Though I’ve never met Joanne personally, there’s no questioning her commitment to this race and her potential constituents. Read for yourselves:
I was prepared to handle having a baby in the middle of a state assembly campaign this fall. I was not, however, prepared for her to arrive six weeks earlier than expected and before the primary.
Since her untimely August fourth birth, our daughter continues to grow stronger in Children’s Hospital’s NICU. She could breathe on her own from the start, and she is now off her IV and has stable bilirubin counts, though she will probably remain in the NICU at least another week.
Beyond the obvious difficulties of having a baby who can’t come home at a hospital almost thirty minutes away, the NICU offers other challenges to campaigning. Cell phones have to be turned off in the NICU, which means calls and emails are inaccessible. Since baby can’t nurse herself, I need to use an electric pump every three hours, with pumping and cleaning up costing the better part of one of those three hours. Every task, including sleep, gets no more than two hours at a time to work on it.
I’ve been cautioned strongly about overdoing it and told not to spend more than an hour on doors at a time. I miss talking to people in the district, and my campaign now is experiencing a crisis in completing voter contacts before the primary election on August 14th. While a witty supporter has suggested I should adopt the slogan “Joanne delivers,” Kathryn’s early delivery is preventing me from delivering my message to people in this district. I have stacks of literature and walk lists that I’d pulled for Omro and Waupun but can’t get the materials to people’s doors without a mass influx of volunteers. There’s been a trickle in the last few days, but I need a flood to get the job done.
With the birth of my daughter, I’m even more committed toward working to make the district and the state the best place possible in which to live, to work, and to grow. At this moment, though, I have to recognize the limitations that circumstances have created. I can’t handle this alone. I need your help, and I need it now. The primary is Tuesday. If you would like to support me in this race, please email Staudacher53WI@gmail.com or call (920) 215-0053 to get set up with a walk packet and literature or to be given access to a call list. Don’t be intimidated by not having done this kind of thing before. I was terrified to start knocking doors for State Senator Jessica King last summer, but by the end of the summer I’d been to more than 3,000 doors. If you prefer, you can even just leave the literature without knocking.
Thank you for all of the support that you have shown on my political journey. Together, we can move Wisconsin forward.
If you’d like to help Joanne’s campaign in its final push before tomorrow’s primary election, you can contact her via her campaign’s Facebook page.
Joanne Staudacher is a strong woman…having a newborn born prematurely and campaigning for public office at the same time is, to put it mildly, a very inspirational story.
The district that Staudacher is running in, AD-53, at first glance, appears to be overwhelmingly Republican, but I’ve heard that Waupun, which is at the southern end of the district, has turned rapidly against Republicans since Act 10 was passed, and the prison guards turned against the GOP because of that. If Staudacher wins the primary (I don’t know if she has any primary opponents) and then wins the general election, she will have delivered the single most inspirational story of the entire 2012 election cycle.
There are two other Democrats running. One is Koby Schellenger, who seems to be running a very good campaign with lots of information on his website and is very active on with his social media outlet. He is who I will be supporting because I believe he did really well at the League of Women Voters forum and he has a well defined and progressive platform. Ryan Flajter is the other candidate who worries me because of his stance on the mining bill (says he would have voted for it) and he doesn’t have any public information about what his other views are.
Congratulations to Ms. Staudacher for the birth of her baby. Best wishes to her no matter what the outcome ends up being!
Flajter may be a fake Democrat and/or a single-issue candidate. I’m worried that Schellenger and Staudacher might split the legitimate Democratic vote and hand the Democratic primary to the fake Democrat.
Not sure if Flejter is a fake Democrat or not, but his campaign treasurer is Bob McLinn, who was a corrections officer and local union president.
Fake or not, he said he would have voted for the mining bill yet claims to be a protector of the environment. He got a AQ rating from the NRA. If he’s not a fake Democrat, he’s certainly a rotten one.
Yeah, I just got done reading what little bit of information he has on his website, and I wasn’t encouraged by what I read. One cannot be pro-environment and support open pit mining that will absolutely destroy the environment of the region involved.
Ryan Flejter won the primary with union support, but where has he been? Haven’t heard or seen anything about his campaign. I’m afraid we are going to get left with the creepy and cooky Michael Schraa.
Those who have concerns about the status of the campaign feel free to contact me at 920-219-2199. I am open to answer any questions you may have regarding the campaign, statements I’ve made or issues that are important to you.
Mining is an integral part of Wisconsin life and is responsible for bringing some of the first immigrants to Wisconsin, long before farming was a way of life for our great state. I grew up in the small town of Mayville, known for its great history in iron ore production and was responsible for people choosing to settle in the city. Society’s demand for natural resources has only grown since those days. Mining creates jobs, makes strong cities, and brings commerce to the state. I believe there is a way to allow for mining in Northern Wisconsin, while being aware of it effects on our environment and monitoring that responsibly. I’m a Wisconsinite that loves enjoying the beauty this fine state provides, yet I understand families are struggling and Wisconsinites need jobs.
There is no reason we as a modern society can not remove our resources responsibly and guard the environment for future generations. Mining companies that violate the law should be held accountable and not given special protections. I will not sacrifice our fine states environment simply for jobs, but I support responsible utilization of our states natural resources.
Official endorsement from the Sierra Club of Wisconsin.