In Wisconsin, any political candidate needs to file the form GAB-1 with the Government Accountability Board (GAB) prior to their announcement and fundraising.
On January 27, Friday, Senator Vinehout amended her senate GAB-1 (source - Wisconsin State Campaign Finance Information System, cfis.wi.gov):
A picture is all the intro you need. Don't be put off by the election date - since the recall election has not yet been scheduled, any candidate must put in the date for the next scheduled election. (Trust us, we know what we're doing in Wisconsin on recalls - we've got this down.)
More on Senator Vinehout below the squiggle.
But don't just take that form's word for it - from Dane101:
The Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor is poised to get a little wider as State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) “is definitely planning to run,” according to notes taken during a series of union endorsement interviews in Milwaukee early last month.
Senator Vinehout was one of the Wisconsin 14, who left the state to try to stop Scotts Walker and Fitzgerald and their nefarious plot. She's a solid progressive, a happy warrior who's always got a smile on her face as she's tearing apart Walker's policies.
Kathleen is a dairy farmer near Alma, Wisconsin. (yeah, I know - where? Just up the river from LaCrosse). She's a former college professor and administrator with a background in health care.
Here's part of the bio from her website:
Kathleen Vinehout, 53, came to politics relatively late in her career after spending 10 years running the family dairy farm and the 10 years before that teaching health administration to college students.
In her first run for public office, Kathleen was elected in 2006 to the state senate from a large, mostly rural district in the western part of the state. She was re-elected in 2010 and is serving her second four-year term.
In the senate, she has worked to make health care affordable, create health insurance exchanges for individuals, farmers and small businesses, bring more equity to school funding, keep consumer protection provisions in our telecommunication laws, and improve the efficiency of state government operations.
Prior to being elected to the Senate, Kathleen was the primary operator of the family’s dairy farm near Alma. She received many quality milk awards and was elected president of the Dairy Herd Improvement Association in Buffalo County. The farm is now certified organic and produces hay and grain.
Before she and her husband started their dairy farm, Kathleen directed both graduate and undergraduate programs in health administration at the University of Illinois at Springfield. For ten years she was a member of the faculty and taught in the Health Services Administration and Women’s Studies Programs. Her focus was state health policy, health care organization, the history of health care reform and health problems facing rural communities.
Kathleen's been a strong advocate for health care, for the environment, for collective bargaining, for rural issues and for education. She's not afraid to stand up for what she believes in.
She would make an excellent governor.
And BTW, as I was finished writing this, Senator Tim Cullen has backed out of running for governor.
As of right now, it's Kathleen vs. Kathleen for the right to take Walker down.
Thu Feb 02, 2012 at 7:20 PM PT: Re: Kathleen Vinehout and her position on choice - it's been brought up that she introduced two amendments re: birth control protection act:
Her amendment was to require a pharmacy to dispense birth control/Plan B/etc., not necessarily an individual pharmacist. That is, if a woman came in to a licensed pharmacy with a prescription, she should get it filled - it was up to the business (pharmacy) to make sure that happened on that site. Her rationale was that she felt that requiring the pharmacist (individual) to do it might violate a clause of the Wisconsin Constitution.
The next year, the bill passed with the language that Sen. Vinehout introduced, with Sen. Vinehout's vote and with Planned Parenthood's approval.
Listen to Sen. Vinehout's explanation on WTDY - http://www.archive.org/...