The Independent Defines Himself

What do you stand for, and who are you with?

A lot of the people I meet while knocking on doors want to know which political party I’m with. That’s a fair question. But this is a non-partisan race, so I tell them that I’m not a member of any political party. I’ve never been a member of the Democratic, Republican, Green or Libertarian Parties. I consider myself an Independent. What does that make me?

I want to help our local economy, the local environment, and to control and lower our property taxes. I do not seek to do this through a property tax freeze, nor through endlessly cutting transit, parks, and social services. Quite the opposite. I believe that if we were to eliminate the money going to human services and quality of life, we would also remove much of the reason for us to live here. We chose to live in Milwaukee for a reason. Many generations before us have successfully worked and lived here thanks to our strong communities and high quality of life.

So how do we lower property taxes if we don’t cut and cut and cut? First, my principle of Clean Government includes accounting for and reducing wasteful government spending. That will save money over the long term. Second, Milwaukee was forced onto a starvation diet. You may recall the words of a former governor who said he wanted to “stick it to Milwaukee,” and Lord, he did. We’ve been paying the price ever since. I will seek to work with Mayor Barrett and our representatives in Madison to increase Milwaukee’s fair share of the state’s shared revenue and decrease property taxes. Also, you may not know that the recent property tax increase came largely from unfunded mandates made by the state of Wisconsin.

I want to improve Milwaukee economically, environmentally, and to the extent that I am able, improve our communities. I believe that by improving the city and county economies and environment, we make life better for everyone, regardless of their social or political standing. That means we can get more well-paying jobs here, one thing that all but ensures a good quality of life in the community. These are possible with more shared revenue.

[announce] Haas applauds transit funding secured by Congresswoman Moore

Haas applauds transit funding secured by Congresswoman MooreDecember 20, 2007 — Milwaukee — Jason Haas, candidate for the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors 14th District, commented about the $500,000 secured by Congresswoman Gwen Moore for the Milwaukee County Transit System.

“I am delighted that Congresswoman Moore has secured funding for the Milwaukee County bus system,” Haas said.  “The county bus system is vital to the county’s economic growth.”

“This money will help bring cleaner diesel engines to the buses.  By also using cleaner biodiesel fuel in the buses, we will have cleaner, more reliable transit for our community.”

“With more people using transit, we will have fewer cars on the road and less pollution in the air.”

Haas supports transit initiatives including an improved county bus system, rail, and the use of less-polluting alternative fuels such as biodiesel in county busses and other vehicles.

Jason Haas works as a communication assistant at CapTel, Inc.

For more information, call, visit, or email:

Jason Haas
(414) 530-0505
campaign@haas414.org
www.haas414.org

So who is this Jason guy?

It’s important for you to see who you may vote for. So, I have gone through my photographs and found one very good one showing me and my daughter, taken before the Daddy-Daughter Dance in 2006. Without further ado:

The Daddy-Daughter Dance is held annually by Milwaukee Recreation, and if you’re a father of a young daughter, I highly recommend attending it. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s become a valued tradition for us that we always look forward to.

My daughter Hari is now five years old, and I’m 32. To put this in perspective, the retiring Supervisor Richard Nyklewicz, Jr., was elected in 1975 — the same year I was born. I started in Kansas City, Kansas, but my family moved around the country a few times. We came to Milwaukee County in 1984. Though my family moved away in 1988, I never forgot about Milwaukee, and always wanted to come back. That day finally came when I returned to Milwaukee in 2005.

Since then, I’ve been hard at work on many things: going to school at UWM; writing “On the Street” for the Bay View Compass (which always has be taking pictures behind the camera); working at CapTel, Inc.; co-hosting Drinking Liberally with Stacie, my fiancé; and starting the Milwaukee Biodiesel Co-op. Now I’m running for the County Board. I guess I needed something more to do!

That said, my daughter is top priority. Even though her mother and I are divorced, we actively communicate and work together in raising our daughter. It’s tough, but she’s worth it. We love playing in the parks, we love going to community events such as farmers markets, the Bay View Bash and South Shore Frolics. She loves Milwaukee, and I want to help make it a great place for her, and for grown-ups, too.

Signature Brigade, Saturday Dec. 15. Join us!

I am organizing a Signature Brigade to go out the weekend of Saturday, December 15 and gather signatures with me. If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, rest assured that it’s really easy, and hopefully will be fun for you to do.

If we had five people, and each got 10 signatures on Saturday, that would put us a quarter of the way to having the requisite 200 signatures. If we had five people get 25 signatures, that would instantly put us more than half way.

The good news is that you don’t have to live here in the district to get signatures for me. All you need to do is dress warm and go get signatures! I will have where to go planned out and marked for you.

Best of all, Stacie, my fiancé whom some of you may remember as my lovely co-host at Drinking Liberally, will make some nice treats to help motivate you to go out and knock on doors. We’ll have some good coffee to help keep you warm, too. It should be a good time!

Let me know if you can make it. Thanks!

Which district are you in? Find out here.

If you are a Milwaukee County resident, this cryptically named but very useful county web site will tell you which districts you live in. Carefully enter your address piece by piece rather than all on one line, and you will learn your supervisory and alder(manic?) district, as well as your Congressional district, state assembly and senate districts, and finally, city ward. All good things to know at the voting booth.

You can then click on search results to try and find your representative’s information. To get contact information for anyone other than your county board rep will require a little further digging and clicking, but it can be done with a little patience.

My first endorsement(s)

I am delighted to report my first endorsement has come from Ken Mobile at Mobile’s Take. Thank you, sir!

A second endorsement comes from Zach at Blogging Blue. Thank you, too!

James Rowen also noticed this site and praises my aggressive use of the Internets. Thank you as well, though Daniel Cody deserves more credit on this. (I had once proposed building a series of tubes from the planned biodiesel plant on Jones Island to the biodiesel co-op. I’m still waiting to hear back from the city on that one.)

While you know you’re a 21st century candidate when you get bloggers endorsing you, and I am grateful for the support, this race will not be about having the best online strategy or the coolest video. It’s going to be about doing doors, talking to people, and asking for their vote. It’s going to be a lot of work. But I’m up for it.

If you can come down here to help gather signatures, join in a lit drop, or just want to meet me, please drop me a line.

My campaign platform

You can read about the three issues I’m running on, Clean Government, Clean Air, and Clean Parks, on the Campaign Platform page.