Letter to the Editor | Campaign Election for the 28 Assembly District

Flip FlopsOn January 8, 2013, as a member of the St. Croix County Board, Travis Schachtner says he liked the idea of having certified “shovel-ready” sites in St. Croix County.

These sites are designed to attract the interest of “site selectors” who have been hired to find viable building sites for businesses that want to move to Wisconsin.

This is a good idea and has attracted many great businesses all around the state, including St. County.

But then, when Mr. Schachtner decided to run for the 28th Assembly District, he seems to have flip-flopped on this issue.

In his press release announcing his candidacy, he derided Governor Walker’s motto that “Wisconsin is Open for Business” and criticized the efforts of the Governor to attract businesses from other states.

In a later letter to the editor, he doubled down on this by pooh poohing efforts to “poach corporations from other states.”  He even went so far as to say that he was not for creating “jobs” but careers.  I bet people who are looking for work don’t care if you call it a job or a career, so long as it pays the bills.

So what changed?  That’s easy.  Liberal, partisan politics.  Schachtner needs to make sure his liberal base of Walker-hating union members, environmentalists and tax and spend liberals of all stripes are with him.  He can’t achieve that by acknowledging (even tacitly) that Walker is right on anything.  So he runs away from his former position that favored trying to attract businesses from other states, and launches a series of obviously political attacks.

If Schachtner will change his position on something so fundamental as creating middle-class jobs for hard working folks in Western Wisconsin, then it’s clear that there is nothing he will not do or say to get elected.  This is not the kind of leadership we need in Madison. 

The Republican candidate, Adam Jarchow, stands firmly for job creation and will lead when it comes to that issue.

On November 4 vote for jobs, vote for Jarchow.

Philip Mattison