Here & Now

Chris Larson looks ahead to the next legislative session

Zac Schultz:

Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans will be setting the legislative agenda next year, and the democrats will be reacting to it. One of the faces you’ll be seeing a lot in 2013 is Chris Larson, the new Minority Leader in the State Senate. Senator Larson, thanks for joining us.

Chris Larson:

Thank you.

Zac Schultz:

We’ve heard many times that Governor Walker said he wants to avoid controversial bills and focus on measures that will create jobs, but that’s similar to what he said right after he was elected. Do you trust him this time, that he’s going to avoid the controversy?

Chris Larson:

Right, well, I mean, he said that two years ago, and then we saw the most divisive bills that we’ve seen in our state that caused households to be divided among themselves, and we had these things called the Special Jobs Session. And the only thing that’s resulted in that is an agency, a new agency that’s not accountable to taxpayers, where you can’t see where the money is being spent, and it seems like every week we’re finding about more millions of dollars that are disappearing or not being tracked. And at the same time, we lag the rest of the country in job creation. Where we’re lagging far behind his goal and any goal that we’d have to be able to turn our state around. And I think a lot of that is because he’s refused to work in a bipartisan way, refused to take into account some things the democrats have put forward that would make things more accountable, and make sure that we have real benchmarks in creating jobs. So I hope he learned from that and actually reach out and take some of our considerations.

Zac Schultz:

Speaking of bipartisanship, the focus for where democrats can have a voice in the process is in the Senate, where you only need two republicans to slow down a bill or to make some changes. Senator Dale Schultz is the first republican most people will think of, but recently with the “Capital Times,” you said, “So many republican party members are pawns who just go along with what they are told.” So if so many of them are pawns, how many does that leave you to work with?

Chris Larson:

We’ll have to see. I mean, if you saw the last session, a lot of them refused to stray. They voted party line on every single issue. Whatever Governor Walker wanted, he got. And again, as we’ve seen, that has not led us to prosperity. We’ve seen job losses instead of job gains. We’ve seen our state divided instead of coming together. We’ve seen bills that they could be bipartisan, instead go hard-line republican. And I think that there’s got to be a few republicans out there who are thinking, well, do I want to be beholden to one guy, to the governor, or do I want to strike out and do what’s best for my district. And these are areas where, if it’s on education, they’re seeing their class sizes go up. Or if they have a university, they’re seeing aid cut and they’re seeing that college students are suffering. So I think that there’s a huge prospect to be able to get some republicans, and it’s just a matter of if they’re going to start thinking for themselves, or they’re going to be more beholden to their party.

Zac Schultz:

Are there certain republicans that are more likely to do that on a general basis, or is this an issue by issue, find the republican you can work with?

Chris Larson:

It’s an issue-by-issue thing. And I think for a lot of them, you see people striking out. So for instance, Mike Ellis, the Senate President has spoken out against the changes to same-day voter registration and changes to per diems, where he’s said, that look, these aren’t things that I would want to go along with, and this is not where our priorities should be. So we’re starting to see, look, that there’s some more reasonable members out there who are willing to step out issue by issue. So I think that even though Walker has, you know, he has two rubber stamps. He’s got the Assembly and he’s got the Senate, both in republican hands because of gerrymandering the districts. He’s got the ability to do what he wants, but that only happens if these republicans don’t stand up and fight for their own districts.

Zac Schultz:

Well, if the republicans are united, the only way for democrats to slow down the process, to do what they did in 2011, which is deny the quorum by possibly leaving the state. Can you imagine a scenario in which the democrats would do that again?

Chris Larson:

No, I couldn’t have imagined it before it happened. But what ended up happening was, we were given a week’s notice for a divisive bill to move through that was not campaigned in. It was not discussed, and contained a lot more besides the collective bargaining. It contained unilateral changes to how we administer healthcare in our state, for one. And we did all this because there was no debate. So, as long as there’s thoughtful deliberation, there’s room for the public to be heard, we’re going to be there and doing our part to speak for the people and make sure that things move relatively smoothly. But we reserve that, you know, the Wisconsin filibuster, if they decide not to listen to the people. And that’s a real concern. If you look at the votes as they happened in the last election, there was more votes for democrats to be in the State Assembly and to be in the State Senate. But because of the way the republicans redrew the districts last year, made it impossible for them to lose their majority. So even though we went for Barack Obama, for Tammy Baldwin, and for a majority vote for people to represent them, there’s a gerrymandered mandate of republicans. So, we have the right to speak out, to make sure that people are being paid attention, the people, the majority, are being paid attention in this next legislature.

Zac Schultz:

We have to leave it there. Thanks for joining us.

Chris Larson:

Thank you.