Candidates running in the race to replace Rep. Sean Duffy in Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District are Democrat Tricia Zunker (left) and Republican Tom Tiffany (right).
On Tuesday, May 12, Wisconsin will hold its second elections during the coronavirus pandemic, this time in the Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District. Republican Tom Tiffany and Democrat Tricia Zunker will face off to replace Rep. Sean Duffy (R), who resigned to care for his child. The two candidates have very different opinions on marijuana.
Zunker Wants to “Give Them a Future, Not a Record”
Tricia Zunker is an attorney who was elected by her people, the Ho-Chunk Nation, as Associate Justice of the Ho-Chunk Supreme Court. She boasts modest origins, being born from a laborer and a union secretary.
As far as marijuana reform is concerned, she doesn’t skirt around her belief that marijuana should be fully legalized. “We need to legalize medical marijuana [...] Recreational marijuana in appropriate amounts should be legalized,” her political program reads.
“I will always end up on the side of compassion,” Zunker says. “We should legalize medical marijuana, nobody should suffer if they can feel better from their medical condition or if the drugs that they take for their medical condition can alleviate that suffering. As for recreational marijuana, I support it, as well. We can have revenue from the taxation of marijuana. We can provide opportunities for farming in Wisconsin, whether though marijuana or hemp farms. And we have a criminal justice problem here, in this country. The bulk of our prisons and jails is filled with non-violent drug offenders. Let's get them out of prisons and jails, give them hope and a future, not a record.
“We have an opioid crisis here in Wisconsin,” she says, including in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District. “And if we were to legalize marijuana, this could reduce the opioid crisis by allowing those individuals an option that’s legal and much safer,” she said in a debate opposing her to Tom Tiffany earlier this month.
Tiffany Believes in States’ Rights
Tom Tiffany defines his political platform through Donald Trump’s. “Standing with President Trump” is the first bullet point of his political program, which makes no mention of marijuana reform. He shows his support for Trump through promises such as “draining the swamp,” which he ranks just under “protecting the unborn” in his program; “Tom has defunded Planned Parenthood at the state level and will work in Congress so no taxpayers' dollars go to support abortions,” his program reads. A key element found across all his promises is states’ rights, which he exemplifies with his promise to encourage of the “Convention of States,” which could amend the U.S. Constitution. “Tom believes the states need to help take power back from the swamp,” his program adds.
When it comes to marijuana, Tiffany does not explicitly reject the idea of reform, but he does not broach the subject on his own, either. When faced on topic by Zunker, here is what he has to say:
“There are a few laws at the federal level that I think we could take a look at. First of all, I believe we should allow the states to make the decision whether they want to legalize marijuana. That's really consistent on my part, I believe that we should bring much more control back to the states on a variety of issues, and that includes this one. But one thing can be done by the federal government: Currently, marijuana is a Schedule I narcotic, no different than LSD, heroin, things like that. So it really prevents research being done by agencies of the federal government. We really could use that research being done at the federal level, to be able to give policymakers a better idea of the effects of marijuana. And that will help policymakers at the state level to decide if this is the best thing to do for our state.”
Given that Sean Duffy, a Republican, won the last election with 60% of votes, a comfortable margin, it seems that Tom Tiffany is starting with an advantage. His outspoken pro-Trump stance will also benefit him, most likely, as the 7th District voted for Donald Trump at a dramatically higher rate than the rest of the state in the last presidential election.
Why This Matters
Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District is the state’s largest, extending from Juneau County to Douglas County and encompassing the northern half of Wisconsin. Beyond the massive size of the district, this race matters because it will decide one of only eight representatives hailing from the Badger State to represent local interests in Washington D.C. After the last election, Republicans controlled five of the eight seats, despite the fact that more Democratic votes were cast in Congressional races across the state. The extreme Gerrymandered districts created by the Republicans in power made five seats lean fairly safe Republican. Last year, one of the Republican Congressman, Sean Duffy, abruptly resigned leaving the Wisconsin Delegation with a four to three Republican majority. This race will determine if Democrats will gain equal representation in the House or go back to the five to three majority.
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana (NORML) published a scorecard judging the “marijuana-friendliness” of elected officials across in the nation. When reading Wisconsin’s card, it is easy to notice a divide along party lines: Democrats have grades ranging from B- to A+, while Republicans range from C- to F. Rep. Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin’s most anti-weed federal representative according to NORML, violently opposes recreational marijuana and co-sponsored the “No Welfare for Weed Act of 2015.” Sean Duffy, before he resigned, also scored an F for consistently voting against pro-marijuana bills, including the 2016 Veterans Equal Access Amendment that aimed to let VA physicians recommend medical marijuana in states where it is legal.
In 2019, the The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act of 2019, which removes cannabis from the Federal Schedule I substance category, was put to a vote in the House Judiciary Committee. Then, only one Wisconsin representative, Jim Sensenbrenner (R), was on the committee. He chose not to vote in favor of it. The bill passed the committee regardless, but it will have to clear another seven House committees, where it could be stopped at any point and where each vote weighs significantly more than on a regular floor vote. Either Zunker or Tiffany will be in the same position as Sensenbrenner, soon. Both are telling voters how they will be acting in that situation; listen to them.
