MooShoo...

...You refer to things happening 20 years ago...not everything listed was that long ago...some as recent as just 14 months ago.

Since i don't live in the Town of Plymouth, this is just an outside observation and truely of no real consequence to me...

First Mr. Harding says...

"...it was my fault as much as anybody else"

the implication here is that it's not all or totally his fault, that there was someone else the forced or aided the situation. OK...whatever...but then the very NEXT thing he says is...

"...I own what I did. You choose your behavior, you choose the consequence."

And here, the implication is that anything that he did, he did on his own, with no one forcing the issue.

Sorry...you can't have it both ways...it's either your fault that you broke the law and you "own" that or you try to share the blame.

I don't know this guy...probably never met him, so I don't know what kind of guy he is but he sure seems to want it both ways.

it is crazy people want people who commits crimes to change their lives and better themselves then when they do it of course all their dirty laundry comes right back out and they are judged for it all over again. all of these offenses are pretty minor, none of the are convicted murderes so that is a plus, i think as long as all of these people really have changed their lives for the better and no longer still do the same as what they were charged for we as society should give them a chance. good luck to all and may your past not hold your back as long as you are trying to do better

Dave Olsen is a breath of fresh air in the town of Magnolia!! Keep up the good work from a neighbor of all hours.

So much for leading by example.

Phillip...you are totally confused about our justice system.

And, I suspect, way too involved.

People can change if given a chance. Everyone makes mistakes, and no one is perfect. I am not suprised that these folks are running for office. Someone has to. I think it would be near impossible to find a candidate for any office without a skeleton or two in the closet. If anyone out there has no issues in their past that might be undesirable, please step up and run for office.

I too welcome unbiased eyes at the meeting.
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Thank you for proving my earlier point. Because I am not a fan of Dave then I must be...

-against water quality
-for 400 foot wind turbines
-for poor property values
-uncaring
-for money
-for power
-rich
-own land

I never occurs to you that I just don't like the way the guy treats some of the people. No one in this township can have an opinion that doesn't toe the town board line without being labeled the above. It makes me sick.

I would say these people are just what the doctor ordered! They will fit in just fine,with all the rest of the elected officials that make laws for the public,but don't think they have to live by them.

littlebadger- Your rant sounds familiar. Can Spring Valley residents vote in Magnolia?

Once again, I invite anyone who questions Dave Olsen's integrity and devotion to our community to please come to a town board meeting to see for themselves. Second Tuesday of every month, Magnolia town hall, 7 pm. On hiway A just west of 213. Plenty of room for all.

Our board is unpopular with those who do not want our water quality protected and who want 400 foot wind turbines everywhere no matter what damage these things do to us or others. No matter how much our property values are driven down. They don't care. They care about money money money and power. And that's their right, certainly!

But on voting day, I'm behind the man who has protected the majority of us, not just those who have a lot of money and own a lot of land.

Come to a board meeting and see for yourself. It won't take but an hour for you to see what's happening to our community with your own eyes.

It is interesting how someone’s perspective of a situation can be so different.

I go to most meetings, seldom say anything but listen closely. In general, though there have been some exceptions, I think most residents bring up good questions and issues in a respectful manner. What I see is that Dave Olsen will not consider anything brought up by a resident that doesn’t agree with him 100 percent.

I find Dave Olsen demeaning, he mocks residents and spends a lot of time avoiding straight forward questions. I see the escalation in negativity because of the way he responds to some of the residents. I am not personally vested in the current issues but I find the meetings upsetting and disturbing because of the way Dave Olsen treats people, not because of the residents in attendance.

I see residents wanting to get involved in the process, understand why we do things and help drive change. You don’t have to be elected to do this. Some of these residents have helped drive positive changes in the last two years. They too should be recognized. I take my hat off to them.

I support Dave Olsen of Magnolia Township and am impressed by his willingness to address this issue directly here. He has worked tirelessly, above and beyond the call of duty as our town board member.

The public record is public record and the Gazette is just reporting what is public record. But with the election coming up, what certain people in Magnolia will choose to do with this misdemeanor charge which took place 17 years ago will most likely be as sickening as other strong arm techniques they've used against our board.

However, what Dave Olsen himself has chosen to do because of this event, --which is to recognize it as the blessing and the wake-up call which determined the path of the rest of his life, and to be open about it here, --that is nothing but honorable.

The pressure put on the Magnolia town board members by people in the community who want their jobs is sickening to witness. There is a lot of money and power behind the attacks against our town board and there are many of us who are so fed up with witnessing it it makes us sick to even attend the meetings. So now they have another brick to use to break things down in our township and no doubt they will use it.

Dave Olsen is an honest, stand-up guy with no hidden agenda. Without people like him on the board, our waterways would run with manure and we'd have 60-some wind turbines 40 stories tall shoe horned into Magnolia's 36 square miles just 1000 feet from our homes.

Magnolia is so lucky to have him and there are so many of us who will support him by voting for him again in April.
If you want to come to a Magnolia town board to meeting to see for yourself what some people in our community will do with this sort of information, the meetings are the second Tuesday of the month, 7pm, Magnolia town hall, on Hiway A just west of 213.

Just be sure to bring a bottle of Mylanta AND Pepto Bismol AND an airsickness bag and see how well you can just sit quietly in your seat while the board gets another round thrown their way by the same group of people so many in our community are getting more and more fed up with.

I'm voting for Dave Olsen come April. And my family and I thank him for being so open and honest here. I'd hate to think what Magnolia would be like right now without him.

cougarfan: it's good to have those choices. i would urge anyone who is unsatisfied with the candidates and complains about them to run for the office themselves. if you have justified complaints step up and run, that is how to take local government back.

Cappyman--Where I vote we have at least one solid candidate in every spot. I personally feel good about voting for them. I would consider it though if I thought I could add something more... As Katy pointed out, not every race is so lucky to have multiple candidates to chose from.

How many of these candidates who have a "record" actually have an opponent in the election? I thought I read a while ago that most of the seats up for election in Rock County are uncontested. So unless there is a concerted write in campaign, my guess is that all of the folks will be elected to their desired posts.

cougarfan: why don't you run for office?

Okiefed, If I misunderstood a part of your point I apologize. I too believe that if running for office then it should be available to the voters to discuss. CCAP is not totally accuate as early convictions may not show up, and some counties don't even participate. Patrick Henry said, Give the people the truth and then let them decide.

Tallman, don't minimize what some of these candidates did. The issue isn't forgiveness. The issue is do we want some of them making serious decisions in our town governments?

I would have to dig pretty deep to elect someone to represent my town who repeatedly drove drunk, commited criminal battery or was convicted of drug possesion. I think we can do better.

If they can do better for our communities, who are we to hold it against them? Has anyone ever seen the convictions of our congress??

Okiefed, you are not telling the truth if you drive, you have failed to stop completely, went over the speed limit, taken a pen from you place of employment. I could go on and on, the basic point is that you are not perfect and HAVE broken some sort of law if you exist at all. There are those that no doubt made mistakes, learned and have moved on. Not all counties in Wisconsin participate in CCAP. Some individuals are sideline referees, next day glory seekers, some have lived, learned and become stronger, courageous and better for it. Most of these positions are basically thankless civic duty positions with no pay or next to none. So I don't believe anyone is doing it for the money or influence. That is why besides the fact you put your life out on the clothes line for all to view and scrutinize that we have a hard time even filling these positions. These positions are very important, boots on the ground, grass roots and not political at all nor glamarous yet everyone(maybe you Okiefed)expects them to be performed by someone to keep things operating. Try finding 4-H, Scout or church leaders. How about you Okiefed or are you a sideline referee? Your a perfect law obiding citizen??

OkieFed...."These candidates with past transgressions shouldn't be able to sweep them under the rug. For the "everybody deserves a second chance" crowd, I ask whatever happened to personal accountability?"

If you read the comments of some of the candidates...you will see that they are not "sweeping it under the rug." They are in fact standing tall to that accountability...and that is what part of being a civic leader is all about..it is all about what they learn from their mistakes.

The Gazette is reporting information about those who want to serve the public. Seems responsible to me! Now, what we--the electorate--do with that information is on us.

Judging by the comments here...we should come up with a computer model to hold public office...robots should rule the world....no human traits allowed...

Be careful what you wish for people...

Hope you all have a lot of padding on your behind....it'll come back to bite you.

As citizens we have a right to know who we are electing into public office. I appreciate the information.

Magnolia--"Made a mistake while they were growing up"....are you serious?

If my math is correct you were a 33 year old adult man who chose to smoke pot.

The attempt here to make excuses ("less than a sewing thimble full" ), redirect the focus ("I am not the only one") and then somehow think it is appropriate to try turn this into a campaign platform (while playing the victim) indicates to me that you may still have some issues.

This is a great article by the gazette staff!
While it really comes as NO surprise to me. Elected officials are the most corrupt, egotistical, narcissist people out there. No surprise many have a record, and FAR more have never been caught!
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Face it, most of your decent, successful people will NEVER run for any public office. Many simply don't have the time, but most don't want to deal with all the BS from all the HACKS you have to deal with in the Bureaucracy. Also many good people would be taking a serious pay cut if they went into elected office. Unless of course you become corrupted like the many who go into it do. Then you can make all sorts of $$$ on bribes, pay to play schemes, ext ext. I know; that sort of thing hardly ever happens...
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT....Sure it doesn't.

Magnolia: Why don't you run for office in Janesville? We need someone like you here!

heck this is nothing if we have a candidate for Sec of HHS owing 200K in back taxes and the Chairman of the Treasury also owing taxes. They are all crooked one way or another...some just have a paper trail which makes it easier to cast stones upon them.
.
I agree with SarahB.

Hello,
I feel I'm not the only person that has made a mistake when they were growing up. Since I'm running for public office my mistake is now public. I was given a misdemeanor ticket for less than a sewing thimble full of marijuana on 6/9/1993, plead guilty on 7/12/1993, and paid the ticket. I have never used pot, or alcohol since. It was a blessing that it happened at that time in my life. It changed my life course.
The people of Magnolia have honored me to run for a 4th term as a Town Board Supervisor. I thank all the people that braved the cold, and snow to attend our caucus. I also thank all the people in the Town of Magnolia for their support past, and present.
I enjoy serving on the Magnolia Town Board the past six years:
-No town tax increase in the past 6 years.
-Fair wind tower ordinance to protect all people.
-Volunteering to do maintenance at the Town Hall.
-Volunteering to plow snow at the Town Hall.
-Volunteering to help with recycling every 3rd Saturday of the month 9am to 12 noon.
***I will NEVER vote to build a new Town Hall, or build an addition. Remember if one foot was to be added on to the building more land would be needed for the parking area.
I hope this is not a campaign like the past. I have stood up to big business, and big money. They don't like that. These people will spend large amounts of money to get me off the Town Board. Then what?
I would be honored to continue to represent you in our Town of Magnolia. Please feel free to contact me.
Thank You, Dave Olsen
4124 N. Coon Island Rd.
Evansville, WI 53536
Cel. Phone 608-314-6045

No one is perfect. Everyone has probably had a misdemeaner in their lifetime. What you have to look for is the candidates who regret what they did and have changed. Not the ones who don't want to comment or dismiss it.

This pack of knuckleheads makes B'moon look like Honest Abe!!!

Well, well here we go, going after the people who have had midemeanor convictions including OWI's. Going to treatment is the honorable and positive move as well as to continue recovery. I too know many in recovery that I would trust far more than some of our on the surface goody goody leaders. These individuals should not be ashamed as long as they take responsiblilty for their actions, serve their punishment, recognize the behavior and correct it. I have the uttmost of respect for those who do something about their issues. We have a number of State Legislators with numorous OWI's and while their in office. Once they have completed their court ordered conditions they are by law restored their rights and we as citizens should acknowledge and respect that. Now with all that said, those who find fault with these candidate's records and want to continue to condemn them for it, why don't you get up the nerve and put yourselves out there? You run for office or do you only have the courage to complain? This Gazette paper and the public continuously complain that no one runs for public office and now you might better understand why. At least these individuals have lived, learned a lesson, utilized their mistakes to grow stronger and wiser into someone wishing to help and contribute by giving back to their communities, including VOLUNTEERING for a homeless shelter. How many of you do that? Now that is stepping up to the plate. I applaud these individuals and certainly WOULD and WILL VOTE for them.

Hey (crazycatlady) do you live nextdoor to me, I have a neighbor we call catlady ???

This article totally disgusts me. Just because someone was arrested for a misdemeanor 16, 17, 18 years ago & they are now running for public office, they should have to have this printed in the newspaper NOW. I guess somewhere along the line they learned from their mistakes. As far as I'm concerned the only outcome to be derived from this article would be to make good people think twice about running for public office. Who cares if someone smoked pot 16 years ago. And if you really do you could look it up on CCAP yourself.

Does not surprise me, the fact that bigger politicians go to college to be educated criminals, while the little ones find a way to do it on their own.

thechosen1: Maybe you should read article again. You must have missed the part that explained Mr. Harding did enter inpatient treatment at Rogers Memorial Hospital and is sober to this day. His own words quoted here are enough proof to me that he is in recovery. I also know from personal and work relationships that people in recovery are some of the strongest people I have ever met.

i think mr harding has some issues.. u think he would of learned from his first, or second, or third, but it took 4 drunk driving tickets.. geeze!! someone need AA treatment

Steinhoff said "Something needs to be in place." How about his butt in an AA meeting, not in office.

It would be better for the Gazette on their in-depth reporting to show misdemeanor vs. felony convictions...there is a big difference.

So Mr. Stienhoff still makes his run to the bars, but wants the city to take him home so he doesn't make the mistake if driving drunk again?!! Why should we as taxpayers have to pick up drunks who are adults and should know better than to drink and drive? If you are planning going to the bar and can't control your drunkness arrange for your own ride home!

I think it would be an easy decision to NOT vote for these people.

I disagree jvldss. Not one of them has tax evasion on their record. They would never make it with Obama.

You got that right!!

To heck with local government. These folks apparently have what it takes to be U.S. Congressmen and Senators.