I just completed binge watching all seven seasons of The West Wing on Netflix a few days ago on my nephew Joel's fifteenth birthday, not having seen it on NBC when it first aired and noting the series was now celebrating its 15 year anniversary, having debuted on my parents' Sept. 22nd wedding anniversary in 1999.
So, this morning, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a message in my inbox from West Wing Emmy-winning heartthrob, Bradley Whitford, with the subject line, "Walk and Talk." My first thought. Is this for real? Or is this what happens when you binge watch a series? You start seeing things in your inbox that aren't really there. Well, the message is real. It's really in my inbox. To me. From Bradley Whitford. Though don't know whether we will be walking and talking soon.
A guy who still calls Wisconsin home despite his Hollywood success, Whitford is stumping for Democratic candidate Mary Burke over incumbent Republican Governor Scott Walker. Never one to forget his Badger State roots, Whitford with a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan and a master's degree from Juilliard, delivered one of the more memorable commencement addresses at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, a stone's throw away from my house in Rockford, Illinois. His opening line, "What's up, Mad City?!" This was a few years before the debut of AMC's wildly popular Mad Men series.
In Democracy for America's email, Whitford says polls show Mary Burke can defeat Scott Walker. "On 'The West Wing,' I was an expert in polling. You also might remember me as a roguish, good-looking man who did a lot of fast-paced walking and talking through the halls of the White House. Scott Walker's fast, too -- at running from his record."
Burke was a signer of the petition to recall Walker, who pushed for the elimination of collective bargaining for most public workers. She has served as Wisconsin's Commerce Secretary and on the Madison School Board with a bachelor's degree in finance from Georgetown University and a Harvard MBA. Burke has worked in the private sector for her family's Trek bicycle corporation and for McKinsey, a business consulting firm.
With teacher Kate Brien, Burke founded AVID/TOPS to help young people become the first in their families to attend college. Burke donated nearly half a million dollars to Road Home which helps homeless families in Dane County, Wisconsin and also spearheaded a $6.25 million fundraising campaign, as president of the Boys & Girls Club there.
I don't know why, but when I think of Scott Walker, I think of the 2004 flick, Mean Girls , even though he's a guy. I've got mine. Get yours.
Lonna Saunders may be reached at lonna2@msn.com.