Will Fiscal Conservatism Follow Polling-Place Conservatism In The Waukeshas?

Interesting piece in the Waukesha Patch about the GOP primary results there:

Eric Hovde, running as a dyed-in-the-wool fiscal conservative, out-polled statewide winner Tommy Thompson, the born-again small government tightwad, in both the City and Town of Waukesha.

However, in Waukesha, Thompson took 2,849 votes while Hovde was slightly more successful with 2,900 votes.

In the Town of Waukesha, Hovde took the lead with 693 votes. Of the votes cast in the U.S. Senate race, he had 34.7 percent of the vote. Thompson took 30.7 percent.

You may say, "so what - - we all know that Waukesha is the heart of the conservative GOP base in Wisconsin."

But you have to wonder what this portends for the costly likely more costly water diversion plan the city's water utility commission and Common Council are to receive shortly from staff said to have a supply deal in hand with Oak Creek?

The agreement with Oak Creek is to be presented to the Waukesha Water Utility Commission tonight.

Earlier estimates put the cost of a diversion of Lake Michigan water from Oak Creek at $261 million - - more than 50% greater than the estimated $164 million cost for a proposed - - but now blocked - - supply agreement with the City of Milwaukee included in Waukesha's initial diversion application.

The application as drafted was approved by the city's water utility commission and Council, is in the hands of the Wisconsin DNR and may be forwarded to the seven other Great Lakes states - - probably in 2013 - - given DNR review steps not yet completed.

All seven other Great Lakes states Governors must give the application its approval for the diversion to move forward, and a water purchase deal with a supplier municipality is a required part of the application as part of all the state's assessment of the volume of water approved for diversion and its environmentally-sound return to the source.

So aside from these environmental and out-of-state considerations, we'll see how political leaders in both the city and the town of Waukesha (the town has yet do announce whether it wants to be included in the diversion application) absorb Tuesday's expression of political conservatism as a large and likely even more expensive public spending issue rises to the surface.