Wisconsin Senate, District 31/Senado Estatal de Wisconsin, Distrito 31
Wisconsin Legislative BranchWisconsin’s legislature makes state laws. The legislature has two houses: the Wisconsin Senate and the Wisconsin Assembly. Proposed laws (bills) can originate from either the state senate or assembly. Both houses must approve the bill before it is passed on to the governor for signature or veto. The legislature can override a veto with a two-thirds majority vote in each house. The legislature controls the spending of state funds through appropriation.Wisconsin SenateThe Wisconsin Senate has thirty-three senators. Voters elect state senators to represent their senate district for a four-year term. Each senate district includes three assembly districts. There is no term limit.___PODER LEGISLATIVO DE WISCONSINLa legislatura de Wisconsin produce las leyes estatales. La legislatura consta de dos cámaras: el Senado de Wisconsin y la Asamblea de Wisconsin. Las propuestas de ley pueden originarse tanto en el Senado estatal como en la Asamblea. Ambas cámaras deben aprobar el proyecto de ley antes de transmitirla al gobernador para su firma o veto. La legislatura puede anular un veto con un voto mayoritario de dos tercios en cada cámara. La legislatura controla el gasto de los fondos estatales a través de las leyes de asignación.Senado de WisconsinEl senado de Wisconsin consta de treinta y tres senadores. Los votantes eligen senadores estatales para representar a su distrito senatorial por un período de cuatro años. Cada distrito senatorial incluye tres asambleas de distrito. No hay límite de término.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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Michele Magadance Skinner
(Rep)
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Jeff Smith
(Dem)
Please describe your priorities for your term in office and your specific qualifications to effectively address those issues.
What, if anything, will you do to ensure equitable, accessible, and affordable health care services, including reproductive health care (i.e. contraception, IVF, and abortion) for Wisconsinites?
What, if anything, will you do to ensure our schools have the resources to improve outcomes for its students, including those with disabilities?
What redistricting process, if any, do you believe the legislature should put in place before the next national census to ensure fair representation for voters?
What guardrails, if any, would you support to protect our environment, health, property values, and household budgets from large projects such as hyperscale data centers and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)?
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Committee
Together With Jeff
Education
High School graduate
Personal Pronouns
He, him
I am determined to change how we fund public education so every student has equal opportunity to learn and grow in Wisconsin. Also protect democracy with a number of measures that include redistricting reform, restricting unaccountable issue ads and unlimited spending along with protections for voters outlined in my Voter Protection Act I have introduced each session I have been in office. Reforming hospital access and cost of healthcare is extremely high on my list as well. While we can fix most issues with prioritizing funding, we won't be able to fix our natural resources if we don't act quickly as Climate Change is real and we're on a timetable that will place us in a position when we can't turn things around if we don't act quickly.
Choice of when and if a woman chooses to reproduce should be totally up to the individual. Access to abortion and contraception should not be restricted by government or anyone else.
I have been in talks with healthcare advocates and experts on what steps need to be taken to reduce the cost of hospital stays and access. We are drafting legislation to be readied next year. Healthcare access needs to eventually be addressed through sweeping national action that brings us to universal healthcare access that is truly non-profit.
The school voucher experiment has been a disaster and only siphons money away from our public schools. We need to shrink that program and gradually eliminate it. In the meantime, Special Education funding should be sum sufficient so the promised percentage from the state is real. That is not true now. The funding formula for public education must be restructured and so that the restrictions placed on districts in 1993 are eliminated and all families have equal access as prescribed in our constitution.
While the constitution states that the legislature must approve legislative maps it does not suggest that the legislature should draw that maps or even have any hand in drawing the maps. That step should be handled by an Independent Redistricting committee. My office has worked closely with advocates in drawing up legislation that would guarantee an IRC and laying out who actually draws legislative maps.
My friend and colleague Senator Habush-Sinykin has already produced legislation that would put into place regulations and make data centers accountable. We cannot just leave it up to the big tech companies to regulate themselves.
The same goes for CAFOs. I have a history of organizing around the risks of CAFOs to our water and land. Currently the DNR has their hands tied and, though they can slow the process, they cannot deny permits to large agricultural farms that potentially harm our environment. Our job in as legislators is to protect our land, water air and each citizen from overreach of any entity that can cause harm without regulation and oversight.
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