Longtime GOP incumbent vs. rural foe

Studying Time: 4 minutes

A main battle within the rural Inexperienced Bay 4th Meeting District seeks to check whether or not redistricting can uproot an entrenched incumbent, pitting a five-term lawmaker campaigning on his decade-long document towards a neighborhood occasion chief and self-described “Christian conservative.”

Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, at present represents the 4th Meeting District, protecting a largely city area of Inexperienced Bay to town’s south and west. Following redistricting, Steffen will nonetheless reside within the 4th Meeting District, however the area’s borders now embody a lot of rural Oconto County within the north.

The brand new district extra intently resembles pre-2024 borders for the 89th Meeting District, the place Rep. Elijah Behnke, R-Oconto, at present serves. Elijah Behnke was drawn into the 4th Meeting District, however he determined to run towards incumbent Rep. Peter Schmidt, R-Bonduel, within the sixth Meeting District as an alternative of remaining to run towards Steffen. Elijah Behnke has stated that Schmidt being an “simpler goal” had “one thing to do” together with his transfer.

Darwin Behnke, Elijah’s father, is now difficult Steffen as an alternative. Whereas Elijah and his brother Micah have run campaigns for public workplace previously, this marks the elder Behnke’s first try at an elected place.

Behnke launched his marketing campaign to a gaggle of supporters in Could on the Log Jam Saloon in Oconto, standing in entrance of a wall of Trump flags.

“I’m simply one other outdated man who’s grumpy and irritated about what’s occurring in Wisconsin,” Behnke informed the group.

Behnke informed Wisconsin Watch he was motivated to run for Meeting as a result of he’s annoyed with how state authorities is run, viewing the choice as a necessity.

“I’m stepping up as a result of I really feel someone ought to do it. I want it wasn’t me,” Behnke stated. “I don’t need Steffen, or any RINO, to run unopposed.”

Requested why he considers Steffen as a RINO, which stands for “Republican in title solely,” Behnke stated Steffen “calls himself a conservative, a Christian, however fiscally and morally I don’t see him taking a tough stance.”

Steffen, who has represented the district since 2015, obtained a 90% lifetime score for “Conservative Excellency” from the Conservative Political Motion Convention in 2023. 

Steffen has traditionally aligned himself with conservative factions amongst Republicans on a number of events, notably main efforts to decertify 2020 election leads to Wisconsin. Steffen can also be a coauthor of Meeting Decision 18, which known as for the impeachment of Wisconsin Elections Fee Administrator Meagan Wolfe.

Steffen declined a number of interview requests.

Behnke stated if elected he desires to lower state price range allocations and “return 5 or 6 years” to earlier state price range quantities. He additionally steered slicing state spending as a complete to handle the likelihood that “sometime we’re not going to get the tax {dollars} that we get from the federal authorities.”

In statements on his marketing campaign web site, Steffen criticized “elevating taxes to additional develop authorities applications” and stated that he would “proceed preventing for a middle-class tax reduce and tax-free retirement for our seniors.” 

Behnke additionally stated that he thinks faculties within the state are “making an attempt to vary kids,” and he steered that faculties ought to produce higher outcomes contemplating “the sum of money we’re spending.”

A July 2022 report discovered that whereas faculty spending per pupil in Wisconsin, unadjusted for inflation, has elevated since 2002, training spending nationwide has elevated at a a lot increased price. Solely two states, Idaho and Indiana, had decrease will increase in class spending through the two-decade interval.

Steffen stated on his marketing campaign web site that he would assist dad and mom’ “proper to know what’s occurring of their little one’s classroom,” mentioning his introduction of AB 510, a proposed invoice of academic modifications beforehand vetoed by Gov. Evers. The invoice has been recognized as anti-trans laws by unbiased analysis group Trans Laws Tracker. 

The controversial invoice proposed 15 “parental rights,” resembling permitting dad and mom to find out their kids’s faith, to decide their kids out of courses or academic materials and to find out their kids’s title and pronoun utilization in class settings. It additionally proposed requiring faculties to inform dad and mom of any occasion when a “controversial topic” could be taught or mentioned, specifying that such topics would come with “instruction about gender id, sexual orientation, racial id, structural, systemic, or institutional racism, or content material that isn’t age-appropriate.”

On his marketing campaign web site, Steffen additionally proposed to “dramatically enhance native funding” for regulation enforcement and frontline staff.

The candidates distinction extra of their residence turf. Behnke resides in Oconto County and is at present vice chair of the Oconto County Republican Get together, and Steffen is extra outstanding in Brown County.

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

Ken Sikora, chair of the Oconto County Republican Get together, stated that whereas the occasion doesn’t make an official endorsement, he stays skeptical of Steffen due to his lengthy tenure as a consultant and his lack of rural expertise. 

“He’s not acquainted with this district, and that’s a giant drawback,” Sikora stated. “Folks don’t know him.”

Nevertheless, after a marketing campaign advert mailer attacked Behnke for having “hassle with cash,” the Oconto County Republican Get together promoted Behnke’s marketing campaign on social media and criticized Steffen for the commercial.

Steffen responded on social media, saying that the mailers “have been funded and despatched by an Eau Claire-based PAC” that he didn’t learn about.

“Personally… I need someone new,” Sikora stated. “Anyone that’s been in politics and in Madison for greater than 10 years is a part of the issue.”

When requested if he had any qualms with Steffen’s efficiency as a consultant, Sikora stated that whereas he didn’t know of any, he nonetheless needed a change.

“I believe lots of people proper now need somebody outdoors,” Sikora stated. “We wish the following Donald Trump.”

Whoever wins the Republican main will face certainly one of two Democratic challengers, although the district is a secure GOP seat leaning 62-36 based mostly on previous election outcomes. In line with Dixon Wolf, member at giant of the Brown County Republican Get together, the occasion plans on supporting whichever Republican candidate wins the Aug. 13 main.

“We are going to assist any candidate post-primary that’s conservative,” Wolf stated.