Among the handful of Democratic incumbents being challenged in the Aug. 9 primary is state Rep. Christine Sinicki, who has represented this South Shore district since being elected to the Assembly in 1998. Also appearing on the Democratic ballot is Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) teacher Julie Meyer. Both spoke to the Shepherd about their campaigns.
Julie Meyer
MPS teacher Julie Meyer was inspired to run for Assembly because of the lack of transparency she’s seen in government and the dangers of privatizing government services.
“I’ve always been interested in politics and I’ve always wanted to run, but I thought I would do that after retirement,” Meyer said. “But the issues are too pressing now.”
A top priority for Meyer is rolling back the privatization of public education. As a teacher, she said she’s experienced first hand the impact of limited funding and scarce resources on her students. She said class sizes have increased and teachers and students lack adequate books and computers.
“I’ve seen the effects those privatization policies have had on MPS and it’s not acceptable,” Meyer said. “As a Democrat, we should not just be holding the line. We need to be walking back vouchers in Milwaukee.”
She pointed to Sinicki’s co-sponsorship of a 2006 law that expanded vouchers from 15,000 students in Milwaukee to 22,500 as a turning point in the voucher program.
“That was a moment in MPS history that was a watershed moment,” Meyer said. “The line was being held on vouchers at that point. That voucher expansion put us where we are today, where we have unlimited vouchers in Milwaukee.”
In addition, Meyer has been troubled by the decision-making of the appointed Milwaukee County Mental Health Board, which was created by state legislators in 2014 to take away the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors’ oversight of the county’s behavioral health and substance abuse services.
Meyer lives in Uncas Park, the site of a Mental Health Board-sanctioned group home in which two registered sex offenders live—despite being assured by Milwaukee County Health and Human Services Director Héctor Colón and the facility’s owner, Karl Rajani, that none would be placed there.
|
|
Meyer said the Mental Health Board has shut neighbors and the public out of the decision-making process and that even when the board does allow them to testify at meetings, their concerns are not taken seriously.
She said that her testimony raising questions about the way the facility is being run and the care being provided to residents in it, as well as the no-bid contracts given by the Mental Health Board to the facility’s owner (worth up to $5 million) and to Kane Communications for PR (worth $430,000), were ignored.
She said the only way to require the board to change is to work at the state level, since the county board has been neutered.
“As a teacher, I’ve taught my students about democracy and government,” Meyer said. “And to see government in action and the complete antithesis of that, the lack of transparency, the no-bid contracts, the lack of public input—they’re not listening to the public and I’m appalled by that.”
Meyer said she’s also troubled by the highly vitriolic comments on Sinicki’s Facebook page accusing Meyer and a campaign volunteer of a host of sins—without providing any evidence. A Sinicki supporter even created a fake Meyer campaign page to ridicule her, and others writing on Sinicki’s page have called for a Meyer campaign volunteer to be fired from his day job.
“It really is offensive, the level to which she is going,” Meyer said. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised considering the way she has conducted herself as a public official. But I’m not going to back down. I’m not going to be bullied.”
To learn more about Julie Meyer, go to votejuliemeyer.com.
Christine Sinicki
State Rep. Christine Sinicki has represented Assembly District 20 for almost 18 years.
“I feel like there is more that I want to accomplish,” Sinicki said. “I still have the passion and the fire to fight for the people of Wisconsin.”
Her top priority is funding education so that it’s more equitable and also replacing the funding cut by Gov. Scott Walker and Republican legislators. She said the Legislature needed to address the funding problem but she didn’t have a specific solution for it.
“The Legislature as a whole needs to address it,” Sinicki said. “I am willing to sit down and talk with anyone who wants to take a serious look at it. I would like to see another funding mechanism for education, but don’t ask me what that is right now because we haven’t worked it out yet.”
That said, she wasn’t optimistic that the current crop of Republicans would be willing to address the issue.
“I think if you were talking 15 years ago, when there were true Republicans, Republicans you could work with, I think some of them would have been willing to address it,” Sinicki said.
Sinicki said she thought some Republicans would be interested in requiring voucher schools to be more accountable and she opposes the recent expansion of vouchers statewide.
“I have voted against every voucher expansion bill that they have brought forward,” Sinicki said. “The attitude seems to be, let’s give people as many ways as possible to escape public education in the state of Wisconsin.”
That said, Sinicki did co-sponsor the 2006 law expanding Milwaukee’s voucher program from 15,000 to 22,500 students. The law also required voucher schools to be accredited, administer standardized tests to voucher students and provide the scores to researchers, and also increased funding for the SAGE program, which limits class sizes in public schools.
“It was a compromise bill because we saw the opportunity to start getting accountability into those programs,” Sinicki said.
Sinicki opposes recent Republican attacks on women’s reproductive rights, which have led to the closure of health clinics around the state, as well as the GOP’s gutting of workers’ rights.
“I’m not naïve,” Sinicki said. “I realize it’s going to be very difficult to get Republicans to back down on their beliefs about right to work, public employees and prevailing wage.”
Sinicki said she’s aware of the negative comments on her Facebook page and said she’s privately told her supporters to tone it down when they have stepped out of line. She repeated some of the allegations in her interview with the Shepherd, however, but provided no evidence of the claims. She said she is only Facebook friends with the individual who set up the fake Meyer campaign page. Sinicki said she wants to win on the issues.
“I’m the best candidate because I have the most experience, I know the issues and I know the district and I know how to get things done,” Sinicki said.
To learn more about Christine Sinicki, go to votesinicki.com.
