Tim Kiefer for State Assembly

   Democrat for State Assembly - 81st District of Wisconsin

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A Part-Time Citizen Legislature – and a 50 Percent Pay Cut
Getting Smart on Crime
Health Care for Everyone
Cleaning Up Dane County's Lakes
Domestic Partner Benefits – The Right Thing to Do
Merit selection for Supreme Court justices
A great education for all students

A Part-Time Citizen Legislature – and a 50 Percent Pay Cut  

“According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only ten states have full-time legislatures, and Wisconsin is by far the smallest of these. Why do we need a full-time legislature if Minnesota, Indiana and other similar-sized states don't? How much money would we save, and how much less partisan would our legislature be, if we had part-time citizen legislators who met periodically to work together and solve problems?” -- UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley   

Tim Kiefer supports a part-time citizen Assembly, not an Assembly filled with full-time career politicians. He believes that in this time of budget deficits for the state, it isn’t right to accept a full-time salary for what should be a part-time job.

Tim Kiefer has pledged that if elected, he will accept only 50 percent of the Assembly representative’s salary of $47,413, or about $23,700.

Tim Kiefer currently works as a Dane County assistant district attorney. If elected to the Assembly, state conflict of interest rules will require him to resign from the DA’s Office. He plans to practice law in the private sector in addition to serving in the Assembly.

Until a generation ago, virtually all Assembly representatives were part-time citizen legislators with other careers, such as farmers, doctors, and business people. In recent decades, however, the Assembly has become increasingly filled with full-time career politicians. It’s not a coincidence that as the Assembly has changed from a part-time citizen legislature into one populated by full-time career politicians, there’s been more and more partisan bickering and less and less actually getting done.

There is a lot of value in Assembly representatives holding a job outside the legislature. It ensures that they truly represent the people, because they are working alongside everyone else and are affected by the same taxes and the same regulations.

If we’re going to balance the state budget, we’re going to have to make sacrifices. Tim Kiefer is going to take the first step toward doing that by voluntarily cutting his own salary in half.

Getting Smart on Crime  

Tim Kiefer believes we need to get smart on crime.  It’s time to stop the revolving door that sends the same people back to jail over and over again.  

As an assistant district attorney, Tim Kiefer has the real-world experience to make our communities safer.  He has stood before juries and tried cases all the way up to first degree intentional homicide.

Tim Kiefer believes that jail should not be a place that you go back to every couple of years.  Nor should it be a place to watch television on the taxpayers’ dime.  Criminal offenders should be required to work on the problems that put them in jail in the first place. 

Tim Kiefer supports mandatory alcohol or drug treatment, requiring offenders who dropped out of school to earn a high school equivalency degree, and requiring offenders to work.

As your state legislator, Tim Kiefer will support the law enforcement professionals who keep our communities safe.  Tim Kiefer supports pay progression and the restoration of Byrne grant funding.

It’s not enough to simply be tough on crime and tough on criminals.   We also have to be smart on crime.  Minnesota and Wisconsin have very similar crime rates, yet Minnesota has an incarceration rate that is less than half of Wisconsin ’s.  We need to lock up dangerous criminals – but we can do so without running our state government into bankruptcy.

Health Care for Everyone

A healthy community is a strong community.  Tim Kiefer supports State Senator Jon Erpenbach’s Healthy Wisconsin universal health care plan.  This plan offers the same health care to all Wisconsin residents that Wisconsin now provides to its state legislators.  Healthy Wisconsin will offer affordable costs, open eligibility, comprehensive benefits, and easy enrollment. The Healthy Wisconsin plan will provide an economic climate that welcomes small businesses, entrepreneurs, and working families. 



Cleaning Up Dane County 's Lakes

Over 150 years ago, Wisconsin 's pioneers established Madison as the state capital because of its unique location between two lakes.  Visitors in the mid-19^th century marveled at the clarity of Dane County ’s lakes.  Today, run-off pollution has choked our lakes with foul-smelling algae, transforming the clear waters of the past into a thick green soup.   But Tim Kiefer believes that we can clean up our lakes.  He will work to restore our lakes to their natural clarity and beauty.  Tim Kiefer supports the Yahara CLEAN (Capital Lakes Environmental Assessment and Needs) state-county partnership program and will fight for full funding of the CLEAN study’s recommendations.

Domestic Partner Benefits – The Right Thing to Do

Every Big Ten university provides domestic partner benefits – except the University of Wisconsin .  Tim Kiefer supports domestic partner benefits for the University of Wisconsin and for all state government employees.  Domestic partner benefits will ensure that Wisconsin can attract and retain the most highly qualified workers.  Everyone deserves the right to care for their loved ones.  It’s the right thing to do.

Merit selection for Supreme Court justices

Judicial merit selection will restore integrity 7/23/08, The Waunakee Tribune

As a lawyer, Tim Kiefer has litigated cases before both state and federal judges. He has also served as a judicial law clerk for a federal judge. He knows that judicial independence and impartiality are absolutely essential for our legal system to work. Unfortunately, the last two Wisconsin Supreme Court elections have been marred by multi-million dollar campaigns by special interest groups producing mudslinging TV commercials.

There is a better way to pick state Supreme Court justices – a system known as merit selection. Under the merit selection system, a nonpartisan board composed of both lawyers and non-lawyers is named by the governor. That committee selects a list of candidates, and the list is then forwarded to the governor for the final selection. The governor is required to select one of the names on the list. After an initial term in office, the justice is subject to an up-or-down vote to determine if the justice will continue to serve. Merit selection has already been adopted by 24 other states. Merit selection has been endorsed by both retired US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (whose home state of Arizona uses merit selection) and the editorial board of the Wisconsin State Journal.

It’s time for Wisconsin to restore confidence in our state Supreme Court. Tim Kiefer will do so by working to establish merit selection for our state Supreme Court.

A great education for all students

Tim Kiefer believes that “every kid deserves a great school.” As the first person from his family to go to college, and as someone whose educational path took him from Wisconsin public elementary and high schools to UW-Madison and finally to Harvard Law School, Tim Kiefer knows the paramount importance of education.

Tim Kiefer believes that the best way to make our schools great is to support teachers and to encourage local control of local schools. Local school boards, not Washington or Madison, should have the freedom to make decisions as to what is best for local schools.

In the 81st district, the failure of the Wisconsin legislature to fix the school funding formula has led to severe budget problems in some districts. The continued existence of the Wisconsin Heights School District is in question due to a lack of funding for that district, which is in turn the result of a dysfunctional state school funding formula. Tim Kiefer will fight to reform the school funding formula and save the Wisconsin Heights School District.

In addition, Tim Kiefer believes that closing the achievement gap between rich and poor students cannot be done by educational reform alone. As Richard Rothstein writes in his insightful book Class and Schools, improving schools “requires social and economic reform as well as school improvement.” Tim Kiefer believes that health care reform, nutrition programs, and summertime programs can all help ensure that every child has the opportunity to succeed.

Wisconsin’s education system faces serious challenges in the upcoming years. Tim Kiefer is committed to making the tough choices needed to ensure that our schools are second to none.

        4733 Hayes Road, #215, Madison 53704                608-358-7213               Box 1546, Madison WI  53701