Wis. gov.-elect wants to lure retirees back home - Washington Post

MADISON, Wis. -- Gov.-elect Scott Walker wants to lure out-of-state retirees back home with tax cuts and parties, saying the state needs their investment dollars.

Speaking at a symposium of startup companies in Madison on Thursday, Walker said there's little reason for senior citizens to stay in Wisconsin besides grandchildren. But he feels they're a powerful investment force for startups in the state.

He hopes to coax them back by phasing out state taxes on retirement accounts and traveling to Sun Belt retirement enclaves in places like Naples, Fla., and Sedona, Ariz., to hold "welcome back" parties.

"We don't just want you back, we want your money back," he said. "We're just going to send a signal it's OK to come back here."

Walker, a Republican, didn't elaborate on what retirement taxes he wants to end and left the symposium without taking questions from reporters. His spokesman, Cullen Werwie, didn't immediately respond to a message.

Jim Flaherty, a spokesman for Wisconsin AARP, said he hadn't heard of Walker's welcome-back plan and the chapter isn't sure what retirement taxes he has in mind.

"It appears he wants to help senior citizens get back to Wisconsin and help them grow old with dignity," Flaherty said. "We'd have to see what it looks like. If it helps our demographic, we would certainly support it."

Walker may have a tough sell. The sagging economy and other factors have made it difficult to sell homes - especially in places like California and Arizona - and retirees would be trading sunshine and swimming pools for blizzards and ice.

Sandy Lantz, 65, and her husband, James, 58, relocated nearly five years ago from Walworth in southern Wisconsin to Sun City Center, a Florida retirement community. They left the state after James Lantz's display-design business went under in the early 2000s and they lost two homes.

Now she works as a diet technician at a local hospital and heads up the Sun City Center Wisconsin retirement club. Her husband drives a golf cart to his job as security director at two retirement communities. They still have children and grandchildren in Wisconsin, but she said nothing Walker could say would bring them back.

"I wouldn't return just because of the snow, and that's honest," she said. "It's wonderful (here). There's a community association here, they have a clubhouse, a swimming pool, clubs. We're really happy here and our lives have turned around."

Meda Cates, membership director for Sun City Grand, a retirement community in Surprise, Ariz., said she doesn't expect Wisconsin retirees there to leave.

"Sometimes people live here and go back to Minnesota and Wisconsin and they're not happy because this lifestyle here is so geared to retirees," she said. "They're with a community of people just like them."

View the original article here

Ex-Paul campaign volunteer wants apology - The Associated Press

Ex-Paul campaign volunteer wants apology(AP) – 3 hours ago

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A former campaign worker for U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul wants an apology from the liberal activist he reportedly roughed up, but he won't be getting his campaign donation back from the Paul campaign that dropped him after the incident.

Paul's campaign has tried to distance itself from Tim Profitt, the supporter caught on video stepping on the head of a MoveOn.org activist outside a debate Monday night between the Republican nominee and Democrat Jack Conway.

Profitt, who contributed some $1,900 to Paul's campaign, acknowledged his role in the altercation. But he insisted Wednesday that he had been wronged by the activist, 23-year-old Lauren Valle.

"I would like for her to apologize to me, to be honest with you," Profitt told WKYT-TV in an interview in which he would not allow the television station to show his face.

Neither Profitt nor Valle returned telephone calls Wednesday from The Associated Press.

Following Monday's incident in Lexington, the Paul campaign promptly dropped Profitt as campaign coordinator in Bourbon County in central Kentucky and banned him from future events.

However, Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton said the tea party-backed campaign won't return Profitt's contributions.

Conway said Wednesday during a campaign stop in Shepherdsville that the skirmish was "horrifying," and called on the Paul campaign to identify all its supporters who were involved.

"These are the people that carry around the signs that say, 'Don't Tread on Me,'" he said. "Sounds to me like they've got it backwards."

Benton defended the Paul campaign's response, and accused Conway of trying to exploit it.

"The Paul campaign condemned the incident far before Conway's camp ever addressed it and decisively severed all ties with the supporter in question," Benton said in an e-mail.

The scuffle broke out while scores of vocal supporters for both candidates rallied outside the studios of Kentucky Educational Television in Lexington, where Paul and Conway held the final debate of their highly contentious race.

Profitt told the AP on Tuesday that the scuffle wasn't as bad as it looked on video and blamed police for not intervening.

Valle was roughed up as she tried to give Paul a fake "employee of the month" award. She told police she was assaulted while trying to take a picture of Paul.

She said her face was swollen and her neck and shoulder were sore after she was wrestled to the ground by Paul supporters.

Lexington police have said officers would deliver a summons to Profitt to appear in court. A judge will determine whether to proceed with an assault case.

In a conference call with reporters Wednesday, Conway spokesman John Collins criticized Paul's campaign for a "tepid" response that has "evolved." Conway's campaign also distributed a photo that it said shows Profitt with an arm on the shoulder of a smiling Paul.

The Kentucky Senate race, one of the nation's most closely watched, turned personal when Conway aired an explosive ad this month that asked why Paul was a member in college of a secret campus society that mocked Christians.

The ad also revisited accusations that Paul, while a student at Baylor University, participated in a prank in which he tied up a woman and told her to worship an idol, and that he told the woman his god was "Aqua Buddha." Those claims by a woman who requested anonymity were made in articles this year in GQ Magazine and The Washington Post.

Paul has denied being involved in any kidnapping and has called the ad false.

Associated Press writer Brett Barrouquere and Janet Cappiello Blake in Louisville contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

View the original article here