Dylan Brogan
What would Wisconsin look like without Gov. Scott Walker? Democrats hoping to unseat the two-term Republican promise more funding for public schools and the University of Wisconsin, expanded health care access, stricter environmental standards and legalized marijuana.
The candidates — Mahlon Mitchell, Kelda Roys, Paul Soglin, Andy Gronik, Tony Evers, Kathleen Vinehout, Dana Wachs, Mike McCabe and Matt Flynn — argued at La Follette High School on Jan. 28 why voters should select them to challenge Walker. It was the first candidate forum in Madison. Eight other longshot candidates did not attend.
Flynn — the former chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin — would kill Walker’s $4.5 billion Foxconn deal and restore tenure to UW professors. He got right to the point: “Who do you think is best able to beat Scott Walker? I think I am.”
Because the candidates agree on many issues, the forum often centered on who is the most electable.
Tony Evers touted his statewide wins for state superintendent (a nonpartisan office) as evidence he can win. “Over the last three general elections, over a million people in the state of Wisconsin have voted to increase their own taxes for their public schools,” Evers said. “Half of those people voted for Donald Trump. So there are issues out there that do thread the needle.”
State Rep. Dana Wachs (D-Eau Claire) was the only candidate to single out collective bargaining during the debate. Walker virtually ended collective bargaining rights for public employees and later approved “right-to-work” legislation that made it harder for private workers to unionize.
“We’re going to make darn sure collective bargaining is [reinstated] and we’re going to make sure that this anti-union legislation … is repealed,” Wachs said. “If you want an economy that works for everyone, you got to make sure the middle-class is expanding.”
State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) says she’s “a very different kind of candidate” than her opponents.
“I know what it’s like to grow up on food stamps and be without health insurance. I put myself through college,” said Vinehout, a former dairy farmer. “I know what it’s like to slapped in the face with a nasty tail of a cow — at 4 a.m.! So Republican attacks don’t bother me at all.”
Every candidate but Evers said they supported legalizing medical and recreational marijuana. Evers supports medical marijuana but says he would not push for legalization until voters weigh in via a statewide referendum.
Businessperson Andy Gronik played up his outsider status. “You’ve probably figured out by now that I’m not a politician. If I thought politics was working, I wouldn’t be here,” Gronik said. “We want the very best ideas. I don’t care where they come from.”
Kelda Roys, a former state Assembly member from Madison, said she’ll champion a progressive agenda that other Democrats are afraid to.
“Attacking racial disparities. Stopping mass incarceration,” said Roys. “It is long past time that we stop spending more on our prisons than on educating people through the UW system. That ends with me.”
Mike McCabe, former head of the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said in order to win, Democrats have to have a lofty agenda like his: He wants Wisconsin to be the first state powered entirely by renewable energy.
“We will not beat Scott Walker by telling people over and over again what’s wrong with Scott Walker,” McCabe said. “We have to be for something…. I want this state, again, to be a state where if you work, you will not be poor. That means a living wage for every worker. It means debt-free education. It means taking high-speed internet to every nook and cranny of the state.”
Wisconsin Firefighters union head Mahlon Mitchell, also from Madison, had the most laugh lines of the nine candidates. First thing he’d do as governor: “Have one helluva party.”
“You can’t take $1.6 billion out of public education in 2012 and then put in $630 million when you’re running for governor and call that progress,” said Mitchell. “That’s like taking a knife, sticking it 6 inches into my back, pulling it out 4 inches. And I’m supposed to say, ‘Thank you?’”
Mayor Paul Soglin said he’d prioritize “ending gerrymandering” of legislative districts to “restore our voice in government.”
He added that he’d also “make sure everybody has a right to register to vote and access to the polls,” Soglin said. “Third thing we are going to do is move the date of the primary. August is absolutely insane. Everybody should be on vacation.”
Soglin won’t get his wish this year. The fall primary is Aug. 14.
