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MADISON, WI (July 30, 2018) Assembly candidate Mark Garthwaite released his answers to a candidate survey from Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin which has indicated that it is considering making an endorsement in the only competitive legislative race in the Madison area. In a statement issued on Monday, Garthwaite encouraged all candidates in the race to follow suit.
“In the interest of transparency, all answers to candidate surveys that are submitted to my
campaign from public interest groups that are considering an endorsement in this race will be made public.” I encourage all candidates for the 77th Assembly District do so as well so that voters may make an informed decision for themselves.”
In his responses to the Planned Parenthood 2018 Candidate Survey, Garthwaite highlighted his work with human embryonic stem cells to develop models of early implantation in human pregnancy. Garthwaite was employed as a research specialist at the UW-Madison Department of Ob/Gyn for 17 years.
Political interest groups commonly request that candidates submit answers to surveys to guide their endorsement decisions but those survey responses are not generally made public. In most cases, survey responses are kept confidential. Garthwaite sees this as a missed opportunity to shed more light on a candidate’s positions on specific issues.
“I have a very strong and well documented record of actually doing something for women’s
health and I feel that publicly releasing surveys like Planned Parenhood’s would be more
effective in letting voters know what I’ve actually done.” Garthwaite said.
“I gave 17 years of my professional career to research that Planned Parenthood’s advocacy
helped to make possible. It’s important to note that the same rights that guarantee a woman’s right to choose also helped to make human embryonic stem cell research possible and we all know how important that has been to the University of Wisconsin.”
November of 2018 marks 20 years since the original human embryonic stem cell lines were
derived at UW-Madison. Garthwaite worked with those original stem cell lines as well as
subsequently derived pluripotent cells. He shares a byline on 16 research publications.
