Adrian NorthrupThis Nov. 7 election will prove to be a crucial time for students in Wisconsin, and with your help, we can secure and protect the future of the UW System that everyone in Wisconsin greatly benefits from. In the next 40 days, the Republican Party will hold nothing back, distorting Gov. Jim Doyle’s record and ignoring the detrimental and unethical positions of their own candidates that target the student population.
For the past four years, Doyle has consistently fought for the rights of students and has fought against our Republican-controlled state Legislature to make higher education in Wisconsin more affordable. When Republicans tried to cut $35 million from the System, Doyle vetoed those cuts. When Republicans tried to cut $8 million from financial aid, Doyle vetoed those cuts as well. In addition to that, he has invested in the UW System, doubled financial aid and increased the maximum higher education grant for UW students.
In 2002, Doyle’s Republican predecessors and the Bush White House handed over the then newly elected Governor a massive $3.2 billion state deficit. Every area of the budget took a hit and the area of the budget that the Republicans in the state Legislature targeted the most callously was higher education. Doyle handled it admirably after being put in a horrible position by state Republicans. Be warned! Those scoundrels will not hesitate to criticize Doyle’s leadership and handling of the state deficit that they created.
Gov. Doyle, thankfully, understands that a commitment to student values does not stop with tuition and financial aid. Students have values and rights that you cannot attribute a dollar amount to. Doyle supports a woman’s right to choose. He has vetoed Republican attempts to allow pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions based on their personal beliefs. He has protected our environment through the Stewardship Program and has been a champion of stem-cell research, which holds the promise of saving countless lives and curing horrible diseases. Doyle also vetoed a Voter ID bill that would have possibly prevented tens of thousands of students from going to the polls this fall. In addition, he is the first governor of any state willing to publicly acknowledge an amendment targeting homosexuals and to publicly defend the rights of same-sex couples and domestic partnerships.
In contrast, Congressman Mark Green has focused his campaign for governor on the issues that connect him most with President George W. Bush. In Washington, Green voted the president’s way 92 percent of the time, rubber-stamping Bush’s failed policies on everything from education to stem-cell research to the war in Iraq. Green opposes a woman’s right to birth control; he wants to ban stem-cell research; he opposes equal rights for gay and lesbian families; and he wants to make it harder for students to vote in Eau Claire. He will stop at nothing to further President Bush’s out-of-touch values in Wisconsin.
Green’s record proves he is no friend to college students. As a member of the state assembly, Green voted repeatedly to raise tuition. In Congress, he cast the deciding vote to slash federal student aid by more than $12 billion – the largest cut in the program’s history. He has voted repeatedly to limit the Pell Grant scholarships available to students. If you care at all about your tuition bill and the debt you could be racking up while in college, is Green really the governor you want representing you?
Mark Green has also recently been in trouble for illegal campaign contributions. Let us look at his campaign’s latest disaster. When the non-partisan Democracy for Wisconsin Campaign filed a complaint with the Elections Board about Green’s huge transfer of dirty campaign funds, the Board ruled that Green had to rid his campaign of these illegal campaign funds – totaling nearly half a million dollars. How has Green responded? By saying he will not comply with the Election Board ruling and will instead waste court time trying to reclaim his illegal campaign funds. Green represents big business, big government, big money, and will not hesitate to sell out Wisconsin’s future to the highest bidder.
The bottom line is that Green’s record shows that he does not support college students. Republicans in both Wisconsin and Washington have made it more expensive to attend UW-Eau Claire, while simultaneously trying to limit the freedoms of and opportunities available to all UW students. This November, support the party that supports you.
