By Cary Spivak & Dan Bice

It's sure to be the hottest CD on the political circuit in Wisconsin.

County election officials hope to make available next week computer-ready CDs carrying the names of all 180,000 people who signed petitions calling for a recall election of County Executive F. Thomas Ament, who was ousted from his job earlier this week.

Those who make a living getting pols elected are drooling in anticipation at the idea of securing a new list of people to bombard with direct mail and dinnertime phone calls.

The five-CD set will go for $150, and so far, the state Republican Party, a Democratic political consultant based in Michigan and state Rep. Scott Walker, a candidate for county exec, have already put in their orders. More are likely to plunk down cash for the discs.

"That's the hottest commodity on the political marketplace right now," said Brian Christianson, a campaign strategist for Gov. Scott McCallum. "It's creating an awful lot of chatter in the marketplace. At one point or another, every campaign will inquire about it."

The reason?

"It's a grass-roots list," he explained.

Walker's campaign team snatched up the list for that very reason.

Tim Russell, a campaign staffer for the Wauwatosa Republican, said he expects many of those who signed the petitions - even ones who don't generally vote - will cast ballots in the upcoming county exec contests. Campaign pros estimate that it would take $10,000 to $20,000 to convert the CDs into a usable database.

"Normally, in races other than this one, you concentrate on those who actually register to vote," Russell said. "You're going to see a lot of new registrations this time."

Others aren't so sure about the long-term value of the petition records.

"Its first and best use is for the people running for county executive," said Joel Brennan, campaign manager for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett.

Some have doubts about its short-term use.

"You don't know how many of those people who signed the recall petition will actually go out there and vote," said one Dem consultant.

"If you put them all together, they might make a lot of noise," said Mark Grebner, owner of Practical Political Consulting in East Lansing, Mich. "They might be good at filling a stadium - if you provided the beer."

So why is his company interested in plopping down $150 for the recall petitions?

First, Grebner's outfit, a political list broker, will flag the most motivated people in the recall effort - those who actually circulated the petitions. In doing so, the recall drive could become a farm club for local pols looking for volunteers.

Grebner's firm also specializes in taking large collections of names, matching them with voter rolls and massaging the data to weed out those not likely to vote. Then, those considered likely voters will be hit with mail and phone calls from politicians armed with targeted messages. He sells the names for a few pennies each.

"The most useful thing is it helps you draw up a message," Grebner said. "These are not people you want to say warm and cuddly things about government to."

These are also not people who would expect their names to be bought and sold in the political marketplace. No doubt, the last thing any of these courthouse outsiders would have wanted is to help create a new marketing tool for the politics-as-usual gang.

But by signing on the dotted line, that's exactly what they did. Where citizens' groups see reform, politicians' see opportunity.

There's no place like the House

Just what are you thinking, Tom Drilias?

One month away from finally finishing his probation, the convicted Maritime Days promoter blew off a meeting with his probation officer, stopped making restitution and skipped town, landing in Seattle where he was hawking Mariners caps and other junk.

"Basically, he appeared to be irresponsible," said John Barian, who knows a deadbeat when he sees one. Barian, after all, oversees the state probation office in Milwaukee.

Drilias got in trouble in the first place back in 1997 when he was convicted of three misdemeanors for ripping off vendors.

His latest run-in with the law came last fall when he was stopped in Washington for driving with expired plates - not a wise thing to do while on the lam. One thing led to another, and he's back in the House of Correction, where he will stay until June 2003, unless he screws up again and his stay is extended nine months.

This is the latest chapter in a highly unusual case in which the state bent over backward to make Drilias' time as easy as possible, hoping he would pay back the vendors he stole from.

First, in 1998, they let him serve his seven-month work-release sentence in Alabama so he could take a job there with a carnival company. Drilias, however, thumbed his nose at this gracious arrangement, serving only one night in a suburban Birmingham cell and then - without telling any officials - putting himself on some sort of self-regulated house arrest.

After months of lawyering and broken promises to pay more than $160,000 in restitution, Drilias finally, in August 1999, began serving his work-release time and paying $1,200 a month to authorities. Since then, he's been working and making his payments, knocking nearly $25,000 off his court-ordered tab.

But when those payments suddenly stopped in April, a warrant for his arrest was issued because he had violated terms of his probation.