The four Democratic Party candidates contending for nomination as governor in the coming Sept. 10 primary are all lawyers and experienced politicians.
And as they showed in a candidates forum Sunday at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, they differ little in their basic positions on state issues of concern to the Jewish community.
Their differences lie primarily in the career experiences they have had, which each feels offer the better preparation and demonstrate the leadership skills for being the state’s chief executive. They often raised these themes in their responses to questions about issues at the forum.
For example, Joel Pittelman, representing the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations and the Wisconsin Jewish Conference, asked the candidates about charitable choice — the idea of providing tax funds to social service programs operated by “pervasively sectarian” organizations that mix promotion of their religion with the social service work.
Most of the organized Jewish community opposes this idea as a breach of constitutional church-state separation, and the candidates all tended to agree.
Rep. Tom Barrett (D-Milwaukee) alerted the audience of around 70 about efforts in Congress to “lower the barriers” to allowing religious institutions to become involved in politics, which among other things would “allow right-wing organizations to funnel money through churches.”
This is in keeping with a main theme of his campaign, that he has “looked at issues from the state and federal level” and thereby can bring “a unique perspective” to being governor, Barrett said during the forum.
State Attorney General Jim Doyle raised the larger issue of church-state separation and related how he opposed the administration of former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) on such issues. He told the audience to “be assured” that church-state separation would be maintained if he were governor.
And this illustrates a larger theme of his campaign — that he has been re-elected as attorney general even though he often opposed one of the state’s most popular governors, which is “a reflection” of his “values and leadership skills,” he said.
Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk said that her county allocated some $6 million to faith-based social service organizations — with the “strict rule of no proselytizing.” That is “the line I held as county executive” and would hold as governor, she said.
This reflects a major theme of her campaign — that her experiences and achievements (including a balanced budget) in her six years as chief executive of the state’s second-largest county have prepared her to become governor.
Finally, State Sen. Gary George (D-Milwaukee) said that he has “blocked a lot of bad legislation” on charitable choice. He also accused the Republicans of trying to use this issue as a diversion and an excuse for “not talking about what really needs to be done to improve society.”
His campaign emphasizes how his 22 years in the state senate have given him insight into “what really needs to be done,” embodied in a plan he presented in an article published in the April 7 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, to which he referred frequently during the forum.
The forum discussed the Milwaukee “school choice” program, which provides qualifying low-income parents with tax funds to allow them to send children to private and parochial schools, the latter including the Yeshiva Elementary School.
The candidates agreed that the program should not be expanded either in the Milwaukee area or through the state, and that choice schools should be held to the same academic and financial accountability standards as public schools. None advocated abolishing the program, though Falk said she believed that “public money is for public education.”
During most of the forum, questions were posed by representatives of local Jewish organizations — the JCC (Phillip Katz), the Wisconsin Council of Rabbis (Jewish Chaplaincy program director Rabbi Len Lewy), B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (Lindsey Pollack), Jewish Family Services (Judy Strauss) and the National Council of Jewish Women-Milwaukee Section (Ruth Wallace).
Moderator Michael Waxman, professor of law at Marquette University and treasurer of the MJCCR, also read questions written on cards from audience members.
Other issues explored included the state budget deficit, the rights of Jewish and other minority religion inmates in the state’s prison system, insurance coverage of mental health services, public education financing, opening admissions to the University of Wisconsin system and reproductive rights.
The forum was primarily sponsored by the MJCCR and the JCC, and co-sponsored by 18 Milwaukee Jewish organizations.
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