, third caucuses) rarely have had any impact in America. But third parties have usually been of the left or right. We're talking about a party - or legislative caucus - of the center.

Progressives might complain that part of the problem with Democrats is how easily they moved rightward in pursuit of Republicans. Why reinforce that tendency? The answers are that it's better than giving the right full power and that it allows a clear distinction between centrist and progressive approaches. Progressive Democrats would be able to step out of the shadows.

Sure, this is fantasy. But the arithmetic makes sense. And the politics add up.

We just need a few good souls to take the first step.

Jack Norman is a Milwaukee-based writer (

© 2014, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved.

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