Progressive Thinking

Senator Smith writes about the importance of protecting reproductive freedom in Wisconsin by repealing the 1849-era criminal abortion ban.

MADISON - The word freedom is tossed around quite a bit. It’s a convenient word to use when trying to make others fear they will lose their freedom. Some politicians will scare voters about losing their freedom to own a gun, or losing control over their children’s education. They beat that same drum and many take the bait.

This time, it’s different. Freedoms for women have been taken away. When the United States Supreme Court made the cowardly decision to overturn the 1973 case that recognized the right to choose when and if they bear children, they stripped women of their freedom to determine their own path. Justices who had declared that they would not rule against past precedent did just that. Justices who hold such a high office in the UNITED States divided us by which state we live in. Now a woman’s freedom is determined by where they live or their financial status and ability to travel.

Wisconsin is one of 28 states that ban or severely restrict abortion. A law outlawing abortion was adopted by Wisconsin in 1849 – 70 years before women were finally granted their voting rights. This law was designed to control women at a time when women did not have a voice in this country.

Every credible poll I’ve seen shows most people believe women should have the choice whether to carry a pregnancy or not. Most recent polls show sixty percent of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Seventy percent believe the government should butt out of this issue, and voters should decide through a ballot initiative. ¹

I realize that this is a divisive issue that many are passionate about. We all know someone who has been personally affected. Many of you have been in touch with me with diverse takes on this issue, and I welcome your thoughts and opinions.

But repealing Wisconsin’s criminal abortion ban is a matter of personal liberty. This past Sunday, I attended the Rally for our Rights in Eau Claire. At this event and many others, I have been honored and grateful that so many shared their stories, some of which broke my heart. Hearing these heartfelt personal accounts, it saddens me that so many have used this issue as a political gambit.

I have said for many years that reproductive freedom has been transformed into a wedge issue, designed by unscrupulous politicians to garner votes and hold on to power. These politicians – overwhelmingly men – have cynically harnessed people’s strong emotions around this issue to accumulate power and influence.

They didn’t really think it would actually happen, but now that the Supreme Court has reversed 50 years of precedent Republican responses are all over the place. The voters have told them that they should repeal the abortion ban. Already this session, some have offered very limited exceptions, but anything less than full repeal is simply unacceptable.

Half measures get us nowhere. Either you have reproductive freedom or you don’t. Either ALL men AND women are equal or we aren’t. Either we all have freedom to choose our life paths or that freedom can be denied us.

I will continue to oppose Wisconsin’s criminal abortion ban because by doing so, I am doing my part to protect Wisconsinites’ personal liberties. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but no one is entitled to control over another’s body.

¹ “Most Americans say overturning Roe was politically motivated, NPR/Ipsos poll finds,” NPR, Jan. 22, 2022

The flood of money continues, as outside groups have spent $18.1 million on reported independent expenditures and secret phony issue ads in the Supreme Court race, more than three-and-a-half times the previous record.

MADISON - Two weeks away from the April 4 elections, candidate and group spending in the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court stands at more than $20.2 million – smashing state and national records for spending in a judicial contest.

Outside group spending for Daniel Kelly now exceeds that for Janet Protasiewicz by $4.2 million.

About 30 outside electioneering groups have spent $18.1 million on reported independent expenditures and secret phony issue ads in the race, more than three-and-a-half times the previous record. Groups backing Kelly or opposing Protasiewicz have doled out $9.9 million. Groups backing Protasiewicz or opposing Kelly have spent $5.7 million. (About $2.5 million in group spending was directed at the two candidates who lost in the primary.)

The top-spending groups behind Protasiewicz were:

A Better Wisconsin Together Political Fund, $5 million on television and online ads and mailings;

Wisconsin Conservation Voters, $785,836 on campaign literature and brochures and payroll expenses;

Organizing Empowerment PAC, $532,500 on phone and other voter mobilization activities;

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, $476,755 on radio and digital ads, canvassing, and mailings;

One for All Committee, $450,000 on videos and online advertising.

The top-spending groups behind Kelly were:

Fair Courts America, $4.6 million on television and radio ads and mailings;

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), $3.1 million on broadcast advertising;

American Principles Project PAC, $795,894 on digital ads;

Wisconsin Alliance for Reform, $600,000 on television ads;

Americans for Prosperity, $374,531 on online advertising, mailings, and canvassing.

Both WMC and the Alliance for Reform spent most of their money on television ads. In two instances – here and here – the groups used the same television ads, which accused Protasiewicz of handing down a light sentence for a man convicted of kidnapping and raping a 15-year-old girl.

The most recent reports filed by the candidates showed they spent a total of $2.12 since they entered the race last year, through Feb. 6. Spending was led by Protasiewicz who has doled out $1.37 million, which is nearly six times the $237,719 spent by Kelly.

Whoever wins will determine the ideological balance of the court, which is currently controlled 4-3 by conservatives. Protasiewicz, who is viewed as a liberal, and Kelly, a former conservative Supreme Court justice, are vying to replace a retiring conservative justice.

Protasiewicz and Kelly moved on to the April ballot because they were the top finishers in the Feb. 21 primary, knocking off two other candidates who had spent a combined $507,699 through Feb. 6.

The next batch of fundraising and spending reports by the candidates are due March 27 and will likely show that several million dollars more in candidate spending. (Other news outlets, such as WisPolitics, have reported higher figures than the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Our numbers are based only on figures already reported to the state by candidates and independent expenditure groups or that we could estimate from so-called “issue advocacy” groups.)

But spending to date has already surpassed the record $10 million spent in 2020 on a Wisconsin Supreme Court race as well as the national record of $15 million spent on an Illinois judicial race in 2004.

For more information about all of the groups involved in the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court race, please visit the Democracy Campaign’s Hijacking Campaign 2023 feature. For more information about candidate fundraising and spending and their top contributors, please go here.

MADISON - I hope your week is going well. Here are a couple of great articles that my colleague Iuscely Flores has written for us in the past few days.

The first is essentially the text of a brief talk she gave in Milwaukee at a press conference on the need to make legislators retain all of their records:

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Supports New Sunshine Law

And the second is a story she wrote after attending an inspiring event in the Wisconsin Capitol:

State Reps Hong and Shelton Reintroduce Economic Justice Bill of Rights

For my part, I’ve been giving talks to several groups recently about all the money in our Wisconsin Supreme Court race and how we got in this predicament. Here’s one version of it:

Recusal and the Wisconsin Supreme Court

And if you’re free this Saturday, please attend the Wisconsin Grassroots Festival. My colleague Carlene Bechen will be giving a talk during the morning breakout session about fair voting maps as a path toward representative government, how every issue that faces Wisconsin is impacted by the heavily gerrymandered voting district maps, and what we can do to end gerrymandering. The festival starts at 9:00 a.m. and is at Wisconsin Heights High School, 10173 US Highway 14.

Have a nice weekend!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

While women make up a growing majority in the workforce, their pay lags behind that of men doing the same jobs. Senator Smith discusses what we can do to move towards pay equity.

MADISON - “WHEREAS, Equal Pay Day occurs each year on the day that symbolizes how far into the new year women must work full time to earn the same wages that their male counterparts earned the previous year…”

That’s the beginning of a joint resolution I recently coauthored with my colleagues in the legislature. The resolution recognizes Wednesday, March 15, 2023 as Equal Pay Day in Wisconsin. I was proud to sponsor this resolution in 2021 and 2019 and co-author equal pay legislation during my service in the State Assembly.

Although it’s only been in the last several decades we have been bringing attention to the pay gap with Equal Pay Day, the fight for equal pay has been going on for well over a century now. While there are states that have explicitly recognized equal pay for equal work, Wisconsin is not among them.

Paying women less than men for the same work is wage theft, plain and simple. The gap is even more significant for women of color, women with disabilities and women who did not graduate with a high school degree.

In 2009 the Wisconsin Legislature passed the Equal Pay Enforcement Act, of which I was a co-sponsor. That law increased penalties for people and businesses that break workplace anti-discrimination laws. It protected women from discrimination, but also covered anyone who encountered discrimination in the workforce. Unfortunately, Governor Walker and a Republican legislature repealed the law just two years later.

There’s not much chance of similar legislation passing in this legislature, but the people of Wisconsin have put their trust in us to do the right thing. That’s why we must do all we can to right this wrong and ensure equal pay for all. That includes taking thoughtful and concrete action to address very real problems for women and families in the workforce.

We are going through a serious crisis that disproportionately affects women and helps contribute to pay inequity. We have a serious problem with child care availability, both in Wisconsin and on a national level. It’s simple: parents can’t work if they can’t find anyone to take care of their children. Child care must be high-quality, accessible and affordable.

During the pandemic, the American Rescue Plan Act provided supplemental funding so child care centers across the nation could afford to keep their doors open. With the end of the emergency declaration, that funding will end, and child care centers are wrestling with how to avoid passing that cost onto the families.

Governor Evers proposed a $340 million investment to make this support permanent with a portion of the $7 billion surplus. Child care is a public good and child care providers are the backbone of our economy. We can give working mothers and fathers the support they need to excel in the workplace and ensure the well-being of their kids.

Another big driver of pay equity is education. Women are now participating in higher education in growing numbers and make up the majority of college graduates. Education is a proven source of economic mobility. We must make sure that higher education is accessible to all.

Life happens. Sometimes, a person can’t go to school full-time because they are caring for a child, a family member or a loved one. If your care responsibilities prevent you from taking classes at least half-time, you won’t qualify for some types of student aid. Governor Evers’ budget increases eligibility to those who are going to school at least a quarter time. It also allows for aid to be used over the span of more semesters, reducing barriers to entry for those caring for family members and loved ones.

We are working for a world in which equity can be achieved, but first we must name our goal and take bold steps to accomplish it. Equal pay for all is long overdue – we must do everything we can to make it a reality.

Senator Smith writes about how Wisconsin can use our projected $7 billion budget surplus to fix past shortfalls in state funding and improve services and infrastructure for all Wisconsinites.

MADISON - Seven billion dollars!

To anyone, that is a huge number, difficult to visualize or comprehend. But that’s the amount of Wisconsin’s projected surplus over our next budget period. Often people joke that such a surplus will be met with 133 different spending proposals – one each from the 99 members of the State Assembly, 33 State Senators, and one for the governor.

This, of course, is an exaggeration. There are many paths to agreement between legislators and the governor, but finding a solution will be a long and perhaps contentious process.

We need to approach this budget with a keen eye for what our most important needs are. A surplus is temporary, and we can’t go wild with ideas that cannot be sustained once the money is spent. The surplus must be treated as an investment. Tax breaks for the rich or subsidizing private school tuition for wealthy families is foolish. We must invest in tax breaks for the middle class and in much-needed infrastructure projects that better the everyday lives of Wisconsinites.

Governor Evers’ plan to invest $750 million for broadband expansion makes a huge stride in connecting all of Wisconsin access to high-speed internet. Connecting those households that are hardest to reach in unserved areas of the state will be a terrific boost to our economy, making it easier for folks to access healthcare, education or create home-based business startups. We only need to make this one-time investment for the improvements to be evident decades from now.

Increasing road aids to local towns, villages and counties is another example of one-time investments that will reap long-term benefits. Many of our roads and bridges are in disrepair or need replacement. Making investments in our physical infrastructure will increase the safety of our roads and bridges and reduce damage to vehicles from aging infrastructure, sparing families and businesses costly repairs.

In areas like local government, inadequate funding has led to local referenda just so communities can continue to fund essential services like law enforcement and fire protection, or pay assistant district attorneys. With Governor Evers’ one-time injection of funds for local revenue, we can begin to fix that formula to be fair and to meet the needs and expectations of communities instead of yearly property tax increases.

Another example of a failed funding formula is the one that supports our Pre K-12 public education system. This problem dates all the way back to 1993, when a “temporary” revenue freeze was made permanent. Districts that happened to spend a lot in 1993 were able to continue collecting that higher level of revenue, leaving districts that were relatively more frugal behind.

Over thirty years, the gap between wealthier districts and poorer districts has only grown with every referendum that passes. Because there is such a disparity between the two, policymakers have struggled to fix the funding formula, thinking the only way would be to cut funding for high-revenue districts to shore up the low-revenue districts. Now, a one-time injection of funds could allow low-revenue districts to catch up to their high-revenue sister communities.

Throughout the entire state, the lack of affordable childcare has caused problems for working families. We aren’t alone – this is a national problem, and has been exacerbated by closures stemming from the pandemic. Most brain development happens in the first six years of life, and support for young children yields dividends years down the road as they attend school and venture into the working world. It’s only right that we do what we can to ensure safe and reliable child care so Wisconsin can become a national leader in early-childhood learning.

This budget presents us with an amazing opportunity to make a very real difference in the lives of Wisconsin’s families. We must set aside political sideshows and make sure we do not waste this opportunity to do good things with our $7 billion surplus. Governor Evers introduced a budget that, along with the biggest middle-class tax cut in state history, will keep us moving forward as a state. The Republican leaders of the Legislature have an opportunity to be partners instead of obstructionists. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll see how it all plays out.

MADISON - I hope your week’s gone well.

I was pleased to see that the great pro-democracy law firm, Law Forward, is trying to get Michael Gableman’s law license revoked. I wrote about that here:

Thank You, Law Forward, for Pursuing Gableman

And I was also heartened by a piece of legislation to honor César Chavez. My colleague Iuscely Flores wrote about it, and about the struggle for the rights of undocumented workers here in Wisconsin:

Proclaiming March 31st as César Chavez Day In Wisconsin

As you may have heard by now, next Tuesday is The Big Share, the annual spring online fundraising event sponsored by Community Shares of Wisconsin, which we’re proud to be a part of. 

I'm hoping you'll donate to the

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The week of February 27th to March 3rd is Public Schools Week, and Senator Smith discusses how successful public schools make for thriving families and communities.

MADISON - School pride dies hard. Even now, many years after my high school graduation, when I hear of an Eau Claire North Husky that has been awarded for their success, I get a twinge of pride. At face value, that may seem irrational, but as I’ve traveled around western Wisconsin, I’ve found pride in one’s school and one’s community to be universal.

Whether you grew up in a city like Eau Claire and graduated a Husky or an Old Abe, or if you went to school in a smaller community like Elmwood, Trempealeau, Prescott or Arcadia, it’s a source of pride when a young person from your school does well. (And speaking of school pride –you’re already bristling if your school wasn’t mentioned in those examples, right?) Whether you currently have school-aged children or not, we are all influenced by our public schools by what they produce: our next generation of leaders.

The week of February 27th to March 3rd is Public Schools Week, a time to reflect on and celebrate the educational institutions that play a central role in our lives. It’s at school we all first learn to be a good citizen, and school that gives us a first exposure to life outside our families. Our public schools have an enormous impact on the future of our communities, and it is important that we do all we can to strengthen them.

You may see signs out there that say “Public Schools Unite Us.” When public schooling took shape in this country, its goal was to create an even footing by which Americans could succeed regardless of the circumstances of their upbringing. Through generations of students, those goals have not changed.

So what makes a great public school? It starts with teachers and staff who dedicate their professional lives to guiding the next generation. I’m sure many of you can immediately recall a teacher you had who opened up new worlds to you, or provided you with an example of the kind of adult you would like to be.

But if we are not properly funding our schools, we are impairing our school staff and school administrators in their efforts. As a legislator, I have heard from many public school teachers and administrators that they are simply not getting the funding they need to do their jobs. Wisconsin’s school funding formula is broken, resulting in radically different amounts of per-student aid depending on which school district they attend.

When the state does not supply districts with adequate funding, it falls to school boards to make up the shortfall. This leaves districts in a bind, forced to introduce community referenda to raise property taxes. This is where an already-unequal situation can become worse. School districts in wealthy areas can afford these referenda to raise their school’s budget, while those in poorer areas cannot.

These band-aid fixes are unsustainable. A child’s quality of education should not depend on what district they attend. We can live up to the promise of a great education by providing adequate funding to every school districts so they can help students excel.

Another concerning development I have heard from many teachers is the prevalence of testing in our schools. Treating all children as though they are all the same is not the best way to evaluate outcomes for students who have different talents and capacities.

Not all children learn in the same way, and not all do well in a standard testing situation. Where there is a place for tests to evaluate student success, it’s important to stay realistic about what these tests can reliably measure, and not overload our kids with endless testing in place of learning. They should be places of personal growth where students can learn to be their best selves.

Every kid deserves an equal opportunity, no matter where they live. When our public schools are successful, the result is thriving families and communities. So this week, dust off your spirit wear – your school needs your support.

To date, 16 groups have reported spending $5.63 million, breaking the previous record $5.03 million set in the 2020 Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

MADISON - Special interest groups have already set a spending record for outside electioneering activities in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race, topping $5.6 million as of Wednesday morning.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz and former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly were the top finishers in Tuesday’s four-way primary. The pair will go on to face off on April 4 for a 10-year seat on the high court.

To date, 16 groups have reported spending $5.63 million, breaking the previous record $5.03 million set in the 2020 Wisconsin Supreme Court race. In that contest, Kelly, who was appointed in 2016 to fill the unexpired term of a retiring justice, had to run for election to keep the seat. Kelly lost to Jill Karofsky.

This time around, outside groups supporting Kelly outspent those for Protasiewicz by more than five to one.

Four groups have spent $2.59 million on outside activities, like mailings and broadcast and digital advertising, to support Kelly. Five groups have spent about $493,250 to support Protasiewicz. The remaining seven groups have spent $2.55 million to oppose or support the other two candidates, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow and Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell, who did not make it through Tuesday’s primary.

In addition to group spending, the four candidates in the race spent a combined $1.76 million through Feb. 6, according to their most recent campaign finance reports.

Both the groups and the candidates have reported spending a combined $7.39 million. The record for candidate and group spending in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race is $10 million set in 2020.

Candidate spending through Feb. 6 was led by Protasiewicz, who has doled out $1.18 million, more than double that of the other three candidates combined.

Protasiewicz is viewed as the liberal in the race and Kelly is a conservative. If Kelly wins, he will preserve the 4-3 conservative bloc on the court because the retiring justice, Patience Roggensack, is a conservative.

Two of the 16 outside special interest groups have spent the bulk of the $5.63 million doled out as of Wednesday morning.

They were:

Fair Courts America, $2.37 million. This is a Downers Grove, Ill. group funded by rightwing billionaire Richard Uihlein. The group has sponsored radio and television advertising to back Kelly;

A Better Wisconsin Together Political Fund, $2.15 million. This Monona-based independent expenditure committee was created to support Democrats and left-leaning candidates for statewide office and the legislature. The group sponsored online and television advertising to oppose Dorow.

For more details about all of the outside electioneering groups, visit our Hijacking Campaign 2023 feature. For candidate fundraising and spending information, visit our Campaign 2023 – Supreme Court feature.

Last week, Governor Evers released his biennial budget proposal, which invests our $7 billion surplus in local communities and the people. It’s vital that we work together as we continue to develop the budget.

MADISON - It’s that time when the rubber meets the road. You might even say this is when your state leaders better “put up or shut up.”

Every odd year the state of Wisconsin begins another budget biennium. During that two-year period, we measure our state’s estimated needs and priorities and balance that with the revenue to be collected during that same two years.

As the biennial budget season kicks off, it’s the perfect time to remind your elected officials of what they promised or preached during the campaign the previous year. Did your representative promise to provide more resources for your school? How often did you hear that the state should send more revenue back to cities, villages and towns? Maybe candidates in your area said they were going to fight to bring back more shared revenue to fix roads and provide fire, EMS and law enforcement services.

Whatever you heard or read from your legislators and elected leaders, now is the time to put their feet to the fire. This is an exciting time to think of all the possibilities. A new budget offers a fresh start. It’s a chance to prove that we can set political grudges aside and do the people’s work. It’s a chance for politicians to prove they can behave like adults and work to solve problems.

That may sound optimistic to some who read this. But if we expect a stalemate, that’s exactly what we’ll get.

At last week’s budget address, Governor Evers delivered a budget encompassing all the priorities he touted during his reelection bid last fall. Now the Joint Committee on Finance, made up of legislators from both the Assembly and the Senate, will meet and dive into the policies that make up the state’s budget.

The membership of the Finance Committee is determined by the party holding the majority. Thus there are 12 Republican members and 4 Democratic members. Despite overwhelming support for the Governor, Republicans have already rejected the Governor’s budget outright.

We know from experience the budget will likely look quite different after they put it through the grinder. It’s like a sausage factory, and it isn’t always pretty. But there will be opportunities for public input when the committee holds hearings throughout the state. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to have a hearing in western Wisconsin this spring. I would encourage everyone to attend, listen and speak in favor of the Governor’s popular budget initiatives.

Every budget cycle brings with it new challenges and opportunities. Oftentimes challenges become opportunities to remedy shortcomings of previous budget choices.

A prime example of this is K-12 education. We’ve become too reliant on passing property tax referenda because the school funding formula doesn’t work for every part of the state. Another place we see this is in shared revenue for local governments, where we’ve failed to keep pace with inflation. Roads and bridges have long been a point of contention as counties and municipalities have struggled to maintain them.

Turning challenges into opportunities is much easier when we have $7 billion to use. But we must be wise with our decisions to limit future challenges and invest our resources back to the middle class who deserve tax relief.

In addition to providing a middle class tax cut that will benefit those who need it the most, we must invest in our state’s future. We have the opportunity to use part of the surplus to repair our roads, address our school funding formula, accelerate broadband expansion, educate more nurses, solve the childcare crisis we are experiencing and so many other important issues we face.

Let’s be wise as we develop the state’s budget. Let’s work together and keep the best interests of the people of Wisconsin in mind. Let’s get it done right.

Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) safeguards consumers from deceptive practices and services. This week, Senator Smith discusses 2022’s top ten list of most common consumer complaints, which describe many of the ways DATCP can help consumers protect themselves from fraud.

MADISON - The Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) may be the most diverse agency in our state. It’s often referred to simply as the “Department of Ag,” which is understandable since agriculture is such an important industry to Wisconsin. “Trade” covers all of our industries and how we transport goods across the globe. But we often forget the immense responsibility the state and DATCP have for protecting consumers.

In 2022, DATCP worked to resolve over 11,000 consumer complaints, reaching settlements that returned millions of dollars to Wisconsin consumers like you. The top ten complaints they received may resonate with many of us, who experience similar frustrations in our day-to-day lives.

In the style of David Letterman, here’s what they reported:

10. There were 184 complaints around new and used auto sales last year, including reports of inadequate disclosures and misleading representations in advertisements.

9. New to the top ten list was home furnishings. The Department received 189 complaints, including failure to provide services or deliver goods, along with misleading practices.

8. Also new to the top ten this year were health and medical products. 217 of the complaints involved billing disputes, failure to deliver and refund policy concerns, among other issues.

7. 224 complaints had to do with travel, which includes vehicle rentals, airline service, hotel complaints and travel company bundling. Billing disputes, refund policy and just plain unsatisfactory service were among the complaints.

6. Medical services are a category separate from medical products. There was a 60% increase in medical services complaints, with 440 complaints filed. Billing disputes and deceptive practices topped the list. A practice known as “surprise billing,” when a patient receives an unexpected bill from an out-of-network provider or facility, was among the most common complaints. A federal law went into effect in 2022 to protect patients from surprise billing, but it’s still very important for consumers to report any failures complying with this new law.

5. Identity theft was the fifth most common complaint. DATCP handled 513 complaints in this category last year. The Department can help recover and secure your identity from further fraud, and spends time with consumers educating them on how they can avoid having their identity stolen in the future.

4. A common frustration all of us can relate to are telecommunications issues. Cell phone and internet providers might misrepresent the service they provide, or sometimes unfairly terminate service. DATCP handled 655 telecommunications complaints last year.

3. Whenever disaster hits, DATCP issues warnings about fly-by-night roofing, siding or other construction contractors. Last year the agency received 1,216 complaints about home improvement services, more than double last year’s number. Complaints included failure to honor warranties, failure to properly disclose lien waivers, poor workmanship and sometimes just failing to provide services or materials as promised.

2. A pet peeve of many, and a complaint I hear time and again, is telemarketing. In fact, my office receives at least a call a day trying to sell us life insurance. Telemarketing resulted in 1,651 complaints, but I’m sure that represents only a tiny fraction of the number of calls that could be reported. Robocalls, phishing, imposter calls and harassment complaints top the list. Even the Wisconsin Do Not Call Registry cannot block all of these calls, as many disregard the list and call anyway. Keep reporting and be vigilant for scams and fraudulent claims.

1. The number one category of complaints involved landlord-tenant complaints. When disputes cannot be resolved between a landlord and a tenant, DATCP gets the call. That happened 1,912 times in 2022. Top complaints included failure to return a security deposit, eviction, unauthorized entry and structural issues.

It’s always good to be wary of deceptive advertising, calls and promotions, but it sure is good to know we have a watchdog like DATCP. If any of the situations described above sound familiar to you, if you find yourself in a situation you feel is unfair or you are being cheated, call the Consumer Protection Hotline at (800) 422-7128 or email DATCP at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . It’s important for Wisconsinites to know resources are available to them and the experts at DATCP are working for us.

MADISON - On Tuesday, there was a press conference in the Senate Parlor in the State Capitol on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, and I made a few brief comments. Here’s basically what I said, though I’m an inveterate ad libber:

Freedom Is on the Ballot for Wisconsin Supreme Court

That evening, President Biden gave his State of the Union address, which I admired for its defense of democracy, voting rights, and equal protection. Here’s what I wrote about it:

Biden Stands Up for Democracy in State of the Union

The staff’s been busy this week chronicling all the money from last November’s election.

To see who the biggest corporate donors were to the political parties, check out this post:

State Parties, Legislative Campaign Committees Accepted Record Corporate Contributions in 2022

And we also tracked all the money in the legislative races, with 12 of them topping the $1 million mark, as you’ll see here:

Candidates, Groups Spent $41.1M in 2022 Legislative Elections

If you’re free on Saturday afternoon in Milwaukee, by the way, I’ll be on the Vel Phillips Forum panel at Turner Hall: "Wisconsin Supreme Court Election 2023: What’s at stake for Wisconsin Voters? If you’re there, please say hi.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The theme for Black History Month 2023 is Black Resistance. This month serves as a reminder that the fight for racial and social equity is nowhere near finished, and none of us should be on the sidelines.

MADISON - When the state of Wisconsin first tried for statehood in the 1840s, Wisconsin’s constitution allowed for referenda to expand suffrage to new groups. Activists wasted no time in getting Black suffrage on the ballot. Wisconsin’s first referendum for Black suffrage failed in 1847, but two years later in 1849 Black suffrage was approved by voters.

In reality, however, African-Americans would wait twenty years to exercise their franchise. In 1866, Ezekiel Gillespie, a prominent member of Milwaukee’s Black community, sued for the right to vote. The case went all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which affirmed that Black men had the right to vote since the 1849 referendum.

This illustrates one of the most enduring lessons Americans have learned from struggles for equality. Just as Black men in Wisconsin had to wait to exercise their franchise, equality under the law has not always translated to equality in practice. Commitment and courageous action of individuals defied the odds against an entire system of injustice.

From the early years of the Republic through the Civil Rights movement into the present, many courageous Black Americans have made their voices heard while facing physical violence or even death. Too often, narratives – written by white authors – focus on Black victimhood. That is not the story we need to tell.

The theme for Black History Month this year is Black Resistance. This is meant to reframe the conversation about Black history around a theme of empowerment. By celebrating Black Resistance, we honor Black people throughout Wisconsin’s history and rightly center their experiences and their accomplishments. While there are many important Black leaders that we celebrate by name, there are even more heroes whose names we’ve never heard. It takes the efforts of many to accomplish sweeping change.

A quick glance at the news will show you many Americans who have a difficult time believing that racism still exists in our country. Since before America’s founding, both American leaders and the American populace have ignored so many brutal injustices, both individual and systemic. For decades, politicians have been aware of racial disparities in America. Yet it seems our country’s leaders either deny the disparities completely or only give lip service to how terrible they are, taking no meaningful action.

Meanwhile, the legacy of racism continues to impact Black communities and individuals, from income disparities impacting communities of color, to horrific acts of violence fueled by hatred, to stereotypes broadcast in the media. Any effort to eradicate racial injustice requires a comprehensive and multi-pronged approach. This injustice has impacted every aspect of our society, and there are no simple answers when it comes to untangling hundreds of years of bias and oppression.

Racial injustice cannot be fully addressed on an individual level. It is not enough to simply educate individuals; we must change the institutions that treat some citizens differently from others. Atoning for centuries of racism and discrimination is an effort that requires systemic and transformative social change.

As I’ve discussed in previous columns, it is the job of legislators to evaluate state laws and change them when they are out-of-date. As state legislators and leaders, it’s our job to prioritize racial equality in our legislative work. We do this by introducing new legislation to tackle problems, but also by removing barriers to inequality that are currently ingrained in our laws.

As an ally and a public servant, I remain committed to working toward a more just and equitable future for all Wisconsinites. I am here to listen and learn. The fight for racial and social equity is nowhere near finished, and none of us should be on the sidelines.

Senator Smith writes about the different levels of local government and the importance of ensuring that the legislature funds them adequately.

MADISON - “Where do you live?”

There are a lot of ways to answer that question. I live in the United States, in the state of Wisconsin, in Eau Claire County, and in the town of Brunswick. Each of these jurisdictions is a “unit of government” and each has its own powers and responsibilities.

The term “local units of government” can mean cities, villages, towns or counties. Each of these local subdivisions has its own role and its own kind of authority. Each has limits to its powers, as determined by statute, and there are differences in the way each is governed and operated.

Seventy percent of Wisconsin’s population live in a city or village. Cities and villages are both created by the state, which delegates authority to local units of government. Our constitution describes these units of government as “home rule,” which means they have the ability to govern themselves as they see fit, so long as they abide by the state and federal law.

Home rule is meant to ensure that cities and villages are able to be responsive to local concerns. Villages and cities have their own legislative branches, known as city councils or village boards. Members of the council or board can determine policy locally, as long as it does not conflict with the state or federal constitutions.

Many cities, like La Crosse, elect a mayor who works with the council. Others, like Eau Claire, operate with a hired city administrator who answers to the elected city council. In cities, city council members can be elected at-large (representing the entire city) or by districts.

Most Wisconsin villages elect a board president and board members. The Board of Trustees or village board, which acts as the legislative branch, is generally elected at-large.

In contrast, Wisconsin towns are not home rule entities, but their authority is granted by state law. Voters elect a town board, but citizen participation may be exercised at annual meetings and special meetings called for specific purposes.

Voters in a town can exercise direct powers, such as approving a tax levy to fund an improvement for the community or reorganizing local government. State law also allows town voters to grant authority to the town board to acquire property or exercise zoning authority.

I highly recommend you attend one of these meetings. They offer great examples of direct democracy in action. This kind of direct participation in democracy is a rare experience, otherwise only experienced by those who have been duly elected and sworn in.

While cities and villages have constitutional powers of home rule, and towns offer more power to citizens in special meetings, counties are very different. Counties are the administrative arms of our state government. The members of the legislative body of the county are usually called county supervisors.

As in cities, some counties have an elected county executive, while others have a county administrator appointed by the county board of supervisors. While the method of appointment differs, responsibilities are the same across the state. Counties only perform functions that are expressly allowed or mandated by state statute or the constitution.

The state gives counties responsibility for a broad swath of services mandated by the state. These include road maintenance, jail and law enforcement, court administration, public health, human services, libraries, vital records, land conservation, property tax collection and elections.

The problem comes when the state’s requirements are not supported by the funding necessary to fulfill those services. In areas like education and criminal justice, there are many examples of the legislature mandating services but not funding them. This impedes the ability of local units of government to provide essential services to our citizens.

As we enter into this year’s budget deliberations, it’s important to consider all that we expect from our local units of government and provide the resources they need to meet those expectations. As state legislators, as county supervisors, as city alderpersons, as village board members and as town supervisors, we are all elected to make sure the citizens of Wisconsin prosper. Let’s make sure we are doing everything we can to make that possible.

Matt Rothschild of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign continues his report on money in politics with the Secretary of State race.

MADISON - Candidates and special interest groups spent a record $1.16 million in the race for Wisconsin secretary of state in 2022, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign review shows.

The race drew seven candidates, including three Republicans, two Democrats, and two minor party candidates, who spent a combined $872,324. The leading spender was Republican challenger Amy Loudenbeck, who dropped $501,356. She survived the GOP primary to face incumbent Democrat Doug La Follette, who spent $229,689 and won reelection.

Five groups spent a total of $288,824 in the race.

One group, Election Integrity PAC, spent $192,868 to support one of the Republican candidates who lost in the Aug. 9 primary to Loudenbeck.

The four remaining groups – Voces de la Frontera, Blue Sky Waukesha, NextGen Climate Action, and BLOC PAC – spent a total of $95,956 to support La Follette or his Democratic primary opponent.

Spending in the 2022 contest eclipsed spending by candidates and groups in previous secretary of state races by a lot. In 2018, the four candidates spent a total of $26,782 with no spending by outside groups. In 2014, eight candidates spent a combined $122,126 with no outside spending. And in 2010, the candidates spent $1,126 and one electioneering group dropped $71.

Allies of former President Trump, who has falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him due to voter fraud, sought to put pro-Trump supporters in key election posts running up to the 2024 presidential election. Trump has announced he will be a presidential candidate in 2024.

Secretary of State races in Wisconsin and throughout the country drew more candidates and outside spending in 2022 than most previous elections because that office oversees or certifies election results in numerous states, but not Wisconsin.

During the campaign, Loudenbeck said she would welcome the office having a larger role in administering elections in Wisconsin.

In Wisconsin these days, just about every race for every position is breaking a record in campaign spending. Matt Rothschild of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign reports on the race for Wisconsin attorney general.

MADISON - Outside electioneering groups outspent the candidates in last fall’s record $14 million race for Wisconsin attorney general, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign review found.

Nineteen special interest groups doled out $7.58 million (see Table below), including $4.18 million to support Republican candidates in the primary and general election and $3.4 million to back incumbent Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, who won reelection.

The five candidates – Kaul and four Republicans – spent a combined $6.42 million with Kaul leading the pack at $4.8 million. Kaul’s final ballot opponent, Eric Toney, spent $962,884. The three other GOP candidates spent a combined $661,013 before Toney sidelined them in the Aug. 9 primary.

The total spent by groups and candidates in the 2022 attorney general’s race came to $13,996,086, which beat the previous record in 2018 by just $949.

The top-spending outside groups in the race were:

Republican Attorneys General Association, in Washington, D.C., which spent $3.11 million through a state political action committee called Wisconsin Freedom PAC . The group spent its money on television and online ads and mailings that accused Kaul of being soft on crime and cutting funds for new officer training and the State Crime Lab;

Democratic Attorneys General Association, in Washington, D.C., which spent $1.9 million through an independent expenditure committee called DAGA People’s Lawyer Project . The sponsored television and online advertising that said Toney would prosecute doctors and nurses for performing abortions and supported making the procedure a felony with no exceptions for rape or incest;

Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-backed state group which spent nearly $550,000 on canvassing, mailings, and digital and radio advertising to support Adam Jarchow, one of the GOP candidates Toney defeated in the primary.

To learn how much was spent by all of the outside groups involved in Wisconsin’s 2022 race for attorney general, please see the table below. For more information about the groups and their electioneering activities, check out their profiles in our Hijacking Campaign 2022 feature.

Table
Spending by Outside Special Interest Groups in the 2022 Attorney General’s Race

Senator Smith writes about changing policies and attitudes towards reproductive health throughout America’s history. Abortion is healthcare, and the right to an abortion must be protected in Wisconsin.

NEW BRUNSWICK, WI - As Americans we take pride that we live in a land of freedom and opportunity. Every July 4^th we light fireworks to remind ourselves of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 that General Order No. 3 was issued, finally proclaiming the freedom of enslaved people in Texas. And on August 18^th, we celebrate the ratification of the 19^th Amendment in 1920, which affirmed the right of women to vote.

This past Sunday marked the anniversary of another such occasion. On January 22^nd of 1973, the United States Supreme Court passed down a decision that gave women the freedom to determine their own path when it came to pregnancy.

While we’ve been talking a lot about Roe v. Wade, particularly this week, it’s one event in the long history of reproductive health in America. In fact, there was nothing particularly controversial about abortion in the early years of this country. Reproductive healthcare, including abortions, was the vocation of midwives, a profession dominated by women.

But as the medical field grew increasingly professionalized, a coalition of male doctors led a movement that resulted in many state governments outlawing abortion across the board. By 1910 abortion was banned nationwide. Abortion care was unavailable to many women, with the exception of those who could afford to travel to skirt the law.

Women’s lives and careers could be transformed forever by an unexpected pregnancy. Some women died due to unsafe and unregulated abortion procedures. Layers of restrictions on the rights of women kept them in the domestic sphere.

These restrictions were based on the idea that the purpose of a woman’s life was to bring forth and nurture children. Never mind any responsibility that men have when bringing new life into their families; women were expected to shoulder most of the work at home. Unpaid “women’s work” was not valued at the same level as so-called “productive” labor, and often the full-time work of raising a family was taken for granted.

It wasn’t until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted, prohibiting “discrimination … on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin,” that women were finally officially treated by the law as equals in the workforce. During the 1960s, many states pushed to update their abortion laws.

In 1973, the Roe decision was handed down. Reproductive healthcare allowed women freedoms that had been the domain of only men, including the ability to pursue career outside the home.

Even then, progress was incremental and often painfully slow. In 1975, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Taylor v. Louisiana that not including women in juries violated the right to be tried as a jury of your peers. In 1978, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act became federal law, making it illegal for an employer to fire an employee due to their pregnancy. The Uniform Marital Property Act of 1983 honored homemakers’ valuable contributions to the family by protecting their property rights. Each of these changes built on each other, giving women greater autonomy in our society.

But now, 50 years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe, an activist Supreme Court reversed the ruling. In states like Wisconsin, which have laws on the books banning abortions, this opens up doctors to prosecution for providing basic reproductive healthcare to pregnant people. This especially impacts people with limited resources, who have lost so much opportunity to control their own lives and futures.

In this week’s column, I’ve taken you through centuries of changing policies and attitudes towards reproductive health in this country. It’s been a long road getting here, and we’ve still got a long way to go. I know it’s easy to become discouraged when circumstances set us back, but our history shows us that each victory will bring us a step closer. Reproductive freedom must be once again protected in Wisconsin and across the nation.

MADISON - Saturday marks the thirteenth anniversary of the notorious Citizens United decision, which opened the floodgates to big and dark money in our politics.

That decision by the U.S. Supreme Court allows corporations, other groups, and super-rich individuals to spend unlimited amounts to tell you who to vote for or not for, so long as they don’t coordinate with the candidates.

Citizens United was the obstetrician that delivered us SuperPACs, but they’re not babies anymore. They’re monsters.

And along with a few other Supreme Court decisions, especially the McCutcheon decision of 2014, which said the government could put no aggregate limit on the amount that rich folks could spend in our elections, Citizens United has turned our politics into a playground for billionaires.

Just look at the recent midterms.

According to a report by Americans for Tax Fairness, billionaires had already “pumped an unprecedented $881 million into the federal midterm elections [five weeks before the election], distorting our democracy by drowning out the voices of regular Americans. That’s already much more money than billionaires contributed during the entire length of the 2018 midterm election cycle, the previous record.”

The report noted that Republican billionaires are outspending Democratic ones: “GOP forces are enjoying a 3-2 advantage in billionaire donations.”

Even if they weren’t, that’s not the point.

The point is this: Our politics shouldn’t be a tug of war between billionaires on the right and billionaires on the left. In a real democracy, we’d all have an equal tug on that rope.

But we don’t because of the gross maldistribution of wealth in this country.

And we don’t because of Citizens United and a raft of other bad decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court dating back to the nineteenth century on corporate personhood.

Here in Wisconsin, we can see the nasty consequences of Citizens United.

In 2010, outside spending in our fall elections for governor and the legislature and other non-federal races came to just under $20 million. Last year, it soared to over $90 million, with a lot of this money coming from out of state.

This outside spending, blessed by Citizens United, makes a mockery of the ideal that we all have an equal voice in our democracy. And the money that comes from out of state undercuts the ideal of local self-governance.

The problem of big and dark money in our politics in Wisconsin got worse in 2015 when the Republican-dominated state legislature (thanks, largely, to gerrymandering) rewrote our campaign finance law. The new law, signed by Scott Walker, tore down the de facto $10,000 limit on how much individuals could give to those political parties. So now billionaires from across the country are writing enormous checks to the Democratic and Republican parties here.

We do not have self-rule when the super-rich can spend unlimited amounts of money in our political arena.

We must overturn Citizens United and all its ugly relatives.

And the best way to do that is to amend the U.S. Constitution and proclaim, finally, that corporations aren’t persons and money isn’t speech.

Here in Wisconsin, the grassroots group Wisconsin United to Amend has been working prodigiously over the last decade getting one local community after another to pass referendums or resolutions in favor of such an amendment. At last count, 169 communities have signed on.

It will take more work, here in Wisconsin and around the country, to get this done.

But it must be done if we are to have a genuine democracy.

Senator Smith writes about Wisconsin’s constitutional amendment process and expresses concerns about recklessly amending our state Constitution.

MADISON - For any laws not governed by federal law or the U.S. Constitution, Wisconsin’s Constitution serves as the ultimate guide when crafting legislation. Our Constitution is sacred – it’s the framework for our state government. It determines protections and guides our justice system in how laws should be interpreted.

If the Constitution is a title, statutes (state law) are subtitles, providing clarity and specifics in the way we interpret expectations set forth in our Constitution. Statutes begin as legislation, and in order to become law, must be passed by both chambers of the Legislature. The Legislature then sends these bills to the Governor, who may veto part or all of the bill or sign it into law. The Governor’s administration executes the law and the court system interprets laws when confusion arises. Wisconsin’s system of checks and balances is modeled after our U.S. Constitution.

This process is designed so that statutes can be more specific and responsive to recent developments in our society. Your members of the State Legislature are sent to Madison to do just that.

When a legislator introduces a bill, the legislature reviews the proposal through debate and public hearings. If a bill meets opposition, we can add specific amendments to the bill or we can re-introduce the legislation, modifying the bill to take into consideration what we have learned through the deliberative process.

Even once passed, it’s common for the legislature to re-examine a law once we’ve had a chance to evaluate its impact on the public. Laws written decades ago may not apply to current circumstances, or need updating to work in the world we inhabit now. When a statute is out-of-date, it can be revised and updated. Statutes are not static; they can easily be changed with the input of our citizens.

The Constitution is not so quickly and easily revised. To pass a constitutional amendment, the legislature must pass it as a resolution through two consecutive legislative sessions. The language of the bill, without any of the context provided by the legislative process, is then placed on the ballot for voters to approve or reject in the next general election.

The constitutional amendment process is designed to deal in broad terms, not specifics. There is a difference between passing a constitutional amendment that enumerates a specific right and passing one requiring specific procedures to be changed. That’s why we must hold the Constitution to a higher standard.

In recent years, I fear the respect for our Constitution has been eroded. Legislators are too quick to amend the constitution, often for purely procedural reasons, including the desire to do an end-run around the very checks and balances that protect us from hasty changes to the Constitution. Checks and balances make democracy messy, but they safeguard us from poorly vetted laws.

When political initiatives are passed as constitutional amendments, we miss the opportunity to truly examine the changes that an amendment may make in the courts and in the daily lives of our citizens. Wording is important, and sometimes the slightest change may have broad and unintended consequences. When a dramatic change is made to our constitution that turns out to be harmful to our citizens, it is often too late and too difficult to fix easily.

This session, it appears that the Republicans who hold the majority in both chambers of the legislature have decided they would rather play fast and loose with our State Constitution, rather than work with Governor Evers. By the time you see this column, it’s likely that such a resolution – or resolutions – have already been hurriedly passed.

As your State Senator, I take the trust you have placed in me very seriously. Using the Constitution as a means to sacrifice bipartisanship for political expediency is wrong and dangerous. When actions are taken that affect the lives of families across Wisconsin, it’s important to do it thoughtfully, with an eye towards future implications.

I encourage all of you who read this column to stay engaged with what’s going on as these political maneuvers make their way through the Legislature, including the attitude of noncooperation shown by the majority party. Let’s make sure that we don’t take amending our Constitution lightly.

Senator Smith writes about Republican flat tax proposals. Instead of providing tax relief for those who need it the least, Wisconsin has an opportunity to invest our surplus in targeted programs and put money in the pockets of the middle class.

MADISON - In the last year, Republicans talked a lot about a flat tax. They call a flat tax a “simplification” of our tax system, but that’s a simplification of the truth. They make it sound good, but in reality it shifts a bigger share of the tax burden onto middle class families.

So why do Republicans want it? Just last week, Senate Republican Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said, “We have the resources to do this.” Just because you can do something doesn’t mean it is a good idea. Why spend our hard-earned surplus on the wealthy when we face so many challenges?

Our income tax system only applies higher rates to “marginal” income, or income in excess of the base tax rate. This means wealthy residents pay the same as the rest of us on a certain amount earned, any income in excess of that is taxed at a slightly higher rate. Lowering the rate at which marginal income is taxed provides a windfall to the wealthy, while passing the middle class and the working poor by.

It seems intuitive that the same tax rate across the board makes everything “equal,” but “equal” does not mean “equitable.” The working poor and middle class already pay a greater percentage of their total income when it comes to sales and property tax. These types of taxes concentrate the tax burden on the very poorest.

Let’s do some quick math for the Republicans’ 3.54% flat tax scheme. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wisconsin’s average estimated individual income is $53,120 per year. That equates to roughly $2,076 in taxes paid for single filers (adjusting income to reflect the state sliding scale standard deduction and personal exemptions). Someone making $1 million per year is paying $69,537 in income taxes. With a flat tax, someone earning the state average income would see a $484 tax cut, or about a 23% cut. Someone earning a million would see a $34,161 tax cut which equals just under a 50% tax cut.

The broader numbers further illustrate this. As cited by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin’s nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) projected the effect of Wisconsin moving to a 3.54% flat tax. This proposal resulted in enormous gains for the richest taxpayers, with a corresponding dramatic drop in state revenues. Under this tax shell game, state revenue would drop by $5.59 billion in the first year and $3.86 billion per year after the first.

Spending $5.59 billion of Wisconsin’s hard-earned $7 billion surplus on a big tax break for the rich doesn’t curb inflation. It doesn’t add more workers to Wisconsin businesses. It solves zero problems Wisconsin currently faces. We must maintain an equitable tax system and make the investments Wisconsin needs.

Thankfully, Governor Evers continues to advocate for a tax cut targeting the middle class. Wisconsinites want a middle class tax cut and problems solved, not handouts to the wealthy.

Accepting the $5.59 billion hit to state revenues means less funding available for roads, bridges, public education, higher education and healthcare. Rather than disinvesting in local communities, we should provide them with the resources they need. This means fully funding our public schools and making sure local governments have the money they need to run essential emergency services. We can do this – as long as we don’t give tax breaks to those who need them the least.

Using the surplus for targeted investments and putting the money in middle class pockets with progressive tax reform will keep our dollars here, not in some off-shore hedge fund for rich people. We must look to the future. If wealthy people weasel their way out of their fair share with a flat tax, that leaves the middle class picking up the pieces when revenues fall.

We haven’t seen specifics on this proposal as of the writing of this column. As details of this proposal are released, it’s my hope these issues are examined thoroughly. I look forward to working alongside my colleagues to fully vet this legislation and ensure taxpayers get fairness when they file their state taxes in coming years.

Senator Smith writes about the importance of the deliberative process of democracy and how vital it is that the public’s representatives keep the trust given to them by their constituents.

MADISON - This week those of us elected by voters to represent you in various offices, including the State Legislature, take the oath of office to begin our service. The oath I gave, as stated in our Wisconsin constitution, went like this: “I, Jeff Smith, swear that I will support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Wisconsin, and will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office of State Senate to the best of my ability. So help me God.”

Before the start of the first session day, all members elected this past November formally take that same oath in an honorable ceremony. On Inauguration Day, there is a lot of good feeling within the Capitol. It’s a time of celebration and fellowship, surrounded by family and well-wishers. It is my hope that this feeling of camaraderie can last beyond that single day.

There is often disagreement on how to deliver on the promise of moving “Forward,” as our state motto says. Disagreement can be constructive when it leads to compromise, yielding decisions that make us a stronger state and union. When elected officials betray your trust and ignore our purpose of service, we find ourselves locked in partisan bickering that gets us nowhere.

In times where the people’s elected representatives show little progress and voters don’t see any agreement or compromise, it can be easy to lose the trust you may have had when you cast your ballot in November. In fact, it seems that the common belief is that it is normal for our elected bodies to only squabble and point fingers rather than work toward accomplishing anything.

When elected officials lie to constituents it reflects on every one of us. Take the egregious example happening in New York, where the person who won a congressional seat from Long Island lied about his education, religion, family background and more to get elected. Too often the reaction is to shrug, scowl and accept his behavior as normal. It is easy to become discouraged, falling into the expectation that you can’t trust any legislator on the state or national level because they “all lie” anyway.

Of course it isn’t fair to judge every person in elected office based on one miscreant. Too often we highlight exceptions to the rule, even when those exceptions are not representative of the vast majority. We hear about those who commit fraud, when most of us are honest and straightforward. It is those who do not behave as expected that get outsize coverage and social media shares. We don’t get to know much about the people who just do what they were hired to do and stay out of trouble. It may even be the case in your workplace that one bad apple reflects badly on everyone else diligently doing their jobs.

I say all this so you might judge your elected officials from either side of the aisle with discretion and give us a chance to prove that most of us really do serve with good intent. At the same time, we have the opportunity at the start of a new session, right after we swore an oath to serve our state, to hold onto the trust you might have in our abilities to do the job expected of us.

That’s why I’ll do all I can to be open to legitimate and reasonable debate of ideas. Not all ideas are universally accepted as good ones. That is why ideas deserve a chance for public hearing and discussion. Once we start with that attitude, we may have a chance to hold onto the congeniality we felt on the first day we took our oath.

Thank you for your trust in me as your state senator. Throughout this year, I’ll continue to update you on legislative happenings, and my door is always open. Email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , call my office at 608-266-8546 or drop in to the Capitol if you’re in Madison. I hope to hear from you as we begin another year of working on behalf of you, the citizens of the great state of Wisconsin.