Matt Flynn Running for Governor of Wisconsin
Update from the campaign: (March 6, 2018): “Matt Flynn‘s campaign for governor is building momentum. Since announcing in October 2017, he has been one of the leading candidates in a crowded Democratic primary of 13 candidates. A recent poll has Matt in third place, but within the margin of error to win. Your support now will help put him over the top.”
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(Original post) Our classmate and good friend, Matt Flynn (ES), is running for Governor of Wisconsin.
I knew him well when we were undergraduates and have been close to him and his family since. Matt is the first of 11 children, and I have amusing memories of different siblings telling me that they remembered me from way back when because “when you used to come over, we got real milk”, or “we got real potatoes.” Matt’s father was a professor of Spanish at the University of Wisconsin, and they lived on a farm in Random Lake.
From the earliest time I knew him, our discussions often veered into the area of character, personal integrity. Whatever one’s political views, I would surmise that we all recognize not only the lack of personal integrity in our leaders, but, worse, that it is difficult to get people to value it.
One person who did was Wisconsin’s long-serving Senator, William Proxmire, who lost his first few races, but, after he won, never even bothered to raise money to win re-election. Prox recognized Matt for his integrity when he was a young attorney, who ran for a heavily Republican seat but refused to accept PAC money to do so. Yes, he lost, but he stood out as a person of integrity, much as Russ Feingold, also from Wisconsin, did when he would not take PAC money either.
Matt was the attorney for the Archdiocese in Milwaukee and, when the pedophile scandals broke, he could have declined. He knew he had a political future and that unscrupulous politicians would try to conflate him offering the Archdiocese the best defense that he could with somehow condoning the activity. But, he felt an obligation as their attorney and as an officer of court that our system of justice depends on defendants receiving the best efforts of a good attorney.
Predictably, even before he announced he was running, those attacks have come. None, of course, mention that part of his role was to develop a program to prevent any act or coverup occurring again. And, it has not.
Why I’m Running: Matt Flynn
Matt was one of our classmates who opposed the Vietnam war, but felt it his duty to enlist. He went to Officers Candidates School in Newport after our graduation, and was commissioned Lieutenant, J.G., in the United States Navy. He volunteered for a unit that would have been deployed and required scuba-diving, but his physical revealed a scar on his lung, possibly from unknown TB. (He spent two years in Mexico City with his family when his father had won a Fulbright, which is where he may have been exposed.)
If you click on the video, you will meet his wife, Mary, who was born and raised in Wisconsin. Mary taught special needs children in the public school system for 25 years. She is a wonderful human being, as one must be to do that work and get so much enjoyment from it, a great friend, wife and companion to Matt. The people of Wisconsin will fall in love with her.
Matt served as Chair of the Wisconsin Democratic party, eliminating its debt and electing governors, state legislative and congressional officials.
Now, his time has come for him to being on the receiving end of others’ help, so he can help the average citizen of his state.
I am not going to speak about his proposals or goals — that is for him. But, as William Proxmire did, I can attest to Matt’s character and his high personal integrity. That, alone, would be a welcome change in our national politics.
You can learn more at Forward With Flynn, Matt’s campaign website, including signing up to get newsletters or making a donation.