Tuesday's Election

For the upcoming election, I think all my neighbors know that I’ll be voting Republican primary (The signs in front of my yard are a subtle hint).  I thought I would quickly highlight a few contested races, and how I intend to vote and why.  If you are not sure who you are voting for in one of these races, you are welcome to follow my lead.

State Assembly

Since this is the most local race, I’ll start with this one first.  I worked with Rick Gundrum on the County Board, while he was the County Board Chairman, and saw him always work toward reducing taxes by making government smaller, more effective, and more efficient.  Rick was a key leader in reducing the County Tax Rate to the lowest rate in 100 years, while improving the quality of service for many programs in Washington County.

Since being elected to the Assembly in January, he has already started working toward solutions to make property taxes more consistent, including ending the dark store loop-hole that lets retailers skimp on their obligation.    Because of this focus, shortly after his election he was appointed to the 2018 Legislative Council Study Committee on Property Tax Assessment Practices.

Governor/Lt. Governor

Scott Walker has done tremendous things for our state, with Rebecca Kleefisch fully supporting his efforts.  His opponent wants to undo many of the successful reforms Walker has implemented.  Walker’s opponent also has given conflicting views on his plans for taxing us, though with all the spending he is proposing, increasing taxes seems most likely.

State Senator

I endorsed Leah Vukmir in February, and I stand by my endorsement for this excellent candidate.

Attorney General
Brad Schimel inherited a massive backlog of untested rape kits from his predecessor, Peggy Lautenschlager.  It took his office 3 years to get caught up, but he did the hard work and got it done.  Now Peggy’s son, Josh Kaul, has the nerve to lie and claim that Schimel ignored these rape kits for 2 years.  This is in my view the most disgusting negative attack of this election cycle (except for the attacks on Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh.  Negative ads of this scale are a sign of Kaul’s lack of character.

State Treasurer
Travis Hartwig wants to turn the position into one that will look to reduce wasteful government spending, which of course I support.

Secretary of State
Jay Schroeder strikes me as an interesting character.  He raises a lot of important issues about the burden his opponent will place on taxpayers when he retires after 40 years as Secretary of State.  Doug La Follette has done nothing for Wisconsin for 40 years, except work a job that’s only requirement is to work 3 hours per week.  Doug La Follette’s pension will pay out $280,000 per year.  If you don’t believe me, look it up online.

5^th Congressional District

Jim Sensenbrenner holds 100 town hall meetings each year with constituents.  He didn’t go to Washington and forget about us, he fights for us.

I Oppose Legalizing Marijuana

A few Counties have put advisory referendum on their county ballots.  The referendums are seeking support for asking the state to legalize marijuana.

Today, as I left a restaurant after eating dinner, I found a card on my windshield advocating for the legalization of marijuana.  Similar cards had been placed on all the cars in the parking lot.

I absolutely oppose legalizing marijuana, and would oppose any ballot initiative related to the legalization of marijuana.  I know this is an issue in which many of my Republican and Democrat neighbors will agree with me, and a few of my Republican and Democrat neighbors will disagree.

Rationalization is the strongest human drive.  Marijuana users want to rationalize their favorite vice as non-addictive and non-harmful.  Research does show that marijuana has harmful health effects, and is addictive.

Moreover, a recent trend that has emerged is extremely alarming.  Drug dealers, seeing marijuana as a low profit product, are finding ways to turn it into a high profit product.  Lacing marijuana with heroin or fentanyl is one method they have employed, with the hopes of turning marijuana addicts into heroin addicts.  Creating artificial marijuana, often laced with chemicals like rat poison, is another emerging method to increase the profitability of marijuana sales.

I will also oppose medical marijuana, which is the smoking of marijuana for allegedly medical reasons.

What will I support:
I will support research into medications (in pill form) that provide no recreational value, have no addictive qualities, and help treat diseases.  There is some promising research related to pills that treat epilepsy, that use a part of the marijuana plant in a non-recreational form.  If I had a kid who had epilepsy, and there was a pill that would help control it, I'd want him to have that pill (assuming it had no addictive properties).  So I support research into learning more about these potential medications, including potential benefits and side effects, along with addictive qualities.