In rural Inexperienced Bay, two Dems search probability to problem GOP seat

Studying Time: 4 minutes

A returning candidate and area people organizer squares off towards a political newcomer and environmentalist for the unlikely probability to flip a secure Republican seat within the rural Inexperienced Bay 4th Meeting District Democratic major on Aug. 13.

Two years in the past, Jane Benson challenged state Rep. Elijah Behnke, R-Oconto, for his seat in what was the largely rural and closely Republican-leaning 89th Meeting District. Benson misplaced that election by greater than 8,000 votes, however she credit her marketing campaign for enhancing Democratic voter turnout to assist Gov. Tony Evers win reelection.

Now, after being redrawn into the 4th Meeting District, the Suamico resident and League of Girls Voters organizer is working for workplace as soon as once more. This time, she faces political newcomer Alexia Unertl, a working mother or father and environmentalist who additionally resides in Suamico. 

For each candidates, the problem of working as a Democrat in a largely conservative district is clear. Previous voting patterns recommend the district skews Republican 62% to 36%. However the latest redistricting has given Democrats throughout the state extra hope that they will compete in legislative races in November.

“The brand new 4th District remains to be very Republican, I do know that,” Benson stated in an interview with Wisconsin Watch. “However I additionally know there’s numerous repressed want amongst Democrats to step up and take part. There’s a new vitality unleashed from the voting maps having been redrawn, and we will use that vitality to convey folks out to vote.”

The 4th Meeting District covers a largely rural area that lies northwest of Inexperienced Bay, encompassing Suamico and spreading north towards Oconto. Incumbent David Steffen, R-Howard, has represented the district for practically a decade and now seeks reelection, going through a major problem from Darwin Behnke, the daddy of Elijah Behnke. The newly drawn borders have made the district extra rural in comparison with its earlier area of southwestern Inexperienced Bay and Ashwaubenon.

Steffen, Benson stated, is out of his aspect. “He’s misplaced the extra city space of Ashwaubenon, and now he’s extra within the rural space of Oconto County… that can be unfamiliar to him,” Benson stated.

Key to each Benson and Unertl’s campaigns is a set of coverage positions that they are saying can be extraordinarily necessary for rural voters. Each Democrats align on these points, together with shared issues about air pollution within the district’s many waterways, a dedication to accepting federal Medicaid funding to increase BadgerCare and plans to increase broadband web entry all through the state. 

“Simply these few issues would make an enormous distinction within the lives of Wisconsinites,” Unertl stated in an interview with Wisconsin Watch. “I don’t see why we couldn’t make that occur.”

Unertl, who at the moment serves as vice chair for Brown County’s Conservation Congress, additionally cited issues surrounding PFAS contamination in non-public wells and houses. 

“This contamination can occur with out us actually figuring out, and there isn’t numerous testing that occurs to non-public wells,” Unertl stated. “The Division of Pure Sources ought to be capable to tackle that straight. Certainly one of my objectives can be to determine an emergency response for (water contamination).”

Benson, who’s a board member on the Clear Water Motion Council of Northeast Wisconsin, stated she is pissed off with Republican proposals for PFAS contamination cleanup. 

“Companies aren’t being held accountable for contamination, and nobody has to declare the outcomes of the testing that’s finished,” Benson stated in reference to SB312, a Republican-led invoice vetoed by Evers in the course of the 2023-24 legislative session. SB312 included provisions to protect polluters from accountability for PFAS cleanup in addition to a clause to ban the DNR from disclosing PFAS testing outcomes with out notifying landowners not less than 72 hours beforehand.

Benson additionally echoed frustrations with latest efforts to limit abortion entry within the state, citing Republican-led efforts to implement an 1849 abortion regulation as a complete ban on abortion and to prosecute well being care suppliers concerned within the means of an abortion. 

“After I consider how Republicans deal with pregnant folks in Wisconsin, the phrase abandonment involves thoughts,” Benson stated. “It’s unhinged, and it must cease.”

“The state has no enterprise getting between a girl and her physician,” Unertl stated. “If a girl wants an abortion, she ought to be capable to obtain it from a professional skilled.”

Wisconsin Watch has launched a brand new voter information with the aim of offering voters a central hub to search out out extra about their native candidates for Meeting, Senate and Congress.

Each candidates stated that they might help taking federal Medicaid funding to increase entry in Wisconsin. Unertl additionally argued in favor of accelerating state funding for rural hospitals and well being care suppliers. 

“Proper now, there’s such a threat of those services not getting the funding that they want and never having the ability to present care to their communities,” Unertl stated.

Whereas Benson and Unertl share many coverage positions and objectives, they differ of their backgrounds. 

“I’ve been deeply concerned in points like clear water and honest voting maps, and I’ve loads to supply,” Benson stated. Benson manufacturers herself as an activist, and she or he emphasizes her previous political expertise as a candidate and as an organizer. 

“There’s a girl working towards me, and she or he is a newcomer,” Benson stated about Unertl. “She appears to be working form of unaffiliated and doing her personal factor. She doesn’t have expertise with elected workplace.”

Unertl, who filed her candidacy and is working as a Democrat, doesn’t draw back from being known as a newcomer. Her expertise working in provide chain and being a mother or father, she stated, has ready and led to her determination to run for public workplace.

“That is my first time working for something … I don’t have that form of social gathering mentality,” Unertl stated. “(I can) discuss to everybody and perceive the place they’re coming from with out having these allegiances.”

General, Unertl is glad to have extra choices on the poll and to have a major election for Democrats.

“Having extra choices for folks to select from is all the time an excellent factor.” Unertl stated. “It’s as much as the folks to determine who they suppose would characterize them higher.”