Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin, is the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. He spoke to The Badger Herald briefly outside of his Tuesday election night party at Moe’s Tavern and Grill.
The Badger Herald: How do you feel about the voter ID bill? And do you think changes to the law should be addressed by the Legislature or the court system?
Mahlon Mitchell: I think we’re at the point now where the courts have to take care of it. And it’s obviously detrimental to people voting. It’s the same when in the 1960s we had the John Birch society that were trying to suppress the vote. We have the same thing happening right now with the Koch Brothers and the like. So we’ve got to get rid of that bill – no doubt.
BH: How would you work with a potentially conservative Legislature to accomplish your goals?
MM: You’ve got to talk with people at a level that we often talk at and that’s that level of compromise. Right now, we’re seeing no compromise with Gov. [Scott] Walker and his agenda. He’s basically saying his way or no way. And that’s a problem. We’ve got to actually compromise as Republicans, Democrats, moderates, no matter where you’re from. We’ve got to come together as Wisconsin and do what’s best for the state.
BH: As part of the 2011-2013 biennial budget, the University of Wisconsin System received major cuts in funding. Would you support putting more money into the system, and what do you think the system should do to address these cuts?
MM: The UW System lost $250 million in June. And then in the next round of cuts, they lost another $32.1 million. That’s a problem. You can’t say education is affordable. We need to put our money into education. We have an untrained workforce and instead of giving more money to education, we’re taking money away. So, you’ve got to definitely look at the way we fund the UW System and get back to taking care of what the government’s supposed to do, and that is education, take care of jobs and also talk about poverty.
BH: How did you get involved in politics?
MM: I really stepped up to plate last year when everything was happening at the rallies. Many people have got to speak out. We don’t get anything done unless we speak out and, more importantly, unless we vote. We have the vote.
