October 29, 2020 at 11:28 a.m.
Election profile: Zunker says funding there for Congress to help struggling Americans
Democratic candidate calls for closing corporate tax loopholes, end never-ending wars
Election profile: Zunker says funding there for Congress to help struggling Americans
And Zunker, who is also an associate justice on the Ho-Chunk Nation Supreme Court and the board president of the Wausau school board, says those initiatives can be paid for in part by raising taxes on the wealthy, closing corporate tax loopholes, and ending what she calls America's never-ending wars.
Zunker faces Republican incumbent U. S. Rep. Tom Tiffany on November 3.
Congress definitely has an important role to play in addressing coronavirus, Zunker said in an interview with The Lakeland Times last week.
"The main concern is protecting lives and making sure everyone stays safe right now," Zunker said. "There are a number of things Congress can do. We don't have enough PPE (personal protective equipment) for our essential workers. So that's critical."
Second, Zunker said, is to provide more testing.
"We know that testing is crucial to stopping the spread of contagion," she said. "We need to make it free and we need to make it accessible, especially throughout the rural parts of the district. People shouldn't have to drive hours for a free test to determine if they have Covid-19."
In addition, Zunker says Congress needs to recognize the important role of essential workers and take care of those who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic.
"There are people who are keeping our grocery store shelves stocked, and our health care workers and all essential workers, they should be receiving hazard pay," she said. "We also need to extend unemployment benefits for the workers who have lost their incomes and jobs because of Covid-19 and make sure they can get through this difficult time.
Finally, Zunker said she supports funding for small businesses and farmers who have been hurt due to Covid 19.
"The bottom line is, nobody should go bankrupt, nobody should lose their business or their home because of this avoidable pandemic," she said. "We are nine months into this pandemic because the Trump administration did not listen to the scientists, who are the experts. And we need to make sure people have what they need to get through this difficult time."
Zunker said she had recently spoken with a person whose family has run a bowling alley for more than 80 years.
"He followed all of the precautions to make sure people are safe, required masks and everything, and the business is hurting, and he told me they don't know if they are going to be able to make it through," she said. "That's tragic, and we can't let that happen. Nobody should have to go out of business because of this pandemic."
With respect to ongoing negotiations between House Democrats and the Trump administration over new stimulus aid, which have yielded no breakthroughs, Zunker said she would support moving forward with pieces of the package both sides could agree on.
"I don't think we should be playing with people's lives or livelihoods," she said. "If there is help that is out there that could be passed that has bipartisan support, then we should move forward on that."
It's critically important, Zunker said, that the nation commit funding to help struggling Americans.
"I think about businesses like the tourism industry, which is so important in Wisconsin's 7th congressional district," she said. "I think about Minocqua and Hayward and so many other areas in the district and how much they rely on tourism. We need to make sure these businesses have funding to stay afloat and don't go out of business."
Zunker said she knows some people don't like the idea of extra funding, whether it's stimulus checks, or for workers who have lost work, or funding for small businesses, but she says the need is real and the money is there.
"The bottom line is, we do have the funds," she said. "We can prioritize how we spend the funding. And the millionaires and billionaires, they should be taxed at a fair rate. We need to close the corporate tax loopholes.We need to stop funding never-ending wars. All these different things, there is so much out there that could be used to help struggling families, struggling businesses, and family farmers."
Social media
Both before and during the campaign season, politicians from both sides of the aisle have complained of censorship by Big Tech on social media platforms, some to the point of calling for giant tech companies to be broken up, but Zunker said she could not support wholesale blanket break-ups.
"In one of my graduate courses I teach about ethics and social justice, and we talk about the role of media and social media shaping perceptions and opinions on such critical things as candidates and what's happening in the world, and really it results in people being misinformed," she said. "As it relates to breaking them up, I would have to see the data, if you can look at something and say, well, here's how they operate and here's the skewed stories that go out or the totally inaccurate and false stories that go out. That's really important as a starting point. I don't know that I can make a blanket statement. The bottom line is, I support an informed public. I don't support people being fed misinformation when it can be avoided."
Closer to home, Zunker said the seventh congressional district's infrastructure needs are real and varied.
"Our workers, our small businesses, our family farmers need real support, and we need to make sure we invest in infrastructure in Wisconsin's seventh district, like new roads, bridges, regional transportation, and expanded broadband access," she said. "We need to bring good-paying jobs here with higher wages. We need to invest in American materials. And we need to preserve environmental protections and labor standards."
Zunker said regional transportation is critically needed and is sustainable.
"Improving regional transportation in the seventh congressional district is going to bring jobs," she said. "It's going to bring opportunity. People could travel throughout this district more efficiently, whether getting from Superior to Madison or Milwaukee, and we really should open the door to opportunity for people here, not just for the jobs that come with regional transportation but for people who are traveling for jobs or for whatever purpose."
In the arena of law enforcement and criminal justice, Zunker said she would work to end private prisons.
"There are just some things that shouldn't be for profit, and one of those is how we imprison our inmate population," she said. "That is really critical. And we are over-incarcerating here in America. We have such an exorbitant amount of people in prison, and one of the reasons is that we have a lot of nonviolent drug offenders. I believe that we need to legalize marijuana as one step to reducing the prison population."
Zunker said the issue of prison sexual violence is a top priority, too.
"It's happening, it's real," she said. "A society is judged by how it treats its prisoners, and we are failing our society in this regard. There is a high amount of violence behind bars. It really is a violation of the Eighth Amendment, quite frankly, to endure that kind of violence behind bars as part of the punishment."
The majority of inmates are nonviolent drug offenders, Zunker said.
"So we should get them out of prisons and jails, and give them hope and a future instead of a record," she said. "And we also can use the revenue that comes from [legalizing] marijuana. Put that back into our economy. We are surrounded by states - Illinois, Michigan - where they have taken that action. We really need to do this at the federal level."
An opioid epidemic in northern Wisconsin and around the country, in tribal communities and in rural areas, only underscores the need for different legal options, Zunker said.
"Not that I am advocating for any kind of use, but I'm just saying that we need for people to have a different legal option," she said. "We wouldn't see the opioid addictions and overdoses that we do."
Covid-19 poses a huge threat to inmate populations, Zunker said.
"It's horrifying," she said. "I was looking at some of the [data from prisons] and the high amount of Covid-19 cases. Again, you talk about violation of the Eighth Amendment - contracting a deadly virus was not part of their punishment when they received their sentence."
Zunker says she does not support defunding the police, as some in her party have suggested, and, in fact, she says she supports law enforcement.
"I'm so grateful that they put themselves in the line of work that they do to keep us safe," Zunker said.
Zunker also said she would not support doing away with qualified immunity for police officers, but she did say some modification might be called for.
"There are times where if they don't have that qualified immunity, their judgment calls based on good faith and reasonableness could be called into question, and that would be unfair," she said. "So I don't know that I could say let's get rid of qualified immunity because we certainly have to be able to hold bad apples accountable. I think we should look into revisions on the basis that you can't have a blanket approach because the majority of our law enforcement in Wisconsin are great people. We have to really think about what we can do to make sure that the bad apples can still be captured."
Zunker pointed to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis this year.
"There were three officers who were there for eight minutes and 46 seconds, and they didn't do anything," she said. "They should have some liability. They should be held accountable to the fact they they didn't take action."
Environment, student debt
Zunker says the environment is a core issue.
"We talk about so many different issues, but if we don't have a clean and protected environment, how much are those other issues going to matter at some point?" she asked. "We need to ensure that clean air, clean water, and all our beautiful lands stay protected from corporate greed for generations to come."
Zunker says she believes we are in a climate emergency that demands urgent action.
"We are on the brink of an existential crisis if changes aren't made," she said. "But they don't happen overnight. So while I still support the jobs we need for people to have the energy sources that we currently rely on - it doesn't make any sense to say we have to stop this right now - we have to make sure that any legislation that we have considers environmental impacts."
The Democratic nominee does not support mining in the Northwoods.
"I know that the majority of sulfide mining would be in the seventh congressional district - nearly all of the areas of sulfide mining are in this district - and there is no such thing as safe sulfide mining," she said.
As for student debt, Zunker says she wants to eliminate predatory lending practices as it relates to student loans.
"I've had experience with this," she said. "I'm still paying off my student debt since I graduated law school in 2006. We need to make sure that tuition is more affordable and accessible."
And she says trade schools need more attention.
"I grew up in a time when the narrative was 'go to college, go to college, go to college,'" she said. "That is not the narrative now. We need people in all facets of society for a thriving society. And you look at the trade schools, someone can get a really good job with a one-year program or a two-year degree. There's a lot less debt there, too, maybe none at all, depending on the school."
Guns, Wolves
Zunker says she is a supporter of the Second Amendment, but she also supports gun measures she says will boost safety.
"I support our Second Amendment for our hunters, and I support people being able to defend themselves in their home, but I also support gun safety, and that's really what we are talking about here," she said.
Gun safety measures don't infringe on the Second Amendment, Zunker said.
"We really need measures that protect our children through gun safety measures like closing the gun show loophole so people can't purchase a gun at a gun show without a background check," she said. "The same thing with internet sales. That's really not infringing at all. That's really more of an administrative issue."
Zunker was critical of one of the first bills her opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, introduced in Congress - a bill to delist the gray wolf and return wolf management to the states.
"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service experts have said that they are on the brink of delisting the wolf anyway, so this is an unnecessary action by Rep. Tiffany," she said. "It's a waste of time and taxpayer money when he should be focused on other things such as helping workers, helping families."
Zunker said that Tiffany often cites livestock deaths due to wolves, and its contribution to the state's farm crisis, as a reason for supporting delisting.
"But I can tell you that in 2018, according to the DNR, there were about 3.5 million cattle in the state and only 33 cattle deaths," she said. "I know his support has previously been linked to farmer bankruptcies we have experienced with this farm crisis. There is a farm crisis here, but it's from Trump's trade wars, not from the wolves."
Finally, Zunker said another of Tiffany's first actions in Congress this year was to propose legislation to withhold federal funding from schools if they didn't physically reopen by September 8.
"This is frustrating because no matter where you stand on pandemic matters, children and our students shouldn't be held hostage," she said. "As board president of one of the largest school districts in Wisconsin, I can tell you we need more federal investment in our public education."
Right now, Zunker said about 10 percent of funding comes from the federal government and goes for services for children with disabilities and for students from low-income households, for programs like free and reduced lunch.
Tiffany's bill was an attack on those vulnerable populations, Zunker said.
"What he should have been focused on, and what I would have been focused on, would have been a bill to help our students and teachers in virtual learning and that includes an expansion of broadband access," Zunker said.
"I'm very committed to making sure that broadband is throughout the seventh congressional district."
Broadband is a top priority, Zunker said.
"We have to treat it like the utility that it is," she said. "We are depriving people of opportunity without it, not just our students and teachers but our small business owners, our family farmers, everybody. If they don't have working internet, they don't have access to the outside world. So that's something I'm deeply committed to, to make sure we have broadband access throughout the seventh congressional district."
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