Here & Now

Ismael Ozanne on His Bid for Attorney General

Frederica Freyberg:

The race for state attorney general is picking up speed. A three-way Democratic primary run-off is on the ballot August 12. Tonight we begin a series of interviews with the primary candidates running to be the state’s top cop. First up, Ishmael Ozanne, the current Dane County district attorney. I spoke with the candidate earlier and asked him why he wanted to become the next attorney general.

IsmaelOzanne:

I love the state. I’m a six generation Wisconsinite. We can trace those ans back to 1842, grandparents came from –. And I think we need to start moving the state forward again. It’s been a long time since we’ve had strong leadership in the attorney general’s office, and I believe I'm a strong leader. I'd like to move us forward again.

Frederica Freyberg:

How does your experience to date prepare you for the job of attorney general?

IsmaelOzanne:

Well, I’m the only candidate, Democrat or Republican, that has any experience heading the day-to-day operations of a statewide agency. And we are talking about a statewide agency. I was deputy secretary for the Department of Corrections, and at the time they had 10,000 employees and a budget of $1.2 billion. And the Department of Justice is just that, a statewide agency with 80 to 90 sworn law enforcement, up to 92 assistant attorney generals and crime labs across the state, Wausau, Milwaukee and Madison.

Frederica Freyberg:

What about as district attorney of Dane County?

IsmaelOzanne:

And that as well. I’m the district attorney of the second largest county. I’ve been a prosecutor for 14 years. As a front line prosecutor in Dane County, I’ve tried hundreds of cases, first-time drunk driving to first-degree intentional homicide and everything in between. So when we talk about public safety and we talk what it takes to keep the community safe, I know what that is and I do it every single day, working with law enforcement here in Dane County not just to be tough on crime, but to be smart on crime.

Frederica Freyberg:

What’s the most important role in your mind of the Wisconsin attorney general?

IsmaelOzanne:

Well, I think public safety is job number one, helping communities and law enforcement with training and experience to deal with some of the toughest issues they have. But our attorney general must do more. Our attorney general must make sure that women have the ability to make their own health care decisions. We have to stop voter suppression. We need to vigorously protect our environment. And we need to protect our consumers and our seniors.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, as attorney general Republican JB Van Hollen has defended many of the laws that have ended up in the courts, Act 10, same-sex marriage ban, voter ID As an attorney general, when do you get to choose which laws to defend on behalf of Wisconsin?

IsmaelOzanne:

Well, I think you start with, is there a good faith legal basis for a defense? Now, the marriage ban, I think that is state-sponsored discrimination and there is no good faith legal basis to defend something like that. We need to fight against those things. Now, just because you disagree with a law does not give you a basis to decide not to defend it. An example that I would give you is this, in our history, we did contract to have inmates housed out-of-state. Now, I don’t agree with that policy. I think it makes– It doesn’t make us safer. At one point we had 6,000 inmates housed out-of-state. Now, as attorney general, even though I don’t agree with it, I don’t believe it makes us safer, I would have to defend that because the state has a legal right to contract for those services. But as attorney general I could also be vocal about whether or not it really speaks to public safety in making our community safer.

Frederica Freyberg:

What have you seen in the current attorney general’s office that you’d like to change or improve upon?

IsmaelOzanne:

I would like to see us have a civil rights division, somewhere where citizens can come and, if they feel their rights have been violated, they can bring a complaint and someone can look into it, versus having them need to hire an attorney and travel through the legal system or the federal system. I think, it’s 2014, we need a civil rights division. I believe most of our neighboring states either have a stand-alone unit or agency for civil rights or it’s within the attorney general’s office.

Frederica Freyberg:

You're quoted as saying, It’s not all about putting people in prison, referring to prosecutions of drugs, and particularly, heroin crimes. What do you mean by that?

IsmaelOzanne:

Well, if you’re looking at heroin it's important to note, we are not going to prosecute ourselves out of this problem. And we don’t know how big this problem is. And that is because people are introduced to heroin and opiates through legitimate means, through prescriptions from doctors for sports injuries, for car accidents, for pain management. So we are not able to just say, every person who comes into contact with heroin opiate is a dealer who we can put in prison. If we’re talking about truly making our community safer, if we can get at the root cause of what brings someone to the criminal justice system, in a meaningful way, if it’s mental health or addiction, we should do so.

Frederica Freyberg:

You’ve been described as an underdog in this race. How do you respond to that?

Ismael Ozanne:

Well, I’m not sure where that’s coming from. I’m clearly, I believe, more qualified because of my time at the Department of Corrections, heading the day-to-day operations of a state agency, leading the district attorney’s office of the second largest county in the state, having prosecuted in the second largest county in the state for ten-plus years. We need to have someone with experience. We can’t afford to have someone learning on the job.