Primary Election 2022: Assembly District 1 Race, Kitchens & Swagel on the Issues

By Door County Pulse , Peninsula Pulse – July 13th, 2022

Early voting and absentee voting have already begun for Wisconsin’s Aug. 9 partisan primary.

In a partisan primary, voters may cast votes for only one party’s primary, not both. If a voter chooses a party and casts votes for both parties, votes cast in the unchosen party will not be counted. If a voter doesn’t choose a party and votes for more than one party, no votes will be counted.

“It’s like a safety net,” to pre-select a party, just in case the voter accidentally crosses over and votes for another party’s candidate, said Jill Lau, Door County Clerk. “Your vote would be counted for the party you selected.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled last week that ballot drop boxes aren’t allowed, but that decision won’t impact how Door County votes.

“Clerks already made adjustments and discontinued using drop boxes at the April election,” Lau said.

Of particular note for Door County voters is a Republican primary challenge for the District 1 Assembly seat currently held by Joel Kitchens. Milt Swagel, a Kewaunee County Board supervisor, issued that challenge and is on the ballot contesting Kitchens’ run for a fifth term in office.

To aid voters with that race, we sent the candidates identical questionnaires and are publishing their answers in full on the following pages.

The winner of this contest will face Democrat Roberta Thelen, a Baileys Harbor resident, in the Nov. 8 general election.

For complete information about voting and the upcoming election, visit the Door County Clerk’s website at co.door.wi.gov/183/County-Clerk.

Milt Swagel

Milt Swagel, 60, a resident of Kewaunee, is a farmer. He’s an Army veteran and a graduate of Northeastern Wisconsin Technical College’s farm business management program. He has a farm, short-course degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also attended one semester in the animal sciences curriculum. He’s currently serving his second term on the Kewaunee County Board of Supervisors. This is his first run for State Assembly.

General

Peninsula Pulse (PP): Why are you running?

Milt Swagel (MS): To serve the people of the First Assembly District. For the honor and privilege of serving this district. To keep with the Republican platform of being a fiscal conservative. To defend life, constitutional rights, election integrity and parents’ values.

PP: What specifically qualifies you for the position?

MS: I am proud of my record as a county supervisor and saying no to growing government. I will listen to the people of the district. I am a farmer, businessman.

PP: Why are you a Republican?

MS: I voted for Ronald Reagan. I voted Republican every time since. The Republican platform is me. I am conservative, pro-life, pro-constitution, pro-amendments, pro-gun, pro-family.

PP: On what issues do you differ from the Republican platform?

MS: None.

PP: Please list your top five priorities or things you want to accomplish over the next two years if you are elected?

MS:

1. Tell Madison, “Vote no to excessive spending, growing government.” 2. Defend life.

3. Defend the constitutional rights of all.

4. Election integrity.

5. Support parents.

Local Control

PP: Republicans have long laid claim to being the party of local control, but particularly when it comes to short-term-rental legislation and levy limits, local municipalities and schools have said the Legislature is tying their hands when it comes to managing their communities. This has resulted in every school district going to referendum many times to fund educational services, and it has left municipalities struggling to pay for basic road maintenance. Do you support changes to levy caps or regulation pertaining to short-term rentals that would give local government bodies more flexibility? Please explain.

MS: I will support legislation to give local government bodies the support they need.

Abortion

PP: Following the Supreme Court’s decision, it is now up to state legislatures to decide when, if, how and under what penalties women can terminate their pregnancies. Wisconsin’s abortion law dates back to 1848 and bans nearly all abortions (except those that endanger the mother’s life), including pregnancies that develop from rape or incest. Should Wisconsin’s abortion law be amended, and in what way? Why or why not?

MS: Wisconsin’s abortion law is close to what my position is on abortion. My position is that all life is precious, a gift from God. Life begins at conception. All viable pregnancies should never be aborted. All pregnancies/pre-born children are completely innocent. They are life.

Gun Laws

PP: This year, the governor vetoed a number of Republican-backed bills related to gun laws. These included AB 597, which would have allowed concealed-carry licensees to take guns to places of worship located on the same grounds as a private school; AB 495, which would have allowed licensees to drive onto school grounds with loaded guns in their vehicles to pick up or drop off students; and AB 518, which would have granted universal recognition to concealed-carry permits held by non-Wisconsin residents issued by any other state. Explain your position on these bills.

MS: The governor was completely wrong in vetoing these three Republican-backed bills related to gun laws. I am pro-gun; the governor is not, as this shows. I have voted for these three bills.

PP: Do you believe that decisive gun-control legislation can help put an end to gun violence? Why or why not?

MS: No! Enacting more legislation will do nothing. The criminal is not obeying the current laws when causing great tragedy. Enforce the laws that are on the books now.

PP: What action, if any, do you think should be taken on guns?

MS: No action.

PP: Please answer yes or no to the following questions:

Do you favor raising the age to purchase semi-automatic weapons to age 21?
MS: No.

Instituting red-flag laws?
MS: No.

Banning the sale of semi-automatic weapons?
MS: No.

Instituting a waiting period for gun purchases?
MS: No.

Universal background checks?
MS: No.

Elections

PP: Controversies involving election administration loomed large in the wake of the 2020 election and the pandemic, including but not limited to absentee ballots, drop boxes, voter signature requirements and more. Do you accept the results of the 2020 election, and do you support the ongoing investigation?

MS: Yes, there were election controversies in the 2020 election. The voter signature requirements must be followed. The drop boxes must be gone. Absentee ballots are for people with real needs, not for anyone. Enforce election laws. I don’t like the results of the 2020 election. In my opinion, the documentary movie 2000 Mules shows fraud.

Redistricting

PP: Partisan gerrymandering and the Voting Rights Act were hot topics this year as Wisconsin went through its redistricting process. What do you believe is the proper role of courts and other federal and state institutions in Wisconsin’s redistricting process?

MS: District gerrymandering will always be a hot topic of partisan politics. Both parties have strongholds of voters. They both want their strongholds. The courts and other federal and state institutions will have to make the hard decisions because of the shifting populations.

Environment

PP: Where do environmental issues rate among your priorities, and what are District 1’s biggest environmental challenges? What are the solutions?

MS: Environmental issues are very important. The biggest challenges are clean water and air. I drink my own well water. The large farms are following their nutrient-management plans. They are using cover crops and limited or no tillage to contain nutrients. Noncompliance is dealt with by authorities.

Joel Kitchens

Joel Kitchens, 64, a resident of Sturgeon Bay, is a retired veterinarian and full-time legislator. He has a B.S. and doctor of veterinary medicine (D.V.M.) from Ohio State University. He and wife, Sherry Billett, have three children and two grandchildren. He’s currently serving his fourth term in the 1st Assembly District.

General

Peninsula Pulse (PP): Why are you running?

Joel Kitchens (JK): I am running for reelection because I love this community, and this position has given me the opportunity to repay the kindness it has shown me and my family. I believe that I have been a very effective representative for our area in passing legislation that positively affects our community, as well as the state in general. While I am proud of my accomplishments, there is more that I would like to do.

PP: What specifically qualifies you for the position?

JK: I believe that my broad background and intellectual curiosity make me well qualified for this position. I am a business owner with extensive agricultural and environmental experience. I was a school board president for many years, and I serve on the board of Door County Medical Center.

Beyond my background, I am a good communicator, and I have an ability to talk to people on both sides of issues. This has been particularly useful in bringing all parties together to solve our local environmental issues.

PP: Why are you a Republican?

JK: I am a Republican because we are the party of personal responsibility. We believe in making sure that everyone has an opportunity to achieve the American dream, but it is up to the individual to take advantage of those opportunities. We do not guarantee outcomes. We know that people will fall down and that we must pick them up, but we will not carry them. We know that people have the ability to better themselves if government stays out of their way.

The other party seems to believe that it is never an individual’s fault when they fail – it is society’s fault. Fostering this sense of victimhood is incredibly damaging to a person’s ability to be a productive, responsible member of society.

PP: On what issues do you differ from the Republican platform? When have you voted against a Republican-backed bill and why?

JK: Republican legislators share a conservative philosophy, but there is a spectrum of views on individual issues as to how we implement that philosophy. My record shows that I am not afraid to vote against the majority when I believe they are wrong.

Most recently, I was the only Republican to vote against a bill to remove all restrictions on the school-choice program. I firmly believe in giving parents as many options as possible in choosing what is best for their children, but my position has always been that we must do it in a way that does not put an undue burden on taxpayers and does not damage our public schools. This bill would have potentially increased local property taxes by over $500 million. So, while I agree with the general goal of the bill, I do not believe it was done in a well-thought-out, conservative manner, and I voted against it.

PP: Please list your top five priorities or things you want to accomplish over the next two years if you are elected.

JK: My overall goal in the Legislature is to make Wisconsin government leaner and more responsive. In no particular order, my priorities for the next session are:

We need to get more workers in the workforce. This shortage, along with supply-chain issues, is holding our economy back. Last session, I supported the Stronger Workforce Initiative, which made it easier for people to go back to work and reduced fraud in our unemployment system. I want to build on that.
Wisconsin is doing a poor job of teaching our children to read, which drastically reduces their chances of finishing their education and leading productive lives. Currently, 64% of our fourth-graders are not proficient readers. Most of our local districts have embraced a return to a more phonics-based approach and are seeing great results. Unfortunately, Gov. Evers and the education bureaucrats are dragging their feet. I will continue to push forward on this. It is vital to the future of our state.
Reform our tax code to make it simpler and more competitive with other states. We have improved our business climate tremendously over the past decade, and we must continue in that direction.
Continue to work collaboratively with agricultural and conservation groups to find solutions to our water-contamination issues. We have seen tremendous success with this approach in the past few years.
I am currently writing legislation to correct the manner in which our school-funding formula affects schools experiencing declining enrollment. This is the fundamental flaw in the formula, which causes schools to go to referendum so frequently. I will also be introducing legislation to help deal with the shortage of substitute teachers.

Local Control

JK: Both parties claim to want local control, but it is a challenge to balance when it is appropriate and when it is not.

Every state with which I am familiar has a revenue-limit formula for their schools, and most have one for local governments as well. In Wisconsin, we allow local school districts and municipalities to ask the voters for more revenue, if it is needed, through a referendum. Not all states allow that.

Our school districts and municipalities are all unique, so it is impossible to come up with formulas that are fair to each unit of government. This is why the ability to go to referendum is so important.

As co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on School Funding, I studied our school-funding formula extensively. Ours is actually more equitable than most states’. The fundamental flaw in our formula is in how it handles districts experiencing declining enrollment, which is nearly all districts in rural Wisconsin. I will be introducing legislation next session to address that issue.

The formula for municipalities is based on net new construction, which is also not fair to every municipality. I will support looking at ways in which the formula can be tweaked.

Although the formulas are far from perfect, the public overwhelmingly supports spending limits. As a school board president, I hated having to go to referendum. It was important, however, to explain to the public how we were spending their money. It certainly helped keep our taxes down.

Short-term rentals are a relatively new phenomenon, and we are far from figuring out how to deal with them. I wrote legislation to help ensure that our local governments receive the amount of room tax to which they are entitled. They must compete on a level playing field with hotels.

I support giving local communities more power to make local decisions on their regulations.

Abortion

PP: Following the Supreme Court’s decision, it is now up to state

legislatures to decide when, if, how and under what penalties women can terminate their pregnancies. Wisconsin’s abortion law dates back to 1848 and bans nearly all abortions (except those that endanger the mother’s life), including pregnancies that develop from rape or incest. Should Wisconsin’s abortion law be amended, and in what way? Why or why not?

JK: I am proudly pro-life, but I believe our 1848 law should be updated and include exemptions for rape and incest.

My focus in the Assembly has been on preventing women from being faced with the decision to abort. My bill to allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control passed through the Assembly. This has proven to reduce abortions in states that have enacted it, and it is supported by all of the major medical groups.

I also support spending some of our federal ARPA money on pregnancy resource centers.

Gun Laws

Also, what action, if any, do you think should be taken on guns?

Finally, do you believe that decisive gun-control legislation can help put an end to gun violence? Why or why not?

JK: It should be understood, to begin with, that the overwhelming majority of crimes are committed using guns that were not obtained legally. To obtain a concealed-carry permit, citizens must apply to the Department of Justice after undergoing training. These permit holders are almost never involved in crime. In the six years following the introduction of the permits, Milwaukee police reported that they had not arrested even one permit holder. None of the states that allow concealed carry saw an increase in crime following its introduction.

The bills mentioned in the question relate to those permit holders. No, I do not believe that a concealed-carry permit holder should be charged with a felony if they have a gun in their vehicle when they pick up their child at school. Likewise, if a church which has a school on their grounds has a written policy allowing concealed-carry permit holders to have a gun in their church, I do not have a problem with that. These restrictions on concealed-carry permit holders do absolutely nothing to prevent gun violence.

I believe we must do a better job of keeping guns out of the hands of unstable people and criminals, but mental-health and societal issues are the root cause of the violence we see. I wrote the bill that was passed a few years ago that allows students to receive mental-health counseling in schools because we know that we have a much higher success rate if we reach these kids early.

There is currently a system in place to confiscate guns from someone who is deemed dangerous to themselves or others. If any red-flag laws are brought before the Legislature, it is vital that they do not conflict with a gun owner’s right to due process. We must always remember that owning firearms is a constitutional right that is protected under the Second Amendment. Gun removal cannot be based simply on the word of one person.

Although we know that over 90% of the guns involved in crime are obtained illegally, it is still incumbent on us to do a better job with background checks. There are numerous different databases that do not always communicate with one another or contain all of the pertinent information. We need to streamline the system so that the checks are speedy and complete.

Although universal background checks sound appealing, they are impossible to enforce on private sales. They merely create an impediment for law-abiding gun owners, without keeping guns out of the hands of criminals.

Semi-automatic weapons constitute a large percentage of the weapons currently being sold. They are owned by thousands of citizens in my district alone, and I do not believe they should be banned. Again, I believe that if we focus on the root causes of the violence we see, rather than the tools used to perpetrate it, we will be better served as a society.

PP: Please answer yes or no to the following questions: Editor’s note: Kitchens did not give specific yes or no answers to the questions below, but said he believes he made his positions clear in the narrative above.

Do you favor raising the age to purchase semi-automatic weapons to age 21?
Instituting red-flag laws?
Banning the sale of semi-automatic weapons?
Instituting a waiting period for gun purchases?
Universal background checks?

Elections

JK: Without question, there were numerous election laws broken during the 2020 election. Over 200,000 new Wisconsinites, for instance, claimed “indefinitely confined” status who did not meet the legal requirement for that status. They thereby bypassed the voter-ID requirements.

There is no proof, however, that any of these voters were not eligible to vote legally, and the courts have made it clear they would not throw out their votes. This is just one example.

The use of drop boxes was very common in the last election, and it has been ruled illegal. Voting in nursing homes was also frequently done illegally.

A large percentage of our population has been left questioning the legitimacy of our elections, which is incredibly dangerous for our democracy. I believe it is vital that we close these loopholes in our laws to help restore people’s faith in our electoral process.

Many of these proposals should receive bipartisan support. Does anyone really believe that partisan groups should fund and have intimate involvement in running our local elections? Yet Gov. Evers and others have dismissed all of these proposals as “voter suppression,” without even really looking at them.

As Republicans, our focus should be on making the necessary changes and moving forward with a focus on our vision for the state and nation.

The failures of the Evers and Biden administrations are glaring. I do not believe there is anything to be gained by continuing the Gableman investigation. At this point, it is a distraction from the issues we need to be discussing, and it will only hurt our party in November.

Redistricting

JK: Our constitution grants the role of drawing our maps to the Legislature, with the governor having veto power. In the case of a divided government, as we have now, the legislative and executive branches either reach an agreement, or the courts decide which version of the maps most meets the legal requirements.

The process of drawing maps is extremely complex due to numerous statutes and legal precedents regarding compactness, communities of interest, distribution of minority groups and more. This year, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that Gov. Evers’ maps violated the Voting Rights Act regarding minority representation, so the legislative maps were ultimately adopted.

Although Wisconsin is roughly equal in the number of Democrats and Republicans, Democrats are extremely concentrated in just a few areas. Republicans hold a more modest majority in the rest of the state, so any map that is drawn will favor Republicans.

Adopting a more nonpartisan redistricting process has been a topic for many years, but neither party has been willing to give up that power while they are in the majority. I have supported a more nonpartisan process, if it is done correctly. Looking at other states that have gone this route, it is impossible to entirely remove partisanship from the process. Ultimately, I do not believe it would have nearly the impact on the representation by the parties that many believe.

Environment

PP: Where do environmental issues rate among your priorities, and what are District 1’s biggest environmental challenges? What are the solutions?

JK: Environmental issues have been one of my top priorities in the Legislature. I serve as chair of the Environment Committee. Our district is surrounded by water, and our local economy and way of life are intricately dependent on it. We also have less soil depth than anywhere in the state, so our groundwater is extremely vulnerable to contamination from agricultural and human waste.

My approach to agricultural contamination has been to bring the two sides together to find solutions. I played a large role in developing manure-spreading standards that were specific to our karst region. This session, I authored legislation that was signed into law addressing nitrate contamination of groundwater.

Additionally, I worked successfully to increase funding for producer-led watershed groups such as Peninsula Pride. These funds help incentivize farmers to try new methods of reducing water pollution, and they have been extremely successful.

Last session, I authored a nutrient-credit clearinghouse that also facilitates farmers working with businesses and wastewater-treatment plants to reduce contamination of our surface water.

All of these initiatives have received overwhelming support from both the agricultural and conservation communities. I have received numerous awards from conservation groups. Most recently, I was named the Legislator of the Year by the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.

Our efforts have been effective. The recent test results from Door County wells show that, although we have the most vulnerable geology in the state, our drinking water is much cleaner than the state as a whole in every category.

I have also been recognized for my leadership in preserving the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program.

Milt Swagel

General

Local Control

Abortion

Gun Laws

Elections

Redistricting

Environment

Joel Kitchens

General

Local Control

Abortion

Gun Laws

Elections

Redistricting

Environment

Door County Tickets