For 52 years, I lived an apolitical life. That changed on a cold evening in December of 1997 when I experienced first-hand the destructive force of a state government determined to control how we live our lives. That evening, armed police raided my supper club and 43 other businesses in Monroe County. Why? Because the state government said we had nickel video poker machines. Even though the state’s lottery is the biggest gambling operation in Wisconsin, the state government was using its full power to run an expensive, invasive, and frightening sting operation on small businesses. They not only took the machines and the money inside them, they confiscated every penny we took in that night (a Friday that was busy with fish fry dinners and Christmas parties). They cleaned out our cash registers in the dining room and bar — leaving me unable to meet payroll and pay bills. After the raid, I went to Madison and fought to change the law.
As your State Senator, I pledge to remember what I learned from that experience — every government law is backed by the threat of force. It is also backed by our hard-earned tax money. Year after year the state government expands its own power. I will work hard in the State Senate to return the state government’s focus to fighting violence, theft, property destruction, and fraud. Our state government needs to stop wasting our tax money on monitoring, restricting, and punishing our peaceful personal and financial decisions. Having real freedom means respecting the right of the members of your community to live their lives and run their businesses as they choose, so long as they respect the equal rights of others. I pledge to support and introduce legislation that stops and reverses the expensive and destructive expansion of the state government’s control over our personal and financial decisions.
