By Karen Stokes
Tony Evers
The latest Marquette Law School Poll conducted September 18th of Wisconsin voters finds Evers with 49 percent support and incumbent Walker with 44 percent support among likely voters in the state’s race for governor.
“We’ve been traveling all across the state, people are energized about this race, it’s a little different flavor,” said Evers.
Evers continued, “After the primary, Mandela Barnes and I went to a small coffee shop in Hudson, Wisconsin at 10:30 in the morning and there were 150 people there. They were excited, we were excited. I don’t call it a blue wave, I call it people want common sense solutions. The issues we talk about aren’t Democrat issues or Republican issues, they are issues that are important to people in Wisconsin… healthcare, transportation and education.”
When discussing healthcare, Evers said the first thing that will be done as governor is to take the several hundred millions of dollars of Medicaid money that Walker left on the table when he came into office.
“We’re going to get that money and put it back into the healthcare system,” said Evers. “I have to make sure that pre-existing conditions remain to be covered. Tens of thousands of people in the state have pre-existing conditions. Going forward we need to have and make sure that Badgercare and other areas of healthcare are fully funded.”
Money is also needed for infrastructure projects. Not only roads but public transit and recreational biking.
“When Walker came into office, he put together a group and they came out with a great plan,” Evers said. “But then he said no we’re not going to do that. Scott Walker has lied about his plan, in fact, his Department of Transportation secretary came out and said he has been less than truthful.”
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Gov. Scott Walker’s former transportation secretary Mark Gottlieb, a Republican who served as Walker’s transportation secretary from 2011 to 2017 said the GOP governor isn’t telling the truth about road projects and is taking a high-risk gamble that could see the state invest billions of dollars in obsolete highways.
Evers thoughts on solving this issue was: “We will bring people together, figure out how we are going to pay for it, what revenues do we need, what cuts can we make and put together a good plan that’s good for the people of Wisconsin.”
Attack ads are common in politics and this year’s governor’s race is no different. An attack ad against Evers refers to a sex act of a teacher who viewed pornography on a school computer and criticized Evers for not revoking his license.
“The commercials are lies,” Evers explained. “This one particular situation if I could have by law revoked that license I would have but there’s a loophole in the law that prevented me from revoking the license. I worked with the legislature to change that so we could go forward because the law was constructed prior to the situation.”
What made this case unique was the teacher or group of teachers were looking at pornography and the law states to revoke under those circumstances’ students had to be exposed to it. This situation took place on a computer in a backroom, students were not present. Two judges and the Supreme Court agreed with that case, according to Evers.
Evers in the past has revoked thousands of licenses in the State of Wisconsin since functioning as state superintendent.
“I understand I have to respond, I’m trying not to spend a whole lot of time saying ‘Scott Walker is a bad guy and we shouldn’t re-elect him’ because that hasn’t worked, three times,” said Evers. “We are spending all our time trying to put out positive visions for the future and I think it’s going to make a difference.”
The general election in Wisconsin is Tuesday, November 6.
In-person absentee voting for the 2018 Fall General begins Monday, September 24th and ends on Sunday, November 4th.
Zeidler Municipal Building, 841 N Broadway (no voting at Market Street entrance) Midtown Center, 5700 W Capitol Dr (located west of Pick ‘n Save, enter lot at 58th & Capitol) Mitchell Street Library, 906 W Historic Mitchell St Monday, October 15 – Sunday, November 4
For more information on early voting, absentee voting and what you need to bring to the ballet go to city.milwaukee.gov
