WMC attacking Lehman for work McReynolds should have done

This week Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) released an ad attacking the Democrat running for the 21st Senate District, Rep. John Lehman, that tries to tie Lehman to Honda's decision to build a new plant in Indiana. They're attack is a little misguided as his Republican opponent, County Executive Bill McReynolds, was probably in a better position to help get the plant to come to Southeastern Wisconsin than Lehman.

No doubt WMC is running this ad because they used a similar ad to go after former State Senator Rod Moen. But this ad could acutally bring to mind the failures of Racine County government.

When word came out that Walworth County was not going to get the plant, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had an article with this in it:

"I wasn't surprised," said Walworth County Economic Development Alliance Executive Vice President Fred Burkhardt, who spearheaded the local effort to lure Honda.

"We knew going in we were a long shot," Burkhardt said. "We knew we were late in the game, and we appreciate the opportunity to have played."

So Walworth County was the government entity that was pursuing the plant and they got in the game late. Burkhardt even admitted that the county hastily put the proposal together.

Racine County is right next to Walworth County so perhaps McReynolds could have directed his economic development staff to help Racine County get the proposal done so Racine County could have benefited from the new jobs too.

Or hey, maybe Racine County could have put in a bid themselves.

In the end, Wisconsin was not likely to get the plant since Honda was looking for a site closer to their operations in Ohio.

But at least Walworth County tried. Racine County wasn't even in the game.