October 29, 2020 at 11:29 a.m.
Election profile: Swearingen stresses broadband, help for rural schools
Lawmaker focuses on constituent service, not passing more laws
Election profile: Swearingen stresses broadband, help for rural schools
That's because Swearingen, who was first elected eight years ago and is seeking re-election in the 34th Assembly district on Nov. 3, thinks the state has enough laws. That said, he says that doesn't mean he isn't working hard, pouring his efforts instead into constituent services and into bringing the Northwoods the help it needs, from broadband expansion to help for rural schools.
That hard work has paid off, Swearingen said, pointing out that the 34th Assembly district has received more broadband expansion grants than any other district in the state.
"Sen. [Tom] Tiffany and I were able to get more than our fair share of broadband expansion grants into the 12th Senate district and specifically the 34th Assembly district, and a lot of that had to do with the Vilas County Economic Development Corporation and the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation. We all worked pretty hard together."
Swearingen says he's not a representative who offers up legislative proposals just for the sake of introducing things.
"I'm not a guy who introduces things just because we need new laws," Swearingen told The Lakeland Times in an interview last week. "I think we have enough laws. In my capacity as a committee chairman, I'm happy to move other people's efforts forward, or not. But I personally don't introduce a lot of bills because I think we have enough laws. I like to think that we do good constituent service in the office versus making new laws. There's the old say saying, 'you pass a law, repeal one.'"
Swearingen compares his view on legislation to that of President Donald Trump's view of regulation.
"Whether people know it or not, for every one regulation the Trump administration has put in, they have repealed seven or eight," he said. "Trump is an overachiever in that way."
Swearingen's view of a representative's work - constituent service versus endless lawmaking - also helps him keep in touch with his district, along with his lifelong roots in the Northwoods, he says.
"I'm a lifetime Rhinelander guy," he says. "I was raised here. I'm a 1981 graduate of Rhinelander High School. I have been married for 28 years, with two daughters who are both engaged to be married this year. I just think that I'm in touch and have my fingers on the pulse of what's going on in the Northwoods."
Swearingen says that's not true of his opponent in the race, Democrat Kirk Bangstad.
"My opponent, on the other hand, has publicly said that he does not want to be an Assemblyman, that he could care less about being in the Assembly and doesn't want to be in Madison politics," Swearingen said. "He says this publicly. Well, I'm here to tell you that I want to keep continue working for the people in the 34th. So I'm reapplying once again to the voters of the 34th district to be a state representative, and I would really like their vote on November 3."
The pandemic
Swearingen says he believes the governor's declared third state of emergency without legislative consent represents an overreach of executive power, and he says he stood ready to overturn the order had the Legislature convened into session to do so.
"I believe there has to be more work between the Assembly and the Senate on getting together on this message," he said. "Senate majority leader (Scott) Fitzgerald indicated that the Senate was ready to come in, that was several months ago. At the time, when the Assembly Republican caucus met over the phone, we had several members who were not there yet (on convening to overturn the order)."
Swearingen acknowledged that part of the reason was probably political because of the looming election and several tough races for some downstate Republicans in more urban areas.
"They may have a more serious challenge than two or four years ago," he said. "Me personally, I'm ready to go and I told that to the speaker."
But the Rhinelander Republican says his opposition to the declared state of emergency - and the face mask mandate that came with it - is not because he is anti-mask. It's because people and local communities are capable of their own decision-making, as opposed to being dictated to by Madison, Swearingen says.
"I support anyone who wants to wear a mask," he said. "What I don't support is the governor's mandate on a mask. By and large we were doing a fantastic job up here. Walmart, Menards, Home Depot - if the sign on the door says wear a mask, you have to wear a mask. It's just out of courtesy, and if you don't want to, then you shop somewhere else."
Swearingen says he's smart enough to know he has to wear a mask in those places.
"Whether that should extend to somebody's house or inviting people over to dinner, can I make that decision versus some dictator in the East Wing (of the state capitol)? I think the answer is yes," he said.
The incumbent lawmaker was also critical of the governor's limit of no more than 25 people in public gatherings.
"I don't know how the governor can justify potentially having a business lose 75% of their income just overnight like that," he said. "Whether or not the local heath department or law enforcement is going to enforce it remains to be seen."
Swearingen observed that the order ends Nov. 6, though now that the courts have kept the order in place, he says the governor will likely feel empowered to extend it.
"The Wisconsin Restaurant Association says that as many as 50% of the restaurants in the state may not survive this, so this 25% order by the governor could very well be the final nail in the coffin for a lot of them," he said.
Schools, unemployment
While the state teachers' unions and many Democrats have called for a statewide order closing all schools and moving to virtual learning, Swearingen says that decision should be left to each individual school district.
"If you listen to my opponent, he wants all schools shut down immediately," Swearingen said. "So he knows better than superintendents, he knows better than the school board, and he certainly knows better than the parents of these kids who want their kids to go to school."
Swearingen observed his opponent likes to quote science.
"But what he leaves out is the science of the learning environment called the school," he said. "And the science of the sports teams that these kids are participating in. We're leaving these kids behind if we don't keep these schools open. But I will say that I will leave it to the decision of the local school superintendent and the local school board if they have to go virtual."
So far the Northwoods has fared well with in-person instruction this fall, Swearingen said.
"So far we've been OK," he said. "A Rhinelander school has had to close for a couple of weeks, and that's a sad story, but for the most part these schools have been doing a pretty good job with the exception here and there of a couple of cases. So I keep my fingers crossed that they keep these school open, but it's their decision to make."
As for the state's unemployment quagmire, almost 80,000 people are still stuck in a Department of Workforce (DWD) backlog, waiting for assistance, and Swearingen says the Evers administration's response to unemployment caused by the governor's lockdown was too little, too late, and is still wanting.
"I give a lot of credit to (state Rep.) John Nygren for exposing DWD early on about how poorly they were doing it," he said. "My office was being inundated with calls from people who were being thrown out of their house or couldn't pay the rent. Then Evers fired DWD secretary Caleb Frostman, but firing secretary Frostman was a case of too little, too late."
Initially, Swearingen said, the administration blamed the mess on the DWD computer system, saying it was antiquated.
"So they blamed that on Gov. Walker," he said. "But what I find interesting is, they didn't request any more money for more technology support in the upcoming budget."
And Swearingen says the Legislature gave DWD all kinds of tools to help alleviate the crisis, to no avail.
"We wanted them to extend their hours," he said. "We wanted them to work on weekends. We gave them the authority to transfer people from other departments. There were people who were working from home, essentially not doing anything. We gave them the authority to bring those people in, get them trained up, and help DWD with these claims."
The governor should have seen the unemployment crisis coming, Swearingen said.
"What the governor doesn't realize is that when you shut down the entire state on a 24- or 48-hour notice, you're going to get slammed with unemployment claims," he said. "Common sense would tell you that we're going to have a problem here. I would argue that things are getting a hair better right now, but we are still at that 80,000 backlog and some of these people have had these problems since April."
Redistricting, Foxconn
In redistricting, Swearingen rejects Evers' redistricting commission, whose avowed mission is to develop a system of nonpartisan redistricting. Swearingen says it isn't possible to have a nonpartisan commission, and legislative redistricting is a constitutionally endowed function.
"When I got elected, I swore to uphold the Wisconsin constitution," he said. "In the Wisconsin constitution, it unequivocally gives the state Legislature the right to redraw the maps every 10 years."
Swearingen says the notion of a nonpartisan redistricting commission is unachievable on its face.
"I believe everybody is partisan in one way, shape, or form," he said. "Then add in the fact that the commission is actually picked by a Democratic governor - in this case Tony Evers - but even if it was picked by Scott Walker, if you look at the makeup of who they would pick, it's pretty clear that they are far from nonpartisan."
In fact, Swearingen says, redrawing districts the way Democrats want would itself require gerrymandering because of the way the population is distributed.
"If we break the state down into 99 Assembly districts, there's a reason Madison is represented by Democrats," he said. "It's because that's where all the Democrats live. So how are you going to draw a line in Madison to make it nonpartisan. It would have to be a block wide and 10-to-15 miles long."
In the last redistricting, Swearingen said his district picked up parts of Florence County but lost Lac du Flambeau, which shifted west to the 74th district, which was generally a Democratic district, and, Swearingen said, that made the 74th arguably even more Democratic.
"You can see what's going to happen," he said. "The Legislature will draw the maps. The governor will reject them, and it will go to the courts. The Legislature is not going to pay any attention to the governor's so-called nonpartisan redistricting commission."
As for Foxconn, Swearingen says he still has high hopes for the project, and he criticized Evers for wanting to renegotiate the state's contract with the company.
"Gov. Walker negotiated a contract with (Foxconn chairman) Terry Gou," he said. "A contract is a contract. In the contract, it says pay as you grow. So they have to make these benchmarks to get the tax breaks and the tax credits, and they have not done that. I think they are getting closer."
However, Swearingen said, since the election of Evers, Foxconn has become understandably more nervous because Evers is not on the same page as Walker was.
"The point is, we negotiated a contract with Foxconn under the Walker administration and the contract should be ironclad," he said. "They should honor the contract under this administration."
Swearingen says he understands the plans for the project have changed.
"I know there is multi-million dollar infrastructure there that you can argue was spent because of this project," he said. "I still have high hopes that Foxconn delivers."
Swearingen says he grasps Evers' argument, that Foxconn has changed the way they are going to operate their plant in terms of what they are producing, and that the tax credits were negotiated under those other plans and not Foxconn's current plans. But Swearingen says the governor's attempt to renegotiate the contract is more than that.
"Clearly there is a problem there with the administration, and it seems to me they want Foxconn to fail just so they can shove it in our faces," he said.
Criminal justice reform, marijuana
Swearingen says he is hopeful the next session of the Legislature can produce meaningful criminal justice reform, but he is opposed to the package of police reform bills put forward by Evers.
"When Gov. Evers introduced his package in June or July, I talked to our sheriffs, like Grady Hartman in Oneida County and Joe Fath in Vilas County and Dan Miller up in Florence County, and they all indicated that they are doing a lot of this stuff now anyway," he said. "They were already doing it, like chokeholds not being allowed. So they thought the Evers package was pretty repetitive because they had their own policies."
So fast forward to this year's riots in Madison and especially in Kenosha, Swearingen said, and the governor used the riots to try and push a package of bills that law enforcement didn't support.
"Sen. Van Wanggaard has a police background and so he has a package of bills that I'm interested in looking at, and I'm not saying all the governor's bills are bad either," he said. "And then you have the fact that speaker (Robin) Vos put together a task force on racial disparity and police policy. So between the three - the governor, Sen. Wanggaard, and hopefully what comes out of this task force, and the task force is bipartisan because it is chaired by Democratic Rep. Sheila Stubbs and Republican Rep. Jim Steineke - I think we could have a package that could move forward."
While Swearingen said the reform issue is real, he condemned the rioting that took place this year.
"There's peaceful protesting, which everybody is allowed to do, and then there's riots," he said. "When you're toppling statues and lighting squad cars on fire, that's not protesting."
Swearingen says he is absolutely opposed to legalizing recreational marijuana.
"I am a believer that marijuana is a gateway drug," he said. "I spent time with sheriff Dan Miller in Florence County. When they went full recreational in Michigan a year ago, the problems on the Michigan-Wisconsin border for that police department were out of control because Michigan had no rules."
Swearingen said he also had discussions with Michigan law enforcement.
"After a long discussion, I asked if they had any advice for Wisconsin, and they said, 'Don't do it' and that it was a mess," he said. "So that trafficking coming from Michigan through northern Wisconsin and down to the Fox Valley or to the southern part of the state is real. And with marijuana, of course, comes heroin and methamphetamine and all the rest of it."
Swearingen said he could maybe support medical marijuana, but only if it was prescribed by a medical doctor and filled by a licensed pharmacy.
Upcoming priorities
Swearingen said the upcoming budget will earn a lot of scrutiny, especially because of the pandemic, but also because the state continues to increase government spending.
"It will be really interesting to see how the governor handles the upcoming budget," he said. "He's going to present the budget to the Legislature in January. Our budget keeps going up and up. We're probably at $80 billion for a biennium right now, and it was much less when I got elected eight years ago, and it's not going to go down under Gov. Evers."
That being said, Swearingen said the state's projections on income have improved.
"We know we got our butts kicked as soon as COVID happened, we were down like $600,000 the first month," he said. "But then reports came out where things were actually looking better and so I was hoping that we could offset and have a closer net. I don't know if that is going to be the case."
So first of all, Swearingen said, we're going to have to jumpstart the economy.
"I know I sound like President Trump, but with the Wisconsin economy I'm worried about hospitality and tourism because those sectors have clearly been hit the hardest," he said.
Swearingen said his biggest budget concern is keeping school funding whole.
"Everybody should understand at this point that everybody is going to be under the microscope," he said. "So we have to make sure our state agencies don't spend beyond their means. Same old story."
And while the governor called for a 5% reduction in spending, Swearingen said that turned out to be less than 5 percent.
"I'm genuinely worried about the schools coming into the next cycle, as well as small businesses and tourism," he said.
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