Corrine Hendrickson operates a child care center in New Glarus. She wants to know what Democrats who oppose Senator Ron Johnson are trying to do about childcare.
“Are you supporting your investment in the childcare workforce and increasing grants to make childcare more affordable, accessible, available and of higher quality? And in particular? To increase the fairness of women in color? ”Hendrickson asked at Madison’s Candidate Forum last week.
Patrick DePula wants to know about tax policies that treat corporate giants differently than local businesses like Sal’s TomatoPies, his collection of small restaurants in Madison. “Do you think it’s fair for Amazon and other big companies to pay much lower tax rates than small businesses?” He asked.
Kat Klawes is a self-employed consultant who advises small businesses and purchases their insurance through the federal health market under the AffordableCareAct. The tax credit, which reduced the premium, which was one-third of the take-out, will expire at the end of 2022. “Many people like me will face spikes in health insurance premiums,” she said. Milwalky Companion Forum. “Do you work to expand these enhanced subsidies in the ACA market, or ideally make them permanent?”
All three asked questions at the round table. One was Madison and the other was Milwaukee, with the goal of giving small business owners and those who work with them the opportunity to hear about their top priorities.
The Roundtable was organized and sponsored by the Main Street Alliance and the Wisconsin Farmers Union. The third is scheduled for July 6th in Appleton. These are intended to raise the concerns of small businesses prior to Johnson’s third run in the primary elections on August 9th and the general elections on November 3rd.
In an interview after Friday’s roundtable, small business owners said, “I’m busy running their business and they care about the community,” said Seanfett, manager of the Midwest of the Main Street Alliance. Place said. “But they don’t follow the Senate race very closely, so it’s great to hear directly from the candidates about what they do.”
The Main Street Alliance is nonpartisan, and Phetteplace says Johnson was invited to attend the roundtable. Republican incumbents initially agreed to join at least one, but withdrew because of their responsibilities in Washington. Phetteplace says his organization still wants to arrange a meeting between members and the senator.
An organization based on values
The forum questions reflect the holistic view that the association brings, which Phetteplace describes as value-based and generally progressive.
The question did not reveal a sharp policy difference between the Democratic Senate applicants who came across the first two events. Everyone supports government actions to increase access to health care and affordability. All voice support to reduce monopoly. Everyone supports the need to make childcare more accessible and affordable, including federal support.
(Lasry courtesy of Wisconsin 2021)
Regarding taxes, Alex Lasry, who is on vacation as an executive at Milwaukee Bucks, co-owner of billions of fathers, said: — It means that businesses and wealthy individuals are not paying fair distributions. “
“Every time a Republican president comes, there’s a big economic collapse, and Democrats go in there to get rid of it,” said Democrats, who said they were unfairly tarred for bad things to the economy.
The problem for Democrats is, “We’re talking a lot about who we want to tax and we’re not talking enough about how we can help small businesses grow,” he said.
The most obvious difference between the candidates was the contrast of style, attitude and focus. “It shows what senators they will be, how they carry themselves, and how they connect with people,” Phetteplace said.
For some candidates who were virtually unreported and not registered at all in polls, the event was an opportunity to be heard by at least dozens of business owners.
Peter Peckarsky is Milwaukee’s lawyer, whose campaign combines the promises of technocratic expertise and focuses on “suppressing the power of Big Tech” while embracing all the economic and social positions common to Democrats. increase.
In answering questions about closing tax loopholes, he linked the lack of unfair tax system news coverage to the economic collapse of the news industry and the hegemony of large tech companies. “So when it’s time for the newspaper to find someone who can explain what’s happening in Congressional tax law, they don’t have the money to do it,” he said.
Kou Lee, a Fox Valley restaurant owner whose family emigrated from Southeast Asia, almost agreed with others on the issue, with a particular focus on income inequality, but against the split from both the left and right. But I warned. “I’m afraid that our democracy will collapse and that it will collapse due to tribal wars and identity politics,” he said.
Maintain the brand
The session gave candidates the opportunity to showcase their particular campaign brand and how they size up the issue.
Stephen Orikara is pivoting from the founding and construction of the Millennial Action Project, a group of young independent parliamentarians. His Senate platform calls for overthrowing Washington’s political culture and building a bipartisan, and he emphasized that message when he answered questions about Hendrickson’s childcare at Madison’s event.
“So, first and foremost, I’m working on drawing a fortune from politics and changing that equation,” he told her. “Now, if you do that, you change your incentives and get members of Congress to care about issues like childcare.”
Orikara further emphasized childcare through the lens of entrepreneurship and called for changes that would allow entrepreneurs to count business income as well as personal income in calculating childcare tax credits.
Outagamie County executive and former Democratic Party representative Tom Nelson emphasized his support for Medicare for All, with the campaign centered on the “economic security” message. “I’m the only one who’s been campaigning hard on this,” he told the Milwaukee audience.
Nelson has also declared support for universal childcare in line with the policies offered in many other developed countries. Nelson also described a local joint childcare project to support one of the discussions of the campaign that won as a progressive in a Republican county. This project includes the Outagamie County Government, small businesses, local headstart programs, and among other partners, the “all under one roof” school district. Without the support of the federal or state government, he told the Milwaukee Forum that “it needs to be done at the local level.”
For state finance secretary Sara Godrevsky, childcare questions include her personal story as a mother of a young child, maintaining expanded child tax deductions and supporting the payment of living wages to childcare workers. It was an opportunity to combine facts and numerical policy details. .. She emphasized the high cost of care of “more than $ 12,000 a year for one child” and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Approximately 25% of our child care centers have been closed.”
The disproportionate distribution of profits from the 2020 pandemic bailout bill, the CARES Act, was “one of the reasons I’m doing it,” Godlewski said. “And when I see Delta making more money than childcare … this is a problem. As you know, I tell you as a working mom, I absolutely do it Priority is given. ”
Godlewski only attended the Madison event on Wednesday, June 22nd. She bowed at the last minute of the Milwaukee roundtable on Friday, June 24, focusing on the US Supreme Court’s decision that morning overturned the Roe v. Wade case. The right to abortion was another central focus of her campaign.
Meanwhile, Vice Governor Mandela Burns attended only Milwaukee’s roundtable, banning abortion prior to the 1849 Supreme Court ruling in Wisconsin when Madison’s event clashed with Governor Tony Evers’ special session that day. Overturned. After the Republican leaders of the state legislature opened and closed the session inactive, he joined with protesters of the right to abortion — leaving the ban on Wisconsin.
Drawing a connection
At a Milwaukee event, Child Care Center operator Brooks Kidmore describes to Senate applicants the relationship between child care workers’ low wages and the need for workers to take leave during childbirth or illness. I asked a wide range of questions. Loss of women’s health autonomy, reflected in the just-announced Supreme Court ruling. “Do you support women’s personal health rights and paid parental leave?” She asked. “How do you change it?”
Burns quoted his involvement in a campaign that passed the Paid Leave Ordinance in Milwaukee 10 years ago (later invalidated by the State Parliament and then Governor Scott Walker), and how the lack of paid leave led to the spread of COVID. I jumped at what was connected to. -19.
“Think about how the virus spreads,” he said. “People started to work sick because they had no other choice. They thought they would lose their jobs. And people started to work sick and made more people sick. did.”
Still, there are “$ 1 billion companies” that don’t offer paid leave, and “currently, women have the lowest level of participation in the workforce,” Burns said. “And it continues to exacerbate the level of inequality we are experiencing.”
When it comes to healthcare, both Nelson and Burns confirm the name Medicare for All, and Lassley expands affordable care methods and adds “public options” to compete insurance clients with private insurers. Focused on.
Nonetheless, “we all agree to universal insurance,” said Rasley, “not just a moral issue … and also the most competitive, innovative and entrepreneurial in the world.” What will happen to remain a spiritual country? “
Skidmore said he was grateful for the opportunity to learn more about the candidate.
“When I hear their personal story that they had a similar experience, it resonates more with me,” she said.
The Millwalky Roundtable was held at the Cactus Club, a nightspot in the city’s Bayview district. Kelsey Kaufman, the owner and operator of the venue, listened to the opinions of other business owners and watched how the applicants would address and educate their questions.
“I think it’s worth putting [candidates] In the room, we’re having a conversation to hear about people’s actual experiences, “Kaufman said.
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