For anyone still reading who doesn't know Wisconsin state politics, Dave Zien is basically the Rick Santorum of the Wisconsin State Senate. He's been there for years, whiffs faintly of scandal and heavily of idiocy, hasn't a single useful legislative idea, but refuses to leave. Peg Lautenschlager, Wisconsin's embattled Attorney General, has been litigating to get Republican legislators to obey the 24-hour notice laws that Wisconsin requires for the drafting of bills, and of course Zien is at the heart of it.
To just give interested Wisconsinites a taste of what Pat Kreitlow is about--and what a breath of fresh air he is--I'll paste in a short interview that he gave me. Be sure to click through the links to his campaign website and his blog.
Interview with Pat Kreitlow
Pat Kreitlow may have signed off as TV-13 news anchor seven months ago, but folks in the Chippewa Valley will be seeing a lot more of him in the coming year. Kreitlow, 41, recently announced his candidacy for the 23rd State Senate District seat currently occupied by Republican Dave Zien. Motivated to run by the need to address education, health care and political reform, he maintains that the current legislature has lost sight of its constituents' real needs.
The 23rd District extends into southern Barron County, covering the townships of Dovre, Sioux Creek, Dallas and the Village of Dallas. Kreitlow, who once lived in Rice Lake and worked for WAQE radio station, will speak at a meeting of the Barron County Democrats on January 19th. As WEAU TV-13 news anchor for nearly ten years, he is a friendly, familiar face to almost everyone, and no doubt will prove a tough opponent for Zien. The contest promises to be lively.
Pat Kreitlow graciously granted me an interview; you can read his responses below. And for a wealth of information about his positions, check out kreitlowforsenate.com, and of course, Kreitlow Corner, his blog. It's . . . hotter than a pepper sprout.
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L. Ager: Tell us about yourself. What made you decide to run for the State Senate?
Pat Kreitlow: I decided to run for State Senate after years of frustration seeing our elected officials take no significant action on two moral issues. First, the growing number of people suffering for lack of health care security. No one in America should be just have to worry about financial ruin because of one illness, one accident or one layoff. Yet 45 million Americans do have those kind of worries. That's a moral failing on the part of our leaders, many of whom took office a decade ago claiming they had better ideas for health care access. It turns out they didn't, otherwise more than 300,000 Wisconsin residents wouldn't be without health insurance right now.
The other great moral failing of today's career politicians in Madison revolves around education. An educated workforce is the cornerstone of a growing economy. And yet today's legislative leaders have made education a villain. They paint teachers as greedy. They paint public schools --Wisconsin public schools!-- as an enemy that needs to be replaced by a model based on corporate profits. When politicians deride the value of a good education, it's time for the politicians to go.
L.A.: What strengths will you bring to the office?
Pat Kreitlow: First and foremost, dedication to find solutions to problems. That's what I expect of our elected officials: help people, find solutions. You can't help people when you're busy pulling rugs out from under them.
I bring my life's experiences that include growing up in a poor family dependent on welfare, working hard in public schools, attending UW-Eau Claire and rising through the ranks to the job I held at TV-13 for so many years. It's a story that illustrates the value of good schools and hard work, but also reminds people that without a certain level of safety nets for children in poor families, they will never be able to attain the kind of success that anyone in America should be able to dream of.
L.A.: Short of hanging a flag on the back of your motorcycle, how will you connect with the grassroots in the 23rd district?
Pat Kreitlow: One voter at a time. This is very much a shoe leather campaign. When I first thought about running a lot of Madison experts envisioned a campaign filled with a million TV commercials. I don't see it that way. People around here already know Dave Zien, and they already know me. They don't need TV images; they need to talk to us. And when they do, they'll easily figure out which person is more likely to represent their values and get things done that have been neglected in Madison for far too long.
L.A.: In talking to voters, what is your sense of what they want and deserve in a State Senator?
Pat Kreitlow: Someone willing to work for them. Someone willing to sit at the table, talk to people and solve problems. That's governing. Compare governing to politics, where someone jumps up from the table, throws mud at everyone around the table, and stomps away without solving anything. We want our State Senators to take their jobs seriously and work for us.
L.A.: Your opponent has long entertained controversial issues such as
bringing the death penalty to Wisconsin, as well as concealed weapon permits. Which issues has he been neglecting?
Pat Kreitlow: Controversial issues aren't necessarily bad issues, unless you're on the wrong side. Now Dave Zien has never been afraid of a controversial fight, but unfortunately for us, he's usually fighting common sense. And common sense tells us that instead of being fixated on personal pet issues that affect almost no one, our officials should be paying attention to making health care more affordable, bring stability to school funding, reducing the corrupting influence of special interests on our politicians, and making sure corporate polluters aren't running roughshod over our natural resources. I'm not seeing that from our current legislative leaders.
L.A.: Wisconsinites can no longer boast of clean government, and you say that mere Band-Aid solutions will not do. What happened, and what can we do to clean government up again?
Pat Kreitlow: Nothing really "happened" so much as one party gained so much control (at the state and national levels) that it repeated what has always happened in American history when one party gets entrenched: it starts doing anything it can to stay that way. And when it starts bending or breaking the rules in that quest for cash, the voters eventually recognize it and make a change.
We can do more to make campaign contributions as transparent and real-time as possible. There's nothing wrong with anyone --rich or poor-- giving money to a candidate or politician. But we have to make sure everyone can see it, and draw their own conclusion about whether the donor is getting something in return.
We also have to do more to ensure that redistricting remains as fair a process as possible. What Tom DeLay did in Texas was so far past the line that it serves as a wake-up call in Wisconsin and elsewhere to make sure no one person or party can abuse the rights of voters to fairly choose their representatives in Congress and the legislature.
L.A.: You list health care reform as one of your top priorities, and indeed, it tops the lists of most constituents, who face one form of health insecurity or another. What kind of health care reform do we need, and what should the State Senate be doing about it?
Pat Kreitlow: We should be looking for ways to share our resources and share the benefits that come from sticking together. It's that kind of "cooperative" spirit that helped Wisconsin's farmers grow this state in its earliest days. But Republicans seek to divide us rather than bring us together. Take Health Savings Accounts, an idea that could be a good part of a larger package of overall reforms. Instead, they want to enact only the HSA's. Well, that's nothing more than "redlining" everyone who's not healthy and wealthy, and ensuring they'll pay higher and higher premiums. That's a horrible concept.
Government does not have to provide the health insurance, and government does not have to be the health care provider. But a state government can use the cooperative concept to bundle us together and say to the private market: you want us? Give us your best package. That's just one method. There are others that can ensure people with low and medium incomes can have access to an affordable bare-bones catastrophic and preventative policy, and let employers continue to compete over providing other types of coverage.
In other words, there's no shortage of possible solutions, just a shortage of action in Madison. That's about to change.
L.A. When I asked voters what they expected of their state senator,
environmental topics kept coming to the fore. Do we need a Public Intervenor brought back? Do we have a sensible forestry policy? Groundwater policy? Are we doing all we can to conserve Wisconsin's natural bounty?
Pat Kreitlow: Yes, we need to restore the Public Intervenor. We can't do enough to ensure that our natural treasures are protected and passed down to our children and grandchildren. Instead, we have State Senators forming special committee to investigate "atrocities" that they claim are handled in a "Gestapo-like" manner. That should trouble anyone who's concerned that lawmakers are working too hard to bend the rules for corporate polluters and large campaign contributors.
L.A.: Energy prices are soaring. What can Wisconsin do to help its
citizens adjust to new energy realities?
Pat Kreitlow: Governor Doyle and others have already taken the lead in declaring that Wisconsin will be a leader in attaining more of its future energy from renewable resources. Unlike certain politicians who work so hard to protect "Big Oil," I remember the energy crisis of the mid-70s, and I'm dedicated to making sure that Wisconsin continues to be a leader in researching new technologies and more efficient ways to use energy.
L.A. A voter wants to know how we can "get the DNR off our backs." How is the DNR doing?
Pat Kreitlow: I like to say that almost everyone in Wisconsin is an environmentalist, proud of natural resources. . . at least until the DNR comes knocking at their own door! Truth is, we have some pretty dedicated people at the local DNR level, but they're being overridden by some pretty inconsistent rulings coming out of the central office in Madison. Fortunately, Governor Doyle and others have worked to make the DNR more efficient on permit applications over the past couple of years. Now, we need to make the DNR more "customer friendly" and working with people on crafting environmentally friendly solutions, not just writing citations and walking away.
L.A.: What will you to do help restore comity to the Wisconsin State Senate?
Pat Kreitlow: Simple. Change one of its senators. There are some good Republican people in Madison. And we're going to put one more good Democratic person in the capitol this year. Together, we can talk about things that will WORK, and not just sling mud at each other. I'm not afraid to share credit across party lines. But to get to that kind of credit, you have to work together first.
L.A.: Increasingly, we hear of rising tuition and rumored privatization of
certain aspects of the UW system. Whatever happened to the Wisconsin Idea--the notion that education should be available to every home in the state?
Pat Kreitlow: The "Wisconsin Idea" is alive, but it's not well. It's been endangered by lawmakers who fail to value the UW as our state's economic engine and its primary research vehicle for creating the next generation of jobs, workers and inventions. That does not mean we back up the money truck and bankrupt the treasury. It means we spend wisely including and especially in the area of financial aid so that Wisconsin's best and brightest stay in Wisconsin, work in Wisconsin and eventually create jobs in Wisconsin.
L.A.: Of course, we all want to know what your favorite Johnny Cash song is, and why.
Pat Kreitlow: That's easy. "Jackson." I know, it's a duet, and there are plenty of others who will vote for "Ring of Fire," "A Boy Named Sue," and others. But it's good sassy song between a playful couple.
(Not to bring the room down, but if it were up to me, every kid would have to watch the video to "Hurt," and study the lyrics to understand what drug addiction really does to someone. Cash is a master storyteller, teacher and Christian who surely ain't playin' no harp up there, I'm sure!)
L.A.: Can you tell about the best car you ever had?
Pat Kreitlow: My favorite was the '01 Jeep Wrangler I had for a couple of years before the necessities of life required a bigger truck. (Now we have a Chevy Trailblazer.) But "best cars" don't give you nearly as many stories as "worst cars" which are also usually your "first cars." Mine was a '73 Plymouth Fury with a 318 engine, a cassette deck duct-taped under the dash, and Fred Flintstone rust holes in the floor that allowed you inspect the asphalt as you were driving! I'm glad I won't have to worry about taking that vehicle to Madison.
