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In Wisconsin’s closest Senate race, both Republican Jim Rafter and Democrat Jamie Wall share positions on many issues, though there are key differences.
By Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch
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.
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
