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| Sen. Dan Kapanke |
LA CROSSE – One state senator has successfully defended his seat and eight others will soon attempt to do so in special State Senate recall elections underway after the bitter battle over Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s removal of collective bargaining rights for most state workers.
In District 30, Democratic State Sen. David Hansen easily defeated Republican challenger David VanderLeest of Green Bay on July 19 in the first of the recall elections. Due to the other incumbents facing “fake” candidates in the primaries, voters elsewhere will head to the polls on Aug. 9 for seats held by Republicans or on Aug. 16 for seats held by Democrats.
The recall election that affects the biggest swath of the Diocese of La Crosse pits incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Kapanke of La Crosse against Democratic State Rep. Jennifer Shilling, also of La Crosse. They are battling for District 32, which includes La Crosse, Vernon and Crawford counties, as well as part of Richland County.
Also important for Catholics elsewhere in the diocese are the races in District 10, where Sen. Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls) faces Democrat Shelly Moore, a teacher and union leader also from River Falls; in District 12, where Sen. Jim Holperin (DConover) is being challenged by Republican Kim Simac, a small business owner from Eagle River; and in District 14, where Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) is pitted against Rep. Fred Clark (D-Baraboo).
While the recall effort is being billed as a referendum on Walker’s collective bargaining law, the state’s two largest prolife organizations are sounding a note of caution because voters’ anger could catapult several pro-abortion politicians into office and put into danger a number of legislative efforts to protect human life from the first moment of conception.
“People of good will can disagree on the collective bargaining law,” Matt Sande, legislative director for Pro-Life Wisconsin, told The Catholic Times.[The Wisconsin Bishops' essentially said the same thing, even if their statement was spun like a top.] “But the life issues are paramount for Catholic voters. The right to life is the right upon which all other rights stand.”
The political action committees of both PLW and Wisconsin Right to Life have endorsed Republican candidates in all the recall elections. Sande, however, emphasized that the endorsements are not meant to be partisan, but instead an indication of the candidates’ pro-life voting records or statements. “We’re not a partisan organization,” he said. “We’ve endorsed Democrats in the past.”
Both Sande and Susan Armacost of WRTL singled out Kapanke as a particularly strong pro-life leader in the State Senate.
“Dan has been a champion for the rights of unborn children,” Armacost said in an interview with The Catholic Times. “To lose someone of his caliber would be a tragedy.”
“I’ll always be a steady vote on the pro-life issues,” Kapanke said in an interview with The Catholic Times. “Who is going to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves, whether it be the poor, the elderly or the unborn? Life is a gift from God and should be treated as such.”
Sen. Kapanke, who was raised on a 200-acre dairy farm near Coon Valley, is a graduate of UW-La Crosse. He and his family attend Immanuel Lutheran Church there. The owner of the minor league La Crosse Loggers and a former Marine reservist, Sen. Kapanke was a district sales manager for Kaltanberg Seed Farms. He first took up politics as board member for the Town of Campbell and was first elected to the Senate in 2004.
Rep. Shilling, whose campaign staff ignored repeated requests from The Catholic Times to make her available for an interview, is endorsed by Planned Parenthood for the recall election, and was also endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin for her 2010 reelection to the State Assembly. She has a notable pro-abortion voting record, including, most recently, her vote to preserve funding for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. In the 2007-08 session she voted against legislation to create a state ban on partial-birth abortion. She has also voted in favor of embryonic stem cell research and against legislation to protect the conscience rights of healthcare professionals.
According to her campaign Web site, Shilling and her family are members of Wesley United Methodist Church in La Crosse. A graduate of UW-La Crosse like Sen. Kapanke, she was a legislative aid in Madison and in the La Crosse office of U.S. Rep. Ron Kind. She served as La Crosse County Supervisor before her election to the State Assembly in 2000.
In the Assembly, Rep. Shilling serves or has served on the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance and the Assembly’s committees on Health and Health Care Reform and on Rules.
Her campaign literature indicates that she is running for the Senate because Sen. Kapanke “stopped listening” to his constituents in voting for Gov. Walker’s proposal.
In a letter to the La Crosse Tribune in May, Rep. Shilling highlighted a listening session she held on the state budget in La Crosse after the Joint Finance Committee moved its hearing from Arcadia to Neenah.
“While a total of six people spoke in favor of the governor’s budget,” she wrote, “the vast majority was opposed and expressed the importance of a quality education system, crucial job training programs, our natural resources and cost-saving health programs.”
Sen. Kapanke rejected the suggestion that he had stopped listening to voters in voting for the governor’s budget. “That couldn’t be more than 180 degrees from the truth,” he told The Catholic Times, listing the packed town hall meetings he attended in Viroqua, Cashton and elsewhere before the vote.
“I could have voted the other way and there would have been no recall,” Sen. Kapanke said. “But I looked at what we’ve been doing in Wisconsin the last ten years, both Democrats and Republicans. We’ve been fiscally irresponsible. Looking at the structural deficit, something had to be done.”
The Catholic Times Shilling wants to distance herself from the reckless spending habits of Gov. Jim Doyle despite the fact she supported him 100%
while on the finance committee. The blame for the massive budget problems falls squarely on the shoulders of Jennifer Schilling who was asleep at the wheel, and now has the audacity to run against someone trying to fix the problem while
presenting no alternative to the crisis she created. Even though Shilling is a Methodist, I thought it interesting to not even issue a
statement to The Catholic Times explaining her position. I would think she would care about her Catholic constituents enough to communicate to us her message. Maybe she just doesn't like Catholics?
I think it says alot of Dan Kapanke that he took the time to sit down for an interview. He has been
very persecuted during his time in politics and he deserves our prayers and support.
