DRIFTLESS - Jayne Swiggum will face off with two-term incumbent Loren Oldenburg on the November 8 election ballot to represent Wisconsin’s 96th Assembly District. Swiggum, a Democrat, will contest with Oldenburg, a Republican, for the right to represent the district that includes Crawford, Vernon and parts of Monroe counties.
Both candidates are lifelong residents of the district. Swiggum grew up in rural Gays Mills. Oldenburg is from rural Viroqua.
Swiggum says she was born here, grew up here, and will likely die here.
Oldenburg points out that he is a fourth generation farmer on a farm that has been in his family for 144 years.
Jayne Swiggum
Jayne Swiggum, whose campaign literature bills her as ‘Nurse Jayne Swiggum,’ is an ER nurse at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse. The 55-year-old Swiggum lives on Old Gays Road, in rural Gays Mills.
Swiggum attended North Crawford High School, and went on to attend Viterbo University in LaCrosse, where she earned a BA degree in English Education in 1989. She returned to school, and earned a BS degree in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1999. She is married to Ed Swiggum, and has three stepchildren and three grandchildren.
“My husband and I are working class folks from Gays Mills – we aren’t wealthy people,” Swiggum said. “I think of the constituents I would have if elected, and I think of them as my neighbors. I think that all representatives need to think of the citizens in their district this way, and if an elected representative can help people, then that is my definition of successful government.”
As might be expected, as a nurse, Swiggum sees healthcare as one of the top priorities that must be ad-dressed.
“Working as a nurse for 22 years, I’ve seen what the American health plan is – it’s basically ‘don’t get sick’,” Swiggum said. “Americans just can’t afford the cost of healthcare, which I see as a right.”
Swiggum says a top priority for her, if elected, would be to ensure that the State of Wisconsin accepts funding from the federal government to expand BadgerCare, a move the Republican-controlled legislature has declined to take.
“We need to accept the federal money for BadgerCare expansion, and increase the income limit 150 times,” Swiggum said. “If the system has more subscribers then it will be cheaper for everyone.”
Swiggum says that Wisconsin needs to ensure that all residents have access to affordable healthcare so that they can access the care they need. The experienced local nurse pointed out that medical debt is not dismissible in bankruptcy, and that the cost of healthcare for someone with a serious medical condition can be ruinous. She says this means some that people will avoid getting the care they need, because of the cost.
Public education
Education is another top priority for Swiggum. She emphasized that the funding formulas for public schools need to be equitable so that students in rural schools with higher rates of poverty have access to the same quality of education as students from wealthier communities.
“When the state is providing funding to voucher schools, which are private businesses, they are taking money away from the public schools.” Swiggum said. “Those private schools don’t offer services to students requiring special education services, and that places an additional burden on the public schools, especially with inadequate state funding for special education.”
Access to abortion
Another hot button issue for Swiggum is Wisconsin’s 1849 law prohibiting women from obtaining a safe and legal abortion except in cases where doctors determine the woman’s life is in danger.
“The year 1849 was 70 years before women were granted the right to vote,” Swiggum pointed out. “This law does not represent the views of women in the State of Wisconsin, and the legislature should enact a law guaranteeing women the right to control their own body, make their own healthcare decisions, and obtain a safe and legal abortion.”
In reference to Governor Evers calling the legislature into a special session to repeal and replace the 1849 law, Swiggum said that “Loren Oldenburg says he doesn’t believe in special sessions.”
In that special session, the Republican-controlled legislature gaveled in and out, taking no action. Swiggum pointed out that in the last year, the state legislature had been out of session as much as in.
“What the prohibition on abortion resulting from having the 1849 law on the books is going to do is cause women to seek out illegal abortions,” Swiggum said. “It doesn’t mean that women won’t have abortions, and these unsafe procedures will harm women’s health with hemorrhages, infections, and possibly infertility or even death.”
Swiggum says she believes there should be no restriction on access to abortion in Wisconsin, and pointed out that being ‘pro choice’ doesn’t mean being ‘pro abortion.’ Swiggum also pointed out that the 1849 law could have a chilling effect on doctors wanting to practice obstetrics/gynecology, which is a service already in short supply for women in rural communities in the state.
“The 1849 law makes doctors choose for a woman whose life may be in danger from a pregnancy whether or not she can have a safe abortion,” Swiggum pointed out. “This means that the medical community fears legal repercussions from acting to save a woman’s life, putting women in greater danger.”
Swiggum said that women will leave the state if they are not guaranteed equal rights to make their own healthcare decisions.
Gerrymandering
Swiggum also touched on the issue of gerrymandering of electoral districts in the state through the adoption of unfair maps, drawn by the legislature.
“I support the Iowa model for nonpartisan redistricting following a new census,” Swiggum said. “The district I am running to represent is gerrymandered, changed by Republicans to include areas in Monroe County that tend to vote Republican.”
Swiggum said that she is also confident that our elections, administered by local election clerks who are our neighbors, are safe, secure and accurate. She also said that she considers the $1 million spent by Republicans on Michael Gableman’s investigation of the 2020 presidential election to be a misuse of taxpayer funds – “a complete waste of time and money.”
Water quality
Swiggum pointed out that residents of the Driftless Region are lucky to live in an area with such good water quality. She said that the quality of our water makes it even more imperative to take steps to protect it from pollution with things like nitrate and PFAS.
“We need to be vigilant in protecting our water so we don’t end up like Holmen or French Island/Town of Campbell in LaCrosse County,” Swiggum said. “Loren Oldenburg says that water quality is not a partisan issue, but his party voted for all the pro-business rollbacks of environmental regulations and eliminated the WDNR scientists that we need to protect our water.”
Swiggum says that she believes the polluters need to be held accountable, and applauds the lawsuit brought by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul against the polluters responsible for PFAS pollution of groundwater in the state.
“The 96th Assembly District is not made up of wealthy people, and we are rural, so most of us rely on groundwater from private wells for our drinking water,” Swiggum said. “We need our elected representatives doing everything they can to protect our water.”
Loren Oldenburg
Loren Oldenburg is a 56-year-old semi-retired farmer, who lives on County Road Y in rural Viroqua with his wife Linda. The lifelong dairy farmer stopped milking cows after the 2018 election, and now grows crops on his farm. Oldenburg graduated from Viroqua High School, and attended UW-LaCrosse for three years before returning to farming full-time.
Oldenburg sees the most important issue facing the residents and businesses of the 96th Assembly District as inflation, the cost of living and supply chain challenges.
“Everywhere I go, I talk to residents of the district who are concerned about the cost of living and how everything has become more expensive,” Oldenburg said. “Our businesses can’t find workers, and supply chain issues mean that their operations are impacted, and their costs are driven up.”
Oldenburg says he is proud of the progress made in broadband expansion in the district during his tenure. He says that, if elected again, he supports continuing that so that all district residents have access to affordable broadband internet.
PFAS pollution
As far as PFAS pollution, Oldenburg said that he is opposed to going after the polluters through the courts.
“All that does is to tie things up in the courts and with the lawyers,” Oldenburg said. “Someone has to take leadership on the issue, and I would prefer that it be the federal government so that every state has the same standards.”
Oldenbug says that it is important to arrive at a standard for PFAS regulation, figure out how to clean the pollution up, and in some cases, offer those whose wells are polluted municipal water. He pointed to the bill passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature discontinuing the use of firefighting foams containing PFAS in the state as a positive step in addressing the problem.
Abortion access
When asked whether he believes that Wisconsin should have a law on the books, first enacted in 1849, limiting women’s access to abortion, Oldenburg said the legislature would need to take that up after the election.
“1849 was a long time ago, and things have changed since then,” Oldenburg said. “I agree that we need exceptions for situations of rape or incest.”
Oldenburg said that the decision about how to regulate access to abortion should be done on a state-by-state basis, and does not think that there should be a federal law determining abortion access.
Legislative priorities
Oldenburg said his legislative priorities, should he be re-elected, will include expansion of the Youth Apprenticeship program, which he helped to create. He said that he also wants to see the Farmland Preservation Program tax credit increased because participation will cause more farmers to use a nutrient management plans to protect water and control costs.
“And as far as Wisconsin’s $5 billion budget surplus, I believe that money should be returned to the taxpayers in the form of tax cuts,” Oldenburg said. @font-face {font-family:Arial; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073711037 9 0 511 0;}@font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:"MS Mincho"; mso-font-alt:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:modern; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 134217746 0 131231 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho";}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Mincho";}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
