Your ballot on November 8th
Sure, you can’t watch a video on YouTube for more than four minutes without it being interrupted by ads for Mandela Barnes and Ron Johnson, but do you know who’s running for State Treasurer? Do you even know what the Secretary of State does? There are a lot of decisions to make this November, and you have absolutely no idea who most of these people are. I didn’t either. And I still don’t. For instance, I didn’t bother reading anything about candidates for Lt. Governor since they share the ticket with the Governor or about the Milwaukee County Sheriff, Milwaukee County Clerk, and State Assemblyman for District 18 who are all running unopposed. But I do have some information on the others. Read on to find out…
Wisconsin State Treasurer
John S. Leiber (Site)
You might think that the Wisconsin State Treasurer does things, but John Leiber (pronounced LYE-burr) is here to tell you that whatever you thought they did, they don’t.
Think the State Treasurer accept checks or collects revenue? Think again.
Think the State Treasurer has some sort of subpoena power to investigate financial crimes or waste, fraud, and abuse? Not in your life, sir.
Think the State Treasurer can just refuse to sign checks used to fund bills he or she disagrees with as a matter of personal morality or ideological duty? That never would have occurred to me, but John is here to reassure you he won’t stand for such a thing.
“In fact,” John tells us while swatting away flies on the banks of the Rock River, “the treasurer doesn’t have any role in the budget process, as it were.” I won’t spoil the big reveal about what it is the Treasurer actually does, but feel free to watch the video above.
In another video, John describes what I’ll call the “Slowest Gazelle” theory of political utility. He may not be the biggest, fastest, or most important name on the ticket this fall, but he’s definitely not going to be the one to get eaten:
I’m the only candidate in the Republican primary who doesn’t want to grow the office, and—again—I’m the only candidate that Democrats aren’t going to find any ammunition to use against. They’re not going to be able to use me to attack other Republicans and that’s critically important, because the Treasurer isn’t going to be able to get votes for Ron Johnson or whoever our gubernatorial candidate is, but if there is a problem, they’re going to use everything the Treasurer does, everything the Treasurer says wrong against our other candidates. So we need a consistent, reliable, responsible candidate…
As Teddy Roosevelt once started to say, “Walk softly…”
John has a BA in History from UW-Parkside and a law degree from UW-Madison Law School. He practices in Madison, and he and his wife, Diane, have three adult children.
Aaron Richardson (Site)
Aaron Richardson, the Democratic candidate, sees his potential role as Treasurer mostly as an extension of his current role as Mayor of Fitchburg. He wants to encourage homeownership, improve financial literacy, reign in payday lending, protect the environment—bizarrely, the only thing in this list that the State Treasurer has an actual role in (see video above)—and encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion by raising the pride flag all year long just like he did as Mayor of Fitchburg. And although Wikipedia tells me that, sadly, in “2013 Wisconsin Act 20 transferred the State Treasurer's Unclaimed Property Program to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue” he has some ideas for that too:
I don’t think Aaron should so much run against John as maybe just get together with him some day and try to hash out what this position actually entails, because they don’t seem to be in agreement, and I’m still confused.
Aaron received his undergraduate degree from UW-Green Bay and his MBA from UW-Whitewater. He enjoys coaching his nephew’s basketball team and is proudly endorsed by his mom and dad:
Andrew Zuelke
Andrew Zuelke maintains his campaign presence at WisconsinTreasurerDefender. wordpress.com. He ran unsuccessfully for State Treasurer in 2014 and 2018 as a member of the Constitution Party—a party formed after George H.W. Bush said, “Read my lips. No new taxes” and then made new taxes, and whose platform, according to Wikipedia, “is based on originalist interpretations of the Constitution and shaped by principles which it believes were set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and the Bible.”—and is back for more.
Andrew has lots of ideas, decries the slow marginalization of the Treasurer’s role in Wisconsin state government, and wants to increase—not decrease—electoral accountability by making sure it remains an elected position rather than an appointed one. But just because he has lots of concrete ideas, a campaign website that is mostly an archive of his various letters to the editor on State Treasurer related topics, and is now running for the third time, it doesn’t mean he’s that interested in the job:
I have a strong work ethic. I'm honest, ethical and I believe in leadership by example. I am not seeking a career in politics. If elected to State Treasurer I will serve one term. I will work with others to rewrite the state tax code and lobby for it before the state legislature. There is no reason tax forms should be as complicated as they are. I oppose corporate welfare. Public monies should be for public purposes, not given to private businesses. I oppose “crony” capitalism. When I ran for State Treasurer before, I said I opposed stripping the duties of this office, then claiming it was a “do nothing” office. That was a dishonest way of trying to eliminate this office. Now our state officials are trying to make this office an appointed one. If they succeed, it will be less choices for the voters on their ballots and less say in their government. I believe in keeping this office an elected one so voters have more choices on their ballots and more say in their government. I oppose consolidating power in the hands of a few, or with the two current parties in power. I believe whomever is elected to the position of State Treasurer should be the automatic head of the state Department of Revenue. As I said during the last election, it makes no sense to have a Treasurer be outside of a revenue collecting agency.
Secretary of State
Amy Loudenbeck (Site)
As a Republican, Amy does typical-sounding Republican things like own a farm and fight fires.
She’s been a representative in the Wisconsin State assembly since 2010, and while she knows the Wisconsin Secretary of State doesn’t do a lot—“There may be only a few remaining duties in the office of Secretary of State, but they are important. Amy wants to modernize the office by implementing fast, secure, electronic processes and providing responsive customer service.”—her goal is also to make Wisconsin's Secretary of State Great Again.
As Secretary of State, I would advocate for a new model of overseeing and administering elections in Wisconsin that puts election integrity and transparency at the forefront, follows Wisconsin election law to the letter and provides top-notch training and support to our local election officials. This makes the Secretary of State’s office directly accountable to the voters every four years unlike the current WEC system.
It is apparently very hard for Republicans to decide if they should like the Wisconsin Elections Commission or not. It was abolished in 2008 after various scandals involving both Republicans and Democrats and replaced with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board. But then Republican Gov. Scott Walker abolished that in 2016, and re-established the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC). Now Republicans want to abolish the WEC—again—because the commission refused to purge over 200,000 potentially outdated voters identified by Pew Charitable Trusts from its voting rolls.
Amy says:
Even Wisconsin’s non-partisan Legislative Audit Bureau has said some actions taken were inconsistent with state law and administrative rules. WEC is broken and must be replaced. No one in the WEC office is accountable to the voters and that needs to change. What can you do as Secretary of State to make that change? Currently, Wisconsin’s Secretary of State Office doesn’t have any election authority.
According to the Institute for Reforming Government, thirty-three states give elected officials oversight of their election process and twenty-five of those utilize their Secretary of State to do so. Wisconsin is not one of them; it should be.
[…]
What is the biggest problem with elections in Wisconsin right now? People have legitimate questions about how our elections are and were conducted and they don’t feel like they are getting the answers or corrective responses they are seeking. Some of the issues that need to be addressed include the use of ballot drop boxes, the absentee voting system, and the practice of ballot harvesting.
Douglas J. La Follette (Site)
Douglas is the incumbent Democrat and has been Wisconsin's Secretary of State since before Jimmy Carter was President. Speaking of Jimmy Carter, Douglas will be the first to tell you that it was Jimmy Carter who appointed him to serve as “the Assistant Director to the Mid-American Solar Energy Complex.” This, admittedly, sounds kind of cool. However, when I try to find any information about it in Google, the first page of results is mostly just links to web pages repeating this same fact about Douglas J. La Follette and his appointment to the Complex by President Jimmy Carter.
I did manage to find one very old, photocopied report from 1981 that mentions, “The Mid-American Solar Energy Complex (MASEC) is sponsoring a “Solar 80” home design program, through which houses using less than 2.5 Btu/ft2 /dd of fuel energy are being constructed and demonstrated.” I have no idea what unit of measurement that is, but it seems interesting, Douglas should feel proud to have been a part of it, and I can at least confirm that it was a real thing.
Unlike Amy, Douglas understands the stakes in this election:
The Secretary of State’s office is coming into focus as the newest battleground to save democracy...Far-right politicians are looking to replace me as the bulwark of this office and put in someone who will help determine any election however, they so chose. For this reason, it’s more important than ever that we elect a Secretary of State that will defend our democracy over party. As America’s longest-serving incumbent Secretary of State, I have the track record and deep well of experience to do it.
I assumed that Douglas was in some way connected to Wisconsin’s distinguished Robert La Follette (for whom the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs is named) which Wikipedia confirms. However, the exact relationship is murky:
His great-grandfather has been described as an uncle of Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette[3][4] by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Chemical & Engineering News, while Dissent Magazine referred to the great-grandfather as Bob La Follette's brother.[5] WKOW News and WEAU News state that “Fighting Bob” La Follette was Doug's great-uncle.[6][7] “Fighting Bob’”s grandson, former Wisconsin Attorney General Bronson La Follette, has described Doug La Follette as a “second cousin, three times removed” from “Fighting Bob” La Follette.[8] Alternatively, Milwaukee Magazine has noted Doug as a “first cousin three times removed of Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette”.[9] According to professor and author Nancy Unger, Doug is a third cousin of Bronson.[10]
Douglas can’t stop talking about the Mid-American Solar Energy Complex, but unfortunately seems unwilling to clarify this very basic point of genealogy.
He received his undergraduate degree from Marietta College, his Master’s in chemistry from Stanford, and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Columbia University.
Sharyl McFarland (Site)
Sharyl McFarland is the Green Party candidate for Secretary of State. If elected, she wants to establish a non-partisan election commission, “end voter suppression,” implement Ranked Choice Voting, “get big money out of politics and make politicians work for us, again,” and maybe get rid of the Electoral College. When candidates for Secretary of State were asked what they thought this election was about, others mentioned vague but seemingly relevant things like “transparency” and “the independence of Wisconsin’s election system.”
Sharyl thought “election reform and election integrity” were important too but also mentioned things like “livable wages for Wisconsin residents,” health care as a human right, and intellectual freedom. I’m not sure if she is interpreting the word “election” very broadly or if she thinks she might have some power to solve these problems as Secretary of State. Most of her twitter feed is composed of passionate appeals to close the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility where her son as a 17-year old was detained for several weeks many years ago.
Neil Harmon
Neil, the Libertarian candidate, doesn’t have a website, but he is on Facebook. Most of his campaigning seems to involve him traveling around the state taking pictures of the campaign signs he’s placed in people’s front yards.
And the ones he plans on putting up…someday.
Neil likes pictures and signs, and it’s not surprising that I found his campaign platform not on a part of his website called “Platform”, “Issues” or something similarly descriptive but as a comment to a picture that was actually a collage made up of more pictures of his signs in people’s front yards.
I wasn’t the only one who found Neil Harmon to be enigmatic and elusive despite the ubiquity of his signage:
Neil is a South Milwaukee High School graduate, board certified Pharmacy Technician, and West Allis Junior Bulldogs Wrestling coach.
Attorney General
Josh Kaul (Site)
Josh Kaul is the incumbent Democratic Attorney General and will be seeking reelection. His mother, Peg, was also Attorney General of Wisconsin though his website is somewhat circumspect about this fact, saying only that, “Josh’s mom, Peg Lautenschlager, spent much of her career working as a prosecutor.”
Josh is all about “fighting for safe and legal abortion access” and, of course, “defending democracy” and appears to care about the things most other Democrats care about, although he also supports law enforcement, wants them to have full collective bargaining rights and has tried to invest “millions in community policing and officer recruitment.” He dislikes “the Big Lie” and really dislikes Michael Gableman, the former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice hired by Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to investigate fraud during the 2020 election and who appears mostly to have just spent a lot of taxpayer money and gotten himself in trouble.
Josh, like many Democratic politicians, went to the best schools. He received undergraduate degrees in history and economics from Yale and his law degree from Stanford.
Eric Toney (Site)
Eric Toney has been the District Attorney for Fond du Lac County since 2012. He received his undergraduate degree from Saint Norbert College in De Pere and his law degree from Hamline University. He supports Second Amendment Rights, election laws, law enforcement, and “protecting the unborn.” Eric also wants to deal effectively with the opioid crisis and understands incarceration is one of many potential options.
He is mostly endorsed by lots of sheriffs, sheriff's associations, police associations, professional police associations, and police supervisor organizations, but also the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance because the Dairy Alliance feels that his opponent “Josh Kaul has sided with anti-agricultural activists time and time again” and they need an “Attorney General who follows the law and does not use his position to pursue his anti-agriculture agenda.
Governor
Tim Michels (Site)
The front page of his campaign website says, “Tim Michels is not a politician.” This is true. He ran for State Senator in 1998 but lost in the primary. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004 but lost to Democrat Russ Feingold. Now he’s running for Governor. If trends continue, I expect him to run for President in 2028 or 2032 while still being able to claim he is not a politician (Although current polling shows him to be pretty much neck-and-neck with the competition.)
Despite not being a politician, Tim Michels has pretty typical Wisconsin Republican politician positions on issues—he’s opposed to abortion, supports school choice, wants to lower taxes, likes law enforcement, and hates Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm whom he vows to “fire…on Day One.” And he does pretty typical Republican things—like serve in the military, own a construction business, have a dad who “handed him a shovel and taught him how to dig trenches, while his mom taught him how to drive trucks,” and sit in his deer stand.
I find the bold color-scheme Tim chose for his campaign website—with its black background and blood-red text and borders—to be slightly menacing.
It also reminded me vaguely of this book cover, which was probably not his intention.
Tim earned his undergraduate degree from Saint Norbert College, his MBA from the University of Chicago, and an MPA from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He and his wife, Barbara, live in Hartland, Wisconsin (pop. 9,500) with their three adult children.
Tony Evers (Site)
Incumbent Governor Tony previously served as Wisconsin’s Superintendent of Public Instruction and has spent most of his career in various teaching or school administration roles. He has a Ph.D. in something called educational leadership from UW-Madison.
When he isn't playing euchre, polka dancing, cheering on the Wisconsin Badgers, or spending time with his wife Kathy, three children, and nine grandchildren, he vows to defend democracy with his three point plan:
Despite not appearing to be the most hale or hearty defender of democracy, Tony has proudly vetoed more legislation during his tenure than any other Governor in Wisconsin since they started keeping records in 1931 and, presumably by his own standards, has done more to defend democracy than any Governor in the country.
And given that he is a politician, he proudly lists his accomplishments and the great things he’s done for every county in the state. I clicked on a few of them, and it seems impressive and not clearly just a bunch of boiler-plate. At the same time, I always find it hard to distinguish between the things that would have happened whether Tony was Governor or not and what only happened because he was there. Most politicians tend to claim both as their accomplishments, although I think we should probably mostly discount the former.
For example, how much credit should we give Gov. Evers for “the fewest number of unemployed people in our state’s history” or “a record-breaking projected surplus of $3.8 billion”? I don’t know. More than zero, but there was record-low unemployment everywhere and I’m pretty sure most of that $3.8 billion surplus was just the federal government dumping a bunch of money in everyone’s laps. But if this is true, we also shouldn’t blame him for the worldwide surge in inflation either. On the other hand, maybe he can be given more credit for increasing education funding or cutting taxes which he seems quite proud of.
Joan Ellis Beglinger (Site)
Joan is a registered nurse and lifelong resident of Wisconsin. She looks like this:
As an independent, Joan promises to govern based on Truth, Freedom, Self-Sufficiency, Personal Responsibility, and Results. These might sound suspiciously Republican-coded, but you needn’t worry.
Just kidding. Unfortunately, while Joan will appear on the ballot, she has already withdrawn.
U.S. Senate
Mandela Barnes (Site)
Mandela is the current Lt. Governor. He is young, handsome, moves around easily, and speaks in coherent sentences which is probably why he’ll lose his Senate race next month. The average age of U.S. Senators is 64 and his presence might make them look feeble, ineffective, and out-of-touch, and we’d hate for our citizenry to get the wrong impression of our country’s most illustrious rule-making body.
That said, Mandela has about the stances on various issues you would expect of a Democrat, like supporting unions, investing in universal pre-K, and reducing crime by investing in communities to “prevent crime before it even happens.” Interestingly, he too would like to lower taxes, and of course, Mandela is fighting to “stop the attacks on accountability and democracy” with his seven point plan:
Ron Johnson (Site)
Ron Johnson has been a Senator for Wisconsin since 2010. Before that, he was the CEO of his brother-in-law’s polyester and plastics manufacturing business, PACUR, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. As a Senator, he served as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee until 2021 and is now the ranking member on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He is 67 years old although, to his credit, he seems more-or-less spry and cogent in the videos of him that I’ve watched. If you have been conscious at any point in the last 6 months you have surely heard of him and seen at least 200 advertisements on why he is either the best or worst thing to ever happen to the state of Wisconsin.
Ron, as you might expect, cares about military defense, school choice, and border security. One thing I did not expect him to care about was partnering with pastors in Milwaukee to found something called the Joseph Project “to host week-long class sessions teaching job-seekers the ‘essential employability skills’ that help participants excel in job interviews and begin their steps up the career ladder.”
It’s hard for me to find anything clever to say about RonJon or his opponent Mandela. Both have spent about $25 million dollars on their campaigns which seems like a lot and probably won’t change what the outcome would have been without spending all that money. I’m not sure that people care about who they are as human beings or what’s deep inside their souls so much as whether they tip the balance in the Senate toward Republicans or Democrats. Which is good, because I think what $50 million dollars mostly does is sand off any remotely distinguishing features either of them might have had.
U.S. House Wisconsin District 4
Gwen Moore (Site)
Gwen is 71 and has served as the Democratic Congresswoman for Wisconsin’s 4th District since 2005 and before that in the Wisconsin State Assembly and Senate since 1988. She is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and has been a:
strong advocate for measures that focus on improving the economic and employment conditions in low-income communities. She has fought to curb predatory lending in minority neighborhoods, supported sound efforts to help small businesses grow and advance the creation of new jobs, pushed for more affordable housing, and advocated for compliance with respect to the non-discriminatory hiring of minority-owned businesses for government contracts.
I was initially very confused that she would be on the ballots for Wauwatosa residents since most of her district is within Milwaukee but Wikipedia has convinced me that the 4th District will be expanded westward to cover Wauwatosa in 2023.
She appears not to be particularly worried about the election because she has no Issues page and the sole event listed on her Events page is an invitation to a “Live and In-person Milwaukee Birthday Party” on May 5, 2022.
Tim Rogers (Site)
Tim is the Republican challenger for Wisconsin’s 4th District. He previously ran, and lost, against Gwen in 2018 and 2020. He keeps trying though and is running on a platform of universal school choice, criminal justice reform, clean water, and lowering taxes because he believes “It is unconstitutional to spend money on public schools,” and that “if elected, I will work to destroy the progressive tax system.”
I am poking fun of him a little bit, but he clearly cares about his community and is upset that incumbent politicians have still not fixed longstanding problems. Here he is on Clean Water:
You’ll probably lose, but best of luck, Tim!
Robert Raymond (Site)
Robert has been running as the Independent candidate for the 4th District since 2012 and consistently gets about 2.5%, or about 7,000 votes, except in 2016 when no Republican ran, and he received 11.5% of the vote.
Which seems pretty impressive for someone that has no campaign website and whose Facebook page was last updated in 2021.
Despite running for Congress five times, Robert has no stated goals or policy positions. However, based on what I can glean from the assorted political memes he has reposted to his Facebook page over the last seven years, Robert really dislikes protracted wars that redirect spending from domestic programs, human rights abuses by supposed allies, Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Klaus Schwab, the chairman of the World Economic Forum. And he seems to have a soft spot for homeless veterans who need better medical care.
I’m always curious about the type of person seemingly motivated enough to run for office over and over and over, and yet who doesn’t bother to do any of the things you might imagine are involved in running for elected office. Like, what’s their model of the world? What do they get out of it and why do they think they end up losing? I’m not sure.
For instance, whenever I sort of abstractly imagine running for elected office, my mind immediately goes to…and then I’d have to drive around for months and hand out signs and give speeches and smile even though I’m not happy or excited to be there and that doesn’t sound fun at all. And I immediately stop thinking about it. But what I’ve learned from Robert Raymond is that actually, I can run for Congress, and not do any of that stuff.
Or from Andrew Zuelke and Neil Harmon and Sharyl McFarland that while almost no one will vote for me, and I certainly won’t win, I’ll at least have run, and that is…it’s own kind of victory?
It has the feel of Don Quixote tilting fecklessly at windmills. I’ve never read Don Quixote, but I’m guessing there’s some type of message in there about why we should appreciate people like that or a sense that there is something virtuous in fighting a battle even when you know you’ll lose or don’t quite understand the game.
If it’s not clear, I appreciate all these people. Some of them are my age and are clearly much more ambitious and motivated than I am. Others are running for offices that have little power and somewhat unglamorous responsibilities yet take them seriously and believe in their value. I think it’s great, and I’m glad these people exist.
Thank you. My husband and I are laughing so hard!
Please do a part two on the local (Wauwatosa/Brookfield/West Allis) candidates—Vining/Turner and Katzenmeyer/Hutton.