What did she say that convinced me?
·
She said that her highest priority would be
to promote the creation of jobs. The current administration has a sorry record
in this area, and she said that the people of Wisconsin deserve better. Her
credentials lead me to believe that she may really know what to do to create
jobs in our state. She has both private
and public experience. She helped to grow Trek Bicycle into a worldwide brand
with thousands of employees, and as Commerce Secretary, she helped to create
and to preserve many jobs in Wisconsin. So, she knows that we can have good
jobs without giving the state away to a few companies that make large campaign
contributions.
·
She said that our public school system
is the basic building block for creating opportunity for children in Wisconsin.
She told us that using public money to support private schools drains funds
from our public schools and that, except perhaps in a few places in southeastern
Wisconsin, we should not be starving our public schools of funds in order to
support private ones. She also said that private schools that accept public
money must be held accountable just as public schools are.
·
She understands that environmental protection
and economic growth do not always have to be in conflict with one another. We
don’t have to destroy our world in order to have jobs, and we don’t have to
starve today in order to preserve our world for tomorrow. We can have economic development and
environmental protection, but only if we promote development in a way that cares
for the environment. Mary made this
clear in her response to a question about the iron mine in the Penokees. She
told us that she did not like the way that the mine issue was handled. She
explained that when the mine was being considered, a bipartisan bill was
introduced in the state legislature that would have provided a framework for
developing the mine in an environmentally sensitive way, but the bill was
ignored in favor of one written by the mining company. She said that she would
have chosen an environmentally sensitive, bipartisan approach.
·
As governor, she would accept federal funds
to expand Medicaid. Why, she asked, should we allow the taxes we pay to be
sent to other states to benefit their economies?
·
As governor, she would build a state health
insurance exchange for Wisconsin and negotiate with the insurance companies to
lower the rates in Wisconsin. She pointed to Minnesota, where the state’s
active involvement has brought lower health insurance rates to its people. Why,
she wanted to know, should we pay higher rates than those in Minnesota when we
could bring them down through active state involvement?
·
She supports the right of public employees to
bargain collectively.
·
She supports a person’s right to choose whom to
marry, and she added that if she were governor, she would defend our state’s
Domestic Partnership Registry against the lawsuits that have been filed against
it, which the current administration has declined to do.
·
She believes that we should accept federal money
to improve our infrastructure, especially because it would create a lot of jobs
in our state.
Mary made it clear to me that her
administration would be very different from the current administration in ways
that I can support. In addition, she is
a strong candidate. Many progressive candidates are vulnerable to the charge
that they don’t really understand the needs of business, but no one can say
that about Mary. Her large role in the growth of her family’s company makes it
clear that she does understand business. She is a strong candidate, and she
will be a good governor. I support Mary Burke, and, if you believe that
Wisconsin needs a change, I advise you to do so, too.
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