State Representative Gary Tauchen is looking to hold on to his 6th Assembly District seat against William Switalla the Democratic challenger.
The seat has belonged to Tauchen since 2006, but Switalla hopes to change that with the upcoming election.
Switalla
For Switalla, his motivation to run for office is his business background. Hes seen how the economy has changed in recent years, and hes determined to help fix that.
“I’m a small businessman from Wittenberg, Wisconsin. I’ve been a small businessman my entire life for 30 years,” said Switalla. “I’ve watched businesses that were well and made money and I’ve watched them deteriorate down to nothing in our economy. I just know we needed to do something and we’re not doing what we need to do to make our economy grow.”
Switalla has been a county board supervisor for Shawano County for three terms now, and he says hes tired of witnessing the disconnect with politicians and those they represent.
“I know that not one politician has been to a county board meeting since I started three terms ago, until the day I said I was going to run for assembly. They came and we talked about our library, which is a big issue, and they left there our County Board saying, ‘yeah we totally understand your issues, but politics works very slow.’ Now the county has to struggle to figure out the solution instead of the government.”
Switalla is hoping that voters will begin critically evaluate those politicians who are doing a disservice to the people.
“I’m a village president, I’m a county board supervisor, I am not in upper-class politics, but I want to get there and pay attention to what I’ve done in my community and pay attention to how the county board represents me.”
Switalla says its his experience on the local level of politics that will serve him well in Madison.
Tauchen
Gary Tauchen hopes to keep the seat hes been in for the previous decade. Tauchen says theres been many changes during his time in office, and one of his big issues this session deals with water.
“That’s to me the biggest issue that affects both agriculture and Industry. “We need to find the correct balance between having people driving economy and people having jobs and protecting the environment. One of my major focuses this year is working on legislation that deals both with water quantity and water quality. The quantity is the high capacity well issue that we’ve been working on for several years, and the water quality issue is some of the problems we’ve had in Karst area.”
Tauchen says the Karst area is where there is fractured bedrock that goes directly into the water table of Door and Kewaunee Counties specifically, but affects other areas of the state. Its Tauchens established experience and network that he believes set him apart from Switalla.
“Having somebody with the experience I have, ten years in the legislature, plus running a small business I think is a big plus, and all of the boards of directors and the networking I have in place statewide and nationwide.”
Aside from the water issue, Tauchen hopes to continue his legislation on the Responsible Beverage Server Program.
“In the state of Wisconsin, bars and tavern owners have to have at least one person that’s gone through a class. I’ve tried to change it to make it an online program that will provide direct education to every employee, rather than just one.”
The legislation would help bar owners and employees be responsible in their serving.
