 My name is Deidre Martinez. I'm the executive director with the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce, and we are pleased to get to know some of our candidates for the State of Assembly 27th District in Wisconsin. Thank you so much for your willingness to participate in this conversation, and really your willingness to serve in the 27th District. It takes a lot for folks nowadays to even run for political offices, so really, truly appreciative of that. Thank you to everyone who is here with us in the room, and certainly thank you to everybody who's sent in questions in advance. So quick go over the rules today. I will ask a series of questions that were sent in either electronically or from folks in the room. We will give each candidate two minutes to answer or respond to the question. There is a timekeeper. She will let you know when you've got 30 seconds left, and then, of course, when your time has expired, and then at the end of the program, we will give each of you two minutes for any closing comments or to share anything that you would like to share with the group. So first, let's meet the candidates. First, we've got Republican candidate Amy Binsfeld. She was born and raised in Howard's Grove and graduated from Manitowoc Lutheran High School. At 19, Amy began her full-time career working for the family business. With the support of her husband, Nick, Amy chose to return to school and received her paralegal degree in 2013. Amy serves as the vice president of the Westview Condo Association and is part of the Visual and Sound Committee at her local church. Amy currently resides in the town of Mosul with husband Nick and two children, Alyssa and Logan. Welcome, Amy. We also have independent candidate Chet Gerlach, who grew up in South Milwaukee, a small suburban Milwaukee community located on the shores of Lake Michigan. In high school, Chet was involved in student council and while attending St. Norbert College, he was elected to serve as student body president. From 1975 to 1985, he was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing the communities of South Milwaukee, Oak Creek and Cudehi. From 1985 to 2018, he was in business for himself as a political consultant and lobbyist. And in 2019, Chet and his wife, Barbara, retired and moved to Elkhart Lake. Because of the current political climate in Wisconsin, he felt strongly that coming out of retirement and serving the 27th district was his calling. So with that, we will get started. And first, we'd like to talk a little bit about the state surplus. So Amy, if I can start with you, given the record balance of the state surplus, how would you suggest we manage these funds going forward and why? So again, a surplus is definitely the better of the two options. Clearly we don't want to be taking more money than we have to be from our taxpayers. In the same breath, we do not want to be at a deficit and by state law, we can't be. So I think our current legislature has done a good job of maintaining and making sure that we are accounted for in what we need. But with that surplus, I do think there are ways we could better use that. And again, based on the fact I'm not there, I'm not necessarily understanding all of the needs that there might be. And I definitely want to take a look at more of those. Clearly schools are going to be asking for money. Is there an option to do something there? I would say that is a good option. But rather than just take the money and give it to them, I think we kind of have to look, what is it used for if we're going to do that? And that would be in any case. Obviously there's going to be road projects around the state that are still in need of being taken care of. So those things too, when you talk about that, you have to look at the surplus. I know there is some talk to we just give it back to the taxpayers. I think that comes out to about $150, which is significant. But I think most people would probably say if that money is going to go to good use and really balance out for the taxpayers, let's keep it there and actually use it for a very good cause. Exactly what other causes there might be. I'm not necessarily privy to all of those, but I definitely am more than willing to listen and try and navigate through that and find the best ways to use that surplus going forward. Thank you. Chet, given the record balance of the state surplus, how would you suggest that we manage these funds going forward and why? Yeah, like Amy, I think it's a good problem to have. It certainly beats the alternative. And I look at it as one time money that's available for us to use to strengthen the Wisconsin economy. I would suggest a couple of priorities that I would have starting with the elimination of the personal property tax. State of Wisconsin has talked about that for a long period of time. It's a troublesome tax. It's tough to pay. I was in business for myself. I understand all the hassles of trying to keep track of the personal property and it's a lot of time that your accountants spend quite frankly that aren't really of much value or add anything to the business. So I would start with that. I have talked to a lot of the people in the 27th assembly district who live in rural parts of the district and they don't have broadband or what broadband they have is not very good. I think this is an opportunity for us to bring broadband to rural parts of Wisconsin. And I think it's part of what the legislature and the governor ought to be looking at in January. Beyond that, I would say that students, parents, teachers over these last couple of years have just been behind the eight ball quite frankly and it's been a difficult time for them with the pandemic. I think it's time for us to try to catch up and help our kids in schools, not only our K through 12 schools but also for our technical colleges and our colleges and universities. I think we have roads that need to be addressed. I think we have bridges that could be built. I've also talked to a number of our nursing home administrators and hospital administrators and they just simply aren't being compensated for their Medicare and Medicaid patients that they're serving. And I think that they ought to take a look at them trying to make those people whole. Thank you, Chet. So we'll transition to something that is really important to our business community. And Chet, we'll start with you on this question. The lack of available workforce has plagued our communities for many years. How would you propose we work to solve this issue going forward? Would you suggest we do anything different? And if so, what does that look like? Well, I have spoken to a lot of businesses in the 27th district and it seems they all agree that the biggest problem they are finding is trying to find people to work at their businesses at their factories. And we need to find a way to get people here into Sheboygan County and to be employed. And quite frankly, from what I understand, I was a bit surprised, but from what I understand part of the problem is we don't have affordable housing that's available for the people who want to work. And so I think we need to take a look at what do we do to provide affordable housing for people so that we can attract workers to Sheboygan County. I think that there ought to be a partnership between Sheboygan County, between the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce and the state of Wisconsin, whereby we look at ways that we can provide the means and the wherewithal to provide that housing. So I really think that the important thing is to let's partner with each other and see if we can't sit down and find common sense solutions to the problem that we face. Thank you. Amy, again, the lack of available workforces plagued our communities for many years. How would you propose we work to solve this issue going forward and would you suggest that we do anything differently? If so, what would that look like? Well, kind of piggybacking on what he said, we do know and me being in a business setting, I truly understand what it's like to get help. It has been a struggle for years. We have some awesome employees that I work with and I think you will find that at many of our local businesses, they have a mainstay, which is great and it says a lot about our community people and their strength and their work. I think where we are maybe need a couple changes is helping our high school students understand the transition. If they are not college bound, which is totally acceptable and fine, if they're not, trying to get them more ready for the workforce. I did talk to a young lady recently and she said to me, she is about 20 years old, she made the comment, it's really hard for me to understand going to work and working from nine o'clock in the morning to five o'clock at night, my whole day is shot. I think we can all kind of chuckle at that, but I get where she's coming from. She's maybe gone to virtual school, she's had a little bit more time, they use their schedules a little bit more to their wants and all of a sudden they get to a job and they go, what do you mean I can't take off four hours of the day for my lunch and a little fun time? So I think it's important that we try to make that transition in our high schools already and get our students ready. As far as the affordable housing, I too have spoken to the mayor about that and I understand that we have great businesses in the 27th. Huge, huge businesses to work with that can bring great jobs here and keep great jobs here, but the affordable housing, what is affordable? That's another thing I'm hearing from a lot of people. Are we trying to make it affordable for somebody making $100,000 a year or what about the people that are only making $50,000 a year? What exactly, I think we're getting lost in the terminology of affordable housing. So I think that needs to be looked at a little bit farther and make sure we are accommodating for that but not just for one segment but for different income levels because I think we're missing some of that as well. Thank you. And as a quick follow-up, Amy, I will start with you. What do you think the state of Wisconsin can do to encourage our businesses to stay in Wisconsin and with our many homegrown businesses to continue to expand in Wisconsin? I think part of it, Chet has already brought up the personal property tax. I think that does hit a lot of our smaller businesses as well and I think there's a lot of people in the community that don't understand that particular tax and I think it needs to be addressed a little bit further and not so hidden from the public as far as what that means. Again, it's a tax that is going to get passed along to consumers and it's an unfortunate thing but it's the reality. So in looking at that as well as I think if we give, I know talking to the UW system, local people there, a lot of them are saying we wanna get these kids educated and keep them here but we know that kids long to see something new but a lot of them do come back after five years or so but how do we get them to stay in those five years? I don't necessarily have the answer. I think there is some research that needs to be done there. Again, with the local high schools, with the local colleges to say how do we retain these people to wanna work here but we still have to provide a positive work environment for them and make sure that they understand their value to their companies. I think sometimes people feel misvalued and then they look somewhere else for that. So hopefully, we can keep good businesses growing and keep our people here if we cover all the bases that are needed. Thank you. Chet, what do you believe the state of Wisconsin can do to encourage our businesses to stay or to stay in Wisconsin and of course expand in Wisconsin? Well, I already mentioned the personal property tax. I think that would be a huge boost to businesses in this community, in the state quite frankly. It will make businesses more competitive and I think that would be a good thing. Secondly, I'd also reiterate my thoughts on broadband. During the course of this campaign, I have been talking to all of the, or visited with all the town boards, city or village boards, city councils and in particular, when I have been visiting with the town boards, I've noticed that broadband is brought up time and time again. I remember going out to the town of Herman board meeting and people appeared and testified. There was a business person who says, how can I run a business in this day and age without broadband availability? I was out there and there was another lady that was talking about broadband to the Herman town board and she was saying, you know, my husband and I were trying to sell our property. We were unable to sell our property because the people that were purchasing it found out that we didn't have any broadband access. So I think broadband is something that's extremely important. Back in the 1930s, this country made a concerted effort quite frankly to bring electricity to rural parts of our country. I think we need to do the same thing relative to broadband that we did back in the 1930s and bringing electricity to the people. Beyond that, I think schools remains something that's extremely important. All of our schools in particular, I think I visited yesterday at Lakeshore Technical College with the president of Lakeshore and we need to support our technical schools and train the workforce of the future. Thank you. We are gonna shift gears a little bit or a lot for something that has certainly been, you know, very important to a lot of folks across the country. So Amy, I will direct this question towards you first. In light of the Dove's decision and the effect of potential changes in Wisconsin related to abortion access, what would you advocate for as a suitable path going forward for Wisconsin? Looking at that decision, I know that some feel the Supreme Court got it wrong. I'm gonna tell you, I think the Supreme Court got it right. I am a big proponent of the fact that I believe this is a state government issue. It should come back to the locals. I am a big fan of smaller local governments making decisions not necessarily in overhaul in the federal government. So for that reason, I am happy that it has come back to the state. What I would love to see is it go back to the actual people of the state if we could do an actual referendum that would give that idea back to the people to say, how are we going to, where do you stand? I can sit up here all day long and tell you, I believe the majority of this, I believe the majority of that. But where do the people really stand? Could we put something out there that would say, is it conception? Do you feel that abortion up to six weeks when there is known scientific heartbeat and brain activity? But after that point, I can't. Is it first trimester? Is it to the point of birth? Where do the people really stand? I think we'd be interested to find that out. I'm not afraid to say that I'm a Christian woman, but I am still a woman as well and a mother. And I would love nothing more than to see every child be happy and healthy and born. But I also do not feel that it is up to me as a legislator to legislate birth control. I do not feel it is up to me as a legislature to take the rights away from somebody who has been raped or who has had incest. They do need to discuss those things immediately with health care professionals and get done what they need to get done. I do believe I may have been misquoted on my thoughts on this by others, but I am standing. This has been my stand the entire time. So I have not changed it at any point. And I will continue to fight for the rights of the women as well as an unborn child. When there's a tubal pregnancy, it needs to be taken care of. The health of the mother does come first. But I am not a fan of after there is brain and heart activity taking away that life. Thank you. Chet, in light of the DOP's decision and the effect of potential changes in Wisconsin related to abortion access, what would you advocate for as a suitable path going forward for Wisconsin? Well, let me start by saying, I disagree with Amy on this. I think that the Supreme Court got it wrong. Under the ruling of the Supreme Court now, Wisconsin pregnant Wisconsin women are asked to live under a law that was passed by the state legislature back in 1849. And that law denies them access to needed health care here in the state of Wisconsin. So if you're pregnant and you need health care in Wisconsin, go to Illinois, go to Minnesota. That's what you're left with. And for women who are a victim of rape and incest in the state, they can't get an abortion here in the state of Wisconsin. They have to travel somewhere else. I think that that's wrong. Beyond that, the Republicans back in the state legislature, back in June had an opportunity to address this issue. They chose not to. I think that that was wrong. And beyond that, I would say to the people who are, to the business people who are here today, how do you expect to attract young, smart women to Sheboygan County to work in your businesses under the law, under the 1849 law that exists here in Wisconsin? Thank you. And as a follow-up to that, Chet, can you tell us where do you stand on making available birth control to aid in the prevention of unwanted pregnancies? I think what I'd like to do in answering that question is to share a story about a woman who I spoke to very early in the campaign. And she said to me, and she brought up the abortion issue, I didn't bring it up. And she said to me, you know, Mr. Gerlach, I've had fertility issues in the past and there is nothing more important to me than being able to give birth to a baby. But I want you to know that if my daughter is raped and she pointed her finger at me, she said, I don't want the state of Wisconsin to tell her she can't have an abortion. And beyond that, we ought to be doing a better job of teaching our young people and making available to them birth control so we don't get into a position where we have all these unwanted pregnancies and we need to have all of these abortions. And I guess I would say that I think we need to make birth control as readily available. Information is readily available to our young people as possible. We have to encourage and prevent as many unwanted pregnancies as we can. Amy, can you share with us where you stand on making available birth control to aid in the prevention of unwanted pregnancies? Again, I am fully for birth control. I've always said if we can get everything to the front side, that would just make life a whole lot easier. I have no desire to take that away. It was not taken away from me. I use birth control. I have two beautiful children that were planned when my husband and I so choose. I, again, the unwanted pregnancies and the idea of rape and incest, I'm not here to stand in the way of a medical decision to be based on that. So I know that's gonna cost me some of the voters and I need to be honest about it. Am I going to encourage it to happen? No. I think there's a lot of counseling that needs to go into those particular situations. It's not gonna take away the whore to take away the child, but if that is what the mother feels, that should be her decision to make it that particular moment. As far as plan B goes, that's where I would say plan B comes into play very quickly in a situation where there has been rape or incest. Do I believe plan B should be available more readily to people? If they so choose, that's up to them. Should birth controls be available through doctors? And I know they are. That's where I've gotten mine over the years. You can buy condoms at the local store. There's many ways to get those birth controls. Yeah, we should definitely make that known to our young adults. But I also, as a mother and a Christian, I'm gonna say what's wrong with telling them that it's okay to wait. It's okay to make sure that you really love someone and encourage a less promiscuous lifestyle. But I am a realist and in that reality, I will also say that we have to work with things that are before us. And again, I don't ever wanna see an unwanted baby. And all we can do is stand. I think we have a lot of other things to talk about when it comes to adoption, as well as foster care and making better laws on that to go along with this entire subject. It's a lot more than just abortion for me to do. Thank you. Thank you, Amy. So we will shift gears again and talk about some climate change issues and some interviews that both of you have had with the Sheboygan Press in the past. So Chet, I will start with you. In your interview with the Sheboygan Press, you said, quote, climate change is real and needs to be addressed in Wisconsin, unquote. So what do you believe we can do here in our state specifically? Well, I do think that climate change is real and I think it does need to be addressed. For those of you who have been watching the TV and watching the hurricane that hit Florida over the last couple or a couple of weeks ago, I mean, you feel for all those people who lost their houses, but quite frankly, at some point, I think the taxpayers of this country have to start saying, why are we always paying for people to live on the coastline of Florida? You know, we can't continue to do this. And I do like to think of myself quite frankly as a green person. And I think of myself as this kind of a green person. You know, I like to save money. And right now in the state of Wisconsin, we don't produce any oil. We don't produce any natural gas. We keep on sending these guys out of the state of Wisconsin to other states, to other countries, when we could keep them in the state of Wisconsin, growing the state of Wisconsin, and working for Wisconsin people. When I was in the state legislature a number of years ago, I was the author of the first solar energy bill in the state, encouraging people to use solar energy to use it to generate electricity. And you know, there are a lot of farmers, quite frankly, in the 27th assembly district who are growing corn right now. And we are seeing solar panels being put up above those cornfields and providing additional revenue for our rural communities. And beyond that, I wanna say to you that we have in this district the largest distributor of solar panels in the state of Wisconsin. It's called ArchElectric, located right down the street in Plymouth, Wisconsin. Thank you. Amy, you shared with the Sheboygan Press that at that time, you were not well-versed on the subject of climate change. What have you done since the interview to become more versed? And what are your ideas to help Wisconsin cope with the effects of climate change? So one of the changes is I have actually spoken with ArchElectric directly. I've done a tour of their plants. I've started to learn a little bit more of what they are all about. And it is enlightening. Great place to tour, great people to work with. They are a huge source. Actually, last week Wednesday, I was able to go to a local farm and talk to a lender. As well as a project manager, as well as some legislatures. And that particular farm is going to be putting in a community solar project. And it was pretty cool. We drove out to the field. We talked about it. One of the biggest things that people have an adversity to is we're giving up farmable land. Well, this farmer went so far as to think of an area of his property that was eight acres of trees. And he would be taking that out. And then the other roughly 18 to 20 acres, it sounds like is grazing land because he grazes his cows and cattle there. So he's not really giving up agricultural land. And they're actually talking, they may be able to again build those posts high enough where he can contribute the solar panel energy to the community while still using the land underneath it to graze. So to me, this was a project that really enlightened me on how that could all work. I know there are some people that are a little bit more worried about the wind turbines in some of those areas. I have worked with a couple of people on that to find out where exactly are the blades going because I know that's a big concern of people. I've gotten more information on that as far as how they are trying to basically shred them into a means in which they can maybe use them for like outdoor mats and carpets. So rather than just burying them, which didn't seem too green to me personally, they are looking for other revenues. I feel it could have maybe been thought about about 18 years ago, but at least we're in the realm of that as well. So I do think we need to keep going with, we can't put all our eggs in one basket. So I too would like to see our money stay here, but with that we need to make sure that we are maintaining there is no switch to flip and just flip over to solar, but we can get there little by little. Thank you. Transitioning into safety and gun control. Amy, I will ask you first. So we're fortunate in our area, violent crime has been on the decline. Nevertheless, when we see all of those scary ads on TV, we have to wonder, is there really a problem? And if so, what can the legislature do to help keep our communities safe and secure? Very good question. I will honestly tell you, I am a concealed gun carrier. I have the license and I do believe it is my second amendment right. I do believe that right stands for all people. We have many hunters, particularly in our area. I am not out to take those rights away from anybody, but as we've talked about, I still don't wanna see a single life lost or a child lost to gun violence. One of the questions that I recently heard as I was listening to an interview being done was how many crimes have been committed by licensed gun owners? Do you know the question couldn't be answered? Which is interesting because the state would have on record that I am. So how can we not know exactly how many licensed gun owners are causing the crimes? I think it's more we don't want people to know who's causing the crimes. The bottom line is if they came and they confiscated every gun of a licensed gun owner today, there would still be crime. Because those guns are coming in, unfortunately from over our borders and wherever else, they're coming in illegally and they're being hidden. I'm not out to judge people, but that's where your crime is being committed. Not by people who are responsible gun owners hunting and using them in a controlled manner. So for me, I think until we can get some of our mental health issues under control and we can get our crime of what's coming over the border and some of these guns under control that are coming in illegally, we're gonna continue to see an uptick, but that's what we really need to work on. Not so much the actual licensed gun owners. Thank you. Chet, do you believe there is really a problem? And if so, what do you believe the legislature can do to help keep our communities safe and secure? Well, first of all, I support the Second Amendment as do 90% of the people in this district. But I also think that there are common sense gun laws that could be passed. And ask yourself, aren't common sense gun laws being passed? Why does 90% of the people want certain things to pass and it never passes? Well, I would suggest to you, the reason it doesn't pass is because we have a gun lobby here in this country and they contribute heavily to the political parties and to individuals who are running for public office. And that's why we don't have any common sense gun laws. We have people with mental illnesses able to get a hold of military assault rifles. As long as we continue to have this system where we have political contributions that are made by the gun manufacturers, we're gonna continue to have this kind of problem here in the state. Beyond that, let me just say a little bit about safety. I had a chance to attend a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club in Sheboygan County. And it reminded me of my hometown of South Milwaukee and the rec program that we had. You know, I played football in the fall. I played basketball in the winter. I played baseball in the spring and the summer. The schools were all open to us. We didn't have time to get into trouble. And maybe what we ought to be doing more of is taking a look at our own recreation departments and what kinds of positive activities we could provide for the kids. And we'd have far less crime, quite frankly. And we would have far less expense in terms of what we pay to build prisons and to staff those prisons. Thank you. And as a follow-up, and Chet, I will ask you first, what is your position on universal background checks and the banning of military-style assault weapons in Wisconsin? I would say this. The first of all, I would be interested in listening to so-called experts on these areas to find out what kinds of laws really have a positive impact. I can just say this, that my inclination is to say that both of those things would probably, background checks would probably be a good idea. But beyond that, I would like to say something to the people here today that I would like to do, and I pledge during the course of this campaign that I would do, and that is that I would send out periodic questionnaires to the people of the 27th District to find out what they really think about some of these so-called gun safety laws and what they think would really be effective. Now, for those of you who received questionnaires in the past, if you receive the ones that I've received, those questionnaires are in such a way that there's only one way to answer them. And the answer is usually based upon what the person who is giving the questionnaire wants you to say so you can justify his or her bill or vote on a bill that's already been made. I will pledge to the people of the 27th District that I will send out questionnaires and I'll have respected people on both sides of an issue, write a few words as to why they believe the way they believe, and I'm interested in seeing what kind of feedback I have, I will get, and I'm interested in representing the views of those people as it relates to gun safety laws and a whole bunch of other issues that come before the state legislature. Thank you. Amy, what is your position on universal background checks and the banning of military-style assault weapons in Wisconsin? I struggle with banning any type of weapon to be honest with you. Again, it is a person's right. I, why people have them, I don't know. Is there a reason for them? Probably not. To be honest, I don't think most of them are even available to most people unless they are getting them in strange means. I struggle with the term assault weapon just because every weapon would technically cause an assault under law. So I think sometimes our terminology is based on media rhetoric, and anything can kill. I mean, we don't call a knife an assault knife, but it could kill someone. So I don't wanna get caught up in that, but the point being background checks, yeah, I understand why they may come into play, but when we keep talking about gun laws, we have tons of gun laws on the books. So why are we still having the crimes? We have tons of laws on the books for lots of things, yet we still have crime. The bottom line is people will either do what the law says or they won't. That's an individual choice in a lot of cases. You can't legalize what they think or sometimes what they do, but you can punish them for what they do wrong. Our problem to me in Wisconsin is our lack of punishment against people who break the law. And that is why we are struggling as a community because we're not actually punishing the people who do something wrong. If you hurt somebody, you should pay for that. If you break the law, pay the Viper, whether it's a fine or jail time or whatever it might be. Too often we're letting people go with a slap on the hand because of who they are or what they did and it's wrong. So it's not just about gun laws, it's all laws that need to be re-looked at and carried out by the people we put in charge in our district attorneys to do that. Thank you. And I'll do another follow-up on the safety piece and Amy, I'll ask you first. You know, there's a lot of conversation about how or if we should support our police better or differently. So can you share with us, you know, where do you think the system is broken on supporting our police departments and local law enforcement? And what do you believe we could do differently? I think a lot of it is teaching respect. We have a lot of adults that do not respect our police. Unfortunately that trickles down into our children and now our children don't respect our police. Respect is a huge thing, we're seeing it in our schools. People are probably sick of me talking about respect but to me, a lot of our issues are not respecting individuals. If I can't talk in a room without being ridiculed or somebody else can't talk to me without being ridiculed, that's a problem. There's nothing wrong with having different opinions but when it comes to our law enforcement they're almost being demonized for trying to uphold the laws that they've been asked to uphold. They've sworn oaths to do that and yet we're making them out to be the bad guys. Now don't get me wrong, we all know there's good and bad employees, that's everywhere. There's gonna be good and bad in our systems as well. That's where you need checks and balances but again, if we teach people to respect our community police departments we're gonna get a whole lot farther and I think that means trying to get them more involved even at a young age with our school so that these kids don't look at them as the mean people or the bad people. They're there to help unless you do something wrong then they might be there to arrest you. Hopefully it doesn't come to that if you get to know them overall. So I think as a community we need to kind of put our police force back on a pedestal that they belong on and pay them respectfully and be respectful to them in all different ways. Thank you. And Chet, would you like to share your thoughts on law enforcement? Sure, over the, earlier in the summer I had a chance to attend an event at Ed Park in the city of Sheboygan. It was the community group had a night out and what impressed me about that night out there were a lot of people from nonprofit organizations that were there but I really appreciated the fact that there were a number of police officers there as well and those are the kinds of things that I think we need to encourage more of. I think more interaction between the police and the community I think is extremely important and I think the same thing could probably happen within our schools as well where we have police officers coming and meeting with kids and so the kids begin to look at police officers as somebody that is a friend, somebody that can help them and I agree with Amy from the standpoint that this is a tough, tough job. I've gone out and many times I've been, talked to groups and I've said, I've asked people raise your hand if you'd like to be a police officer and you know, they're not a whole lot of hands that go up because I think people realize what a dangerous and difficult job it is. Quite frankly, we need to better community support for our police and I think that we need to do a better job quite frankly of recruiting and training and paying our police as well. Thank you. So we will transition over into education and local education. So Amy, I will start with you. You shared in your literature that you support expansion of school choice. We have been fortunate to allow school choice throughout Sheboygan area school district for some years now. Can you tell us how you would expand school choice and are you suggesting that private and parochial schools should be supported by taxpayer dollars? It's a tough one. To be honest, last night I spent three and a half hours at the Sheboygan County or the Sheboygan school district meeting. It was very enlightening. It was the budget meeting. So one of the things that I could tell was very contentious in that meeting was the fact that about $4 million is spent of our state government money for the voucher program. It meets a lot of opposition. What ends up happening is the taxpayer, what the Sheboygan area is doing then is turning around. They charge the taxpayer that difference and that's hitting a lot of people wrong. I think one of the things that's hard for me as a mother and everyone wants their child to have the best education. And if I look at the public schools, I believe today, compared to the public schools about 20 years ago, there's a pretty vast difference. And I don't think it's necessarily for the better. There's a lot of animosity between should this be expanded or not. I guess the rule of thumb is I stood at the door talking to one lady and she said to me, she didn't like the idea of me trying to push my religion. And I said, it's not about me pushing my religion. It's about children getting a good education. So I wanna make sure that regardless of where you fall in the scale of being able to afford it privately or not, that that child has the best education possible. And if somebody feels that is a public school system, that's awesome. If somebody feels the public school system is not providing what they need, they have the right and the privilege to say, I'm sending my child over here. You know, we look for the free market when it comes to business. I hate to say it, it has to be into our schools as well. I look forward to working with the school districts. I know I'm not gonna be the most welcome person there by any means, but I look forward to sitting down with them and talking it through. In listening last night, I feel there's a lot of common ground we can find if we just listen to each other. So yes, I do want to see that expanded for the options of all children's education. Thank you, Amy. Chet, can you share with us what is your position on school choice and how would you suggest we move forward? Well, let me begin by saying like we need to support our police. I think we need to do a much better job of supporting our teachers. Now, I may be a little old fashioned, but I remember when I was in grade school and I remember my parents going to my teacher and telling my teacher, listen, if my son acts up in school and is disrespectful, you let me know and he'll hear about it when he gets home. So for starters, I'd say we need to do that. Choice and competition both are good things. But let me say this, and I was brought up and my dad was a hard nose accountant, quite frankly, balanced-to-budget kind of guy. And I was brought up in probably an upper middle-class family. We didn't have a lot of money, but we had some dollars. And my parents chose to send me to a private grade school, a private high school, a private college, and you know what, they never asked the government for a nickel. And I take a look at, I remember serving in the legislature with Governor Lee Dreyfus. And Lee would, his big slogan was, it would remind us in the legislature about his golden rule. And the rule was he who has the gold makes the rules. And if people who want and are sending their kids to private schools think that when they get all that money coming in from the state of Wisconsin, that they're still gonna be able to make the rules, I think they're sorely mistaken. They're given up an option that they, I don't think that's what they want. I don't think they want the state to make those rules. But once they start accepting the money, they're gonna have to start accepting the rules. Thank you. We will transition the topic once again. And Amy, we will start with you. The legalization of marijuana for recreational use has been passed into law in several neighboring states. Please share with us your position on this issue and reasons you would vote for or against legalization in Wisconsin. So this one has lost me some sponsorships, not gonna lie and I'm okay with that. Actually many of my answers have lost me that and I'm okay with that. When it comes to marijuana, I can honestly look everybody in the face and tell you I've never done it. I've never done recreational drugs. It's hard for me because as a mother I look at, I hear the gateway stories. I don't necessarily disagree with them. I have talked to a group of individuals that wanted to know exactly where I stood on this too and what I said to them was well, if you have, for example, a prescription from a doctor for a medication, you expect to go and get that prescription filled. So if you're being prescribed marijuana for a medical reason, you should be able to go and get it filled. And the gentleman said to me, but I can't. I have to go somewhere else and do that. And he said, don't you find that ridiculous? And I said, to be honest, I do. If it's being prescribed, I feel that you also have to make sure that you are following the parameters of if you are being inhibited in some way by the use of that, you have to make sure you're not using a motor vehicle or that you're not showing up to work maybe under that influence. I'm not sure why you're being prescribed, but if that's what your doctor and you have decided, that's between you and your doctor. But you can't put somebody else's health at risk if you choose to do something on the contrary. The next question then became, well, what about just legalizing it in general? I have seen some of the stats from Colorado, from Illinois. They're not looking overly positive. I'm not gonna lie. So I struggle with it. My original comment, and I will stand by it is, I guess if it's going to be legalized, then we're gonna treat it with lots of rules. As far as we do, you can't show up drunk to work. You can't show up high to work. Those things are gonna have to stay in place. Nobody wants that person operating on their loved one or piloting their plane or just on the street with them in general. In the same token, we have to make sure that we are being respectful and yet legally looking at what's best for all people around it. Chet, please share with us your position on the legalization of marijuana in the state of Wisconsin. Yeah, I have to admit it. For me, it's a difficult one as well. My basic philosophy is get high in life. And I have talked to people who have been prescribed medical marijuana and I have heard stories that it has been beneficial to them. And certainly when people have medical issues, you hate to deny them access to things that can help them, quite frankly. And I have taken a look at some of our surrounding states and in general in the United States where marijuana has been legalized and it's hard to argue against the dollars that have been brought into those state coffers and the good things that can be done with those dollars. But I think I would say this that as I indicated earlier about wanting to do questionnaires, I would commit myself quite frankly to a questionnaire to the people in the 27th district. And whoever asked that particular question, I would give that person an opportunity to write an essay as to why marijuana should be legalized in the state of Wisconsin and then I'd have someone on the opposite side and I'd listen carefully to the collective wisdom of the people of the 27th district as to where they think we ought to go with that issue. Thank you. So to talk a little bit about election integrity and we may have a couple of minutes to take more questions from the audience. So Amy, I will start with you. After the 2020 election, several investigations from both the left and right turned up no substantial irregularities. Do you feel there was significant voter fraud in Wisconsin? And if so, what evidence do you have to substantiate that claim? Do I have any personal evidence? No. Do I think things seem a little bit skewered? Yes. When you look at particularly our nursing homes in some of our areas to go from an average prior years, 10% of people in those nursing home voted to 90%. Seems a little off to me, but I'm not here to say it was right or wrong, but I would have to question, boy, 80% increase seems a little odd. I can see where a lot of the things we're not going to tip it off. When you have so many ballots that are dropped off or mailed in, once those ballots are opened, you don't know where they came from. So there's no doubt in my mind that when you do a recount, the count is gonna come out the same. And then you're gonna say, well, there was no voter fraud. So, for people who say to me, and I get it a lot, what's the reality? I'm a fact-based person. The fact is our 46th president is Joe Biden. That's a fact. Whether something went on or not, I don't know. I wasn't in charge of it. I can tell you I have suspicions on some of it. I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm just a reality-looking person. And when you look at some of these facts, some things do not seem to jive quite like they should. But going forward, I think we just have to ensure the more people that can vote in person. Today, for example, if you are not gonna be able to vote next Tuesday, I encourage you, your voting polls should be open till seven o'clock tonight in person. Go. It's there. Go ahead and do it. Do more in-person voting. Don't rely on the mail. What happens if it does get lost? Legitimately, it just gets lost. Do you wanna take that chance? The ballot boxes have been deemed against law. So I'm glad to hear that. But if you really wanna know your vote counts, please show up on voting day or take advantage of this entire week to get down and in-person. Show your ID, do your diligent duty, and feel proud about what you did. And let's take some of those challenges out. We need to also look at our voter roles and make sure they're cleaned up on a regular basis to ensure that the right people are in the right places. Thank you. Thank you. Chet, do you feel there was significant voter fraud in Wisconsin in the 2020 election? And if so, what evidence do you have to substantiate that claim? You know, I like to play the odds. And during the 2020 election, there were 63 lawsuits that were filed claiming election fraud. And of those 63 lawsuits that were filed, the 63 courts found that there was no fraud. And yet we in this country, and there are people in this country that continue to put forward the idea that the election was a fraud, that it was a mistake, and it's being used to divide, continue to divide this country. Now, you know, I told you earlier, I played a lot of sports growing up, and I can tell you, if I was playing baseball, and I was batting zero for 63, I'd be sitting on the end of the bench. And to think that, you know, there are people out there spreading this idea that this was a fraudulent election, and continuing to use that as a mechanism of dividing a country, I just don't think that's the way to go. And I'm troubled, and I hope, Amy, you might enlighten us on this particular point, but it's my understanding that you are promoting a movie called 2000 Mules, which is a movie that says there are 2,000 individuals out there that are shoving false ballots in ballot boxes throughout the United States. And that's the reason why Joe Biden won the last election. I don't believe that's the case. I don't think a legitimate case has been made for fraudulent election, and I think the more we continue to, you know, make this claim, the more we end up dividing Americans rather than trying to unite them and bring them together and work together. Thank you. As a follow-up, Amy, I will ask you first, do you believe there are present threats to our election process? And if so, what do you believe we should do to eliminate them? Again, I think the more in-person voting we can do, the more voter ID. I don't know why anybody would have a problem wanting voter ID. You have to show it for just about everything out there. I think it's one of the most simple things to do. The bottom line is people move around all the time. So I can see where, you know, even within the city, you think from apartment to apartment, it's very possible. Somebody's gonna move twice between elections. So I can understand where things can get a little jumbled up in the specific mapping of people. But if you have that driver's license and you approve, if your license doesn't match the address that you're claiming to be voting for, then bring a bill showing, okay, I moved here and this is my address. It really shouldn't be rocket science. It's actually, to me, a pretty simple thing. I know one lady did reach out to me and she said, so my mom's not supposed to vote anymore because you don't wanna have mail-in ballots or ballot boxes. It's not at all what I meant. Her mother can't stand in line for long periods of time. That's a great opportunity to come this week now when you're gonna have less lines and go ahead and vote early in person. So we don't have to make it as controversial as it's being out to be made. We just have to work together to find those common sense grounds in which we can get people to the ballots and let them vote and feel good about it. Chet, do you believe there are present threats to our election process and if so, what would you do to eliminate them? Well, let me begin by saying that the right to vote is the greatest right that every American in this, every American has and we ought to make it as easy as possible for people to vote and we ought to encourage people to vote. During the course of this election, I made it a point to personally talk to every village clerk, every town clerk, every city clerk to our county clerk about election integrity. And I can tell you that elections here in Sheboygan County are fair and they're free. And in addition to the clerks who I had a chance to talk to, you know, it's your neighbors who are out there helping to administer those elections to keep them free and fair and we ought to be pleased, quite frankly, that we have that system here in this country and quite frankly, we need to be more supportive of our local clerks who I think I do in a tremendous job to make sure that we have free and fair elections in this county. Thank you. And last question for today as we are at time, so I apologize if I haven't hit anything that you guys were wanting me to ask. But over the, you know, past couple of years, well, let me rephrase, all things staying the same, what would you have done differently to make more progress in the legislature over the past couple of years? As we know, there's been quite a standoff on both sides of the aisle. And we've touched on it, you guys have touched on it a little bit today, you know, some of that contention. So what would you have done differently had you been in that position over the past couple of years to change the outcome? So you know what, Shet, I'll start with you and I apologize, that was my mistake. Well, I will say, I did serve in the legislature once upon a time, I served as a Democrat. I thought of myself mostly as a nonpartisan. And when I let the legislature, I remember two conversations that I had and they were both with Republican legislators. One became a Supreme Court justice and the other became the president of the Senate and they both said the same thing, which was, Shet, if there's ever anything I can do for you, let me know. I always appreciated the fairness with which you ran your committee. And that's the kind of temperament and view that I would bring as an independent legislator to the state of Wisconsin and representing this particular district. I can tell you, part of the reason I am running is I am so disgusted with the inability of, with all the backbiting, with all the mudslinging, with the inability of legislators to just simply sit down, talk to each other and come up with common sense solutions to the problems facing the state of Wisconsin. I've told you before, I've met with all the town boards, local governments, you know, they're not Democrats, they're not Republicans that go and sit on those boards. They're just your neighbors that are trying to do the best for their communities. And quite frankly, I think we'd do a whole lot better if we didn't send Democrats and Republicans to the state legislature. I think we'd do a whole lot better by sending nonpartisans to the state legislature. And I think the quality of the conversation and the quality of the decisions that would come out of that would be a whole heck of a lot better than what we've seen over the last couple of years. Thank you. Amy, would you share with us your thoughts and maybe what you would have done different? I do consider myself a good listener. So for me, I think sometimes it's about more of the listening process than the speaking process. And I do agree with Chet. I'm not a fan of the mudslinging. So I want people to know that if I'm there, my door will be open to anybody that comes to that Capitol and wants to sit and talk, whether they have an adverse opinion to mine or not, they're welcome. And I will not judge them and I will not belittle them. I don't feel there's a place for it. I'm ready for the fact that I got to have some strong skin. I'm pretty sure that if I get there, yeah, I'm gonna see a lot of animosity at times. But I think there's also a way to bring that temperament down by continuing to just treat others the way you want to be treated. And if somebody's yelling, try and get them to calm down, don't continue to try and yell back or just keep going. Sometimes maybe it's time for a quick break so you can get your thoughts together and come back respectively and talk to each other. So there's a lot of things that I think could be done differently. Of course, I'm looking forward to hopefully taking on that challenge for the people. I don't agree or disagree with him, excuse me, on the partisan issue. It does bring up a fair point. I mean, you think about the fact that when you go to Madison, you have to choose a caucus. Either you are sitting in the Republican caucus or you are sitting in the Democrat caucus. There is not actually an independent caucus or a non-partisan caucus. So I see his point, but eventually you have, right now the way it's set up, you have to make that choice. So based on my views and being more of a conservative person, I am running on the Republican ticket, but I would love it if I could go down there and not see ours and D's on everybody's foreheads and actually just see everybody's an individual who wants what's best for Wisconsin. Thank you. And as we are approaching time, I'll give you each a minute to share with us any additional thoughts that maybe you didn't feel we were able to share out with the group today. So Chet, I will start with you. Yes, first of all, I'd like to thank the chamber for doing this. This is what government ought to be all about. I only wish that we had more civic organizations like the chamber that would do this and give the people of the district an opportunity to see Amy and I and make a decision for themselves. I'm running as a common sense independent. The older I've gotten, the more I've appreciated the advice that was given to us by our very first president, John, or George Washington. In his farewell address to the nation, he said, don't form political parties. And it's time I think that we started listening to taking up his advice. And I know what Amy has talked about. Well, you have to be part of a party. You have to be part of a caucus. Well, I had a conversation with an independent legislator from the state of Alaska early in this campaign. And in Alaska, there's a 40-member house. And in that house, four of them are independents. And those four independents with a bunch of Democrats and some Republicans make up the ruling majority. And that's what I think we need to have. I think we need to bring a bit of Alaska right here to the state of Wisconsin. Thank you. Amy, share with us some closing thoughts. Well, much like Chet, I would say that I am too a common sense approach person. I think one thing to keep in mind when you're talking about common sense is how did you come to realize that common sense? Mine is going to be based on my entire life being spent in the 27th district. From the time I was a little girl to the time I was a teenager, marrying my husband and now raising my children. I've watched the 27th district grow and been a part of it the entire time. I've watched community and local restaurants, businesses, awesome community manufacturers grow and thrive throughout this place. My common sense is going to be with regard to those people that I've lived among my whole life. It's going to be different than somebody that was born and raised in South Milwaukee, somebody that spent over 30 years down in Madison. Our common sense is maybe a little bit different. So I want to make sure that my sense is representing those choices that the people of the 27th want to see as well. Thank you. And really, again, thank you, Amy and Chet, for this candid conversation. And thank you all for participating in the conversation as well. We will offer another candidate forum next Thursday between two and three p.m., talking with our 26th district candidates, incumbent Terry Kotsma and Lisa Salgado. So if you would like to join us next week, please visit chavoigan.org and get yourself registered. It is a free event, but we do require advanced registration. Other than that, don't forget to vote on November 8th, and thank you again for joining us.