- The list of Democratic candidates lining up to
challenge Governor Scott Walker is long and getting longer.
We've been interviewing the many candidates over the past several
weeks.
As the calendar turned to the new year we're doubling up.
In tonight's inside look, we bring you two Democratic
challengers who this month threw their hat in the ring.
We start with Kelda Roys.
Roys is an attorney and the former executive director of
NARAL Pro-choice Wisconsin.
She served in the state Assembly from 2008 to 2012 and currently
runs a real estate tech business.
Kelda Roys joins us now.
Thanks for being here.
- Thanks for having me.
- We first want to ask you what sets you apart from the many
other Democrats wanting to go head to head with Scott Walker?
- Well, I think it's great we have so much enthusiasm on our
side and so many great people stepping forward to run.
I don't view myself as running against
my Democratic colleagues.
I don't really even feel like I'm running against Scott
Walker.
I'm running for governor because I want Wisconsin to be
a place of opportunity and fairness again.
I want Wisconsin to be the best place to raise a family and the
best place to grow a small business.
I have a lot of energy and ideas that I'm looking forward to
bringing to the campaign trail and to the governorship.
- How did your past experience prepare you for this role?
- I've had a long history of progressive accomplishments on a
wide range of legislative issues.
Certainly from my time in the legislature and as a legislative
leader but also even before that as a law student working on the
Innocence Project to prevent wrongful convictions.
When I was the head of NARAL Pro-choice Wisconsin working on
common ground, common sense initiatives to help reduce the
need for abortion, help women who have been victims of sexual
assault, et cetera.
- On the issues, what's the most important thing in your
mind that Wisconsin needs to do for its education system?
- Well, we need to prioritize it in the budget.
You simply cannot say that you value education if you devalue
educators and if you take money away from schools.
Under the current governor, we have divested about a billion
dollars from our K-12 education system.
I think that's absolutely wrong.
I say that as a parent, someone who is a product of public
schools, and as an employer, who knows that the way that we're
going to be successful now and in the future is by having
educated workers.
- And so on that score, what's the best way to grow good-paying
jobs in Wisconsin?
- Well, the majority of net new jobs come from small businesses.
They come from start-ups and new firms, companies like mine.
So if we're going to have a sustainable economy with
good-paying jobs, we need to make sure that people can start
small businesses and that small businesses can grow.
Right now we have a situation where the biggest businesses
that already have billions of dollars in capital are getting
massive incentives and tax breaks.
And all the rest of us are paying the price for that.
And small businesses do, too.
I have a number of ideas for how we can help small businesses
like mine succeed and I'm looking forward to talking about
all those ideas on the campaign trail.
- We're talking about businesses, large and small.
What's your opinion of the Foxconn project?
- Well, Foxconn is -- to me it's clearly a desperate Hail
Mary pass by the current governor.
He knows his record on job creation and the economy is
terrible.
Wisconsin is doing worse than a lot of our peers.
Our middle class is shrinking.
And so I can understand why he was so eager to make that deal.
But it was -- you know, the idea that we are going to give now $4
billion and counting to this foreign corporation with very
little security for us and only benefiting even one small part
of the state, to me that's not leadership.
That's desperation.
I want to see home-grown innovators given a chance in all
72 counties in the state.
And I want to make sure that we're investing resources where
they're actually needed, in small businesses.
- How should Wisconsin in your mind create a sustainable
funding source for Wisconsin's roads and highways?
- Well, this is an area where I think we have great potential
for bipartisan cooperation.
Roads and transit and transportation infrastructure
generally are absolutely essential for a strong and
growing economy and I think there's a lot of agreement
amongst Republicans in the legislature as well as
Democrats.
So I would like to see us exploring a lot of different
revenue sources.
I mean, certainly I think looking at being willing to look
at revenue sources like the gas tax are important,
but we also need to think in longer terms because as people
move more towards more efficient vehicles or electric-powered
vehicles, the gas tax is not going to be sustainable for
instance, as my children grow up.
- Why do you think you could unseat Scott Walker?
- I think that Governor Walker has had eight years to do what
he wants in Wisconsin.
He's had a very compliant legislature.
And a lot of us have been really disappointed by the outcomes.
Wisconsin is ready for new leadership.
We're ready for someone who is willing to say I'm not going to
put my big donors first, I'm not going to put the biggest
corporations first.
When I'm governor, I'm going to put every Wisconsinite first.
I'm not going to leave anybody behind.
We're going to make sure the economy works for all of us.
- Kelda Roys, thanks very much.
- Thank you.