Assembly District 96 Survey

Biography

I am a local who supports our small businesses, family farms, agriculture, and the rural life style. My heart has always gravitated towards farming, even throughout my college years at UW – La Crosse. I will never forget the moment when I came home one day and told my Dad that farming was what I wanted to do. And I didn’t want to farm any old farm, I wanted to farm the Oldenburg farm. The heritage, roots, and history, sweat, and love that make up a family farm cannot be matched. I have a deep understanding about the effort and importance of sustaining a family farming operation. We are not only farmers, we are entrepreneurs, the accountant, CEO, maintenance man, manager, business owner and much more.

I am supportive of local businesses throughout our small communities. My wife Linda is a small business owner of a sip and paint company called “The Happy Canvas by Linda”. Linda and I started the business 5 years ago, and we have made it a choice to keep her business local – setting up paint classes within the small businesses and homes of the 96th Assembly District. There are many nights where I am working as the set up and clean up crew with my wife. I have been supportive of Linda taking a risk and starting a new business and career path. I want to continue to promote this entrepreneurship throughout our community, and benefit our small businesses.

This leads to my next belief in collaboration. The only way to provide change is to communicate and work with the businesses, schools, citizens, and multiple organizations. We all know that government policies touch all of our lives. I want to continue to work for your future as your Representative in the Wisconsin State Assembly. I have enjoyed learning the issues that are important to you, and will continue to work for your future.

Biography

I was born in Viroqua, raised in Gays Mills, and educated in LaCrosse and Milwaukee. I grew up in a lower middle class home and learned what being a good neighbor is about from my parents. I married Ed Swiggum late in life and have three great stepkids and three wonderful grandkids. Ed seems to know everyone in our area and gladly steps up to help family, friends, and neighbors. He’s also the funniest person I know!

I moved back to the home farm in Gays Mills from Milwaukee in 2005 to look after my dad, a Navy veteran who retired from working as a journeyman lineman in 1993. Caring for my 94 year old dad while working full-time has shown me just how difficult it can be to access quality health care in rural Wisconsin, particularly for the elderly. Dad’s veterans’ benefits have often made the difference in affordability of medications, but between the distances we’ve had to travel to get quality care, and the bureaucracy involved, keeping Dad healthy has had some huge challenges. If I hadn’t spent decades working in the healthcare industry, these challenges might have been insurmountable. I’m determined to make healthcare more accessible and more affordable for everyone in the 96th District.

I’ve served the people of Wisconsin for 22 years as a registered nurse, and I can clearly see that our democracy’s vital signs are fading fast. It’s time we brought a nurse’s approach to representing the 96th district. Nurses don’t just look for problems: we see and care for the whole person, do what common sense requires, and always keep the big picture in mind. Our Wisconsin state government needs a serious injection of big-picture, real-world perspective – and a major transfusion of common sense.

I was an English teacher in schools in Wisconsin and Texas before I became a nurse, and I saw first-hand the difference between Texas schools and the education I’d been provided here at home. Wisconsin had built a stellar educational tradition over the decades, when we were known as a progressive, pro-union state. But since 2011, we’ve lost a great deal of ground. Far too many of our best teachers have abandoned Wisconsin since the enactment of Act 10, which wrecked the ability of working people to bargain for their salaries and their benefits. It’s become harder and harder for rural districts to attract and retain quality teachers. Schools in our rural communities should be inspiring, safe spaces where teachers feel respected. After all: teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions!

Wisconsin’s 96th Assembly District is, at its best, one of the safest, most picturesque places in America. But too many of us have found economic opportunity elsewhere over the years, and it seems like Madison has turned its attention away from the ridges and valleys we call home. We need to take a nurse’s approach to what ails us, and consider the big picture, treating the whole person rather than chasing symptoms. We need to cultivate our strengths and take a clear-eyed look at issues which need to be addressed. There’s no sugar-coating it: state government has lost its way and become a cynical, short-sighted contest for power. The career politicians have turned us against each other. We need to send in the nurse!

Wisconsin’s abortion laws MUST be updated – especially since the 1849 abortion law was passed by men prior to women gaining the right to vote. The government has no business getting involved in anyone’s healthcare or determining what kind of healthcare they may have. Abortions must be allowed for whatever reason the woman chooses and she should not have to explain her reasons to anyone for wanting an abortion. Forcing women to undergo an unnecessary ultrasound prior to the abortion is an attempt at coercion and must also be stopped.

First, I would say that legislators should be paid the minimum hourly wage and should have to punch in and out like the majority of us in Wisconsin. I’m confident we would see Wisconsin’s minimum wage jump to a living wage fairly quickly if our legislators had to live on $7.25/hour. There should also be an expansion of legislative sessions from two months to at least four months since there are hundreds of bills which never make it from the Assembly to the Senate as it is.

The money should be used to expand BadgerCare. All of us should have access to healthcare regardless of ability to pay. The profiteering of private insurance and big pharmaceutical companies must be restricted and a great place to start is with a public option to join BadgerCare. Wisconsin should raise the income limits by 200% for BadgerCare. When we have healthy people, we will have a healthy economy.

If there is a $5 billion surplus, the legislature should be making sure that every single person has healthcare. Those of us suffering under medical debt, not seeking healthcare due to outlandish deductibles, unable to afford medications due to the lack of government restrictions on the pharmaceutical companies, etc., would be helped immensely by the expansion of BadgerCare.

I absolutely do not agree with the Republican majority’s suppression of democracy. 13 seconds to discuss the 1849 abortion law which then made every woman a second class citizen at the moment of conception shows a flagrant disregard for the people. If our legislators are silencing us, we must get them the hell out of office and the sooner the better. We must put a stop to this sickening abuse of power via legislation.

If Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, can get red flag laws, mandatory wait times, and extensive background checks passed, we in Wisconsin should expect no less. This is about protecting our kids and Wisconsinites should not have to experience the massacre of children before our Republican legislature finally acts. I have no desire to take legally purchased guns away from law-abiding citizens, but restricting who can get these will protect children, victims of domestic violence, families at parades, grandmas at the grocery store, and teens at the movie theater. Our legislature needs to toughen up and do the right thing for all of us – not just the NRA.

Let’s stop giving public education monies to private schools. Private schools are not held to the same standards as public schools.  Private school teachers are not held to the same licensing standards as public school teachers. Private schools don’t have to complete standardized testing to ensure that their students are doing well as public schools do. There needs to be a leveling of tax monies for public education. Rich districts like Brookfield and Elm Grove have far more tax money available for their students than poor districts like North Crawford and Wauzeka. All children deserve the same quality education despite their zip code.

The businesses which have polluted drinking water must be fined heavily in order to rectify the situation. Until PFAS pollution is corrected, every home or business which needs a water filtering system in order to assure that the water is safe for drinking, cooking, cleaning, bathing, etc., should be paid for by the polluters.