Republicans hold get-out-the-vote rally in Hudson
Congressman Sean Duffy headlined the speakers, who also included state Sen. Sheila Harsdorf, state Rep. Dean Knudson and state Rep. John Murtha.
- Congressman Sean Duffy
More...
The St. Croix County Republican Party held a rally in Lakefront Park Wednesday evening, May 30, to encourage people to vote and work for the party’s candidates in next Tuesday’s recall elections.
Congressman Sean Duffy headlined the speakers, who also included state Sen. Sheila Harsdorf, state Rep. Dean Knudson and state Rep. John Murtha.
County party chairman Jesse Garza introduced the speakers and Tony Nasvik gave the invocation.
Garza said the rally was organized by Mary Yacoub. Yacoub is a Hudson alderperson.
Garza asked the crowd of what appeared to be 100 to 150 people to do two things: vote for incumbent Gov. Scott Walker and talk to as many people as possible about doing the same thing.
He said their help was needed in making get-out-the-vote phone calls at the party’s campaign office in River City Center in downtown Hudson.
Duffy is a freshman congressman representing northwestern Wisconsin’s 7th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected in 2010 after longtime Democratic Congressman David Obey retired.
St. Croix County was moved from the 3rd District to the 7th in the redistricting that followed the 2010 census.
Duffy faces Democrat Pat Kreitlow in the November general election.
“This is not just about Wisconsin,” Garza said in introducing Duffy. Keeping Walker in the governor’s office is the first step toward defeating President Obama in the November election, he said.
Duffy said the June 5 recall election is “the first big battle of ideas, of where we are going to go” that will take place in 2012.
He said Wisconsin is providing the leadership in reining in government debt with Walker in the governor’s office, fellow Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan heading the House Budget Committee and Reince Priebus serving as chairman of the National Republican Committee.
Duffy said the protesters in Madison in the weeks following passage of a budget repair bill that eliminated almost all collective bargaining for public employees wanted people to remember that Wisconsin was the home of Fighting Bob La Follette and the progressive movement.
The results of the June 5 recall election will remind people that Wisconsin also is the home of the Republican Party, Duffy said.
“We support a governor who has supported the taxpayers,” he said.
Rep. Knudson, a Hudson resident and former mayor of the city, encouraged voters to make a statement in the election that “smaller government is better government” and that “jobs are created by people, not government.”
Knudson said state Republicans haven’t backed down from Walker’s promise to create 250,000 new jobs by the end of his four-year term. “We are growing jobs right now,” he said, attributing it to Republican lawmakers’ actions to create a friendlier tax and regulatory climate for businesses.
Democrats have cited U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing Wisconsin lost 23,900 jobs between March 2011 and March 2012, including 6,100 private sector jobs, more than any other state.
However, a new Bureau of Labor Statistics report says Wisconsin gained 23,608 jobs overall in 2011.
“We are on the right track. We are blessed to have a governor like Scott Walker,” said state Sen. Harsdorf, who faced her own recall election last August. Harsdorf easily defeated challenger Shelly Moore, an Ellsworth schoolteacher, with 57.6 percent of the vote to Moore’s 42.3 percent.
“That recall wasn’t about me. It was about the direction the state and country are going to go,” Harsdorf said.
“This is about not spending money that you don’t have, and creating an environment where you can start your own business and not have regulations and taxes to keep you from progressing,” she said.
Harsdorf closed her remarks by encouraging people to remain civil in the debate.
“It doesn’t mean you can’t get along if you don’t agree. There is no place for hatred. There is no place for threats,” she said.
More from around the web
RSS Feeds