Candles, flowers, crosses and plenty of television cameras have accented the Madison cityscape following a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School that wounded six and killed three, including the 15-year-old shooter. 

Here’s what it looked like this week as community members gathered to support traumatized families and memorialize lives lost.

Police and first responders lined Buckeye Road as investigations continued.

Abundant Life remains closed to students. The United Way of Dane County has established an Abundant Life Christian School Emergency and Recovery Fund, with all proceeds going to those affected by the shooting, according to the school’s website. Supporters can donate online or text help4ALCS to the number 40403.

By Tuesday morning, news media vehicles swarmed where parents would have dropped off their children on normal school days. Reporters conducted interviews along Buckeye Road, lining sidewalks and street parking spaces.

Police tape surrounded the school and neighboring City Church. Flowers and candles lined the sidewalk.

On a chilly Tuesday evening, hundreds mourned at a candlelit vigil at the Wisconsin Capitol.

Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent Joe Gothard and Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway called on the community to support those affected. 

“That is where our focus is right now — caring for everyone who has been impacted,” Rhodes-Conway said. “Let us be a community that takes care of each other.”

She highlighted resources available through the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Office of School Safety and Office of Crime Victim Services, available 24-7 at 1-800-697-8761 or schoolsafety@doj.state.wi.us.

Vigil attendees sang and held their hands near their candles, protecting flames from gusts of wind. They wrote messages on crosses representing the dead.

“We will fight for change so this can’t happen again,” read one message.

Calls to end gun violence have echoed throughout Madison, including a plea from the Wisconsin State Journal’s editorial board to “break America’s curse of gunfire in schools.”

Photos: Madison mourns after Abundant Life Christian School shooting is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Election Day involves more than quickly marking a ballot and anxiously awaiting election returns.

Filing dispatches from across Wisconsin during Tuesday’s general election, our reporters examined how residents participated in the democratic process. Voters and election workers brought joy, angst and purpose to the polls. 

In some cases images told their stories more powerfully than words. 

Here is the best of Wisconsin Watch’s photography from Election Day, portraits of what we saw and who we met.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Photos: What Wisconsin’s democracy looked like on Election Day is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

For the first time in years, the northern shores of Lake Winnebago in Neenah and Menasha feature a competitive Assembly race. 

After retiring from his decades-long political career in 2021, former Neenah mayor and state Rep. Dean Kaufert is returning to politics in a bid to represent the 53rd Assembly District as a Republican. Challenging him is lifelong Neenah resident and Democrat Duane Shukoski, a political newcomer who previously worked as an environmental health manager at Kimberly Clark.

Current Rep. Mike Schraa was drawn out of the district and unsuccessfully ran in the 55th Assembly District Republican primary. Now, the competitive 53rd could become a deciding seat in Democrats’ quest to gain control in the Assembly.

Kaufert is running on a conservative platform supporting a referendum on a 14-week abortion ban, lowering taxes and continuing public funding to private voucher schools. Shukoski is running a progressive campaign to ensure abortion access, repeal anti-union legislation and expand Medicaid funding.

Redistricting

For more than a decade, Neenah has been represented in the Assembly by Republicans, sharing the 55th Assembly District with rural parts of Winnebago County. Neighboring Menasha, meanwhile, has consistently remained a Democratic stronghold, as it has shared the more urban 57th Assembly District with Appleton.

Since redistricting, the two Fox Valley cities have been grouped together in the 53rd Assembly District. Now, according to a Wisconsin Watch analysis, Democrats and Republicans in the district are separated by less than five points, ranking the 53rd Assembly District among the most competitive races in Wisconsin’s Legislature.

‘I’m not an extremist’

Kaufert has a lengthy resume — after starting his political career on the Neenah City Council in 1986, he won a bid to represent the 55th Assembly District in 1990 and remained there until 2015, after he was elected Neenah mayor.

His voting record includes opposing Medicaid expansion, favoring the repeal of iron mining restrictions and supporting anti-abortion measures. Kaufert received a 96.43% lifetime ranking from the American Conservative Union. 

But in an opening statement during an October candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, Kaufert refrained from identifying as a conservative and emphasized bipartisanship. 

“I’m not an extremist on any issue,” Kaufert said. “This isn’t working, the partisan divide (in Madison). I’m a proven person that was well respected on both sides of the aisle.”

Kaufert did not make himself available for an interview for this story.

A progressive proposal

Shukoski, a lifelong Neenah resident, grew up under the state’s foster care system before working up the Kimberly Clark corporate ladder, starting as a union worker and eventually becoming environmental health manager. 

“I’m not a politician,” Shukoski said during the October candidate forum. “I’m a retired Kimberly Clark employee. I come from the working class and I care about the working class.”

When asked about his political ideology, Shukoski said that he “would lean more progressive.” He identified a strong social safety network during his youth as a large source of support, and he counted his background as a strong influence on his political positions.

“The fact that Winnebago County and the state took care of me has inspired me to run and to give back to my community,” Shukoski said.

Shukoski’s platform includes accepting federal funding to expand BadgerCare, to enshrine Roe v. Wade into the state’s constitution and to repeal 2011 Act 10, a law that crippled public sector unions in the state.

Cost of living

Some of Shukoski’s main focuses are poverty and the cost of living. In a statement on his campaign website, Shukoski said that he hopes to “ease the cost of living and make childcare more affordable.”

Shukoski also spoke about rising housing costs and homelessness, referencing his previous work as a volunteer for Pillars, an organization focused on providing housing and other resources to populations experiencing homelessness.

Kaufert had a different perspective on the cost of living.

“Things seem to be going a lot better than they used to, other than inflation,” Kaufert said. “Minimum wage is raised in this country, more people are working. Salaries are up.”

While unemployment rates have remained low and median household incomes have increased in recent years, Wisconsin’s minimum wage has remained at the federal level of $7.25 per hour since 2009.

Kaufert also spoke against implementing social welfare programs. “There’s no doubt that there’s a shortage of adequate quality affordable housing,” Kaufert said. “But rent control, things like that, aren’t the answer.”

Kaufert claimed individual financial choices are the cause of the problems for people experiencing poverty.

“You see people who don’t have the financial means to do the things that they should be doing, but they all got a 65-inch screen TV. They got cigarette butts on the front porch. They got a $1,000 cell phone,” he said. “I’m not willing to give a handout.”

Labor

Both Kaufert and Shukoski claim to support unions.

Kaufert, one of only four Republicans who voted against Act 10, said he has worked with unions in the past. “I know the leaders and we work well, and to be painted as an extremist just isn’t fair,” he said.

But Kaufert now defends Act 10, calling it “the best thing that ever happened to this state.” He spoke against the idea of repealing Act 10, saying that “to just come and say we’re going to overturn everything is not the right answer.”

Kaufert also received a lifetime score of 27% from the AFL-CIO in 2014, indicating that he voted against the union’s positions in the vast majority of votes. He has been endorsed by the National Federation of Independent Business and the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.

Shukoski, on the other hand, has openly called to overturn Act 10, saying that it is one of the first things he hopes to achieve in office.

A former union member, Shukoski has received endorsements from several unions, including UAW and AFL-CIO. Shukoski spoke in favor of unions, saying that with stronger unions, “we’re all lifted up. The economy does better. Wages are better.” 

According to a 2023 Treasury Department report, unions “serve to strengthen the middle class and grow the economy at large.”

“I raised a family on union wages back in the ‘80s. You can’t do that today,” Shukoski said. “We need to strengthen our unions.”

Abortion

In a September Facebook post, Kaufert said that he would support a “statewide referendum on (the) 14-week abortion bill,” echoing AB 975, a Republican-backed bill that sought to ban abortions after 14 weeks.

In the post, Kaufert also said that he was pro-life and would support “exceptions for rape, incest or life of the mother” and “legislation for birth control to be sold over the counter by pharmacist(s).”

Kaufert has previously supported anti-abortion legislation, including 2013’s SB206, which forced those seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound and mandated that physicians provide a verbal description of the fetus.

Shukoski, who has been endorsed by the Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, said that he hopes to “enshrine Roe into the State Constitution.”

“It’s none of my business. It’s none of the government’s business for what women do in situations like that,” Shukoski said.

Education

Kaufert and Shukoski diverge further on education in Wisconsin.

Over a decade ago, Kaufert introduced legislation to give tax credits to parents who enroll students in private schools. Instead the state expanded the Milwaukee private school voucher program statewide. Kaufert said he would continue the expansion of school choice.

He also said Wisconsin’s public schools are adequately funded.

“Public school spending has increased every single year of the state budget,” Kaufert said. “To people that say public schools aren’t being funded adequately, public schools are.”

Public school spending has increased every year except in 2011, when Kaufert joined Republicans in passing a budget with an $834 million cut to Wisconsin’s K-12 budget. The lost funding to schools was offset by requiring teachers to contribute more to retirement and health insurance premiums. Between 2002 and 2020, Wisconsin’s public school system experienced the third-lowest school funding increase in the nation, and the state’s growing school voucher system continues to divert hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars toward private schools each year.

Nearly half of all Wisconsin school districts are seeking additional funding through referendums this year.

Shukoski, on the other hand, is critical of the voucher program and said that public education spending has to increase. 

“Schools in this district have closed. My elementary school has closed,” Shukoski said. “This is what happens when you defund or you underfund schools for 14 years.”

Shukoski, who was endorsed by the Wisconsin Education Association Council, also called for additional restrictions on the voucher program in a candidate survey put out by the League of Women Voters and the Fox Cities Advocates for Public Education, agreeing with calls to disclose voucher costs on taxpayer bills, reevaluate the need for the voucher program and charter schools, and develop accountability measures for private schools that would be similar to those of public schools.

Climate

On environmental issues, Kaufert said that “climate change probably exists.”

He also said that it “is more of a global problem than it is a Wisconsin problem,” adding that more has to be done federally and internationally to address the issue.

Kaufert received a 0% rating from the Sierra Club during the 2013-14 legislative session, indicating that he voted against the environmental group’s preferences in every identified issue that year. He also co-sponsored a Republican-led effort to weaken requirements for mining permits in the state in 2011.

Shukoski cited his environmental work at Kimberly Clark when speaking about climate change, saying in a statement on his campaign website that he had worked closely with the Department of Natural Resources and had helped improve environmental standards at several Kimberly Clark facilities.

Shukoski also called for increased funding in the event of future climate emergencies, citing recent disasters such as Hurricane Helene.

“We all know climate change is real,” Shukoski said. “When we fire our scientists and we don’t fund the DNR or underfund, that hurts the state.”

Shukoski has been endorsed by the Sierra Club.

Health care

Kaufert spoke against accepting increased federal funding for BadgerCare. He also warned that federal child care subsidies would be “one-time money” and that it could lead to increased tax costs.

Shukoski said that he would support programs to increase child care funding in the state, saying that “our working families need the help.” He also favors BadgerCare expansion, saying it would “improve healthcare access, support local hospitals, and prevent medical bankruptcies” in a statement on his campaign website.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Candidates clash over opposing goals for the future of the Fox Valley is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

According to the candidates running for Wisconsin’s 30th Senate District, some of the top issues this year for northeastern Wisconsin voters are rising living costs and politicians’ inability to get along with their colleagues across the aisle.

Both Jim Rafter, a Republican and Allouez village president, and Jamie Wall, a business consultant and third-time Democratic candidate, are wearing bipartisanship as a badge of honor in their respective campaigns. It’s a strategic move for both parties amid the state’s increasingly polarized political landscape, reflecting the competitive nature of a Senate district that covers Green Bay and some of its suburbs.

From calls for tax cuts to redistributing Wisconsin’s surplus among municipalities, the two candidates share positions on many issues. But they do differ on some issues — Wall more openly sides with Democrats in calls for increased abortion access and taking federal funds to expand Badgercare, whereas Rafter has been a more vocal proponent for the closure of Green Bay Correctional Institution.

Redistricting has removed rural northern parts of Oconto and Marinette counties from the 30th Senate District in favor of more urban settings in Allouez and Ashwaubenon south of Green Bay. The district now reflects the more densely populated and politically varied region of metropolitan Green Bay instead. In response to redistricting, current Sen. Eric Wimberger, a Republican, announced in March that he would run in the more rural 2nd Senate District instead.

While Wimberger won by a margin of nearly 10 points in 2020, the open seat now ranks as the state’s closest Senate race this year, according to a Wisconsin Watch analysis. 

Bipartisanship

Rafter, who has served on the Allouez board for 10 years, including eight years as president, said political polarization is one of the biggest issues in the state.

“Nothing’s getting done because people won’t talk to each other,” Rafter said. “I like to talk to people and get things done.”

Wall, a business consultant who is returning to the political sphere after two unsuccessful campaigns for Congress in 2006 and 2012, seems to agree, saying that his experience in the private sector will help him bring politicians together.

According to Wall, polarization is a decades-long problem, and constituents are tired of it.  “They’ve seen all the dysfunction and all the partisan fighting,” Wall said. “We’ll get more done for the people of the state if we’re willing to work together across party lines and compromise.”

In terms of compromise, both hope to leverage bipartisan support to divert more of Wisconsin’s $3 billion surplus toward local funding and tax cuts.

Rafter said his decade in Allouez politics has demonstrated a need to appropriate more funding toward local governments.

“In Allouez, we’re a very small community, and we have absorbed tremendous increases in costs of operations such as building roads and just maintaining our infrastructure,” Rafter said. “There’s lots that local communities need to be able to do, and that money would go a long way in helping.”

“I don’t believe state government should be sitting on that money,” Rafter said. “If it doesn’t come back to the local communities, it should go back to the residents.”

Wall, similarly, hopes to see legislators compromise in order to allocate the surplus.

“It’s a sign that how things work in Madison is kind of broken,” Wall said in a September interview with WisconsinEye. 

Budgeting the surplus, he said, should have the goal of “reducing health care costs … working to bring down the cost of housing for regular people, and providing a little bit of targeted tax relief for the people who need it the most.”

Taxes

One of Wall’s central campaign promises is a tax cut, enabled by the state’s current surplus, that he says will be directed toward working families. 

Wall also has attacked Rafter’s tax policies, criticizing him for supporting an increase in Brown County’s sales tax during his tenure as Allouez village president. Rafter advocated for the continuation of a 0.5% county sales tax during an Allouez village board meeting in 2022.

Rafter, however, views his past in a more practical light. 

“I’ve seen and read how much money that half percent sales tax has saved the taxpayers of Brown County in terms of debt reduction, in terms of being able to do more roads and more buildings,” Rafter said.

Rafter, who also said that he would support a bill to cut taxes in order to address the rising cost of living, defended his record on taxes in Allouez. “Our existing tax rate has remained relatively flat over the last nine years I’ve been on the board,” Rafter said. 

When asked whether or not he would oppose any future sales tax increases, Wall said he is “not a big fan of the sales tax.”

Abortion

On the issue of abortion, Wall is critical about past Republican attempts at restricting abortion access in the state. In a statement on his campaign website, he said he “supports preserving and expanding (reproductive health care) rights.”

Rafter said his position differs from anti-abortion Republicans like Wimberger. He said he hopes to reduce the amount of abortions through “education and guidance,” and that if elected, he would not enter with a steadfast position on the matter.

“As a community we need to come together and figure out what the right solution is. We need to protect the rights of women. We also have to make every effort to protect the rights of the unborn child,” Rafter said. “I hope that we can find a way to reduce the number of abortions in the state of Wisconsin.”

Green Bay Correctional Institution

Rafter takes a harder stance on the issue of Green Bay Correctional Institution, having become an outspoken advocate for its closure. The maximum-security prison, which has been plagued with dangerous living conditions in addition to problems relating to understaffing and overpopulation, is located in Allouez.

Wisconsin’s prison system as a whole, Rafter said, is riddled with problems. 

“Our criminal justice system just needs a lot of help … the system that has been built, from what I’m learning, is not working,” Rafter said. “There are an awful lot of people working in our Department of Corrections that deserve better. There are inmates who deserve better. There are families of the inmates who deserve better. And from a financial perspective, every taxpayer in the state of Wisconsin deserves better.”

Wall said that he agreed with other local politicians that GBCI needs to be closed, but he did not specify support for any specific proposals going forward.

When asked about GBCI, Wall said that he wanted to “have a bigger conversation about what the state prison system ought to look like.”

“I’d like to be a part of that conversation,” Wall said.

Health care

On the topic of health care, Wall backed taking federal funding to expand BadgerCare. He said it should be a no-brainer.

“We can start off by taking federal Medicaid expansion monies, which 40 other states have done,” Wall said. “We’re paying taxes for people’s health care in 40 other states and not benefiting as a result of that.”

Rafter was less certain on his position, saying that health care is an important issue but that he’s unsure as to what problems currently exist or what a good solution might be.

“Just accepting (federal) money isn’t the right answer,” Rafter said. “I don’t have an opinion except that we have to come together and figure it out.”

School funding

The two candidates have some disagreements on school funding. Schools across the state have turned to referendums to obtain funding, and Wisconsin is trailing nationally in percentage increases in school funding over the past decade.

Both candidates called for increased funding to K-12 schools. Rafter also voiced support for funding private voucher schools while Wall said that “public dollars ought to go to supporting public schools.”

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Two moderates race to the middle for Green Bay state Senate seat is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Can you safely walk around your city? Many Wisconsin residents can’t. The vast majority of our state’s cities fall short of walkability, according to Seattle-based walkability metric Walk Score. Apart from Milwaukee, which ranks at 24th most walkable large to mid-sized city in the nation and receives a “somewhat walkable” score, every ranked city in the state is categorized as car-dependent or worse.

Transit spending, adjusted for inflation, has fallen to nearly a fifth of what the state spent during its ridership peak in the 1950s, and past legislation outlawing taxpayer-funded regional transit authorities continues to pose a significant roadblock against planners and municipalities looking to expand transit options. Despite this, a whopping 31% of Wisconsinites, according to census data, are non-drivers.

Whether it be mobility, accessibility or just plain affordability, I’m looking to hear about the experiences of non-drivers in this state and how they get around. In a society that depends so heavily on cars, how are the lives of cyclists, pedestrians and transit users affected? What solutions, looking forward, can lend a helping hand? For drivers, has car ownership introduced any unexpected difficulties into your life? Do you wish there were better alternatives to driving?

If you’re interested in sharing your story, feel free to reach out to me directly at jshieh@wisconsinwatch.org or send a tip to our newsroom.

Hey, non-drivers: Help us report on transportation in Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

A primary battle in the rural Green Bay 4th Assembly District seeks to test whether redistricting can uproot an entrenched incumbent, pitting a five-term lawmaker campaigning on his decade-long record against a local party leader and self-described “Christian conservative.”

Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, currently represents the 4th Assembly District, covering a mostly urban region of Green Bay to the city’s south and west. Following redistricting, Steffen will still reside in the 4th Assembly District, but the region’s borders now include much of rural Oconto County in the north.

The new district more closely resembles pre-2024 borders for the 89th Assembly District, where Rep. Elijah Behnke, R-Oconto, currently serves. Elijah Behnke was drawn into the 4th Assembly District, but he decided to run against incumbent Rep. Peter Schmidt, R-Bonduel, in the 6th Assembly District instead of remaining to run against Steffen. Elijah Behnke has said that Schmidt being an “easier target” had “something to do” with his move.

Darwin Behnke, Elijah’s father, is now challenging Steffen instead. While Elijah and his brother Micah have run campaigns for public office in the past, this marks the elder Behnke’s first attempt at an elected position.

Behnke introduced his campaign to a group of supporters in May at the Log Jam Saloon in Oconto, standing in front of a wall of Trump flags.

“I’m just another old man who’s grumpy and irritated about what’s going on in Wisconsin,” Behnke told the crowd.

Behnke told Wisconsin Watch he was motivated to run for Assembly because he’s frustrated with how state government is run, viewing the decision as a necessity.

“I’m stepping up because I feel somebody should do it. I wish it wasn’t me,” Behnke said. “I don’t want Steffen, or any RINO, to run unopposed.”

Asked why he considers Steffen as a RINO, which stands for “Republican in name only,” Behnke said Steffen “calls himself a conservative, a Christian, but fiscally and morally I don’t see him taking a hard stance.”

Steffen, who has represented the district since 2015, received a 90% lifetime rating for “Conservative Excellency” from the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2023. 

Steffen has historically aligned himself with conservative factions among Republicans on several occasions, notably leading efforts to decertify 2020 election results in Wisconsin. Steffen is also a coauthor of Assembly Resolution 18, which called for the impeachment of Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe.

Steffen declined multiple interview requests.

Behnke said if elected he wants to decrease state budget allocations and “go back five or six years” to previous state budget amounts. He also suggested cutting state spending as a whole to address the possibility that “someday we’re not going to get the tax dollars that we get from the federal government.”

In statements on his campaign website, Steffen criticized “raising taxes to further grow government programs” and said that he would “continue fighting for a middle-class tax cut and tax-free retirement for our seniors.” 

Behnke also said that he thinks schools in the state are “trying to change children,” and he suggested that schools should produce better results considering “the amount of money we’re spending.”

A July 2022 report found that while school spending per pupil in Wisconsin, unadjusted for inflation, has increased since 2002, education spending nationwide has increased at a much higher rate. Only two states, Idaho and Indiana, had lower increases in school spending during the two-decade period.

Steffen said on his campaign website that he would support parents’ “right to know what’s happening in their child’s classroom,” mentioning his introduction of AB 510, a proposed bill of educational changes previously vetoed by Gov. Evers. The bill has been identified as anti-trans legislation by independent research organization Trans Legislation Tracker. 

The controversial bill proposed 15 “parental rights,” such as allowing parents to determine their children’s religion, to opt their children out of classes or educational material and to determine their children’s name and pronoun usage in school settings. It also proposed requiring schools to notify parents of any instance when a “controversial subject” would be taught or discussed, specifying that such subjects would include “instruction about gender identity, sexual orientation, racial identity, structural, systemic, or institutional racism, or content that is not age-appropriate.”

On his campaign website, Steffen also proposed to “dramatically increase local funding” for law enforcement and frontline workers.

The candidates contrast more in their home turf. Behnke resides in Oconto County and is currently vice chair of the Oconto County Republican Party, and Steffen is more prominent in Brown County.

Ken Sikora, chair of the Oconto County Republican Party, said that while the party doesn’t make an official endorsement, he remains skeptical of Steffen because of his long tenure as a representative and his lack of rural experience. 

“He’s not familiar with this district, and that’s a big disadvantage,” Sikora said. “People don’t know him.”

However, after a campaign ad mailer attacked Behnke for having “trouble with money,” the Oconto County Republican Party promoted Behnke’s campaign on social media and criticized Steffen for the advertisement.

Steffen responded on social media, saying that the mailers “were funded and sent by an Eau Claire-based PAC” that he did not know about.

“Personally… I want somebody new,” Sikora said. “Anybody that’s been in politics and in Madison for more than 10 years is part of the problem.”

When asked if he had any qualms with Steffen’s performance as a representative, Sikora said that while he did not know of any, he still wanted a change.

“I think a lot of people right now want someone outside,” Sikora said. “We want the next Donald Trump.”

Whoever wins the Republican primary will face one of two Democratic challengers, though the district is a safe GOP seat leaning 62-36 based on past election results. According to Dixon Wolf, member at large of the Brown County Republican Party, the party plans on supporting whichever Republican candidate wins the Aug. 13 primary.

“We will support any candidate post-primary that is conservative,” Wolf said.

Longtime GOP incumbent faces rural challenger in new Green Bay area district is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

A returning candidate and local community organizer squares off against a political newcomer and environmentalist for the unlikely chance to flip a safe Republican seat in the rural Green Bay 4th Assembly District Democratic primary on Aug. 13.

Two years ago, Jane Benson challenged state Rep. Elijah Behnke, R-Oconto, for his seat in what was the largely rural and heavily Republican-leaning 89th Assembly District. Benson lost that election by more than 8,000 votes, but she credits her campaign for boosting Democratic voter turnout to help Gov. Tony Evers win reelection.

Now, after being redrawn into the 4th Assembly District, the Suamico resident and League of Women Voters organizer is running for office once again. This time, she faces political newcomer Alexia Unertl, a working parent and environmentalist who also resides in Suamico. 

For both candidates, the challenge of running as a Democrat in a largely conservative district is obvious. Past voting patterns suggest the district skews Republican 62% to 36%. But the recent redistricting has given Democrats across the state more hope that they can compete in legislative races in November.

“The new 4th District is still very Republican, I know that,” Benson said in an interview with Wisconsin Watch. “But I also know there is a lot of repressed desire among Democrats to step up and participate. There is a new energy unleashed from the voting maps having been redrawn, and we can use that energy to bring people out to vote.”

The 4th Assembly District covers a largely rural region that lies northwest of Green Bay, encompassing Suamico and spreading north toward Oconto. Incumbent David Steffen, R-Howard, has represented the district for nearly a decade and now seeks reelection, facing a primary challenge from Darwin Behnke, the father of Elijah Behnke. The newly drawn borders have made the district more rural compared to its previous region of southwestern Green Bay and Ashwaubenon.

Steffen, Benson said, is out of his element. “He’s lost the more urban area of Ashwaubenon, and now he’s more in the rural area of Oconto County… that will be unfamiliar to him,” Benson said.

Key to both Benson and Unertl’s campaigns is a set of policy positions that they say will be extremely important for rural voters. Both Democrats align on these issues, including shared concerns about pollution in the district’s many waterways, a commitment to accepting federal Medicaid funding to expand BadgerCare and plans to expand broadband internet access throughout the state. 

“Just those few things would make a huge difference in the lives of Wisconsinites,” Unertl said in an interview with Wisconsin Watch. “I don’t see why we couldn’t make that happen.”

Unertl, who currently serves as vice chair for Brown County’s Conservation Congress, also cited concerns surrounding PFAS contamination in private wells and homes. 

“This contamination can happen without us really knowing, and there isn’t a lot of testing that happens to private wells,” Unertl said. “The Department of Natural Resources should be able to address that directly. One of my goals would be to establish an emergency response for (water contamination).”

Benson, who is a board member at the Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin, said she is frustrated with Republican proposals for PFAS contamination cleanup. 

“Businesses are not being held accountable for contamination, and no one has to declare the results of the testing that’s done,” Benson said in reference to SB312, a Republican-led bill vetoed by Evers during the 2023-24 legislative session. SB312 included provisions to shield polluters from accountability for PFAS cleanup as well as a clause to prohibit the DNR from disclosing PFAS testing results without notifying landowners at least 72 hours beforehand.

Benson also echoed frustrations with recent efforts to restrict abortion access in the state, citing Republican-led efforts to enforce an 1849 abortion law as a total ban on abortion and to prosecute health care providers involved in the process of an abortion. 

“When I think of how Republicans treat pregnant people in Wisconsin, the word abandonment comes to mind,” Benson said. “It’s unhinged, and it needs to stop.”

“The state has no business getting between a woman and her doctor,” Unertl said. “If a woman needs an abortion, she should be able to receive it from a qualified professional.”

Both candidates said that they would support taking federal Medicaid funding to expand access in Wisconsin. Unertl also argued in favor of increasing state funding for rural hospitals and health care providers. 

“Right now, there’s such a risk of these facilities not getting the funding that they need and not being able to provide care to their communities,” Unertl said.

While Benson and Unertl share many policy positions and goals, they differ in their backgrounds. 

“I have been deeply involved in issues like clean water and fair voting maps, and I have a lot to offer,” Benson said. Benson brands herself as an activist, and she emphasizes her past political experience as a candidate and as an organizer. 

“There is a woman running against me, and she is a newcomer,” Benson said about Unertl. “She seems to be running kind of unaffiliated and doing her own thing. She doesn’t have experience with elected office.”

Unertl, who filed her candidacy and is running as a Democrat, does not shy away from being called a newcomer. Her experience working in supply chain and being a parent, she said, has prepared and led to her decision to run for public office.

“This is my first time running for anything … I don’t have that kind of party mentality,” Unertl said. “(I can) talk to everyone and understand where they are coming from without having these allegiances.”

Overall, Unertl is glad to have more options on the ballot and to have a primary election for Democrats.

“Having more options for people to choose from is always a good thing.” Unertl said. “It’s up to the people to decide who they think would represent them better.”

In rural Green Bay, two Democrats seek chance to challenge Republican seat is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.