As election day eve is upon us, candidates are scrambling to make their final appeals to Wisconsin voters. Read on to hear what each candidate thinks about college affordability, jobs and criminal justice issues.
College affordability
Student loan debt has become a hot-button topic, both statewide and nationally. It has also been an important issue in the presidential campaign, as candidates spar over what ways to help college students are most effective and practical.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has perhaps the most radical plan: make public college and university free for all students, allow students to refinance loans at lower interest rates and pay for his ambitious proposals by instituting a tax on Wall Street speculators. Critics of Sanders’ plan, including some economists and his fellow candidates, have called it impractical and potentially impotent, as governors could opt out of having their states participate.
“Now, we’re campaigning right now in Wisconsin,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a rally in Purchase, N.Y. “The governor there has cut higher education by $250 million. The idea that he would chip in nearly $300 million for free college in Wisconsin doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It doesn’t add up, my friends."
Clinton has proposed a different strategy, including lowering tuition and making the financial aid process clearer.
On the Republican side, candidates have spent less time on the issue. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has said that one way to make college cheaper would be to reduce waste at universities, including slashing administrator salaries, but he provided no details as to how the federal government would do this.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and business mogul Donald Trump have not made the issue a top priority, although Cruz has voted for legislation in the Senate that has lowered interest rates for student loans.
Jobs and the economy
Differences become more stark in comparing candidates’ records on bolstering the economy.
Clinton has praised President Barack Obama’s economic policies and has said she will focus her plan on adding more high-skill, high-pay jobs and bolstering manufacturing.
“Creating good paying jobs is the economic challenge of our time,” Clinton said at a dashboard assembly company in Detroit. “Companies have to start treating workers like assets to be invested in, not costs to be cut.”
Despite seemingly resting on opposite ends of the economic spectrum, Sanders and Trump both argue that American trade policies, including the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, have resulted in sharp declines in American job growth.
"Michigan has been stripped,” Trump said during a town hall in that state last month. “You look at those empty factories all over the place, and nobody hits that message better than me.”
While Trump has given few concrete policies for retaining American jobs, he has said that he will hold other countries accountable in trade deals in an effort to preserve American manufacturing.
Cruz has focused his jobs plan on reducing government regulation, arguing this will hinder companies wishing to grow. He has proposed a flat tax for individuals and loosening regulations on small businesses. He has also criticized Obama’s policies, saying the president has not addressed low labor force participation.
Criminal justice and policing
Criminal justice, a divisive issue in Wisconsin following the officer-involved shooting deaths of Tony Robinson and Dontre Hamilton, has also become part of the presidential race. Other criminal justice issues, including the rise of private prisons, disparities in incarceration and the treatment of law enforcement, have also been major topics.
Republicans have largely framed the issue as one of supporting law enforcement. Cruz especially has argued that Obama has attacked law enforcement and made it more difficult for them to do their jobs.
“Cops across this country are feeling the assault,” Cruz said during a New Hampshire rally. “They’re feeling the assault ... whether it’s in Ferguson or Baltimore, the response of senior officials of the president, of the attorney general, is to vilify law enforcement. That is fundamentally wrong, and it is endangering the safety and security of us all.”
Trump has agreed, and said that law enforcement needs more freedom to carry out its job. He has acknowledged that some laws regarding nonviolent offenses need to be revisited.
While Kasich has underscored the importance of law enforcement, he has also emphasized the need to ensure positive relations between police and communities. He has been especially critical of remarks by Cruz that propose police monitor Muslim communities more strictly.
Democrats have been similarl in their viewpoints, arguing that mass incarceration needs to end. While both Sanders and Clinton voted for the controversial 1994 crime bill that created longer mandatory minimum sentences, both have renounced their vote and have called for alternative sentences for nonviolent offenses.
Both also tout the need for police body cameras and want to hold law enforcement accountable for their interactions with communities.
“We can no longer continue to sweep it under the rug, it has to be dealt with,” Sanders said during a February debate in Milwaukee. “We need fundamental police reform—clearly.”
