Legislating isn’t the spectator sport that campaigning is. Maybe it’s because we quickly tire of the often-evasive positions candidates have on the issues, and our attention turns to handicapping the winners and losers.

Even though we just completed an election Tuesday, we seem to be in a perpetual campaign cycle, certainly on the state and national levels. Republicans were campaigning to remove Barack Obama from office before he even took the oath and Democrats began their campaign to remove Gov. Scott Walker even before they went to the polls.

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As school referenda go, Beloit’s is more complicated than most. Will that hurt its chances of passing? We’ll know for sure sometime during the evening of April 3 after all the votes are counted.

(More: Voters mull upcoming Beloit school referendum )

As Dennis Hines reports in this week’s cover story, the School District of Beloit is asking voters to approve a $70 million referendum to pay for building renovations throughout the district and the construction of a new intermediate school.

Where it gets complicated is that the renovations and construction of a new school are part of a larger reconfiguration plan within the district.

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While rivals from the Craig and Parker basketball teams battled on the court inside Craig high school two weeks ago, in the hallway outside, boosters from Craig and Parker worked side by side to benefit their neighbors in need.

The Eastside and Westside Basketball Booster clubs came together Jan. 12 and 13 during the Craig-Parker boys and girls basketball games to host a food drive and raise money for ECHO.

Volunteers collected food items from fans as the entered, while a 50-50 raffle held each night raised much-needed money.

Mike Thompson, president of the Westside Basketball Booster Club, and Dave Marshick, president of the Eastside Basketball Booster Club, presented a check to ECHO a week ago.

The two-evening effort raised 645 pounds of food and about $850. (Which included $5 from my non-winning tickets, by the way.)

So in a town where the friendly Craig-Parker rivalry often turns passionate, how did the two groups come together for this fundraiser?

"It was more about Janesville than it was about east side or west side," Thompson said.

As the school district budget becomes ever-tighter, both groups have helped their programs by hosting several events throughout the year to raise money.

But for this fundraiser, they joined forces for the community.

With the boys and girls games being on successive nights, it was a good opportunity to reach as many people as possible, Marshick said.

And the timing couldn't have been better for ECHO.

ECHO, which stands for Everyone Cooperating to Help Others, is a faith-community charity serving low-income individuals and families in the Janesville area.

The generosity of residents during the holidays begins to wane when the calendar turns to January.

"The money is wonderful because donations start dropping off dramatically after the holidays," said Executive Director Karen Lisser.

Lisser uses a rule of thumb that one pound of food equals about two meals, so the food donation alone will provide nearly 1,300 meals.

In addition to food, the cash raised in the raffle will be used for everything from rent assistance to buying diapers for babies.

If you missed out on the booster clubs' food drive, there will be another opportunity to support ECHO next month, said Jessica Shafer, a client advocate.

ECHO will join with Caritas in Beloit to host an Empty Bowls fundraiser from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 25 at Beloit Memorial High School.

Caritas serves families that live north of Rockford, Ill., and south of Janesville.

The food will be donated by local vendors, and the proceeds will go to the organizations.

Tickets are $5, and can be purchased either at ECHO or Caritas.

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It’s a long way from Neal Kedzie’s La Grange Township home in his 11th state Senate District to the vast iron ore mining fields of northern Wisconsin.

Despite that, he’ll be spending plenty of time over the next year on issues related to mining in Wisconsin.

Kedzie, as chairman of the Select Committee on Mining Jobs, has become a lightning rod for those opposed to mining in northern Wisconsin and those who would like to fast track the plan in order to create jobs.

Gogebic Taconite would like to construct a $1.5 billion mine in portions of Iron and Ashland counties. Those plans are on hold, however, until the company receives reassurances that it won’t be drawn into a lengthy permitting process.

Kedzie was rewarded with this thankless task based on his years of work on environmental issues that landed him the chairman’s seat on the Senate’s Committee on Natural Resources and Environment.

Kedzie might be alone in thinking he can satisfy both camps.

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Correction: In the Dec. 11, 2011 print edition, the District 8 candidates were incorrectly identified. Also, Paul Fisher lives in Elkhorn. The corrections have been made below.

The spring election season is under way.

Candidates could begin filing nomination papers Dec. 1, and this spring, all 11 county board seats will be up for a vote. As of this week, at least two will be contested.

In District 6, Paul Fisher, an Elkhorn resident and gun-rights advocate, has filed nomination papers to oppose incumbent Kathy Ingersoll. In District 8, former Delavan City Council member John Finley has filed papers to oppose incumbent Daniel Kilkenny.

Incumbents Rick Stacey, Jerry Grant, Jim Brandl and Nancy Russell also have submitted their nomination papers to the Walworth County clerk’s office.

The rest of the candidates have until 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 3, to file their nomination papers.

Judge Robert Kennedy’s decision to not seek re-election has begun a cascade of announcements. Walworth County District Attorney Phil Koss declared his intention to seek the judge’s seat. That opened the way for Rock County Assistant District Attorney Richard Sullivan to throw his hat in the ring for the district attorney job in Walworth County.

These local elections will in many ways be intertwined with the potential recall of Gov. Scott Walker.

Organizers have until Jan. 17 to collect more than a half a million signatures to force a vote.

But if we’ve learned anything over the past year, the most important question to ask a candidate is not what, but how.

The difference in the two questions could possibly have spared the voters of Wisconsin an expensive recall election.

Walker was clear from the beginning about the what.

When he stood in the old fire station in Delavan in April  2009 to announce he was running for governor, he made it clear that the state budget needed to be fixed and that he intended to rein in government spending.

What he never said, however, was how he would do it. It’s a strategy that politicians have used forever, and it can frustrate voters trying to make a thoughtful decision.

Imagine where we’d be if Walker would have revealed the details of his budget repair bill early in the campaign.

There’s no way to know for sure, but here’s one scenario:

Would Walker be our governor today? Most likely.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Walker’s Democratic opponent, never seemed like his heart was in it. Instead, he seemed to be running out of obligation to his party rather than a vision for the state.

Could Walker have won concessions from the unions on pension and health care? He certainly got the union’s attention early on.

Could he have succeeded in dismantling public employee unions? Not likely. Perhaps there could have been — dare we say — compromise?

In any case, decisions flow downhill, and after the state tidied up its budget, local municipalities and school boards were forced to pick up the pieces.

Now asking a candidate how, and getting them to give you a straight answer are two different things.

But if the past year has taught us anything, that’s the question that really needs to be asked.

Note to candidates: As we continue our coverage throughout the election season, remember to send your campaign news to us by emailing newsdesk@communityshoppers.com.

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Love him? Hate him?

Gov. Scott Walker typically attracts both groups when he travels around the state these days, and the official kickoff of the recall season began in earnest last Tuesday when the state Democratic Party and various other groups and labor unions were to file their recall papers.

But the unofficial recall season began earlier when Republicans pulled an end run around Democrats Nov. 4. David Brandt of Muskego, a Walker campaign contributor, filed the first recall papers with the Government Accountability Board.

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