Sheboy and County Chamber of Commerce and the business advocacy committee. I'd like to welcome you to our first Friday forum today We're going to be having a discussion with some of our candidates for local races And I hope that we can all benefit from what we're here today Unfortunately, we are experiencing some technical difficulties and so we are broadcasting this live But we also expect to have a higher quality recording posted on our website as well as on our Facebook page As soon as it's possible to do so after this event is completed. So thank you for your patience in that regard so I'd like to start by introducing our first representative Terry Katzma. He was first elected to the assembly in 2014 Terry is also a village trustee in Usberg He sits on the board of several local school boards and was recognized with the Working Wisconsin Award and by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. Terry is very active with his church and his community. So thank you For joining us today. We'd also like to welcome Mary Lynn. Mary Lynn Donahue graduated from Sheboygan North High School. She went on to receive her bachelor's degree And her master's degree from the University of Wisconsin Madison and in 1979 She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison School of Law Mary Lynn has several, has served on the board of many local arts programs and non-profits After retiring, Mary Lynn went back to school and received her master's degree in women's and gender studies She is looking forward to bringing her skills, experience and energy to the Wisconsin assembly and like it or not She also plays the bagpipes So I'd like to also welcome Mary Lynn today So with that I would like to ask our first speaker to go ahead and give us a brief introduction and let us know what's what Is motivating with your run today? Thank you Well, good morning everyone and good morning members of the chamber and thank you to the chamber for hosting this today Thank you to the members of the government relations committee the few of you that are here Thank you to Josh also for moderating and I want to thank Mary Lynn To for being a candidate in this race it's important that that people have a choice and and I think the As people as we will see that we're quite different on the ends of the spectrum and I think we would be able to Explain that then as well One thing that was left off my bio the most important thing is that I am Mary to Nancy it's we just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary about 10 days ago We have three children and six grandchildren So those are the pride of my life also my career prior to the assembly was in banking And I was at a community bank in Sheboygan County here for for over 30 years the last couple of years I served as president of that bank and so when I was in the mid 50s I was up to here with with FDIC regulations and and kids around of the house and I thought I were comfortable and This assembly seat was open. So I took a run at that. So it's this is a second career for me And it's been really really rewarding and really really interesting So when you are elected, which the first term and you know what it is when you get elected to a board or a committee When you're first on you have no idea what's going on. You don't have a clue So when I was elected they hand you this budget here. Here's a 70 billion dollar budget What do you think? Well, you have just no idea Meanwhile, you're walking around being honored by to have an office in the capital of the state of Wisconsin That wonderful building that is down there So the first term that I served is just getting used to the ropes getting used to what's going on You get to serve on a couple of committees that the speaker or the the leaders put you on and so the second term that I was elected I was able to serve as chairman of the Financial institutions committee which made a lot of sense because that was my background and that has oversight over banks and credit unions But what I learned is where the action really is is in the joint finance committee that's the committee that's made up of of 16 members eight members from the Senate and eight members from the assembly and that is really the committee that Sets the budget and so I was able to be appointed to that joint finance committee in my most recent term and the way things work is the governor introduces a budget and then the legislature Works on that budget. There's probably a six-month time period We travel around all four corners of the state to hear feedback from folks and What I learned and I thought we had a very very good budget in the end and in the end We increased spending to K-12 school districts. We What I heard what I learned was because our economy and this is again is all prior to coronavirus our economy was booming and so Healthcare facilities Elderly care places had really difficulties finding people so we were able to put money in the budget to help with that funding there as Well, so that's been been really rewarding for me to be part of that joint finance committee And I look forward to continuing that work as well So My first three campaigns I thought were run very well My opponent was we had a we had a good relationship where there was no mud slinging And I trust Mary Lynn will conduct that campaign as well as What can be done so with that I look forward to this this format. Thank you Good afternoon everyone. I'm Mary Lynn Donahue. I'm running for the 26th assembly and Terry Yes, it's going to be a non mud slinging campaign Terry is a Gentleman and so I very much appreciate that probably more than I am a lady, but oh well I jumped into this race in mid-May when I found out that no one was running It was kind of a whirlwind within 10 days And mind you this is in COVID times. I had 90 Incredible volunteers gather over 550 signatures on my nomination papers all within 10 days and the energy that generated in that first 10 days is really I have found it has continued Well, I thought it would be a quiet affair and it has not been There's so much to learn about running a campaign just like being in the legislature but Here's some things that I do know and that I want to share The Republicans have both at the Assembly in the Senate and they have since 2012 after the 2011 gerrymander the But in spite of that particularly since the passage of the first bipartisan COVID bill Republicans have been missing in action. They were missing in action when it came time to try to deal with the Really horrible situation that we had with the April election They were missing in action when it came to applying for and accepting 25 million dollars in unemployment compensation benefits for For the state they actively undermined governor Evers safer at home Program they went to the Supreme Court they got it overturned But they didn't have a plan in place. They asked for some time to get a plan together in the Supreme Court said no as a result Both county and municipal governments are trying their best to implement regulations and to Guide businesses and people in the ways that we can actually get this disease under control get this epidemic under control and and Hopefully one day get back to get back to normal In my view the Republicans have also been missing in action in broader and more difficult issues This has been talked about for almost a decade now But now is the time for Wisconsin to accept federal reimbursement to expand our medical assistance program the state of Wisconsin has left 1.2 billion dollars on other taxpayers tables Because it has stubbornly refused to apply for money that will help to expand services to low-income and working families the people who need it most That absolutely has to change There's a practice of gabbling in and out Calling calling the legislature to order and then just dismissing it within 30 seconds They did that in November when governor Evers had proposed that we discuss some common sense gun laws 30 seconds the legislature was was in place to talk about Universal Registration universal background checks and and a red flag law, but here's the deal 70 Actually 82% of Wisconsinites support these common sense gun regulations including 70 percent 70 percent of gun owners They have not taken any action on fair maps Yeah, one of the reasons that it's hard to find somebody to run in the 26th assembly district is because it has been brutally gerrymandered the city has been cut in half and moved half south half north and And it is hard to find people to run when the chances of you winning the election are really fairly slim It hasn't stopped me and it won't stop me But we need to as we come upon the second redistricting plan or the opportunity to redistricted in 2021 We need to have a fair maps commission We need to talk about establishing an independent redistricting commission again 80% of Wisconsin voters want an independent redistricting commission 50 out of 72 counties have voted in favor of such a thing including Wait for it Sheboygan County by a 20 to 4 vote the time to look at Bipartisan Lee at an independent redistricting commission has come Until we solve frankly that problem until we make maps fair. It's a purple state Until we make those maps fair We're really not going to get to any of these issues. So I aim to make this Race competitive you have some of my personal history. I did practice law for 33 years It was a great honor and privilege and like Terry. I want to mention I have a fabulous husband two gorgeous boys who both live in Milwaukee and who so far are safe and sound. Thank you All right. Thank you So I have some questions. I've been submitted by different people members have sent any questions The first question has to do with the budget And Mr. Cosmine were mentioning the budget earlier. How has our state budget been impacted by COVID-19? How do you plan to move forward and also related to that? What are some of the most important things that are likely to be impacted by the COVID-19 expenses and its impact on the budget? Well, thank you. The question is in January the economy was was roaring along and excuse me and at that point we were dealing with with budget surpluses and we were talking about at that point we had about 600 million in the rainy day fund and We were wondering how are we going to get to a billion dollars and But but since then now with it with the COVID we are still we are weight We know that revenues are down dramatically for our budget. It's going to be a really really tough budget We're waiting for the legislative fiscal bureau. That's the nonpartisan agency that advises the legislature On what the tax revenues are going to be because the deadline was moved from April 15 to July 15 They are still trying to tabulate what the numbers are going to be but we know it's going to be difficult That's why we're trying to get the economy going or trying to get businesses going And we applaud the chamber and the methods that they're doing to try to accomplish that as well The rainy day fund as Terry mentioned it has really expanded over time as has the rainy day fund for the city And that's been good for us. I think it's important The Badger Institute fairly conservative thinking really is looking hard at Intelligent use of that rainy day fund that surplus about half of the surplus goes into the rainy day fund So I think that's going to be very important. I applaud governor Evers Ordered that budgets be cut Thankfully with the city because we rely on property taxes our day of reckoning is down a little farther Key, I think key to the survival and the thriving of both state and local governments and their ability To deal with the overwhelming problems that we're all facing is that federal package? And so I am hoping that Within the next few days that there is a package that has significant support for both state and local governments Do I see Seth is in the background there the educational system is is in need of great support? So fingers crossed it's going to be a huge huge struggle Okay, kind of shifting gears Where do you stand on creating a medical marijuana program in, Wisconsin, and what would that look like also? What are your views on decriminalizing small amounts of? marijuana such as 10 grams or less All right Let me just be real honest on for the legalization of marijuana period. I think Marijuana that is responsibly grown and regulated will provide significant tax revenues The thought that somehow marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol is simply not correct There is a potential an absolute potential for abuse with marijuana as there is for alcohol and The same rules regarding driving and other matters that apply to Alcohol need to apply to marijuana once we have a law in place I have friends who use medical marijuana and it's a lifesaver for them It is time to decriminalize these tiny amounts of marijuana the prison system Takes a huge percentage relatively speaking of the of the Wisconsin budget Why are we the second conviction for a small amount of marijuana is a felony? Why are we doing this again the Badger Institute a pretty conservative think tank thinks this this mass incarceration of people for tiny little crimes is foolish and I would agree so I'm just out there and I'm not a user I Think here's an instance where I differ from from my challenger here I am not in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana I think that is is common the view that is shared by law enforcement The the issue as far as medical marijuana, there's been some bills introduced on that I think that's a matter that we need to study. We need to look at there are certainly Reports of folks that have benefited from medical marijuana Unfortunately, the studies have not yet been done on that and I think that that's what needs to be done All right, Miss Donahue was actually talking about The importance in her mind of redistricting and we have someone who's asking for both of you to talk about Whether you favor redistricting and what that would look like what would be the best way to happen sure Redistricting the problem that that the Democrats have is that that their Democrats are focused primarily in the urban areas of Milwaukee in Madison and When it comes to so you can't really see this very well, but here is here is a map that shows by county in the 2016 election for president and Madison Milwaukee and a couple of counties way up north Went for the for the Democrat in Shavuigan County here Trump got 56% and Clinton got 39% so The problem is is the makeup of the organ of the location and In the assembly, there's 99 districts all equaling about 57,000 people and of those 99 districts the Republicans have 63 the Democrats have 36, but out of that 63 20 of those seats were won in 2018 by Governor Evers or Senator Tammy Baldwin, so let me say that again a third of those seats were won at the top of the ticket by the Democrat and so what does that say it says that people Split their ticket people just don't always vote the same way across the board people know their assembly representatives and So they may vote for one party at the top in a different party Lower down and this is exact evidence of that and so so the argument for for For redistricting I think is is false The responsibility for it is in our Constitution and that is lays under and with the elected officials And I believe that's where it should stay the governor he was recently came out with a with an order for a commission and He set some guidelines for if you can't be an elected official and the numerous other things and What I was kind of perplexed on the final one was none of your social media Can can show any any hate speech or any any discrimination I thought that doesn't make any sense Why why is it okay if I can speak to you personally about about what may be discrimination, but it is not okay If I do it on social media respectfully Terry Your folks are dead wrong. I was a plaintiff in Gil versus Whitford that was the gerrymandering case that was started in 2015 and eventually resolved by the Rusco and the limone cases in the Supreme Court in 2018 I was in the Supreme Court chambers when both of those cases were Argued which for lawyers like major Was like whoa, I'm so close to these incredible people but here's the problem Take the take the 26th assembly district in the old days That was the city of Sheboygan and part of the village of Kohler, okay in 2011 under the redistricting maps that were drawn in secret in a law office That was it was called the map room. It was a locked office Terry didn't get to see his district until you know everything was done Well, you came after so but the 26th was cracked in half scientifically computer models galore so that There is I think what the Republican Party is hoping for is a lifetime appointment But if you win as a Republican in the 26th, you never need to worry again now the city of Sheboygan is an interesting place Primarily Democratic, but you'll remember we elected two Republicans to the to the to the assembly Mike Ensley and Angel Ibum So we're kind of a purple city We have purple results in national elections and yet Democrats win 54% of the vote in 2018 We win 30 assembly seats and it's because of the way the maps are drawn Listen Democrats do it too if they have the chance they do it too So what we're saying is get it into an independent commission like Iowa has been doing for more than 20 years It works. It's independent You don't have people who have social media accounts that say I'm a Democrat or I'm a rebel You get really fairly neutral people who are interested in the civic health of our of our country So if the Republicans win one year, okay, if the Democrats win one year, okay, but the playing field is level Gotta happen nothing changes in our government until that happens One last question before I let you both off the hot seat with the COVID-19 situation when the Supreme Court Made their ruling setting aside governor Zebra pre bit governor either sport or previously they had Suggested that hopefully the legislature and the executive would have worked together to get rules in place and There aren't there hasn't really been Would appear cooperation to create rules and at this point we have yet another executive order in place Which is being questioned by some people and so my question to you is what should the legislature be doing at this time? if anything to address the COVID-19 situation and how people should be responding to it the reason why the Legislature took the governor to the Supreme Court is because it's clear in our statute said the order can go for 60 days and the order that was written by the Department of Health Secretary went beyond that 60 days. So when that was done we felt that Decisions should be made locally These sort of things so what works in Madison is not going to work necessarily in Rhinewinder and so It's unfortunate that that there's a lack of trust with the governor and the legislative leaders And the governor has said well, I'm not going to change the election and then like the Friday before he made an effort to change the election The governor has said I'm not going to do a mask order and then and then he comes up with a mask order the day after the Supreme Court hearing the legislative leaders Speaker boss and leader Fitzgerald and the governor were in a room Maybe smaller than this trying to come up with an agreement trying to negotiate something and here They found out the meeting was secretly taped. Well, do you think that's gonna? Just diminish whatever trust they are trying to build with each other and the governor said oh, I didn't know it was being taped well governor's got to know what's going on in his administration and so we continue to Agree that local decision should be made by local health people and in the Schwedin County is As an example is doing a fine job They were the first one of the first ones out with this corona virus dashboard and of course I look up at every day and fortunately now we only have one person that's hospitalized and So so I appreciate the efforts that are being made there this is a classic case of What happens when you have a thoroughly gerrymandered legislature? Nobody has to talk to each other many of you may remember Senator Cal Potter Who's one of my mentors Cal is in the Senate for a long time? and He used to tell me about the way that you know You would you would fight during the day and then you'd go out for a beer afterwards because you liked and you trusted the people you worked with because of gerrymandering Terry's a very respectful guy, but he has there's no need for him to listen to me because There's nothing I can do to make sure that he is responsive to my concerns so Let's fix the maps. Let's get an elect elected officials that really and truly represent what the people want and then they will talk there's a On my bulletin board a quote from Shakespeare from the Tempest Do his adversaries do in the law? Strive mightily, but then eat and drink his friends And I think if we have a balanced legislature that really if the 26th assembly district really represents The people as a whole People will start to talk to each other the legislature will become more functional this horrible Uncivil dysfunctional Government system that we have and Republicans are not solely at fault for this They do have the power, but they're not solely at fault for this This can change if we have fair maps Like I tell people when I'm campaigning until we get fair maps We aren't going to bring medicaid medical medicaid expansion We're not going to have common sense gun laws. These things aren't going to happen because One party is in such full control and there's no way for the other party to get control So I think they do need to strive mightily the governor and the legislature and eat and drink his friends And let's get this Goddard thing worked out All right, well, I'd like to thank both of you for coming out today and joining us sharing your thoughts and we look forward to Seeing the rest of the campaign in the election. Thank you so much. Thank you We're going to start by introducing Michael Beardsley Michael as MIT consultant with a bachelor's degree in business administration With an emphasis in international management and enterprise resource planning from University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Michael is also a board member for our Wisconsin revolution and was elected as a delegate for the 2020 Democratic National Convention Michael joined the race because he wasn't seeing the most important issues being addressed on a level that he would like to see as a voter He determined that this race would provide his greatest opportunity to address climate change Healthcare rural communities and more he believes it is time for someone fresh and focused on what it takes to boost our communities And make people's lives better people first solutions focused Second I'd like to introduce Matt or Matt is currently director of business and development for the broad wind company He's a bachelor's degree in environmental science from DePaul University and an MBA from Marquette It's taught the wind energy technology program at Lakeshore Technology College Matt will work to create more opportunities and revenue streams in both rural areas in the cities of the sixth congressional district He believes that agriculture renewable energy Expanded broadband access and legal marijuana can all contribute to a revitalized rural economy in a bright future for Wisconsin's sixth district Finally in the middle. We have Jessica King Jessica served as a state senator in district 18 and served as a chair of the workforce development job training and technical colleges committee She has served as a member of the Oshkosh Common Council and as deputy mayor for two terms During which Jessica started the city's strategic planning cycles and supported investment in public infrastructure Which included the renovation of the Oshkosh Convention Center and breaking ground on the Oshkosh Riverwalk Jessica has previously worked for the US Department of Justice as a chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee and as an adjunct Faculty for the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Originally from Fond du Lac. Jessica's family has called the sixth district home for six generations All right So I'd like to give each of you an opportunity to introduce yourself and what's bringing you to this campaign What you're most passionate about and we can start here with Michael and work our way to the other end Thank you. Thanks to the Chamber of Commerce for hosting and everyone being here including the candidates So I'm Michael Beardsley. I'm going to represent you in Congress Like was mentioned, I'm currently an IT consultant as my day job. I live in work in Oshkosh, Wisconsin I've grown up in the Fox Valley most of my life where I grew up in freedom, which is just outside of Appleton And I graduated from UW Oshkosh with my business degree lead me to where I am in IT today I'm a board member of our Wisconsin Revolution, which happens to be co-chaired by Sarah Lloyd who ran for the seat in 2016 And also Mike McCabe is the executive director who ran for governor in 2018 So these are two people I work with closely to advocate for many of the plans that I also supported my campaign Which I will talk about in a bit here Also one of the six district elected delegates for the senator Sanders for the national convention Which will be virtually and about two weeks here in Milwaukee Instead of focusing on how I got here, I like to focus on where we can go from here the future and the inspiration of this campaign Generally, I felt that we were facing a moment that was too important to sit back and not do anything and not do What I think is right. So why I decided they're almost was pretty simple I felt like this district that has been taking for granted and someone left behind because of the way the maps were drawn in the the current representation Probably getting a little too comfortable and not really representing the people to the extent that I think he should So with 2020 being the year of everything essentially going wrong We're seeing a lot of these critical systems that we all rely on exposed And so I think this is the year we need change and I think this is year we can make change And I think this district's ready for something new something or someone specifically that has urgent and tangible plans Well, they know exactly what they're getting when they're voting for me To address the many struggles. We're all facing Just honestly that the opposite of our current representation And to really drive this change that many of us need to we need to be doing something different We need to be doing something new so that's what I'm trying to do with this campaign So specifically some of the plans I'm supporting are in the top plans are a single-payer health care Fighting climate change and protecting our environment and reforming our election systems There's many other people focused plans I'm advocating for but I'll touch on these Further here, and then hopefully we have some more questions Focus on them So for a single-payer health care system, which is popularly known as Medicare for all This is what I believe will best shift the system back to focusing on health care as a human rights instead of letting for-profit companies like insurance Insurance industry and pharmaceutical industry from dictating the care we need and dictating what we can afford The system would be nonprofit publicly administrative, but still privately delivered just like we know today Essentially removing the for-profit insurance companies out of the equation removing the complexities Taking out deductibles premiums copays networks all the confusion that exists today But with the same care that you already get for the environment. I like to focus on the Green New Deal But specifically focus on how it addresses world communities because I think the message sometimes gets lost and to focus on urban populations And if we feel a crack it would feel to be proactive and tackle climate change Pretty much everything else we'll be talking about today won't really matter so What we need is a national unit of effort on this and that's one of the reasons that I decided to run for the seat Because I think this is a this is obviously a global issue and we need to lead at the national level And that means everyone has to be on board rural or urban and everyone has to be supported And we do this by having incentives in place for farms to transition to sustainable practices And also manufacturing company manufacturing companies, which these are two industries that are huge in the six districts specifically and Many of the dairy farms are struggling to stay afloat So this is a win-win for the environment and win for an industry that needs support now and in the future And then lastly I'll finish up here focusing on elections reform There's really never been a time we've been so polarized and just generally fed up with the entire political system And I'm I'm essentially in the same boat, which is which is partly why I decided to run to try to make a difference I think it's wrong that we have career politicians in the same office for decades I think it's wrong that corporations are able to spend large sums of money To dictate elections elections, and I think it's wrong that the most popular candidates don't always win So by by implementing congressional term limits We can get Congress back to its original attention of people representing people that actually understand the district's needs We change our voting system to a ranked choice voting system where we rank our preferences instead of Voting for a lesser of two evils and end up with someone with likely 50% of less than 50% of the vote winning That doesn't seem like a fair democracy to me And lastly, I think it's crucial we overturn citizens united without doing that Corporations are going to be able to do what they want dictate election elections how they want So if we read the corporate politics, or if we read corporate money from Politics and have elections that focus on people and focus on people powered funding support grassroots efforts That's really where the difference is going to come from so with that I look forward to the discussions today And I hope you consider voting for me as your next representative. Thank you Good afternoon. My name is Jessica King former state senator former hush-hush common council member I decided to run because I felt like we really needed a strong problem-solver in the house of representatives I think many of you are aware that the house of representatives is currently in Majority control by the Democrat Democratic Party, and I don't really see that changing I've grown up in this district. My son is the sixth generation of my family to live here And what I've really appreciated in my time living here was the legacy left by Bill Steiger and by Tom Petri We're both going to be moderate problem solvers that were able to build Coalitions to get things done for the district now I live in Oshkosh grew up in Fond du Lac So the projects that come to my mind are the Johnson Street overpass in the city of Fond du Lac to go over the train The Veterans Museum on highway 41 the Wisconsin Street Bridge development in the city of Oshkosh And those projects happened because we had representation that could actually Advocate for us and bring those resources back to our community. And that's a big part of this job What I believe is that my education experience and experience Serving on the Oshkosh Common Council makes me ready on day one to help us overcome this recession and the pandemic When I was on the Oshkosh Common Council, I served during the 2008 recession Very familiar is what kind of packages local and state governments need in order to succeed and to build out of recessions So that's why you picked me In 2008 many of you may know we had extreme weather events that cause flooding for a vast majority of the Locations in Wisconsin and I was part of the solutions for the 8th largest city in Wisconsin So I have some background in resolving complex emergencies for communities The other thing you should know about me the 18th State Senate district has a 42 percent Democrat population So in order for me to win and be competitive that means I have to work across the aisle and I had to collaborate and I got Seven to eight percent of Republicans and independents to vote for me not because they agreed with me all the time Because they could trust me and understand that I was a solutions focused person And they respected where I came from I'm not shy about talking about the fact that both of my parents were disabled and that I am actually a product of the City of Fond du Lacs foster care system. I received many of the public benefits that are in controversy and discussion today. I Graduated from our public state UW Oshkosh school because I had GI benefits and Pell grants and work study and I worked in a factory every summer to make sure I could get to school. I Decided to become a lawyer because I believe that people need advocates And we need real problem solvers and people need to understand the balance between hard work opportunity and And I'm so proud and grateful for all the people that supported me in the City of Fond du Lac And I want to give that back now because you know what I've made it I'm the vice president of a national health care company that represents hospitals and patients against health insurance companies To get wrongfully denied medical claims for people I know an awful lot about the health care reimbursement process and about the need for consumer protections The need for affordable care and the need to access to providers So these are some of the reasons why I'm running These are some of the reasons why I can provide confidence and stability during an uncertain time And this is why I'm asking for your support to represent you in Washington. Thank you Good afternoon. Thank you to the shagway in chamber for putting this on what a cool event as with many events in 2020 It's not Entirely what we thought we'd be doing, but we play the hands that were dealt, right? My name is Matthew Bore and I'm here to ask for your vote for Congress on August 11th, and that again on November 3rd I am the director of business development for Broadwood Corporation up in Manitowoc We're a large metal fabrication shop there. We're one of the top Three to four employers in Manitowoc in terms of employees I think that's what one thing right off the bat that separates me from a lot of people that run for office that I have actual current business Credo, and I never confuse motion with action I originally moved to Wisconsin to teach the wind energy technology program at Lakeshore Technical College up in Cleveland I did that in 2010. I'd never heard of Cleveland before I moved there, but since there I've made it my home. I bought an old farmhouse there and When I'm not campaigning not running for Congress and not working I'm usually covered at sawdust or plastered us or some other sort of totally disgusting dust working on that thing We're not here to talk about that today. We're here to talk about the future as We as we move down the path into a further divided nation But we really need our people who are consensus builders and individuals used to find some sort of compromise I'll argue that that used to be a core core trait of skillful politicians and I think it still is but I think it's also pretty obvious that something has flown the coop there That's just not happening any happening any more. Maybe social media had to do with it Maybe the deluge of money and politics had to do with it But the fact is we're not hearing anything about any sort of compromise in Washington DC right now and that's absurd In the world of business if we have an issue I don't care what it is and let's just say there's certain parts of it that we know we can agree upon and certain parts that we won't maybe that we're negotiating a lease or You know some sort of equipment buy-in or trying to buy another company or sell something whatever What we usually do is we'll take part of the issue that we know we're not going to agree upon We'll set it aside we can argue about that later and We'll take the remaining parts of that and decide on what's what issues or what parts of that We can't solve and work through it And maybe need to break another problem in half and say we can solve this today This other part will solve next week and by the end of next week at least we've got two-thirds of the problem fixed I Intend to bring that sort of philosophy to Washington DC I'm looking forward to your questions. So let's get after it. All right. Thank you each of you So I'd like to ask how do you encourage diversity and inclusion and what are your views on white flight police reform and defunding of police departments? We can start with Jessica and then Thank you, there's a there's a lot to unravel in there I don't think I can get it all done in my two minutes. That's my understanding what I have so wicked problems in two minutes Okay, one of the things we have to do To you know include Well, I'll start that there's too many questions in there I'll start with the police reform issue or the racial justice issue because I think that's the one that's most important right now We have to restore People's confidence in our Rule of law here in this country in the United States It's one of the things that makes us the proudest democracy in the world And now that we're seeing things on video in neighboring communities that we may find disturbing or may cause us to question the integrity of our government It's important that we reaffirm our belief that when justice is denied to one person It is denied to all of us and so one of the things I propose as a member of the House of Representatives is to Make sure that we properly fund the office of the special, you know special investigators special prosecutors And that they are deployed to investigate every officer involved death Because that allows for transparency and integrity in the process it makes sure that there is no You know that we are not all victims of local corruption And that's one of the things that I believe will restore trust and faith in our processes And I know a lot of people are concerned that this fear of litigation or this fear of prosecution may chill Safety in some way and what I can say is as a being a lawyer for the last 20 years I've always known that every day I go to work as an advocate for people that if I didn't do my job Right, they'd have the ability to sue me and I know that there's a lot of business owners Incorporations that have that same standard put to them same thing with physicians And I believe that we should not have a lesser standard for our law enforcement personnel. Thank you So I too will start with criminal justice for for when I'll touch on some other things as well So there's there's quite a bit we can do in that space And I think the general ideas that increase transparency and remove the us first that mentality that we have today So that starts with demilitarizing the police for for me There's no reason why the police need to have military weapons military vehicles And be an extension of the military. That's there's the National Guard for that the police need to be demilitarized so there's not that instinctual fear as soon as a Policeman pulls you over or talks to you or anything. So that's that's step one And I think we also need to make we need to require that police budgets end up bearing the cost of misconduct that they do Currently most municipalities or counties if police is in courts or they have to defend themselves That comes out of the general fund that needs to come out of the police budgets. So they're actually They're actually held responsible for that I would propose establishing establishing oversight committees for each community Madison has done this. This is essentially a committee that is full of non-elected people part of the community that have authority to To call the police punish the police For very specific Misconducts and wrongdoings. I think since police are publicly funded. We need to make a publicly available body cam footage So that people can have the full transparency that we don't have today Like Jess mentioned any police killings or wrongdoings need to be independently investigated and prosecuted We've seen too many times police will investigate themselves No wrongdoing and then sweep it under the rug, which is which is not right and does not build trust Some other things we can do legalize marijuana at the federal level There's an expunge the records. There should be no criminal record with with marijuana So I'll leave it at that for criminal justice for general equality and I'll also touch on LGBTQ rights We should pass an equality act. We should also take a look at at-will employment laws so that so we can ensure that there is no Fireings that have anything to do with discrimination whether you're LGBTQ whether you're a person of color, etc And I also think Medicare for all would be something that would Increase the quality for everybody. They're one that would have the same access to health care that they currently don't Thank you Josh, can you please reread the question? There was a there's a lot of filling in that burrito There is how did you encourage diversity at how how do you encourage diversity and inclusion and what are your views on like flight police reform Okay, thank you All right There's a lot there, so I'll start bit by bit here first things first if we're going to talk about police brutality This is a cancer. It does exist. I'd say that any sort of Malfeasance in a profession we have to be ever vigilant to get rid of it whether we're talking about a An attorney that takes bribes politician takes bribes a nurse or a doctor that kills patients or a police Officer that abuses their power and abuses the people that they're sworn to protect This exists and we have to be ever vigilant and make sure that we're enforcing the laws that Essentially watchdog those sort of behaviors. That's that's first and foremost. That's a huge deal when we're talking about things to other things that we can do to essentially promote Equality I one of the planks my platform is encouraging the decriminalization and legalization Marijuana I think that that would unburden a lot of we'll call it bandwidth in the legal system in general A number of a lot of people that tend to get arrested and then ultimately jailed for marijuana tend to be people of color and That would be a good way to address that right off the bat. It's not a panacea But again, we're we're grabbing low hanging fruit there regarding white flight. I mean That's a tough one. That's been going on since I mean what 70 years or something like that. I mean you have individuals that live in a certain neighborhood They don't want to live in that neighborhood anymore than they moved to a different neighborhood I think by increasing economic opportunity for all people seem to care less and less I mean and then they won't they wouldn't leave a certain neighborhoods because that's the best way I go about that What is your plan for creating quality jobs here in Sheboygan County and Also, if you can touch on unemployment benefits and whether those should be continued due to the ongoing coronavirus Situation if you'd like to start since you went last sure work our way this direction sounds good so Regarding the unemployment, I do think that six hundred dollars a week is a bit stiff But I do I would like to see some sort of improved or enhanced unemployment Continue for a lot of individuals that have been put out of work because of this because of COVID Specifically, I'm talking about individuals that work in hospitality And he's one that's connected with any sort of tourism in Wisconsin We're seeing a lot of those sort of jobs have been hammered and even those that are still happening They haven't happened with the vigour that they typically would in Wisconsin summer And we all know what happens by about September 15th when the kids go back to school a lot of times those seasonal job for People were planning on making a good chunk of money to float them into winter. It doesn't happen anymore. So Short story, I would definitely Support some sort of enhanced unemployment benefit that would continue on until we got a handle on this this COVID thing, okay? in terms of Improving the economic climate of rural Wisconsin and if you look at the map of the 6th district Basically it runs from Manitowoc all the way down to the northern tip of Milwaukee County and for the sake of easy math We're not going to get the gerrymandered discussion here Essentially west to the Wisconsin River, okay? There's an awful lot of very small towns very small farm towns that have a lot of individuals that in many cases are Facing the unpleasant reality of well, I can work at this gas station or there's not a whole lot of manufacturing or something like that Or they have to move to a larger city or you know place where they necessarily don't really want to go to so Basically, I've got a three-step plan that can improve the rural Basically the rural prospectus for individuals in the 6th district first things first. I have a big proponent of renewable energy I've worked in that field for about a dozen years and basically for every about eight to ten wind turbines You see throughout the the state that's one full-time job. It's not going anywhere for at least 20 years It's a highly skilled and highly billed paid job Solar there's good opportunities for solar energy in the same in the same way number two I definitely support improving more high-speed access at a reasonable cost to individuals that live in the country Coven for all of its for everything that it's done It's definitely shine the light on the problems of individuals that are in rural areas that basically couldn't School their kids or couldn't participate in a lot of part of a lot of society because they had a Frankly a bad internet connection finally decriminalizing marijuana There you've got cheap land in places and individuals that could maybe You know be fairly self-sufficient, you know, whether it's growing marijuana or selling it or processing it That definitely creates its own little economy that would benefit rural parts of our district. All right unemployment in Chicago We have to appreciate that right now. We're in a recession and that nationwide the unemployment rate is still probably approximately about 11% In that type of economy, you know short-term. I think we do have to Continue with the unemployment benefits until we can build out a different structure one of the challenges we have with state and local governments is their inability to Deftly or quickly make changes so the fact that it took them how many months to establish this first system To deliver unemployment benefits. I don't think there's a way to put in an income formula or anything else So I think for short term to keep cash in our economy to keep Money in people's hands so they continue to patronize businesses. It's important to keep that going short-term long-term I think we have to appreciate the what has come to our awareness and that is the industry of child care and Right now it's for so many employers across the country They're most talented people are trying to make the choice of should I continue to work or who can I help to find? Help my family Care for my young people so that I can use my highest and best skill In the economy I have the same challenge. I have a four-year-old son who you know I could I could stay home and take care of them if my daycare center isn't open but maybe we need a different solution and the wonderful thing about the federal government has the ability to Use extra resources and we've seen that benefit just in the child care industry with the recovery stimulus bills in Having incentive wages for child care workers, and they've increased their wages by five dollars an hour And I'd like to see that made person permanent because I believe that our employers and our working families Probably here in Sheboygan and across the six congressional district could use that support to get them back to work I asked to also agree about other infrastructure plans. It's one of the opportunities. We have during recession We have quite a few roads bridge bridges and schools That need Upgrades and that's an opportunity to put people back to work too. So thank you All right. This is another big question. So I'll start with unemployment benefits so First thing I would have done instead of the $600 is I would have preferred to do the way of so many European countries Did and did a salary guaranteed? Denmark for example federally guaranteed 80% salary for For people the money went directly to businesses to keep people on the payroll So we wouldn't have this issue of so many unemployed with that said We didn't do that. So I think it's important in the short term to continue the $600 a week I'm also in favor of Continual stimulus checks like we saw a couple months ago with the $1,200. I think that should be continual until the pandemic is over to make sure people are financially whole so And then for unemployment, there's there's a lot of different opportunities here. So I'm going to echo Some what they already said Legalizing cannabis and using that for recreational purposes and agricultural purposes in this area for alternative crops Along those lines ensuring high-speed broadband internet access, I don't understand how we're going to Expect some kids to do for virtual schooling if they don't have access to high-speed Internet I'm jumping around a bit here, but Education specifically I think to to make sure we have jobs that are growing in this district We need to increase K-12 funding, but also set a Introduce a two-year tuition-free college plan that senator Baldwin has been a champion of For the last few years. I think they'll keep the workforce educated especially for a lot of the manufacturing manufacturing companies in this area Then back to public schools, I think there needs to be a salary floor for public teachers I think we're seeing too many times where people that would be great teachers are opting for different careers for financial reasons So we're losing teachers before they even give it a shot. So I think that's something that is needed It then I'll finish with environmental incentives and Opportunities there and Agriculture as well if we're being proactive with with fighting climate change that can really turn into an economic Boom instead of being reactive and scrambling and trying to put out a fire Which which will not help this area or anywhere, but this area specifically which is very agricultural driven So I think if we shift subsidies from from large mega farms back to small medium farms We'll keep those farms open for one because they've been closing continuously for ten years now And promote regenerative agriculture to use a land more efficiently promote the greater biodiversity which includes cannabis and other and other crops to keep it in this area And then lastly I will end with Actually, yeah, I touched on subsidies. So I think I covered everything I wanted to so thank you Um International trade since you're going to be on or making decisions on a national level What should the United States be doing about issues such as tariffs should we consider using tariff so the times when tariffs are a good tool and also Should we be concerned about trade deficits with countries like China and what should we be doing about that? Michael if you want to start sure Yes, so it's a good question. I'll start with touching on the new us Mexico Canada agreement I think one thing we need to do is ensure that I need federal contracts that come up to stay within the US International trade so so I'm not a big fan of tariffs in general. I think that kind of pushes the cost and The cost and the burden on to the producers and the people that are that are actually doing this We're seeing that with dairy right now. We saw that was steel earlier So I think the national debt Sorry, the national deficit with countries like China is a concern. I think it's When we talk about the national deficit and related to spending especially on co-ed I think it's the wrong time to bring it up because we're in an emergency This is time where we need to be spending money to just literally save people's lives But when we take into account federal deficits to China, I think that that's a legitimate concern that I don't think terrorists all so I don't have a good Rebottle to what we should do besides terrorists, but I think that's not not allowing China to hold as much debt should be a priority Thank you Thank you. One of the things We do have the new regional trade agreement with with Mexico and Canada and I think with any of our international trade agreements You know as all law it's only as good as it can be enforced and right now with the Mexico-Canada United States trade agreement We've already seen even though it's been recently enacted that there are many businesses in Mexico that are not actually in good faith Implementing the terms of the agreement and so as it's you know diplomatic reality and challenge You have then have to use your systems of recourse to bring those things to light to get fair playing fields for For our businesses and our regional economies that have in good faith been following the laws while other bad actors have decided not to especially with regard to wage wage guarantees that were put in that regional agreement to say that Mexican workers needed to make a minimum of $16 an hour if the companies are not actually following through with those terms in good faith that puts us in a Difficult situation to resolve because it's again many many actors not not just governments involved with these trade agreements One of the things I like about vice president's plan for recovering from the recession is that he has made a commitment to To supply America. It's called the supply America plan and the notion is to bring strategic supply chains back into the United States And sometimes in some ways it's heavily involved with pharmaceuticals But we also have to think about other medical supplies other things that make sure that for national security reasons We have the ability to supply ourselves, which I think this current global pandemic has really Pointed out the fragility in having very long supply chains And I think other things that I can do as a member of the House of Representatives is look toward passing policies and law that Allows us to build regional economies that have smaller supply chains and in particular that could benefit our rural economy Building a regional food economy is incredibly important and right now too much of our trade policy is focusing on Come on certain commodities that have now shown to you know be at the whim of a foreign power if a foreign power chooses To use a different supplier, you know, we don't have an internal use for those products And so it's one of the reasons why I've actually become an investor or a donor loaner to the Oshkosh area food co-op That is the first regional food co-op in northeastern, Wisconsin And it has the opportunity to support regional farmers and give them new markets give them regional markets with shorter supply chains Thank you So I think I'd be remiss if I didn't mention right out of the box that the most important part of any Sort of policy with respect to trade is that it be long-standing I've lived through short-term subsidies in a market and Frankly all it is is a disturbance within the market. It doesn't help that market grow if anything in many times It helps it shrink faster than it would otherwise For a sake of argument, let's just say there was going to be a law that would happen next year that would say that there would be a $20 tax on every sandwich sold in the United States It's absurd, right? Well, let's just bear with me on this one, you know So this is a $20 sandwich tax and it's not going to go away for like 10 years Well in that case you could say well at this point I can make something that looks kind of like a sandwich But it's not a sandwich or we can basically have a big lawsuit to decide You know trade case of some sort to decide if we're going to get rid of this tax if it's if we're going to let it You know ride for that long Or maybe we just start an entirely different business that has nothing to do with sandwiches So if you're in a deli and you're going to retire 10 years from now, you can say you know what let's hang it up We're done That would be the outcome of a long-standing policy and that people could essentially plan with Plan against plan around you have options What I saw happen last year when we were playing around with terrorists from with China and stuff It was that that was it was a huge disturbance in the in the steel market and really it didn't help It helped a few steel manufacturers But anyone that was actually building anything out of steel got absolutely bludgeoned by this is it was bad policy Specifically because it was too it was too short lived in terms of what do we do? I would basically say that we would need to Keep an eye on how China specifically manipulates their currency And if we're seeing the cost of goods that are coming overseas just essentially be entirely too cheap We we essentially go at them with more trade cases period Thank you. Well, I would like to thank all of our candidates from coming out today We have many more questions. We would love to ask and I'm sure there's more you'd like to say But unfortunately, we only have a limited time for him here. So thank you for coming out I'd also like to thank our sponsor pervade health for making all this possible and There's just a few announcements. I'd like to share coming up. We have the Best under 40 awards. So that's going to be done virtually. So please Watch the website for that. Also We're going to be looking for people to help support the chamber golf outing So again, look for at the website for additional information about that Thank you for each of you for participating. Thank you to prepare help and Remember that if you had trouble hearing this recording look on the website or look on our Facebook page For the Schwoiden County Chamber of Commerce to hopefully get a better recording of this Within the next couple days. Thank you so much