By Press Times Staff
Incumbent Caleb Frostman will face Andre Jacque on Nov. 6 for the right to represent the 1st Senate District in Wisconsin.
These two faced off in a special election on June 12 after Frank Lasse left the office. Frostman defeated Jacque by 806 votes.
Frostman previously served as executive director of the Door County Economic Development Corporation.
Before his political career, Jacque worked as a transit planning coordinator, communications coordinator and grant writing consultant.
The 1st Senate District contains all of Door and Kewaunee counties, parts of Brown, Manitowoc and Calumet counties, including part of De Pere.
Name: Caleb Frostman
Party: Democrat
Hometown: Sturgeon Bay
Immediate family: Sister, mom and dad
Occupation: State Senator
Why should people vote for you?
I am running because I have seen firsthand how public policy can directly affect people’s lives. I want to improve the quality of the lives of the people around me and ensure that our government is working for everyone.
I believe we are given two ears and one mouth in that proportion for a reason, and I plan to govern through listening, finding common ground and taking action.
I’ve worked successfully with teachers, business owners and governmental officials of all political persuasions to design and deliver the best economic development programming for my community.
As your State Senator, I will continue the respectful, civil and collaborative approach I’ve taken since starting this work, which is something that has been lacking in politics.
My personal political beliefs haven’t affected the way I treat people, and they never will. I don’t intend on changing my respectful, civil and inclusive approach to communication with everyone in our district and my colleagues in the State Capitol.
What is the single biggest issue facing Wisconsin?
The issue that I hear the most while knocking on doors and speaking to people in our district is health care.
People who cannot afford their health care do not care about partisan agendas. People, including many of my friends and family, are one health crisis away from financial ruin.
I plan to be a part of the solution and will fight so no one in Wisconsin has to decide between their groceries and their life.
In order to strengthen our communities and expand opportunities in Northeast Wisconsin, we need to increase access to quality and affordable health care for children, families and seniors across Wisconsin.
I have seen how inadequate access to quality health care limits opportunities for families, businesses and communities. When working families and seniors have access to preventive health care services like checkups and screenings, it reduces the number of costly emergency room visits and lowers insurance costs for everyone in our state.
If Congress decides to take away our health care, I will work to protect Wisconsinites. I will vote to ban insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, and I’ll fight the age tax that the AARP says will raise premiums on people over 50 by thousands of dollars per year.
In the Senate, I will fight to expand health care coverage, protect community health clinics and lower prescription costs for seniors instead of letting powerful drug companies and insurance executives write their own rules.
What are your views on what’s known as the dark store loophole? If it’s not a problem, why? If it is, what will you do to close it?
The dark store tax loophole allows big-box retailers to unfairly obtain millions of dollars in tax breaks, and shifts the tax burden onto homeowners and local small businesses. Many of our local communities have tight budgets, and unfair actions on the part of chain retailers can create serious damage for municipalities.
Attempts to close the loophole failed under the GOP, as we continue to watch as our schools suffer, our roads crumble and our neighbors fail to get ahead.
During the most recent legislative session, several legislators proposed bills which would help mitigate the issue.
These proposals would require comparable properties have similar usage-statuses, so an open business could not be given the same value as a closed business.
As State Senator for the 1st District, I will vote to close the loophole and ensure that our state is putting our residents first, above big corporations.
What should Wisconsin do to ensure funding on the state level is available to repair roads?
Wisconsin families and communities deserve a responsible, long-term solution for repairing our crumbling infrastructure.
Our roads are currently on a 200-year replacement cycle, and families are spending an extra $637 a year in car repairs caused by poor road conditions in Wisconsin.
Stagnant state aids and harsh levy limits have forced local governments to take on increasing levels of debt to fund road projects. Outagamie, Door, Kewaunee, Manitowoc and Calumet counties, along with towns and cities all across the 1st Senate District have all taken the extraordinary step to pass resolutions requesting that the Legislature work to find a long-term, sustainable plan to fund Wisconsin transportation.
Whether this plan includes increases to shared revenue, increased levy limits or other options, our communities need the state to take responsibility for the crisis they have caused.
All solutions need to be on the table to make up for the shortsighted policies that have put us in the position of having the second worst roads in the nation. Having safe, reliable infrastructure is crucial for our state’s economy.
We need to stop costly borrowing, and find sustainable, smart solutions for Wisconsin families.
Moving forward, I will support investments in transportation that promote our state’s ability to compete not only in today’s economy, but to remain competitive in the future.
How would you like to see K-12 education funded in Wisconsin?
Our great public schools are the heart of our communities. Their success leads to better outcomes and more opportunities for students and tomorrow’s workforce.
For the last seven years, Gov. Walker and Legislative Republicans have made historic cuts to Wisconsin’s public schools.
These cuts create an unfair playing field for communities that can’t afford to lay off more teachers, eliminate courses and defer safety and maintenance projects.
In doing this, they have also unfairly shifted a greater fiscal burden on to local communities and property taxpayers, and have forced voters to fund billions of dollars in local referendums just to keep the lights on in some school districts.
Additionally, no one has been asked to do more with less the past seven years than our teachers.
We must ensure that we are investing in our schools by retaining quality teachers, maintaining safe and modern facilities and meeting high education standards to give students the best possible opportunity to get ahead.
Name: André Jacque
Party: Republican
Hometown: De Pere
Immediate family: Wife, Renée, and five children, Caleb, Mikayla, Langston, Siena and Xavier.
Occupation: State Representative
Why should people vote for you?
I want to ensure an even better, brighter future for my neighbors in Northeast Wisconsin and for our kids.
I want to expand our economy, protect our natural resources, invest in our future, and create opportunities to ensure that our children and their children, want to stay here to raise their family, too.
I’m proud to call De Pere home, and it’s been a great honor to serve our area in the State Assembly and to be your voice in the political process.
With your vote, I will have the opportunity to be an even more effective advocate for our region and to work hard for common sense policy.
I have a proven legislative track record as an effective, accessible and persistent bipartisan problem solver who works on a broad range of issues and gets things done for my constituents.
I’ve shown that I’m willing to stand up for the people of my district, and even to stand up to my own party leadership when it comes to doing the right thing.
I wasn’t handpicked by party bosses and I’ve earned a reputation of honest independence that I think is more important than political gamesmanship.
Volunteering in the community is important to me, and I am an active member of the Wisconsin Small Business Environmental Council, Family & Childcare Resources of Northeast WI Board, Green Bay Area Crimestoppers Board, Golden House Domestic Abuse Shelter Community Leadership Council and the Van Handel Foundation for families with special needs children.
I am proud to have earned the 2017-18 Legislator of the Year Award from both the Wisconsin Professional Police Association and the Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association; the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence Legislative Champion Award, Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce Legislator of the Year, NFIB Guardian of Small Business Award, Wisconsin Family Council Legislator of the Year Award, Brown County Crime Prevention Foundation Crimefighter Award, and the Wisconsin Independent Living Network Relentless Badger for the Disabled Award, among many others.
I have both private and public sector experience and have written several landmark laws, including the Crime Victim Bill of Rights, closing the child enticement loophole, the Safe Drinking Water Program Expansion, regional economic development and brownfields redevelopment reform, closing the hit-and-run loophole and reforming the Medical Assistance Purchase Program to enable people with disabilities to pursue jobs and careers without jeopardizing access to health care.
What is the single biggest issue facing Wisconsin?
Continuing the expansion of Wisconsin’s economy is critical, and the key to it is worker skills development at a time when unemployment is low and more employees are retiring than entering the workforce.
I have worked closely with K-12 schools on academic and career planning and the promotion and funding of dual enrollment for postsecondary credit and youth apprenticeship, as well as with our technical college system, including as the author of expanding the Tools of the Trade program to ensure apprenticeship success.
I have also worked on legislation to assist veterans with training and wrote the MAPP program reform to ensure that the disabled are able to work additional hours without incurring health care premium increases higher than the additional income they could earn.
As a community volunteer, I am proud to be on the board of two non-profit organizations that directly try to assist parents in addressing their childcare needs to more fully participate in the workforce: Family & Childcare Resources of Northeast Wisconsin and the Paul Van Handel Memorial Foundation for families of children with special needs.
What are your views on what’s known as the dark store loophole? If it’s not a problem, why? If it is, what will you do to close it?
I’m concerned about the possibility of anyone gaming the system to achieve an unfair assessment of a property.
There have actually been several versions of this legislation drafted and proposed to this point (including some opposed by local government groups), and the issue is clouded by controversy over legal definitions and ongoing litigation.
The final version remains in flux and there is currently a legislative study committee examining the issue in a non-partisan fashion with the goal of producing a consensus solution. I hope the legislature will clarify the way commercial buildings are assessed to ensure that the practice is consistent with the state constitution’s requirement that real property is taxed uniformly.
What should Wisconsin do to ensure funding on the state level is available to repair roads?
As transportation spending has increased over the past two decades, the percentage dedicated to local roads has not kept pace. I strongly support investments in the construction of a southern bridge in De Pere and the expansion of Interstate 41 between Appleton and De Pere to ease traffic congestion and encourage economic development.
In the State Senate, I will be better positioned to fight for local road aids and am especially proud to have been previously recognized by both the Wisconsin Towns Association and Wisconsin Counties Association for my efforts in reforming cost mandates and stretching existing dollars for infrastructure.
There are additional efficiencies that can be realized, but I do support significant additional revenues for transportation, especially with the progress made in bidding reforms and internal DOT changes driven by the recent legislative audit, and the wise decision of voters via referendum to update our Wisconsin Constitution to prevent the Transportation Fund raids like those that took place during the Doyle administration.
Transportation needs to be a high priority within the budget, and sales tax from vehicle-related purchases should be transferred from the state’s General Fund and built into the baseline funding for transportation.
To the extent that transportation revenues are increased, we should ensure that the overall tax burden on individuals does not go up. For example, a modest vehicle registration fee increase could be offset by the elimination of sales tax on utility bills for the six months of the year it is still currently charged.
How would you like to see K-12 education funded in Wisconsin?
I would like to reform our increasingly outdated school funding formula to make it more equitable statewide and restore the two-thirds state funding standard.
In particular, I support substantially increasing aid for educating disabled and special needs students as well as creating an additional tier of sparsity aid as proposed in 2017 AB 677, which I co-authored.
I am a strong proponent of youth apprenticeships and dual enrollment in post-secondary courses to provide students with the opportunity to earn significant credits and experience toward their educational and career goals before high school graduation.
I have also voted for the major education funding increases of recent years, including the $200 and subsequent $204 per student increases of the past two years included in the most recent biennial budget and funding for fab labs, school safety, mental health, and technology integration.
I am proud to have been a leader within the Wisconsin legislature in eliminating unfunded mandates on local government and taxpayers to put more dollars in the classroom.