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| Wisconsin State Rep. Scott Krug (R) is a factory farm champ who runs political interference for the Wysocki corp. proposing a massive factory farm in central Wisconsin. The clean water citizen group, Saratoga Concerned, dumped on Krug and endorsed David Gorski (D), a water warrior. |
Saratoga Concerned Endorses David Gorski (D) over Rep. Scott Krug (R)
Candidate Synopsis
Saratoga Concerned
Tue 10/9/2018, 7:55 AM
Saratoga Concerned
72nd Assembly District Race
Candidate Synopsis
Friends and neighbors,
The Saratoga Concerned group does not associate itself directly with any political party. Our leadership team consists of individuals on various sides of the political spectrum and together we work every day to create a balance within our beliefs and messaging to our supporters. We believe it is everyone's responsibility to VOTE and now more than ever we also believe it is extremely important to know where your candidate actually stands on the ISSUES and not depend on what you believe their political party once represented.
Over the past 2 months, our Saratoga Concerned team has connected with candidates for the 72nd Assembly District with one sole purpose, to dig deep with questions and make them prove their commitment to protecting and preserving Wisconsin waters. We understand our supporters have multiple issues that are important to them personally and you need to weigh all the factors before voting. For Saratoga Concerned our one and only focus is the issue of Water.
Our Saratoga Concerned team has poured hours into the candidate questionnaire project, checked and rechecked candidate responses fact-checking information provided and made every attempt to provide a non-biased resource to our supporters regarding where each candidate stands in protecting Wisconsin Waters. Below, you will find our synopsis of each candidate, sharing both positive and negative aspects of their responses.
SCOTT KRUG
Scott Krug has been the 72nd Assembly District representative since 2010. In his early years of holding this position, Representative Krug successfully acquired funds to study and address phosphorus levels within Petenwell Flowage to address the blue-green algae issue. As Wisconsin citizens watched numerous bad water bills come through our state legislature Representative Krug on occasion made attempts to bring forth amendments to make these bills more palatable to his constituents. In 2013 Representative Krug formed the Citizens’ Water Advisory group which consisted of local citizens, farming interests, and environmentalist to work together to design an acceptable legislative bill addressing high capacity well pumping in the Central Sands. Although the intent of this group was positive and proactive the overall progress was not. According to participants, meetings were often disorganized lacking a specific agenda, minutes of the meetings were not published, and in the end citizens did not have input on, nor did they see, a copy of the bill prior to it being brought forth by Representative Krug, resulting in lack of support for the bill by actual members of the Citizens’ Advisory Committee and their associated groups. In 2017 Representative Krug successfully proposed an amendment and acquired necessary funds, for a hydrological analysis of the Central Sands to study the overpumping currently being allowed. Although the amendment was accepted into the bill, the actual area currently being studied by the WDNR is much smaller than originally promoted to local constituents. The High Capacity Well bill itself is horrendous and was highly contested by conservation, environmental, and citizens groups as a whole. The amendment proposed and passed by Representative Krug, although limited in scope, was a small positive step for the Central Sands and is currently underway.
Representative Krug has made documented efforts to support water initiatives over his time as our local Representative, however, he has also voted AGAINST water protections and in favor of loosening protections. Just this last legislative session alone found Representative Krug voting to support the following bad water bills that are destructive to our Wisconsin waterways:
AB105 High Capacity Well Bill - limits the ability of the DNR to address groundwater overpumping and grants ‘forever’ permits for high capacity wells
Special Session (SS) SSAB1 Exempting Foxconn from State Clean Water Protections - Creating a special district/zone, the bill eliminates state environmental protections for isolated wetlands, navigable streams, and lake beds within this zone.
AB547 Removing State Protections for Identified Wetlands - Removal of protections of over one million acres of wetlands in Wisconsin, allowing them to be filled in for development, leading to potential increased flooding in our communities and decreased water quality
AB499 Industrial Acid Mining Bill - Eliminates Wisconsin’s “Prove It First” mining law that protects public health and natural resources by requiring mining companies to show a demonstrated track record on protecting water quality before being permitted.
Closer to home, Representative Krug has repeatedly shared that he supports a compromise between the township of Saratoga and the Wysocki organization regarding the proposed CAFO to our community, “With the project in Saratoga, I made my position clear in 2014 and have worked to make sure neither side loses or wins 100% of what they want”. Representative Krug does not support a limited moratorium on CAFO’s and believes new technologies will solve the pollution problems associated with them.
In conclusion, of the 13 questions posed to Representative Krug he directly answered 7 and received a “non-answer” status on 5 questions for talking around the given subject matter.
DAVID GORSKI
Candidate Dave Gorski is running as a challenger to Representative Krug for the second time. As a legislative challenger, Candidate Gorski does not have a voting record as an elected official for us to share among our supporters. Therefore our synopsis consists solely on responses received from Candidate Gorski and on documented actions we could verify through public records and accounts.
Candidate Gorski solidly advocated for the protection of our water and the environment which is voiced clearly and openly in his response to numerous questions posed. He is a strong outspoken advocate of the Public Trust Doctrine believing in the State Constitution that the waters belong to all of us. Candidate Gorski states he would like to work with fellow legislators on the problem of high capacity well overpumping of groundwater and believes there is a need for legislation that balances the needs of the citizens and agricultural interest for water usage. Most importantly Candidate Gorski believes that environmental polluters should pay for the damage done to our environment and compensate the citizens impacted. He is also an advocate of the Great Lakes compact and voices that Wisconsin should honor the Great Lakes Compact using the water withdrawal for residential use and not for business interests as the compact was designed.
Candidate Gorski states many of these issues can be addressed/accomplished by returning local control back to communities and creating the Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as an elected position by the Natural Resource Board and removing it as an appointed position by the sitting Governor.
Saratoga Concerned was able to verify that Candidate Gorski works with numerous local and statewide environmental groups. In 2016 he helped organize The New Peoples Environmental Summit in our local area, additionally, in 2016 he attended the Factory Farm Summit to learn about the impact of CAFO to communities across the country. In 2017 Candidate Gorski attended the Citizens’ Water Lobby Day at the state capitol as well as attending numerous other water protection events such as Conservation Lobby Day and actively testified and spoke with legislators in Madison regarding water issues and proposed legislation.
Closer to home Candidate Gorski has spoken out openly against the Wysocki Golden Sands CAFO proposal and supports a statewide CAFO Moratorium on new and expanding CAFOs until appropriate water and environmental protections are in place for Wisconsin citizens. He actively attends and participates in our local meetings and has a clear understanding of what his potential constituents are vocalizing regarding water and environmental concerns.
In conclusion, of the 13 questions posed to Candidate Gorski he directly answered 11 and received a “non-answer” status on 2 questions for not answering the specific question completely.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It is imperative that we all exercise our right to vote. It is also important that we step out of our former mindset of being either a Republican or Democrat voter and instead vote the issues. Our area lakes and streams are in a state of decline and our control over our own environment is being taken away. That makes it all the more important to know what your candidate stands for on individual issues and vote based upon the issue. Please remember you can access all our previous newsletters at the link provided www.saratogaconcerned.com/newsletter-subscribe.
After thoughtful conversation and reviewing answers provided by both candidates, Saratoga Concerned believes Candidate David Gorski will be the stronger water protector and support his candidacy for the 72nd Assembly District.
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