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July 21st, 2024 Len’s Political Note #658 Peter Barca Wisconsin 01
2024 General Election
Peter Barca has had considerable experience in politics. He is so experienced he has seen and even felt actual consequences for political decisions.
In 1993, Peter Barca was elected to Congress to replace Les Aspin, who Bill Clinton had appointed as Secretary of Defense. Aspin was a perfect example of a politician who faced a consequence. In that role, Aspin proposed budget reductions for post-cold war downsizing of the military. When American soldiers died in Somalia due to insufficient military support, he was blamed. His resignation was the end of his political career.
In 2017 after Peter Barca returned to state politics, after he was elected to the Assembly in 2008 and after he led the minority Democrats in a valiant but unsuccessful opposition to the new governor’s, Republican Scott Walker’s, budget cuts, he resigned from the leadership. His members were angered at his support of one of Walker’s particular funding packages to support infrastructure and tax incentives.
Peter Barca’s fellow Democrats were right. It never made sense to believe a Scott Walker promise. Foxconn never invested the promised $10 billion. Foxconn never employed the promised 13,000 workers. In 2023, Microsoft bought the land that had been set aside for Foxconn for $50 million. The Biden administration more realistically projected the creation of 2,300 construction jobs and subsequently 2,000 permanent jobs in the plant. Like most of Joe Biden’s initiatives, this will work.
With a degree from University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, Peter Barca began his career as a special education teacher. He continued doing that work and served as the director of a summer camp for special needs children. Through his teaching he became active in the teachers’ union and the Democratic Party. He resigned as chair of the Kenosha Democratic Party to attend Harvard, but returned. Somehow Harvard and Peter Barca were not a good fit.
Peter Barca completed his degree in Madison, worked for a Student Achievement Center, and ran for State Rep. Elected in 1984, he was a bill proposing machine. His education, job training, environmental protection, and economic development (including support for an office park) proposals were passed into law. His work on special legislative committees led to welfare reform including “one stop shopping” training and employment and a plan for rail services between Kenosha and Milwaukee.
Peter Barca’s success in the legislature was followed by election to Congress as Les Aspin’s replacement. He won by 675 votes and, in 1994, lost by 1,120 votes. Bill Clinton appointed him the Small Business Administration’s regional administrator and the national head of a Regulatory Fairness Program intended to support small businesses. After the end of Clinton’s term, Peter Barca became vice president and then president of an international project management company.
In 2008, he came home and started over. He was elected to the State Assembly. He soon became head of what was then the majority caucus. He focused again on economic development, but was frozen out when the Republicans took control of the House and the Senate and Scott Walker was elected governor. In the midst of those times of bitter disputes between Republicans and Democrats in Wisconsin, Peter Barca earned praise from Walker and other Republicans for being a fair-minded opponent.
In 2018, when Democrat Tony Evers was elected governor, he named Peter Barca Revenue Secretary. Six years later, having been an integral part of Evers’ administration, Peter Barca announced he would run again for Wisconsin’s first congressional district.
Wisconsin 01 is south of Milwaukee. It includes Racine and Kenosha on the coast of Lake Michigan and reaches halfway across the state to Janesville. After Peter Barca’s one term, the district elected Republicans, Paul Ryan and the incumbent Bryan Steil are the two most recent. Like Ryan, Bryan Steil is from the western end of the district. He grew up in Janesville, went to the local high school, and went away for college and law school – to Georgetown. After law school, he spent a year as an aide to Paul Ryan, serving some of that time as Ryan’s personal driver. He worked in business and briefly, in a law practice, and served on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents after being appointed by Governor Scott Walker.
Steil ran for Congress in 2018, getting a majority of the vote in a five person primary. Is he vulnerable in 2024? He has won every election by 54% or more. His political positions are not unconventional for a Republican. His principal concerns are international trade and ensuring the United States has a workforce that helps it compete. He described Joe Biden’s initial student loan proposal as foisting student debt on American taxpayers and doing nothing about the rising cost of college tuition. He opposes most gun safety measures, but would support funding a plan for instant background checks for gun purchases. He voted against Trump’s impeachments, but also voted against the scheme to reject the electoral votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania which Joe Biden won. He says not a word about abortion.
The district does sometimes vote for Democrats – for Al Gore in 2000, for Barack Obama in 2008, and for Judge Janet Protasiewicz for state supreme court in 2023. Peter Barca makes his case that he will be better at protecting this middle class district from the predations of government and corporate America:
- In the State legislature he ensured that insurance companies paid the cost of fertility treatments.
- In Congress he protected jobs in Beloit that could have been sent overseas.
- Working for the Small Business Administration, his focus was on economic growth in the Midwest.
- As the state Secretary of Revenue he delivered $1.5 billion in tax relief to small businesses, family farms, and home owners.
- As a Democrat (though he does not say it quite that way), he would protect the right to vote and reproductive freedom.
Janet Protasiewicz’s supreme court victory was 2023 Democratic victory was fought on the issue of abortion. If Peter Barca can make this issue central to the campaign, he can do as well as she did in carrying Wisconsin 01 while she won the entire state.
Help Peter Barca win in WI 01. DONATE.
Another potentially competitive House race in Wisconsin
Wisconsin 08
Kristin Lyerly was only a thought as a candidate on March 31. She had raised no money. An obstetrician and a gynecologist, she is the only Democrat running in the primary for the special election to replace Incumbent Mike Gallagher who resigned from Congress in disgust with his party.
Gallagher, BA Princeton, PhD Georgetown and a former Marine intelligence officer, had criticized Trump for firing James Comey, rejected Trump’s denial of Russian interference in the election, and resigned after he was the decisive vote in rejecting the Republican effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. He delayed his resignation so he could vote in favor of aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
Kristin Lyerly was a plaintiff in the Wisconsin lawsuit that eventually kept abortion legal in the state. She had previously performed abortions, but moved her practice to Minnesota after the US Supreme Court Hobbes decision. The special election will occur in November at the same time as the general election. In this Congressional race, abortion will be a key issue.
We will not know the Republican candidate until after the primary.
And still another potentially competitive race.
Wisconsin 03
Either Rebecca Cooke or Katrina Shankland will oppose extremist Republican Derrick Van Orden who won in 2022 with only 51.3% of the vote. There are no polls between the two. Cooke led in funds available on March 31 — $800,000 to $400,000. We have to wait for the August primary.
The US Senate race is the big race in Wisconsin in 2024
Wisconsin
Tammy Baldwin, grew up in Madison, raised mostly by her grandparents. She came out as a Lesbian in college and, like Ruben Gallego, is on the leftish side of the Democratic party. She is a particular advocate for the availability of health care and continues to be elected by Wisconsin voters. She has raised $26.4 million and had $10.3 million available on March 31.
Eric Hovde, chairman and CEO of the West Coast bank Sunwest and the owner of other banks as well as a Wisconsin real estate business founded by his grandfather, finally announced that he would oppose her. Shortly afterwards, he made some rookie mistakes. It is not just that his bank was named as a co-defendant in an elder abuse lawsuit, he described nursing home residents as having a tenure of five or six months and as not being competent to vote. Less offensive, but equally inaccurate, he ascribed increases in the national debt to spending, without taking into account huge Republican tax cuts.
Two June polls showed Tammy Baldwin leading, one of them by 3 points, another by 5 points On March 31, she had $10.3 million in her official pocket. On the same date, Eric Hovde had $5.3 million in his official campaign fund and untold millions in his personal pocket which he may or may not be willing to spend. DONATE TO TAMMY BALDWIN. Keep her in the lead. See Len’s Political Note #570
A nearby Senate race
Michigan
Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin’s family owned Hygrade Meat which included Ball Park Franks. She thought about agriculture when she began education and enrolled in Cornell’s agricultural school. She was in New York City at Columbia sudying international studies at the time of the 9/11 attack. That attack convinced her she should be in public service. She finished her Master’s Degree and joined the CIA. After a career in the CIA and working for the Department of Defense and the White House, she and her husband returned to the “genteman’s farm” that had been retained in the family when they sold the business. They thought about next steps and agreed, Elissa Slotkin would run for Congress, which she did successfully.
Now Elissa Slotkin is running for the seat that Debbie Stabenow is retiring from. She has raised $16 million and on March 31 had $8.6 remaining. The probable Republican nominee, former Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers had come out of retirement in Florida for this contest. He raised $3 million and had $1.4 million on March 31. Michigan is a large, expensive state. Both candidates need more. Elissa Slotkin’s $6 million is insufficient for a Michigan race.
Polls in June had Elissa Slotkin leading by 2, 3, and 5 points. There were a lot of undecided voters in all three polls. Help Elissa Slotkin reach more people. DONATE TO ELISSA SLOTKIN. See Len’s Political Note #589
WE HAVE A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TO WIN
Donate to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
As we look toward November, 2024, Help sustain the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaign. Even while the campaign is in flux, we know that whatever the resolution, resources are essential.
Every donation, large or small, makes a difference. Larger donations mean more money for the campaign. But many in the media count the number of small donations as a measure of enthusiasm for the candidate. Make a small donation if you cannot afford a large one. DONATE TO JOE BIDEN AND KAMALA HARRIS. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/web-bfp-december-2023 See Len’s Political Note #605
