“We’re going to listen.” Wisconsin Lt. Gov.-elect pledges different approach to governing

“We’re going to do things a little bit differently.”

That’s how Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor-elect Mandela Barnes described the listening tour he and Governor-elect Tony Evers embark on, beginning today.

Don’t expect one of those invitation-only type of events that have been the hallmark of the Scott Walker administration.

“So we’re going to do things a little bit differently,” Barnes said Monday afternoon on WIZM. “We’re going to listen.”

They want your ideas for good government — especially spending plans and how communities can stop feeling left behind by neglect from Madison.

“So many communities have been left behind and it leads to different regions of the state pointing at one another,” said Barnes, who made a campaign stop at the Bodega back in early August (pictured). “Pointing that goes back to the whole divide-and-conquer strategy, where people feel we are pitted against one another, and that shouldn’t be the case.”

As part of the statewide “Building the People’s Budget” tour, Evers, Barnes and company will stop in La Crosse from noon-1:30 p.m. Dec. 18 at the American Legion Post 52. Register to attend here.

The tour could be a continuation of what the team did while on the campaign trail, where Barnes said they also got all sorts of feedback.

“And now that we are actually in this position as governor- and lt. governor-elect,” Barnes said, “we want to make sure that, after Jan. 7, whenever the budget’s introduce, it is a budget that represents the interests of the people in the state of Wisconsin.”

The tour kicks off in Green Bay today, and wraps up in Milwaukee next week.