Taking Back The Wisconsin State Senate-- Meet Penny Bernard Schaber

With Steve Israel running the DCCC there is no chance of the Democrats winning back the House, literally, none whatsoever. Israel is leaving too many vulnerable Republicans on the table and squandering DCCC money on ridiculous races that aren't long shots, but NO SHOTS. People think I'm being apocryphal when I say he's flushing resources down a toilet with a PVI of R+15. But I'm being literal. Israel is trying to get fellow Blue Dogs elected in impossibly red districts-- in Arkansas he's working to elect conservative Democrats in districts that have PVIs of R+8, R+14 and R+15 and in West Virginia he's helping conservatives in R+11 and R+14 districts-- while ignoring candidates running against Republicans in much more vulnerable districts or, worse yet, working behind the scenes to make sure these Republicans would have either no opponent at all (Ileana Ros Lehtinen, Charlie Dent and David Jolly) or no plausible opponent (Peter King, Pat Meehan and Reid Ribble). It's still very much worth building a progressive movement by supporting excellent candidates like these but don't kid yourself into thinking there's going to be a change in control over the House. That simply cannot happen while Steve Israel is at the helm of the DCCC.

That doesn't make us any less enthusiastic about, for example, helping Kelly Westlund beat Sean Duffy is WI-07, Dave Obey's sprawling old R+2 district in the northwestern part of the state. That's another one Israle is completely ignoring, Kelly being a progressive and all. But her congressional race and Rob Zerban's race against Paul Ryan in the southeastern corner of the state, aren't the only game in town-- or at least not in Wisconsin. Blue America is taking on the task of helping flip the state Senate. We can stop Scott Walker dead in his tracks by winning a net of three seats in the state Senate. We're talking to all the plausible candidates and not only are there at least 3 Democrats who can win, there are at least 3 with strong progressive values and visions who can!

We're still talking to all of the candidates but we've already found one I want to introduce today, Appleton Assemblywoman Penny Bernard Schaber. You may recall a couple of months ago the pitiful story of Senate President Michael Ellis, who was caught on tape spectacularly breaking campaign finance law. Ellis was the Republican Penny was running against. He dropped out of the race. At the time Senate Democratic Leader Chris Larson told us, "The people of Wisconsin are sick of the culture of corruption in Madison. We need to end the days of pay-to-play governing and do-anything-to-stay-in-power politics utilized by current Republican leaders… Footage released earlier this week about Ellis’ illegal plans to attack his opponent, Penny Bernard Schaber, with illegal campaign money marks a new chapter in the continued culture of corruption within the Senate Republican caucus. Voters will not stand for this kind of unethical behavior any longer. It's time that we restore balance to our state government by electing a proven reformer like Penny to a Democratic-led Senate."

So what do we know about Penny? Before jumping into politics, she had over 30 years of experience as a Physical Therapist in hospitals, clinics, schools and nursing homes." I have learned how important it is to analyze the problem in front of me," she told us this morning, "to do my best to determine the root cause and to lay out an achievable plan with short term and long term goals and then implement the plan reaching these goals in a reasonable and relatively short period of time. It has been my job to take things that don’t work so well and help them to work better. This approach has not failed me in all my years as a PT. I continue to use this method in my new career as a State Representative; however it is not as easy as I hoped it would be. It seems that for every cause I find for a problem and potential solution I attempt to implement, I find more road blocks and detours than I anticipated. But I do not let this stop me, it may slow me down a bit but it does not squelch my desire to see government work well and work for everyone in Wisconsin."

Penny was elected to represent the 57th Assembly District in 2008 becoming the first Democrat in 97 years to represent the district. She ran for the same office in 2006, worked hard to create a grassroots network of supporters and volunteers and, in the end, taking 47% of the vote-- not bad for a first ever attempt at elected office. It didn't stop her and she continued to keep the grassroots effort together and to expand it so that she managed to frighten the incumbent off and then beat the GOP's designated replacement, Jo Egelhoff 15,383- 11,560, in the next go-round. After winning a tough race in 2010-- the Tea Party wave election-- the Republicans didn't even out up an opponent against her in 2012.

She's well known among her colleagues for being prepared in committee to ask questions for working to develop improvements to proposed legislation. "In my first term in office I was able to work with an experienced Senator, Mark Miller, from Madison, on a bill that would require recycling of electronic waste materials including computers, TV’s, printers and many other items. This bill required cooperation from the product’s sellers and users of the items and has been very successful and is keeping millions of pounds of materials out of our landfills and has created several small business and increased jobs in Wisconsin. I am very proud of this legislation.

"My top priority in the upcoming legislative term is to pass legislation that would create a nonpartisan commission that would draw the lines for all redistricting of local, state and federal elected official districts. I was part of an effort to do this in my first term of office and am committed to making sure this happens before the next redistricting occurs in 2020. This is my top priority because when the party in power is able to draw the lines to increase their power, the citizens are not being considered and become the losers in Government, and the majority party quickly becomes a permanent majority and no longer needs to listen to citizens or work for all citizens. To fix government, I believe this is the place to start. It will be my priority in my campaign for State Senate where I believe I will have the opportunity to win a very challenging campaign and will be able to change the future for Wisconsin."

I followed up on that with her asking why that's the most important issue the state Senate will be facing next year. She had put a lot of thought into it and her response inspired everyone here at Blue America:

In order to take the first step toward fixing Government we need to have a Non Partisan Council or Commission be responsible for drawing the boundaries for Legislative Districts. Iowa uses a Non Partisan Commission to draw its boundaries for elected offices and they have compact, contiguous districts that are competitive and therefore give the voters not only a voice but also a choice!

When the party in power gets to draw the lines of the districts without input from anyone else, especially not from the minority party and not from the voters, they will draw the lines to their favor. This happens regardless of which party is in power.

The voters deserve the opportunity make a choice, to be part of competitive and contested elections because the voters are the key to making Government work for them. As redistricting by either party becomes hyper partisan the voice of the voter is lost and not heard by the people who are elected to represent them. The voters loose every time under this method.

It is time for the voters to be heard in Wisconsin and the first step for this to happen is to work very hard to build legislation that uses a non partisan commission or council to draw the lines of all districts in Wisconsin. This is a key first step for giving the power back to the citizens of our state.

Blue America is just getting started with our effort to help Wisconsin Democrats take back the state Senate and Penny is our first candidate. If you'd like to help, we have a brand new page to do that on. And remember, there's no such thing as a contribution that is too small.