Judith Davidoff
Screens were set up around the Capitol to provide better viewing of the inauguration of Gov. Tony Evers (right), who was sworn in by Chief Justice Patience Roggensack (far left). Evers' wife, Kathy, is with him.
Karen Holden is an emeritus professor of public policy and consumer science at UW-Madison. She wasn’t planning to attend the inaugural ceremony for Gov. Tony Evers and other state officers Monday at the state Capitol and, once there, wasn’t necessarily going to stay for the whole show. But she found herself drawn in. And when Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes gave his speech, she got a bit misty.
“I’m not a terribly emotional person,” Holden said after the ceremony concluded. But she “finds it very moving” that the new administration “is going to try to make Wisconsin a state that will work together.”
“I’m an economist,” she added. “I think good policy is not a partisan issue.” She noted that the state needs an educated workforce and that Evers, the state’s former schools superintendent, has worked in a field where “you can’t be partisan… and you have to work with everybody.”
In keeping with his conciliatory tone since ousting two-term Gov. Scott Walker in the November election, Evers focused his inaugural address more on uniting the public around shared values than on specific policy goals. But he did front-end his roughly 10-minute speech with at least two substantive targets: to fully fund public schools, including providing all-day pre-K, and to protect people with pre-existing medical conditions.
But, he then noted, “today is bigger than these issues that we all care about. We cannot fix these problems unless people come before politics. We’ve become paralyzed by polarity and we’ve become content with division. We’ve been indifferent to resentment and governing by retribution.”
Walker was presumably one person Evers had in mind with this reference to the politics of resentment. Walker, who was seated in a front row behind the podium for the ceremony, was booed by some in the gallery when introduced with other former governors including Gov. Jim Doyle, who, while not terribly popular during his two terms with either Democrats or Republicans, got the loudest round of applause from the audience.
In a statement released Jan. 6, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) noted that the GOP-led Legislature and Evers “surely will have policy differences” but said they all agreed that “K-12 education is a main priority, our roads and bridges need more attention and health care is a top concern… In addressing these issues and others facing our state, we shouldn’t allow politics to get in the way of progress.”
Evers made no reference in his speech to the GOP’s lame-duck legislative session that stripped powers from his office and the attorney general’s office. That was left to Josh Kaul, who, after being sworn in as attorney general, declared that the inauguration was taking place “in atypical circumstances.”
“Last month the powers of two of our state constitutional officers were diminished after the elections of those offices had been held,” Kaul said. “That action, unprecedented in Wisconsin, and designed to hinder our ability to do the jobs that the voters elected us to do, will have an impact. But I want to make clear that irrespective of the action taken by the lame-duck Legislature, the priorities of the Wisconsin Department of Justice are changing.”
Kaul promised to revitalize the office’s environmental protection unit, bolster consumer protection and “stand up against the federal government when we need to protect Wisconsinites.” He also vowed to support universal background checks for gun purchases.
Barnes, who is black, was sworn in after State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski and Secretary of State Doug La Follette. Barnes began his address by paying homage to those he said helped pave the way for him, including the late Vel Phillips who, 40 years ago, became the first African American to hold statewide office in Wisconsin when she was sworn in as secretary of state.
“As we strive for equity for all people in a place that has not always met its commitment, in a state that is filled with extreme racial imbalance, we seek to not only change what is possible but to change what is expected,” Barnes said. “Time will judge what we do in this moment.”
Judith Davidoff
Members and supporters of Voces de la Frontera rallied at the Capitol in support of Gov. Evers' plan to include the restoration of driver licenses and in-state college tuition for Wisconsin immigrant residents.
Godlewski, who started by noting she was a fifth-generation Wisconsinite, promised to revitalize the treasurer’s office. “It’s hard to believe we nearly lost this constitutional office but together we made our voices heard.” In April, Wisconsin voters rejected a measure to eliminate the treasurer’s office.
“We deserve a state treasurer that serves as our fiscal watchdog,” Godlewski added. “We demand good government regardless of where you live, how much you earn or even who you voted for.”
Evers, too, called for an acceptance of diversity and a return to “Wisconsin values of kindness and respect, empathy and compassion, and integrity and civility.”
Without mentioning the words immigration or immigrants, he said that this return to Wisconsin values begins “in our classrooms and on our playgrounds, where our kids learn to be accepting and treat others with kindness and respect — regardless of whether their parents were born here, what their circumstances are, and no matter their identity.”
Evers said his administration would put “people first,” including the “870,000 families in Wisconsin who are struggling to make ends meet and can’t afford basic necessities like child care, food and transportation.” He also talked about young people who “work multiple jobs just to stay here and afford their student loan payments and are looking to us to take gun violence and global warming seriously.”
Evers’ speech was at times folksy, as when he talked about how he met his wife in kindergarten, took her to junior prom and “went from scraping the mold off of cheese to teaching science to becoming state superintendent.” He wrapped up with a hint at where you might find him during Monday evening’s gala at the Monona Terrace convention center. “Let’s polka tonight and get to work tomorrow.”