Frederica Freyberg:

Voters are likely to be equally split on their preference for lieutenant governor. Next week, the incumbent candidate for that office, Rebecca Kleefisch, joins us. Tonight, her Democratic challenger joins us. Madison firefighter, Mahlon Mitchell won the Democratic primary contest for lieutenant government. Mitchell is also the president of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin, the statewide firefighters' union. He joins us now from Milwaukee. Thanks very much for doing so.

Mahlon Mitchell:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

You were kind of leading the charge in protesting Act 10, literally on the street. Is this opposition why you are running for lieutenant governor?

Mahlon Mitchell:

I'm running because the good people of the state of Wisconsin are hurting right now and we need somebody to come in and solve the emergency we have at the State House, the capitol. Being a firefighter, that's what we do. We resolve problems. We respond to emergencies. That's what I'm doing right now. The good people of the state of Wisconsin,  middle class citizens need help right now in our state and he current administration is not providing that.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is the emergency that you reference at the State House?

Mahlon Mitchell:

Well, first of all, we have a job crisis. Just last year we lost 23,900 jobs. Just last month we lost 4,300 jobs. Then we have a governor who is trying to use a divide and conquer strategy which we all saw. He wanted to drop the bomb, so to speak, on the citizens of our state, the middle class citizens of our state. So we need a government that takes care of all people, we need a  government that's willing to compromise and do what's best for all citizens of our state, as opposed to giving tax breaks to the corporations and not taking care of the middle class.

Frederica Freyberg:

I know that the issues in this campaign have morphed somewhat away from the union issues, notwithstanding what you do for a living and your persuasion on that toward issues like jobs. And yet the union endorsement did not vault Kathleen Falk to victory in the primary. Could your own strong union ties and early message in opposition to changes to collective bargaining hurt you as a statewide candidate, do you think?

Mahlon Mitchell:

I don't believe so because this is not just about union rights. This is about workers' rights and this is about the middle class citizens of our state. Collective bargaining is an important issue, but we have so many issues. We had $1.6 billion taken from public education, under attack. We had a 30 percent cut in tech colleges. Then our governor says we have an untrained workforce. We have Planned Parenthood under attack. 12,000 women that used to go to Planned Parenthood, not for the right to choose mind you, but for basic health care, that's been taken away.  Our child labor law has been weakened. Under the age of 18 years old, you can work more hours, more days per week. There's so many things we need to concentrate on that have nothing to do with union rights. But this is all about middle class attack and right now we need compromise. But the governor has unleashed a civil war in our state. You know, that's why I'm running.

Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Walker said just earlier in this program that a handful of special interests controlled our state and local governments before he was governor. Is that what you represent, do you think, he thinks, and what is your reaction to him saying that?

Mahlon Mitchell:

Well, I don't represent anyone's special interests. I think we see who governor Walker represents. And that is billionaires that give him over $500,000 in campaign contributions to unleash the war, to have a divide and conquer strategy. It's amazing for our governor to talk like that when he is the one traveling around the United States to garnish millions and millions of dollars for his recall campaign as opposed to taking care of the problems that are right here in our state. So I don't represent any special interests. I represent the middle class citizens of our state. I'm a firefighter by trade. Our job is to come in and take care of a situation. And that's what we're doing right now.

Frederica Freyberg:

What's your reaction to the governor then going on to say that unions and their money will have poured tens and tens of millions of dollars into this race and those people are from New Jersey and Washington and Chicago?  

Mahlon Mitchell:

No. Those are members and middle class citizens right here in our state first of all. Second of all, we will never, ever have the money that he is going to have. He raised $25 million since January. And how much of that is out-of-state money? So he's been going on a fund-raising campaign around the United States of America and we have to take him out of office because we got to bring Wisconsin values back to the capitol.

Frederica Freyberg:

On some of these issues that we've been talking about, incumbent Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch considers herself kind of an ambassador for job creation. And you spoke of jobs and the need for more jobs, obviously, in this state. What would be your plan? 

Mahlon Mitchell:

We have to work on infrastructure. Our governor gave $1 billion back to the federal government that would have helped create jobs in our state, that would have worked on education in our state, that would have worked on health care. But he gives it all back. There's a definite correlation or link and pipeline between job creation and education. There are 35,000 jobs out there right now that we are not addressing,  that can't be filled because we have an untrained workforce, but then he takes $75 million from the tech college program. We need to make sure we work on infrastructure, work on education and link those two together, work with the area chambers of commerce, link those with education and have real skilled job programs in order to put Wisconsin back to work.

Frederica Freyberg:

One of the issues with education funding and spending cuts is there was a pretty significant budget deficit. Where would you find the money to, if this is what you would do,  restore cuts to education, including those at the technical college that you referenced?

Mahlon Mitchell:

Well, you look at, over the next ten years, our legislative fiscal bureau has estimated that there will be over $2.3 billion in massive tax cuts to corporations and wealthy investors in our state. Over just the next ten years. I can tell you what I would do. I would not balance the budget on the backs of middle class citizens. At the same time, a month before, giving tax breaks to corporations without any accountability for them to create jobs. There is no doubt that we need business, we need corporations, we need industry in our state. But you cannot give tax breaks or incentives for corporations without having them accountable to creating jobs in our state. And you talk about education. I'm married with two children in public schools. It takes $1.6 billion from public education and says it's working. Well, it's not working. You can't take $1.6 billion from anything and say that it's getting better. The day for giving tax breaks to corporations, and incentives to corporations, without having them accountable for job growth and balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class in our state have got to end. We have to invest in infrastructure, we have to invest in our education because that’s at the very core of our future, and we have to invest in our tech college program because that's going to help us have a skilled, trained workforce to create jobs.

Frederica Freyberg:

You've got a 25-day sprint to the general election. What's on your plate in the coming days?

Mahlon Mitchell:

Everything. We're going to try to hit all 72 counties. We're going to work hard. We've got to carry our message out. At the end of the day, the Barrett/Mitchell ticket is going to win this thing June 5th.

Frederica Freyberg:

Mahlon Mitchell, thanks very much for joining us.

Mahlon Mitchell:

Thank you