Assembly candidates discuss health care, child care at Main Street Alliance roundtable in Wauwatosa

Republican Tom Michalski: “I don’t know specifically what to do on health care.”

During this election year, the Main Street Alliance has been holding roundtables on issues facing small businesses. Issues like child care funding, paid leave, capital access, corporate consolidation, and access to affordable health care have been major topics for the organization in recent years. 

On the evening of Oct. 7, the organization held a roundtable in Wauwatosa, featuring two state representatives, Republican Tom Michalski and Democrat Robyn Vining. Michalski and Vining are the only two incumbent state representatives who are running against each other under new maps. Michalski currently represents District 13, and Vining represents District 14. They are both running in the new Assembly District 13, which includes Wauwatosa, Brookfield and Elm Grove.

In Wauwatosa, Vining and Michalski joined the roundtable event held at the Little Village Play Cafe. Given the nature of the venue, the first question from the small business owner hosting the event was, not surprisingly, on child care, and funding the “Child Care Counts” program.

Vining said she supports funding the state’s “Child Care Counts” program, which was voted out of the state budget by Republican members of the Joint Committee on Finance. 

“I support it because we need to be able to make child care affordable, we know we need people to afford to work and we know we need to pay people what they’re worth while they’re working with our children,” she said. “During the ‘Child Care Counts’ battle in the legislative session, just these last two years, I got a lot of handwritten letters from people terrified that their child care was going to go up $50 per week.”

Michalski did not address “Child Care Counts” directly, but said, “Our biggest difference is how we approach the issue, not that we disagree that it is an issue. The biggest difference is new programs versus making the existing programs more robust.”

Watch each candidate’s response here.

The next question was on Badgercare, particularly whether candidates support accepting federal funds for Medicaid expansion and if they’d support a public option for people to enroll in Badgercare. 

Michalski talked about being a first-term legislator and expressed some confusion on the issue.

“I don’t know specifically what to do on health care,” he said.

Vining discussed being the author or coauthor of bills for Medicaid expansion and creating a public option for Badgercare, mentioning it is among her top issues as a legislator. 

For several of the roundtable events hosted by Main Street Alliance, only the Democratic candidate was in attendance. At a recent forum in the 14th Senate District, only one candidate, Sarah Keyeski, participated, while Republican State Sen. Joan Ballweg did not attend. Following these events, Main Street Alliance is endorsing candidates, and last week announced their endorsement of candidates Tara Johnson (Assembly District 96), Elizabeth Grabe (Assembly District 51) and Keyeski (Senate District 14). 

Following the event in Wauwatosa, Shawn Phetteplace, campaigns director for Main Street Alliance and the moderator of the event, said the organization is endorsing Vining.

“Last night, local small business owners heard from Rep. Vining and Rep. Michalski in the only incumbent-on-incumbent State Assembly race in Wisconsin,” he said. “We discussed critical issues such as Badgercare expansion, capital access and school funding. Based on the answers of the candidates, Main Street Action PAC has decided to endorse State Rep. Robyn Vining for the State Assembly. We look forward to two more events this month, in Appleton and Green Bay.”
Those upcoming events are scheduled for Oct. 16 in Green Bay for the race in Senate District 30 and on Oct. 23 in Appleton for the race in Senate District 18.