1st Senate District Had No Voice in School Safety Debate |
News - Articles for State & Local |
Written by Wisconsin Senate, Jay Wadd |
Wednesday, 21 March 2018 08:32 |
Frank Lasee left his constituents behind by resigning his seat representing the 1st District in December. Governor Walker and Senate Republicans fail to call a special election. MADISON - In what might well have been the most important debate of the 2017-18 legislative session, over 170,000 residents of the 1st Senate District including parents of approximately 26,000 children attending public schools, did not have a voice on any of the actions taken by the State Senate Tuesday. “There are approximately 26,000 kids attending public schools in communities like Kewaunee, Sturgeon Bay, Casco, Luxemburg and others,” said Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay). “Today we took up one of the most important issues facing our kids and our state. It is literally a matter of life and death. Yet, Governor Walker and Senate Republicans didn’t think that it might be important for their parents to have a voice in this debate.” On December 29th Frank Lasee left his constituents behind by resigning his seat representing the 1st District to take a job with the Walker administration that doubled his pay to over $100,000. Despite Governor Walker having called special elections in January for other vacant seats he refused to call for a special election to fill the seat vacated by Lasee. After they lost an election to fill the open seat in the 10th Senate District, a longtime Republican stronghold, they have become even more adamant that they will not call a special election in the 1st District. “Governor Walker and Senate Republicans are more concerned about holding onto power than they are the concerns of the families living in the 1st Senate District," concludes Hansen. "They are afraid to call a special election for the 1st District because they are afraid if they do they will lose. And because of that, parents were denied a voice in today’s debate on the safety of their kids’ schools.” |