Alright, well I guess let's start with give me a little bit of your background in terms
of when this seat, when it was apparent that there was going to be a new Senate seat up
here, when did you first start getting an inkling of hey, maybe I should throw my hat
in the ring.
Well, I heard about the redistricting and there were three senators drawn into the same district.
Senator Wimber is going to the second, Senator Coles' retiring, Senator Jacques was running
for Congress.
So I heard the seat was open and I've been Village President of Alloway for ten years,
or eight years on the board for ten, and I realize that municipal government goes about
this far and we rely on the state for the rest, state and federal.
And so I thought it was a great opportunity to help the greater Green Bay area get more
invisibility down in Madison, bring some of the programs and support that we need from
Madison up here, and I love what I do, so that's how I decide to run.
When it was obviously at first that there were three incumbents in this district, when
they all kind of scattered, was that Senator, a signal or a red flare to you of warning
this, they're afraid to run in this seat, or was that the perfect opportunity for you
to come in.
I think it's a perfect opportunity, you know, with the redistricting, the district's just
about 50-50.
So my opinion of politics is to go out, meet the people, find out what's important to
them, let them know what I've done, what I plan to do, what my vision is, and if they
agree with it, I'll earn their vote, and if they don't, we'll talk about it.
And I have a reputation, I believe, of listening to those who people think I might not agree
with, but we've talked through things.
I run a village board of Democrats and Republicans, we're a nonpartisan board, I've done that for
ten years, and all we do is focus on the job, we don't focus on party.
I don't know that we're unique in that sense, but it's so refreshing, because we can realize
that we all, we want to get to the same place, we want a great Wisconsin.
We have different views sometimes on how to get there.
I've been married for 38 years.
I love my wife dearly.
We all want to get to the same place.
We don't always get there the same way.
There was a trend in, especially Republican politics, starting with the Tea Party wave
in 2010, where having a background in local government wasn't, no, we want to be outsiders
only, and there are a lot of people that got down to Madison and realized, wow, we really
don't understand how a lot of this works, because we haven't had that privilege that
came with being in local government, and it seems to be a reverse of that trend coming
about now, where there's more people like you that have served at the local level.
What is the advantage that you may bring, and can that change the climate in Madison,
where it isn't as friendly, where you can all agree to disagree?
It's a great question, and I think it makes a big difference, or can make a big difference.
I hear candidates on both sides of the aisle that are running with background in local
government, it's my understanding that not many people in the legislature do, and probably
for that reason, right?
That was the trend, but how can you, my question is, how can you represent the needs of your
local communities, including your government, if you don't understand what they do?
When I was first running for the trustee position in the alleyway, I wanted to become a trustee,
so I ran, I won, my first opponent who ran against me for the president position had
no experience in government, and I said, how can you be the village president if you don't
know how the village runs?
So I won, I've won twice since, thankfully, and I think that's the next step.
The next step is going and helping people understand at the state level that how impactful of
what they do is to our community, and how important it is to our community.
Whether it be funding local government, funding our schools, a lot comes downhill, the feds
push stuff mandates down to the state level, the states push mandates down to the county
and local level, but we're the last line of defense, and we can't increase taxes like
we should, based on what we're being required to do, so we are forced, I think it's a good
thing, we're forced to look internally, figure out how to do things very efficiently with
the dollars we get from our constituents.
So to answer your question very shortly, it's terribly important in my opinion, very valuable
to have a background in local government, especially leadership.
How many times, over your time as village president, have you gone, what's going down
there in Madison?
What is wrong with them?
Why can't they just figure out, we're telling them what we need?
They don't have an easy job.
It's easy to sit here and say, why don't you just do your job, right?
So instead of doing that, I got involved.
I got to know my legislators, I got to know legislators that didn't even cover my district.
To see how things go, I've been working, closing Green Bay Corrections Institution
here in alloy, it's a 126 year old facility, one of the few oldest prisons in the country.
And it took me, I've been working on that for nine years, along with our village board
and other municipal leaders, but it took us a long time to get my legislator to agree to
do it because he wanted to do his homework, which he did, and I liked that.
And then he had to sell it to his counterparts, and so I was at joint review, or joint finance
committee hearings, corrections committee hearings, working with the governor's staff,
working with the corrections department, and working with people who have been employed
there, people who have been incarcerated there, talking to all the different stakeholders.
And so it's easy to say go do your job, but they need the information to do their jobs.
And that's local government's responsibility to make sure that our state legislators actually
know what we need.
And so I've done that.
We have seen an increase in the number of school districts and local governments that
are going to refer under for operational funds.
A lot of people pointing straight back to Republicans and the legislature saying you have not given
us what we've needed to pay, not only with inflation, but with all just the natural mandates
that you've sent down to us.
Being on this end, and why don't we go to that end of that spectrum, how do you respond
to that, or what is your involvement in that?
I respect what the Republican Party has done to force government entities to look inside
and figure out how can we do more with less or the same with less.
It's easy to ask for money, and unfortunately it's very easy if you get tax dollars, it's
very easy to spend that money.
But we shouldn't.
We put a budget together every year, and we live by that budget in a LOA.
The state level, we've collected somewhere 3 billion, 3.5 billion, depending on who you
talk to, and excess tax dollars at the state level.
We shouldn't spend that money, right?
We should, A, take less money, send it back to the communities so that we can fund these
things.
In LOA, when we were pushed to find out how can we keep our police protection, how do
we keep the great services that we do in LOA?
We looked internally, and it was actually a tremendous exercise.
We went to our employees and said, how do we do our job better?
You're out collecting the garbage, doing it, collecting the leaves, taking care of the
parks, taking care of our water, and sewer.
How can we do our jobs better?
So they've started, we've started a process of continuous improvement, and it's a mentality
in LOA for that.
I think that's terribly important at every level.
And if we keep adding more and more and more, people aren't necessarily forced to do that.
At the same time, you get to a point where you actually need the help, because you've
gotten as efficient as you can.
The schools are a great example of that.
In Green Bay, they're going out for $183 million referendum.
They've taken a look at all their schools, the population trends.
They've decided that they need to close six schools.
That's not an easy thing for them to do.
It's not easy for the school board.
It's not easy for the superintendent and the staff.
It's not easy for the families.
Families are very tied to their schools.
So there are many conversations, very good conversations, and I've been working with
the school board and the superintendent to help make sense at least in LOA because we're
part of the Green Bay school system.
But to help make sense of that, and do we need it, and if so, why?
Because I can help spread that message.
I believe they're doing everything they can to provide the best education they can to
a very diverse group of students with many, many different needs.
Teachers today are, as to be so much more than teachers.
We need to help them.
While I'm knocking on doors, I was spoke to a school board member of one of the school
districts, and she said, our special education funding is not keeping up, and we have a growing
list or growing population of special needs students.
They deserve an education equal to that of any other student in the state of Wisconsin.
So we really do.
We have a very diverse student population.
We have to help our teachers deal with that.
Teachers need to be able to teach, and they need the support services to do so.
And our schools need the support.
So looking forward, then, in office, would you be voting for an increase in funds for
public schools and special education?
Because you mentioned the surplus, and I believe you said that money should be sent
back to communities, is that in the form of a tax cut, or is that in the form of reimbursement
for local government and school districts?
I just want to make sure I understand what you meant by that.
I am surely open to sending more money to schools, thank you.
But we have to figure out what's the best way to do it.
I want our schools to be funded to be able to educate our kids, and make the state of
Wisconsin, the city of Green Bay, the greater Green Bay area, have the best educated kids
as we can.
Broaden it out a little bit for me.
You've been doing a lot of doors meeting a lot of people.
What are the issues that come up to the most when you say, hey, what's on your mind?
Number one issue, I hear economy, cost of living.
You go to a fast food place, I won't say any fast food name, but you go to a fast food
place and you're paying $20 for two sandwiches.
You weren't doing that a couple of years ago.
I've heard the sales tax revenue is down in the state of Wisconsin.
It's because things are just simply getting too expensive.
People are trying to afford homes, people with the interest rates.
Cost of living and economy is by far number one.
Number two, it's a quiet issue here, but it's a very important issue, and it's the growing
trouble with drugs, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
We have that issue in the schools, drugs, great school levels, and I'll tell you when
I heard that, I was shocked.
You think Green Bay, Wisconsin, I grew up in Chicago.
You don't think that in Green Bay, Wisconsin, but drugs, human trafficking, those are things
that are truly threats to our way of life.
People love living in Green Bay because it's safe, and there's a force out there that is
going to be challenging that, and secondly or thirdly is the education.
The opponent talks a lot about Roe v. Wade and abortion.
Where's your position on that and how big an issue is it when you talk to people with
doors for you?
I know it's an extremely important issue to people.
We are all created equal under the law, and therefore we should be treated as equal.
The issue of abortion, so women's rights, women deserve to be as equal to anyone as
anyone.
I support that a thousand percent.
The issue of abortion is a tricky one, and anyone who says it's not, I don't think is
really thinking it through.
I support, first of all, I wish we could dramatically reduce the number of abortions in the state
of Wisconsin and everywhere, and you know what, I think everyone does.
So how do we do that?
Do we increase access to birth control?
Birth control, thank you.
Yeah, so increase access to birth control.
If people don't want to get pregnant and they're going to engage, give them an avenue to prevent
them from having to go through a procedure.
There's no winners when it comes to an abortion, and no one's ever told me there is.
So let's A, find a way to reduce that.
And then, and not necessarily in line, but at the same time, let's give women the vast
majority of people I talk to.
There are some of course who say never in abortion, and there are some who say always
in abortion.
The vast majority of people are somewhere in the middle.
They just want to do what's right.
They want to give a woman the opportunity to make an informed decision and to make that
decision.
And everyone I talk to, just about everyone I talk to, agrees that pass some reasonable
date that you should make exceptions in the cases of rape, incest, and the health of the
mother.
There are, obviously there's going to be a subset of people on the left and the right
for whom this will always be a passionate issue.
And then there's probably what may be the vast majority of the middle of the rest that
wish this would kind of go away, get resolved so it's not something they have to think about.
Do you think that is the state's responsibility in terms of the legislature passing a law,
or do you think maybe the Supreme Court in Wisconsin will take it up, or is it just if
we could rewind it and undo the whole Roe v. Wade so this wasn't the driving topic all
the time?
I mean, where do we go to make it so that it's not always still on the table?
That's a great question, and I don't know that I have a good answer to it.
If it comes to the legislature, and I'm in the legislature, I will work with people on
both sides of the aisle to come and the people to come to, hopefully, a very good solution.
Switching topics, let's talk about redistricting and what it means in terms of the people here.
First of all, learning what district they're in, that it's an open scene, what are the responses
you've got from people when you go knock on the door and say, I'm running for office,
then I say, what office?
Yep.
When I tell them I'm running for the state senate district 30, they say, are you filling
my Gallagher seat, or are you people, you know, there's so much going on right now and they
hear so many names, they're asking me if I'm running against Tammy Baldwin.
So there is a lot of confusion, and that's quite honestly, I think it's a candidate's
responsibility to get out there and let people know, but once I tell them, depending
on where I am in the district, either Rob Coles or Eric Wimberg or Andre Jacques, they
say, okay, now I get it, and then I tell them the new district is, most of Green Bay, Al
Way, Ashwahlin, I'm Bellevue, DePere, Slice of Leidview, and the Slice of Vuitton, Rockland.
So at least they get to understand that, and then I tell them the assembly seats that are
in those districts.
So these are the names that you will be hearing, and I hope they remember it.
Talk to you about all those names, because I don't know if I've ever seen a ballot top
to bottom in Green Bay, and what we'll see this fall in terms of super important competitive
close elections in almost every race.
Yeah.
I mean, do people understand the significance of like every vote really does matter?
I don't know if they do.
I hope they do.
I do.
There are quite a few people who say, I am voting.
I've got my absent, I'm getting my absentee ballot.
I think probably about 25% of the population is going to vote absentee, at least that's
a number I heard.
But yeah, I think, is there still apathy?
There's still apathy.
You know, there's still people who say, I'm tired of polarization.
I'm not even going to deal with politics.
My response to that is, things won't change unless you put people in an office who want
to change it.
And I know there has been a growing interest of people who want to work with people on
both sides of the aisle.
Everyone's tired of polarization.
I'm tired of polarization.
Big reason why I'm running.
I think I've been successful at working with Democrats and Republicans at my nonpartisan
village board level with other municipalities at the county level and at the state level.
I've got Democrats and Republicans to sit down in the same room and agree on the same
thing when they wouldn't talk to each other before.
So I think I've got a way about me.
I respect people.
I want to listen to people.
I've learned over the last 10 years that you learned an awful lot by people you think
you might disagree with.
And when we can learn from each other, A, we figure out we have a big common ground and
we have the same goal, we just have to figure out how to get there.
And I think we can.
On the spectrum of Republicans with relationship to Donald Trump, with always Trumpers, never
Trumpers in the range in between, where do you fall and how do you see that race trickling
down the ballot?
Where I fall?
Yes.
I fall.
I'm focused on the people of the 30th district.
I'm not focusing on, when I go to a door, I was talking to one man the other day, hard
lying Democrat.
Never vote for anyone who would align with Donald Trump or until he's out of the way.
I said, can I ask why?
And I said, because I'm at the local level, I'm going to the state level, and that's
not Donald Trump.
So people are very upset at times or very excited at times at the federal level.
And quite honestly, the state politics, it's kind of a side thought.
So I keep bringing people back down to the state level.
The conversation I had with this gentleman, we had, it was 40 minutes.
It's a long time to be knocking at a door.
But you know what?
It was one of the best conversations I've had because I understood the pent up anger
and it wasn't just about Donald Trump.
It was about the fighting and the, he said, she said, and all that.
After 40 minutes, he agreed to put my sign into this law and he goes, that may be next
to a Democrat side.
I said, it shows that you're doing your homework.
So I'm not getting involved at the federal level in those races.
I'm focused on people who are the 30th district.
Does that upset some Trump supporters who say, well, you're a Republican, why wouldn't
you support the former president?
They have a right to vote who they want to, and I want them to do that.
I don't want to tell them who to vote for, except me.
And I don't want anyone to tell me who to vote for.
But that's not, when I was running for a village president, people said, what's your
vision?
I said, my vision is to take care of you, hear what's important to you, and help together
create a vision for Allaway.
And he said, well, you've got to have, you've got to have something else.
I said, I don't.
That's my job.
I'm a public servant.
If you're going to hire me, you're going to hire me to be your servant and to help
you make Allaway what it is.
And I feel the exact same way at the state level.
I am a public servant, and I think that whole attitude has gone away.
I'm a public servant with leadership qualities, and I've led the village of Allaway in creating
a vision for a very small village of 14,000 people.
Our taxes have remained quite flat compared to any other areas around here.
And it's because, hey, we have a crack staff, and we have a village board who's very responsible.
But we're creating a vision to create new economic opportunities so we can put additional
tax burden, even it out, and put it on the new people, new residents coming in, the new
businesses coming in.
That's a smart way to do things.
And by doing that, and by getting people excited about where you live, the rest will
take care of itself.
So are you voting for Donald Trump?
Like I said, I will make that decision, and I'll vote for who I vote for.
What about at the Senate level, the US Senate, the U.S. Senate, followed in versus how D?
Same thing.
Tammy Baldwin's got a history of doing quite well in areas where other Democrats don't
do well.
In terms of the voters you've ran into, have you met the mythical swing voter, ticket splitter?
What do they say when, do they explain how it is that they decide based on each candidate
each race?
I've had some real good conversations with people.
Lots of times people say, can I vote for you if I'm voting for a Democrat?
Can people do that?
And the answer is yes, right?
Not in the primary, but in the general.
So once again, I think it's on the candidates to get in front of the people, help them understand
the process, because even though they may go to the polls every year, every other year,
they don't necessarily understand the process, right?
So help them understand that.
And I think today people do want to do their homework.
If everyone does their job and lets people know what are the ramifications of their vote
and understand what's important to them as a voter, and then I tell people do your homework,
I'd love to have your vote if you agree with what I have to say.
And what I've done more importantly, I've demonstrated being able to do that, and I guarantee
I have a reporter who comes to some of our village board meetings, and she has complimented
us on our village board meetings, because you never hear bickering, you hear debate, you
also hear people having fun, respectfully fun.
When I get a room full of people, most politicians want to go home, because you know that means
someone's not happy.
I embrace that.
I think that's tremendous, because people need to get involved in their politics.
It's harder to do that at a state level.
But as the next state senator, hopefully next state senator of this district, I'm going
to make sure that people can get engaged, because you can't represent from Madison, right?
You represent by understanding what's going on here.
We've talked a lot about building consensus.
No matter what happens, we're going to see a tighter legislature in terms of the split
between republicans and democrats, the new maps almost guarantee that, and we're going
to see a lot of fresh blood, because a number of open seats bring in new candidates, even
in some of those other spots, where they were one party only.
Is this kind of a fresh chance?
Do you look at that?
I mean obviously that's looking ahead past the election, but for people who do say I
want to see the rhetoric toned down, I want to see the polarization go away.
Does new blood and a closer body mean more likelihood of having to work together instead
of all the toxicity that one party control meant?
It depends on whose office.
You can't say it's going to change.
You can hope it will change.
I don't know that the toxicity, as you say, is due to more republicans being in office.
Some people believe that, but if you look at the people versus the party, republicans
are more conservative, democrats by trade are more liberal.
Okay.
Let it be that way.
But come together and realize that, and first, when I was trying as part of closing GBCI,
I spoke to a man several times who had been incarcerated at GBCI for 17 years I think.
We actually, I got very involved helping those who had been incarcerated, the staff.
It's all about safety there and inability of them to be able to do their programming.
But we've actually become, I'll say friends, but respect each other.
We have very different views on a lot of things.
But he knows that I will listen and he knows that I will do the right thing for people,
regardless of who they are.
When I decided to run for senate and I called him and I said, just want you to know, I'm
running for senate and maybe I'll be able to help in a bigger way down there.
He said, are you running as a republican or a democrat?
I said, running as a republican.
And he said a word that I'm not going to say, and he goes, I'll say, man, I said, what's
wrong?
He goes, for the first time in my life I have to support a republican.
That goes through the heart, right?
Because that's why I'm doing what I do.
I'm not doing it to carry the Trump flag or the republican flag or the democrat flag.
I'm carrying the flag of the people of the 30th district in the state of Wisconsin.
And that's who I am.
I will say, toxicity is one party controls, not reserved republicans.
I covered Russ Decker and Chuck Walla.
I'm sure you're good at those days, but it was a long time ago.
I think it's healthy to have a good balanced legislature.
You'll hope that that does open up conversations.
We need the governor to be open to conversations.
And I don't know why that's not happening, but he's got to open up.
All right, we've covered a lot of territory.
Anything else that you want to add along these lines?
Thank you for coming out.
This is a very important election.
The people of Wisconsin deserve better.
I want to give them better.
You will never see an ad from me attacking anyone.
I let people figure out that I've been attacked a lot.
People have called me and said, if you're getting attacked this much, you must be doing
something right.
And I hope that's the case.
I hope that's the case.
I moved here from Illinois and I never looked back.
Family's still there, so I do go back.
But people are leaving.
Another reason I'm running is because I think a good balanced legislature does make sense.
People are leaving the state of Illinois in droves, and that's not an exaggeration because
of the high taxes.
A house that is 2,200 square feet that I lived in in the Chicagoland area, today is paying
$15,000 in property taxes.
How do you think that would fly in Green Bay?
Right?
It doesn't.
If we don't curb our spending and be responsible, and we still have to fund the important things,
but we have to just continually look inside.
We do that as families, right?
If we can't spend something, we're going to debt, which is not a good thing if you go
in too much debt.
Same thing at the state level, same thing at a local level, same thing at a federal level.
I don't know if there's any help for that, but I am very optimistic.
I have met people on both sides of the aisle who I respect and I like.
Some of them are leaving, unfortunately, on both sides of the aisle, but I guarantee
you what I will do is when I'm elected, if I'm elected, I'm going to go knock on every
door.
Introduce myself, if I haven't done so already, I've knocked down most doors in Madison.
I'm also someone who I respect people, I respect the law, I respect the process.
If the process doesn't work, I'm surely not afraid to challenge it.
We tried to get a hearing down in Madison on Green Bay Correctional, and we couldn't
get it, so we held our own.
We went down, we sat in the Senate hearing room.
I had state legislators in the room, people who had been incarcerated, people, parents
of the incarcerated, people from social justice groups like Joshua and Wisdom, our sheriff,
our commie executive, I brought it to Madison, and it got a lot of press, so we're creating
an awareness, and I'll do that for anything that's important, because the people of Wisconsin
are important.
All right.
That's all we have for you, thank you for sitting down, so how often do you get asked
if you're still a beer fan?
Every time I say I'm from Chicago, and I'm glad to say the answer is, only when they're
not playing the Packers.
That's political.
You can shut the camera off now, my wife is the exact opposite.
Oh, really?