Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton attends fundraiser, opens Barron County HQ

RICE LAKE August 21, 2006—About 70 persons were on hand to welcome Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton and other Barron County Democrats as they celebrated the grand opening of the Democrats' Barron County headquarters Monday evening.

Barron County Democrats await the arrival of the Lieutenant Governor

After 75th Assembly Rep. Mary Hubler introduced her as a progressive and a fighter for the environment, jobs, and social justice, Lawton described the Doyle-Lawton administration's massive, inherited, 3.2-billion budget deficit and its effort to restore fiscal responsibility in the last 3½ years. The administration had faced "difficult budget decisions that Solomon wouldn't want," Lawton stated.

After a ribbon cutting ceremony, Lawton greeted area Democrats along with State Senator Robert Jauch (foreground).

Lawton also laid out the various parts of the Doyle-Lawton Affordability Agenda, which includes:

• Making health care more affordable through extending SeniorCare; letting formerly ineligible families buy into BadgerCare on a sliding fee schedule; finding ways for elderly and disabled patients to receive long-term care in their homes rather than nursing facilities through the Family Care pilot program—now to be extended statewide
• Making energy more affordable by fighting Big Oil, doubling the state commitment to low-income heating assistance, reducing Wisconsin's dependence on foreign oil and increasing its use of renewable sources of energy.
• Making work more rewarding by attracting employers and helping them innovate, creating more living-wage jobs; the Doyle-Lawton administration also works hard to support Wisconsin's cutting edge status in stem cell research.
• Making education more affordable through the Wisconsin Covenant, which guarantees an affordable college education to kids who study hard and play by the rules; and also by supporting public schools in various ways, such as funding the SAGE program, which lowers class size.

"That's the engine for growth," Lawton said of Wisconsin's educational system. "If we're going to have a population of workers rejuvenating the economy, we have to give them access to education and training."

L. to R.: Rep. Mary Hubler, Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, St. Senator Bob Jauch

State Senator Robert Jauch followed Lawton, contrasting Democratic and Republican priorities. "People at their kitchen tables frankly don't spend a lot of time talking about the definition of marriage, but they certainly spend a lot of time figuring out how the marriage can economically survive when energy prices are over three dollars a gallon, when health care prices are going up twenty per cent, and when they see an administration and Congress in Washington that want to provide tax breaks to th welathiest one per cent of the citizens, and give garbage scraps to the rest."

Jauch predicted a "turning point election" that will "provide some balance to an out-of-control president who doesn't seem to understand that he has a responsibility to all Americans." He praised Congressman Dave Obey, ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, as an effective legislator who would be even more effective as chairman of that committee after the November elections.

On environmental matters, Jauch also commended Governer Jim Doyle for his rescue of the Stewardship Fund and the recent set-aside in Bayfield County of 400 pristine acres overlooking Lake Superior. Republicans had wanted to cut the Stewarship Fund in half. And in other environmental news, Jauch was on his way to Madison to a meeting of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, in order to defend a regulation on the use of the pesticide Alacor, from being loosened by a Monsanto pressure group.

After the speeches, Barron Democrats and their guests sat down to a potluck dinner. Members made donations to be split between the Democratic Party of Barron County and the Doyle-Lawton campaign.

Please donate to the Doyle-Lawton 2006 campaign.

Lizbeth Ager agerbeth@barrondemocrats.com