If there was one event that most people presumed would not be affected by the events of Ferguson, MO, it would be the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
In which case, most people would be wrong.
True, at least one aspirant, Senator Rand Paul, has spoken and written (Time) on the issue at length. Rhetoric is all he has produced, but that is to be expected from a federal Senator who has been in the minority caucus during his entire tenure up to this point. Speaking and writing are about all he can do, and to his credit he has done it. This has led many to believe he is alone among Republican aspirants when it comes to addressing the cocktail of police militarization, police treatment of the citizenry, and police accountability to that citizenry.
However, there is someone else who has addressed the issue. Just one day after Paul captivated the punditry with his piece, Politico published a far less-known account from Wisconsinite Michael Bell, on his efforts to increase police accountability after the death of his son. The result was, as Bell put it, “a law that made Wisconsin the first state in the nation to mandate at legislative level that police-related deaths be reviewed by an outside agency.”
Left unwritten in the story (but not in a caption for an accompanying photo) was the fellow who signed the bill into law: Governor Scott Walker. Yes, that Scott Walker.
Of course, neither Walker nor Paul have declared their intentions. It is possible neither could run. It is more likely, however, that the issue of the police’s relationship with the people they serve will have an important role in the upcoming decision Republicans will make in less than two years. They (or, to be more accurate, we, as I expect to be a Republican primary voter in 2016) will have to decide, among other things: 1) how important this is as an issue, 2) how widespread this is as a problem, and 3) whether we prefer the “bully-pulpit”-friendly speeches of Senator Paul or the quiet record of Governor Walker.
This likely won’t be the only issue where (3) comes into play.
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