Local Democrats vying for the 77th district Assembly Seat debated at the Concourse Hotel in Madison Wednesday night, outlining their views on issues ranging from education to the environment to employment.
Five district members will compete in Tuesday's primary. The contenders include Dane County Supervisors Dianne Hesselbein and Brett Hulsey, attorney Fred Wade, entrepreneur John Imes and former Middleton Mayor Doug Zwank.
Education dominated the discussion. Hesselbein, who grew up in Madison and received the endorsement of former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, said, ""Our school finance system is broken, and I believe sincerely that I received a better education in the Madison schools than the kids do today.""
Imes said the solution to fixing the system would be benchmarking school districts and creating a ""penny for kids"" tax on some combination of the sales and income taxes, which he said would help raise another $800 million for schools.
Wade, who was endorsed by Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, said he was not sure the formula was necessarily broken, and that the real focus should be on protecting funding for UW-Madison or the UW system.
""I would like to present a moratorium on tuition increases,"" Wade said. ""The university is the engine for economic growth in this area and throughout the state.""
Hesselbein agreed that funding for the university and keeping costs down for students is extremely important.
""I remember when I was a student, I could pay it,"" she said. ""I could honestly pay my room and board by what I made during summers, and that's just not possible now.""
Although all the candidates agreed that environmental protection is key, Hulsey went as far to say that he would ""focus mostly on the environment,"" and that environmental protection is ""one of the things that makes me get up in the morning.""
However, Zwank said the key to making improvements in these areas is ""creating jobs, that's the key to everything. If we don't do that, everything else is moot.""
The other candidates praised previous Democratic accomplishments, but Zwank, who does not identitfy as a Democrat but is still running for the Democratic nomination, said the party ""has caved into the power of money and fickle public opinion polls.""
