Secretary of State/Secretario del Estado
The Secretary of State manages many of the state’s official records. The secretary of state assumes the role of governor, if the governor leaves office during their term, and there is no lieutenant governor. Voters elect the secretary of state to serve a four-year term. There is no term limit.___El Secretario de Estado maneja muchos de los registros oficiales del estado. El secretario de estado asume el rol de gobernador si el gobernador deja el cargo durante su mandato y no hay un vicegobernador. Los votantes eligen al secretario de estado para servir por un término de cuatro años. No hay límite de términos.Nota: Las respuestas de los candidatos que aparecen en español se tradujeron de las respuestas originales de los candidatos en inglés.
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Pete Karas
(WIGP)
Please describe your priorities for your term in office and your specific qualifications to effectively address those issues.
The Board of Commissioners of Public Lands (BCPL) manages the state’s remaining trust lands and trust funds primarily for the benefit of public school libraries. As a member of the BCPL, how will you effectively manage the land and funds held in trust for Wisconsin’s citizens?
What changes, if any, do you support in the duties of the Secretary of State, particularly in regard to election responsibilities?
What is your vision, if any, for modernizing the department and increasing transparency of its duties?
What would you do as Secretary of State to improve the lives of Wisconsinites?
Committee
Pete for Wisconsin
Education
Racine William Horlick High School 1977 -- UW-LaCrosse BS Finance and Economics 1983
Personal Pronouns
he/him
My three priorities: modernize public records so any citizen can find what they need without hiring a lawyer; make the office transparent by publishing documents proactively rather than waiting for formal requests; and break the two-party duopoly by advocating for ranked-choice voting and public campaign financing to open the door for third-party candidates.
I served on the Racine City Council, owned and operated a bar and music venue, and have spent my life in Wisconsin communities. I understand how the government works and how working people interact with it. I'm running without corporate money, accountable to voters, not donors.
The BCPL exists to benefit Wisconsin's public school libraries, and that mission should drive every decision. I'll ensure investment decisions are made transparently, with public board minutes that accurately reflect the board's actions, and that any proposed changes to how trust funds are distributed are vetted against the BCPL's legal obligations before they're promoted publicly. Responsible stewardship means protecting the long-term value of these assets, not treating them as a political prop.
Wisconsin's elections were better served by the Government Accountability Board, a nonpartisan body of retired judges that handled both ethics and elections without the structural deadlock built into the current WEC. The WEC's partisan, even-split design guarantees gridlock on contested questions, serving nobody except those who benefit from unresolved ambiguity. I support returning to the GAB model and will advocate for it from this office. I also support ranked-choice voting and public campaign financing so that Wisconsin voters have real choices and candidates aren't captured by the donor class before they take office.
The SOS office should be a model for open government. That means a fully searchable, machine-readable public records database, proactive disclosure of agency documents without requiring a formal records request, and a plain-language explanation of what the office actually does published prominently on its website. I'll partner with Wisconsin's public universities and nonprofit organizations to build these tools affordably and keep them accountable to the public interest, not to private vendors. Transparency matters here.
The SOS office has limited policymaking power, but a win or strong showing here sends a signal that changes everything. Voting third party is safe, it works, and Wisconsin voters aren't locked into two options they didn't ask for. Every voter who supports me makes it easier for the next person to vote their conscience in a statewide election, an assembly race, or for a congressional seat. How do you crack a duopoly no one likes? Race by race, and election by election. It starts with a third-party vote for SOS, which changes the structural barriers that keep third-party candidates off the ballot and ultimately gives voters more choices at the polls.
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