Five candidates running for the heavily Dem 48th AD seat in Dane County differ slightly on abortion and bans on trangender athletes in girls sports.
The Dem primary candidates are:
*William Connors, 61, of Sun Prairie, is the executive director of Smart Growth Greater Madison, a nonprofit that advocates on public policy issues of the local level, and served five years on the Sun Prairie City Council. Connors is endorsed by Sun Prairie Alder Bob Jokisch, Sun Prairie Alder Maureen Crombie and Sun Prairie School Board Chair Diana McFarland.
*Andrew Hysell, 52, of Sun Prairie, is an attorney at Lawton & Cates, S.C. He has not run for office before but has campaigned for Democratic candidates including Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison, in 2020. Hysell is endorsed by Agard and Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison.
*Goodwill Obieze, 30, of Sun Prairie, is a senior human resources and payroll manager at Journey Mental Health Center. He ran unsuccessfully for the Dane County Board of Supervisors in District 12 in the spring of 2021. Obieze is endorsed by Sun Prairie Ald. David Virgell.
*Avery Renk, 25, of Sun Prairie, is an attorney at Hebl & Hebl LLP. Renk has not run for office before, but worked under former Rep. Gary Hebl, D-Sun Prairie. Renk is endorsed by Hebl and Rep. Jimmy Anderson, D-Fitchburg.
*Rick Rose, 59, of Madison, is serving his second term as the District 16 Dane County supervisor. Rose is endorsed by Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett, Rep. Alex Joers, D-Middleton and Dane County Executive candidate and former District 33 Supervisor Dana Pellebon, among others.
Rose, Renk, Obieze, Hysell and Connors spoke to WisPolitics about their platforms.
The winner of the primary will face GOP candidate Lisa Rubrich, of Sun Prairie, who serves on the Town of Burke Board and is running on a campaign focused largely on combating inflation. Rubrich is running unopposed. Rep. Samba Baldeh, D-Madison, currently holds the seat but is running for the 16th SD instead. Baldeh has not endorsed any of the five candidates. The Dane County-area 48th AD is 68% Dem.
The five candidates answered with slight variation on whether they support GOP efforts seeking to ban transgender athletes from playing girls sports.
Rose said he supports Gov. Tony Evers’ vetoes of the bans, and wishes we “lived in a nonbinary world, period.”
“This is the stuff that makes me very emotional,” Rose said. “I was the lead, with the support of many other folks, in seeing how we could offer trans sanctuary protection here in Dane County.”
Hysell said he supports Evers’ vetoes, but declined to expand other than adding: “He’s done a good job at articulating a response, and I support his position.”
Connors said he does not support banning transgender athletes from playing girls sports, and he thinks politicians should not be involved in regulating sports.
“I think who plays in sports should be determined by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association,” Connors said. “They’re the sanctioning body. And I don’t think that politicians should be involved in that, and I do not support state legislation to override what the WIAA is doing. In fact, I would encourage the WIAA to be more supportive of trans athletes participating.”
Renk called it a “non-issue” that Republicans want to make popular.
“These young kids are not having full-on transition surgeries like Robin Vos and Republicans claim,” Renk said. “The reason we’re talking about this instead of real policies that matter, like health care, education, security, utility access and housing, is because Republican policies have failed over the last 20 or 30 years, and they just want to use scare tactics and culture tactics like transgender kids beating your daughters in sports.”
Obieze said he “absolutely does not support” the efforts to ban transgender athletes.
“I believe in fairness and I believe in equality and I believe in people making a decision for themselves,” Obieze said. “I also believe we can’t tell somebody what to do about their body, just like with women’s rights and reproductive rights.”
Wisconsin law currently bans abortion after 20 weeks. On whether he would prefer to leave that ban in place, eliminate it or enact a stricter measure, Hysell said he would introduce a constitutional amendment that would establish the right to privacy, protecting contraception, gay marriage and a safe and legal abortion.
“This privacy amendment added to the constitution would protect us if the Supreme Court continues to roll back rights,” Hysell said. “My position is let’s not mess around the edges or react. Let’s proactively move forward to protect rights here in Wisconsin.”
Connors said he does not favor enacting a stricter ban, and would do “whatever we need to do” to ensure access to reproductive health care.
“It’s very unfortunate the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade,” Connors said. “I am a strong supporter of allowing women to choose for themselves when they have children. I can’t think of a more fundamental human right than that.”
Obieze he would “definitely not” be in favor of enacting a stricter ban.
“I believe that women should have the right to decide what happens to their bodies,” Obieze said. “It should not be a bunch of men like me or, unfortunately, other women, sitting in a conference room and deciding what happens to somebody else’s body.”
Renk said he would be in favor of eliminating the ban completely.
“Governing and regulating abortion, especially at 20 weeks, which is really an early time in the pregnancy,” Renk said. “It can take up to six to eight weeks for a woman to even discover she’s pregnant. I just don’t think the state has any role. I want to uphold reproductive freedom to the maximum possible extent.”
Rose said he has been a “feminist from day one” and would favor eliminating the ban.
“Without question, we need to support the rights of women,” Rose said. “And I’m definitely there to protect those rights and not honor this ban, which is being challenged in court right now.”
In addition:
- All the candidates support full legalization of marijuana.
- All the candidates would like to see state surplus money put toward education.
- None of the candidates support GOP efforts to reduce or eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion positions in state government, including at the University of Wisconsin.
This is a continuation of a series of WisPolitics interviews with Assembly primary candidates. The primary is Tuesday.See previous interviews here.
