Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Incumbent state Rep. Gary Tauchen, of Bonduel, is facing a challenge Tuesday from William Switalla, of Wittenberg, for his 6th District Assembly seat in a race where some of the issues seem to echo those in the presidential contest.
Switalla is village president in Wittenberg and a supervisor on the Shawano County Board; seats he said he ran for because he didn’t like the direction things were going.
That’s also why he’s running for the state Assembly.
“I don’t like the way things are progressing in Madison,” he said.
He said state lawmakers “are more worried about their donors than they are about the people they represent in their districts.”
Elected in 2006, Tauchen has fended off three previous unsuccessful challenges from Democrats in a staunchly Republican district.
There are several polarizing issues this year that separate the candidates and could also divide 6th District voters.
Funding for public education is at the top of the list, as more and more school districts turn to local voters with referendums intended to offset funding that’s being taken away from the state and increasingly going to charter schools.
Property owners in 71 school districts around the state brought such referendums before the voters in April.
“The voucher system is spoiling it for public schools,” Switalla said. “Private schools are getting $1,000 more per kid than public schools. It’s a bad choice. We’ve lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in public school funding that is going to private schools that are already self-funded.”
Tauchen said education funding is a critical issue.
“Education is always a number one priority,” he said. “It’s the door to the future for our children and has to be adequately funded.”
Tauchen defended the school choice program as a way of providing parents with other options to ensure the best education their children can get.
“It’s an opportunity to find another situation when their school is not working,” he said. “We want accountability in our school system.”
Switalla also criticized the use of state transportation funds, saying the state is spending too much on major projects while ignoring smaller maintenance work that needs to be done on roads and bridges.
“They’re spending $2 million on a roundabout in Green Bay when all they need to do is put up stop signs,” Switalla said.
Tauchen said those decisions are up to the state Department of Transportation and the local municipalities.
“They do the best they can,” he said.
Tauchen also noted that Gov. Scott Walker is proposing an 8.5 percent increase in transportation funds for townships in the next budget and has been holding listening sessions to get feedback on what local communities want to see done.
Tauchen said the Assembly is interested in “finding sustainable, long-term solutions” to transportation funding issues and wants to hear ideas from counties and municipalities.
Tauchen called borrowing money for transportation “a short-term fix,” and the governor has said he would not support raising taxes for fees unless there are budget cuts to offset it.
However, Tauchen said, “everything is on the table.”
Another area of disagreement is the minimum wage, which has become a hot-button issue in the presidential race.
Wisconsin’s minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, in line with the federal minimum, while 28 states have minimum wages that are higher.
Tauchen said the Assembly has not yet addressed that issue, but would be discussing it.
“I’m worried that if it’s too high, people will cut their work force,” he said. “It could have negative consequences.”
Switalla, who runs a family flower shop in Wittenberg, said a higher minimum does panic him as a small business owner.
He also said employees have to be paid a wage they can live on. He said that would be easier if the state would restore some of the regulations that have been taken off of utility companies that have allowed utilities to continually raise their rates.
Another issue in the national race also pertinent to Wisconsin is the Voter ID law, which Switalla said is designed to make it harder for people to vote.
The law was designed to address in-person voter fraud, though studies have not found any significant occurrence of that.
Tauchen, who chaired the committee that pushed Wisconsin’s Voter ID law through the Assembly, could not provide any statistics on voter fraud in the state.
“There haven’t been a lot of documented cases,” he said. “We’re just making sure our policies are sound and we’re maintaining a quality (voting) system.”
Tauchen has a financial advantage in the race, with more than $10,000 still in his campaign account. He didn’t have a figure for what he’s spent so far.
His donors have included the Koch Brothers, who have given small amounts to state races across the country. In Tauchen’s case, they contributed $500.
“They’re conservatives, and they support conservative candidates,” Tauchen said.
Switalla said his donations have averaged about $25. He said $3,000 has been spent on the campaign between cash contributions and in-kind donations.
“It’s tough for someone like me to compete,” he said.
