Like you know, live to tape doesn't
mean like we're gonna air
everything.
Yeah, yeah, fair enough.
If I want to restart an answer or
something.
Yeah.
Calderoce, thanks for joining us.
Good to be with you, Zach.
So let's give voters the elevator
pitch. Introduce yourself and say
why are you running for government?
I'm running for governor because
Wisconsin needs higher wages, lower
costs, and more freedom.
We face a huge threat from
the Trump administration, and we
need a governor who is willing to
stand up to the bullies and
billionaires and fight to protect
Wisconsinites from their harms.
At the same time, we also have an
incredible opportunity to
actually elect a governor who is
able to govern and pass laws
with a new, fairer legislature.
Is there a single issue that drives
you or perhaps a lane within the
Democratic Party that may define
you?
I think it's all about making
it possible for working people to
have the freedom to thrive in this
state. For too long people
have seen their wages stagnate or
even go down. Meanwhile, the cost of
living are skyrocketing.
Everything from housing to health
care, child care and utilities
is going up.
We have to make Wisconsin a place
where people can afford to live and
have a good life.
How much money do you need to raise
to be competitive and win this
primary and will that leave any room
for the general election after that?
Yeah, I'm very confident that we're
gonna have a good pot of money
that's been raised by the Democratic
Party and national partners for
whomever our nominee is.
I think the primary it depends
on who all is running, but I'm
confident I'm gonna have the
resources needed to run a strong
campaign and prevail.
When it comes to a competitive
primary, you're no stranger to
those. What's the difference in
your view between negative
campaigning against a member of your
own party versus defining
differences between?
Well, I think primaries are a really
important opportunity for voters to
vet the candidates and see what
their experience is, see how they
perform under pressure.
There's going to be a huge spotlight
on Wisconsin.
This is an incredibly important high
stakes race in one of the most
pivotal states in the country.
And it is essential that we have a
governor who not only is able
to stand up to the Trump
administration when needed, but also
capable of actually making the
change that we need in this narrow
window of opportunity that we're
going to have.
When primary voters are looking at
these candidates, should they be
thinking in terms of which issue
they most closely relate to a
candidate or simply electability?
Well, I think each voter is gonna
decide for him or herself what
matters. And I ask everyone
in Wisconsin for your vote on August
eleventh and November third.
But I really want to make the
argument that whatever the issue
that you care about is, the most
important thing is having a governor
who can win and who can actually get
things done.
I have spent over twenty years
working in and around state
government in a variety of
capacities as a legislator in the
Senate and the Assembly, as the only
candidate running that served on the
Joint Finance Committee, small
business owner, mom, attorney.
And I have been able to get
meaningful legislation passed on
a whole variety of issues through
every kind of legislature,
Democratic, Republican, split.
Those skills are gonna be essential
for our next governor if we wanna
actually make change in this state.
All of the Democrats running for
office have connections either to
Madison or Milwaukee.
What is your job in terms of
introducing yourself to the rest of
the state, especially rural
Wisconsin that may not recognize
your name?
Well, fortunately I've spent my
career traveling around the state
and building relationships and
trying to build democratic power.
And I'm actually from Taylor County.
I was born in Marshfield, grew up
in a one room schoolhouse in rural
Taylor County north of Highway
Twenty Nine. I'm the only candidate
that had pet goat as a child.
And so it's been really fun for me
to travel around the state, areas
where I have deep family roots
or other connections that I built
throughout my career, reconnect with
people and meet new people and the
reception has been really strong.
What do you think the impact of
Donald Trump will be on this
election?
I think that people in Wisconsin
are feeling angry
and hopeless about
the economic situation.
The chaos and the corruption that we
are seeing by this administration
is unprecedented.
And we're also seeing him shredding
our constitution and the rule of
law. As an attorney and as
a patriotic American,
I think that what Trump is doing is
totally unacceptable and we need to
have strong governors who are
willing to stand up and hold him
accountable, as well as,
you know, his, you know, private
paramilitary force that he's
building with ICE.
We can have secure borders without
violating people's rights and
destroying the things that make this
country good.
The Democratic nominees
are an incredibly diverse panel of
Democrats, but it there's still some
names being referenced out there and
why does it feel like there are
Democrats that still feel the need
for a white guy to run?
Well, you know, that's not something
that I've been hearing from people
around the state.
Voters want somebody who has
courage and is willing to
use power when needed and who
has competence and can actually
govern. And I think when you look at
what happened in Virginia and New
Jersey, you have these middle aged
moms who just know how to get stuff
done. They were both experienced in
government. I have a similar
profile.
And when I talk to voters around
the state, they love the experience
that I bring.
They love that I've worked hand in
hand with Republicans to expand
access to health care.
At the same time that I've defended
public education and worked to f
actually fund our schools in ch
early childhood at a time when
Republicans have been slashing
funding and privatizing public
schools. Those things are attractive
to voters, and I think it's that
that's the kind of issue focus that
we need.
As governor, you could have a
democratic majority in the
legislature.
What would your A B one
want to be? What's your Act one you
want to sign?
Well, I want to sign a budget that
raises wages for people, restores
people's rights, lowers costs on
the biggest ticket items like health
care and funds our public
school system.
Our kids have been getting
shortchanged for a generation, and
it's not fair, and it's actually
terrible for our economy.
Big signature policy items that I'm
interested in passing is opening up
the state health insurance and the
state pension systems to any person
to be able to buy in.
So if you're a small business owner,
or if you're taking time out of the
workforce to be a caregiver, or if
you run a big company and you're
tired of those double digit
increases, you can buy in to these
low-cost, very well managed,
high-quality plans and know that
you or your employees are taken care
of.
On the flip side, as governor, you
could have Republicans still control
part of the legislature.
What's your history of working
across the aisle to get things done?
Well, I have a long history, again,
over twenty years, of working with
some of the most conservative
Republicans to get
things done, whether it's criminal
justice reform, whether it's helping
to pass the first pro choice
legislation in a generation,
working with in a Republican
anti-choice assembly and getting
that passed into law.
Or just earlier this year, where
I helped expand access to rural
healthcare options by allowing
nurse practitioners to practice.
And for a long time I was the only
Democrat on that bill and Governor
Evers vetoed that bill several
times. We finally got it done.
So I have a long history of being
able to work well with folks
from across the political spectrum.
The public service commission is
looking at a lot of rate hikes
across the state.
We've got data centers that are
popping up all over.
What will you do to make sure that
regular rate payers aren't going to
be covering the costs of all these
expansions?
This is a a huge issue and we
need a statewide strategy to deal
with data centers because they're
coming into local communities and
kind of steamrolling them.
And I think that people deserve
to have a voice in what happens in
their communities.
And we also need to really know what
the impact is going to be on our
environment, on water and land
usage, as well as the impact
on ratepayers for these data
centers.
I've sponsored legislation
along with my colleague, Senator
Jody Haber-Seneken, to
ensure transparency as
these data centers are coming in and
trying to negotiate.
We want to know exactly what the
impact is going to be, and we have
to make sure that not only are
ratepayers not going to be bearing
the cost, because that is happening
all around the country, but that
we're actually going to see massive
public investment.
These are huge, very profitable
companies that are run by
billionaires and the most
powerful people in our country.
They need to help pay to upgrade
our infrastructure.
They need to pay more than their
just the cost of the energy that
they're gonna be using.
They need to actually give
communities something of value.
When it comes to public education,
is it simply a matter of more money
or do you think there needs to be
reform into how schools are funded?
Well, you can't do it without money.
And we've been asking schools and
teachers to do more and more with
less and less and less.
Our kids haven't even gotten an
inflationary increase for 15
years. That to me is unacceptable.
So money is essential,
but it's not only money, right?
Teachers also need professional
development time and training and
the respect that they deserve
as professionals.
The single most important factor in
a kid's success is the quality of
the teacher at the front of the
classroom.
So investing in teacher retention
so that we have the most
experienced, the most capable,
skilled teachers able to stay
in the classroom and stay in the
education field and mentor
newer teachers, I think is
absolutely essential.
To do that, I think high standards
for teachers and kids,
along with giving them the resources
that they need are necessary.
We also need to start with early
childhood education too.
There's no reason that we should
wait until a kid turns five
to start nurturing them and help f
setting them on a path for success.
What would you like to see happen
with the voucher system?
Expand, contract, reform?
I would like to see the voucher
system brought to a responsible
close. We simply cannot
and should not try to fund
two different separate school
systems.
Their taxpayer money
needs to be accountable to taxpayers
and public dollars should fund the
public school system.
When it comes to tax reform, is
there a number one policy that you
think needs to happen?
Well, I want to make sure that the
wealthiest of the big corporations
that have been getting not just a
free ride, but have been getting
hundreds of millions of dollars in
public subsidies actually pay
their fair share.
Because what's happened over the
last few generations, Zach, is
that you and I and working
people around the state have been
forced to pay more and more and more
for the cost of the
public services that we all need and
share. And big businesses have
gotten away with paying very little.
It's time for that to change because
we all have a stake in making sure
public services are strong.
Over the course of the last year,
the Supreme Court has rolled back a
lot of legislative oversight over
the rulemaking process, both with
the Attorney General, with the
fiscal, and also with the Governor's
office. Do you think there needs to
be some sort of compromise to bring
legislation back to retain some
oversight from the legislative
process?
The legislature always has the
first say and the last say
on any piece of legislation.
And I don't think that
the legislature should be
abusing the oversight process,
which is what has happened under
Republican rule.
I think that once a legislature
passes the law and they direct the
experts at the agency to implement
that rule, the agency should be
allowed to do that. And if the
legislature doesn't like it, guess
what? We can always go in and change
it and pass a new law.
But we shouldn't hold laws
in limbo and not allow them to
be enforced just because Republicans
didn't like what the governor did.
And a perfect example of this is
PFAS.
So the legislature passed
laws directing the DNR
to set standards for PFAS.
And the DNR did as they were
directed. And then the legislature,
at the behest of special interests
like WMC, came in and
said, Well, actually, we don't want
you to put those in standards in
place. We don't like them.
And so we have a law in the books
that is now not enforceable because
there aren't rules in place.
What that means is that people are
drinking poison water,
like a gentleman that I met up in
Marinette who was recently diagnosed
with Parkinson's because his well
was contaminated.
When it comes to local government
funding, there's also been another
short change over the years.
What would you like to see there?
I think that the state needs to meet
its commitment to local governments
and to our public schools.
You know, the promise was the state
would cover two thirds of the cost,
and we have really very, very
infrequently ever lived up to that.
Meanwhile, local property taxpayers
are asked to raise their own already
too high property taxes just to keep
the lights on for our schools and
keep the snowplows on the road and
police and firefighters on the
street. That's not fair.
The state is sitting on a multi
billion dollar surplus and has for
years. And it's time that we
reinvested that money where
taxpayers expect and deserve it
to be spent in our local
communities.
Across the Northwoods there are a
number of exploratory drilling
projects that are looking at
becoming potential mines.
What would you like to see in terms
of state oversight of mines and
would you want to change the current
law?
No, I think the pervo per the
I think the current law has worked
well for us.
I wanna see mining companies
prove first before
they open up a hillside
and pollute our water that they're
gonna be able to extract things in
a safe way that is
consistent with our natural
resources management and our
environmental goals.
Do you have concerns about your own
safety in this modern political
environment with threats regularly
being made?
I do. And it's something that I I
take seriously.
My staff and my family take it
seriously.
And I think it's it's very
unfortunate that we have political
leaders at the very top of our
system whose use of violent
rhetoric and violent
actions are
making us all less safe.
And as Americans, you
know, every one of us lives with
the specter of gun violence.
Every time your kid walks out
the door to school, every time you
go to church or a concert, you have
to think, is this
gonna become a mass shooting event?
We have to do so much more
to help all Americans
be safe and free from violence, and
there's a lot that states can do to
make that true.
Lot of people talked about
affordable housing.
What needs to happen there?
Is it about regulation?
Is it about density?
Is it all the above?
It's all of the above.
I'm really passionate about this.
Thirteen years ago I started a small
business with the goal to make it
more easy and affordable for
Wisconsinites to buy and sell homes.
My business has helped save
Wisconsin homeowners nearly two
million dollars in real estate fees.
But this is an issue that I'm I'm
really passionate about.
The state should both be doing
more to incent development projects,
helping local governments make
zoning changes to allow for
more housing to be built and to
allow more flexibility in how we use
our dollars so that we can actually
get more bang for our buck in terms
of building new housing.
But ultimately, this is really a
supply and demand problem.
We have too much
need for housing and not enough
houses being built and it's been
that way for since the
Bush recession.
We've underbuilt housing and now
we're really reaping the
consequences. So we just have to get
more housing online quickly.
When it comes to corrections, would
you follow through on Governor
Heaver's plan on how to overhaul
the correction system?
Yes, I think we need to right
size the correction system and
we have to get serious about safety.
In this state, we have pursued
policies that are not only not
evidence based, but that really
undermine public safety.
It is how we incarcerate
people, it is how long, and it is
the lack of services and
training to help people succeed
when they actually re enter society.
We've spent an ocean of money on
this and we are not getting the
safety return that we deserve.
When it comes to the topic of
abortion, are there any bills that
you would like to see brought
forward to change Wisconsin's laws?
Yes, and I've authored many of them.
I believe that abortion, and
frankly, all healthcare decisions
are personal and individual.
Politicians have no role
in making those decisions for you,
and certainly we cannot allow
abortion, contraception,
IVF to be criminalized
or put doctors under threat
when they're simply providing care.
I want to see your freedom to
make your own decisions guaranteed
in this state.
Calderoyce, thanks for your time.
Great to be with you. Thank you.
That was a lot of territory, but
thank you.
Yeah, great questions.