Arguments aside, the way leading lawmakers handled the issue of a potential statewide smoking ban in taverns and restaurants this week was not in the spirit of a more transparent government.

The two committee chairman handling the bill -- Jon Erpenbach and Jon Richards -- gave a just a shade more than the required 24-hour notice before holding a hearing and then voting on the bill.

With the Democrats now in control of the dome, it's expected that the ban will sail through the Legislature swimmingly, so there was really no reason for legislative subterfuge.

Republicans were in the majority and able to block such efforts last year. Gov. Jim Doyle tried to shove this policy in the budget, but Democratic leadership thought that move even less transparent and figured this would be a better dog-and-pony show.

It didn't get past Milwaukee Ald. Bob Donovan, who sent out a scathing press release about the under-the-radar hearings.

"It now seems Gov. Doyle and some state legislators are willing to throw out the constitution on their crusade to snuff out smoking," Donovan said in a statement. "Forget about smokers' rights -- now we're talking about the fundamental issues of fair play and the ability of citizens to address and respond to a major proposed new law."

He added that he thought the ban would affect the many small corner taps in his district. "The smoking ban would be the end of the line for many of these proud residents."

The hearings themselves were filled with the usual suspects -- Lung Association representatives, people afflicted with asthma, tobacco store workers and a few bar owners. The Tavern League and the Innkeepers Association also attended. The Innkeepers asked that 25 percent of the rooms in hotels be reserved for smoking, a measure that is in the bill.

An agreement reached Wednesday would grandfather in most cigar bars. It would also ban smoking in taverns beginning in July 2010, while restaurants will go smoke free almost immediately.

The Cigar Store Alliance of Wisconsin showed up in force, telling the committee that they have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars on ventilation and air purification systems and other amenities. They unanimously said that a smoking ban would shut down their businesses.
The response to the cigar group from anti-smoking folks was that it was too bad that they made a bad business decision given the environment towards smoking.

A more interesting comment came from a women identified as "Miss Thompson." She sees the anti-smoking folks as conducting a "witch hunt" and that it's a "Nazi ideology that the individual belongs to the state" and that victims are being kept in the dark by a "censured media" while government is "totally corrupt and out of control."

Sometimes, the advocates for the ban got their facts confused, with one Lung Association representative saying that four of every five people are non-smokers and another Lung Association rep asserting that the figures are three non-smokers for every four people.

Sailing Into a Land Fight: UW-Milwaukee just can't seem to please everybody anytime as it tries to build its campus around town since its current location is landlocked on the East Side.

First, there was the propensity to build scattered-site dormitories to the consternation of those living near the buildings. Then, there was the proposed new engineering school in Wauwatosa, which Milwaukee city officials took umbrage to since there's the better part of 12 acres sitting vacant on the northern edge of Downtown.

Now there's a UWM plan to build a new fresh water research school at the site of the former Pieces of Eight Restaurant on the city's lakefront. The land is owned by the city's Harbor Commission and leased to the restaurant.

It is also land that is grandfathered by the state to allow buildings to be built on land-filled parts of the shoreline called "the public trust doctrine."

However, new construction could raise legal issues since the doctrine requires buildings to be open to the public and have a certain focus on recreation and the lake. It is across the street from the Discovery World Museum.

Even though university officials say the meeting is "information only," the agenda notes that the committee will go into closed session to hear the university's plan and its plan for a new lease at the site. UWM is going up against the powerful Preserve Our Parks lobby which, after discovering the plan, immediately raised concerns that they wanted more green space at such a prime location.

The meeting also was flagged by the Milwaukee County Conservation Council. UWM's current freshwater research facility is tucked away in an industrial area off of Greenfield Avenue and Chancellor Carlos Santiago obviously sees the restaurant site as a much higher profile location.

Santiago will be at a presentation in front of the Board of Harbor Commissioners this week, along with such powerful business types as Julia Taylor, head of the Greater Milwaukee Committee and Bruce Block, chair of the UWM Foundation and the university's lawyer.

County Supervisor Gerry Broderick, chair of the County Board's Parks Committee, offered late in the week that maybe the university should look at the Downtown Transit Center, which is just west of Lincoln Memorial Drive, in eyeshot of the restaurant land. It's been somewhat of a boondoggle since it was built more than a decade ago.

More Marriage in the Air: Maine has become the fifth state to legalize gay marriage. New Hampshire is getting ready to do the same, leaving Rhode Island as the only New England state not to act on the move. The new law basically says marriage is between any two people. Iowa recognizes gay marriages by court order.

Money and Politics Continued: Special interest groups spent an estimated $1.27 million on television advertising in the two statewide races for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and state school superintendent, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. The group says it was mostly negative advertising.

Though far smaller than spending in last year's state Supreme Court race, which saw the state's big business lobbying weighing in with millions by itself, that didn't stop the WDC from bemoaning the practice.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state's largest teachers union, and the liberal Greater Wisconsin Committee, a Milwaukee group that backs Democratic candidates in partisan races, spent an estimated $1.03 million mostly on ads to support the eventual winners of the two supposedly nonpartisan races. WEAC spent $564,993 to help elected state school superintendent candidate Tony Evers and Greater Wisconsin spent an estimated $465,000 to help elect incumbent Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson.

Advancing Wisconsin, a group organized in 2008 to campaign on behalf of then-candidate Barack Obama and candidates for state and local offices, spent an estimated $200,000 distributing fliers that supported Abrahamson and Evers.

The conservative Americans for Prosperity put up $25,000 for a 60-second radio ad to support school superintendent candidate Rose Fernandez.

By race, independent expenditures totaled $694,000 in the state school superintendent race and an estimated $577,000 in the Supreme Court race. WDC calls the spending by outside groups in the school superintendent race a "record."

Spending by Abrahamson and Koschnick totaled $1.26 million through March 23, reports the WDC. The five state school superintendent candidates spent a total of $243,411 through March 23, a charge led by Evers at $124,160.

The total cost of the two races will not be known until late July, when the final spending deadline comes due.