Lt. guv candidates Mandela Barnes and Kurt Kober both praised the “Wisconsin Idea” and slammed the $4.5 billion public incentive package to bring Foxconn to Racine County in their pitches to Dem activists.
Kober, a businessman, said Gov. Scott Walker has destroyed the state’s legacy, but there is an opportunity to reclaim the state. He asked the crowd to imagine if the state didn’t force every Wisconsin household to pay “$1,800 to a foreign corporation,” a reference to Foxconn.
“Imagine if we supported public education,” Kober said. “Imagine if we supported a spirit of entrepreneurship in our state. Imagine if we once again embraced the Wisconsin idea.”
Barnes, who is African-America, recounted his grandfather moving to Milwaukee after serving in WW II and working 30 years as a union ironworker, while his father spent 30 years working Delphi.
Barnes said he was born in the nation’s most impoverished and incarcerated zip code, but that he can stand before the convention running for lt. Guv is testament to the Wisconsin Idea. He also pushed Dems to be progressive this fall and he has a simple answer when people ask him how to pay for their priorities: Foxconn.
“If we have $4.5 billion to throw down the drain, we have at least that much to invest in the state of Wisconsin,” he said.
This post is part of our coverage of the 2018 state Dem convention in Oshkosh. See the rest of our coverage here: https://www.wispolitics.com/category/dem-convos/
