Wisconsin State Senate District 24 Candidate – Collin McNamara

Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Tuesday, October 29th, 2024.

Have your host James J. Mailov here.

In part two today at 430, we're going to speak with Laura Hubert and Olga Menza.

They are with UW-Madison Extension Wood County's 4-H program, looking forward to talking

a little 4-H with them.

Right now we are going to continue our series interviewing our candidates who are running

for different offices in our area.

Right now we have running to represent Wisconsin's Senate District number 24, Colin McNamara

with us.

We give Colin the same amount of time that we do each of our candidates and same questions

and move on from each question.

Colin, thank you so much for being here today.

Appreciate the time.

Thank you for having me today.

And it's always nice to have our candidates in studio when possible, so thank you very

much for being here.

Appreciate it.

Colin, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, a little bit about your origin story

if you will?

Yeah, absolutely.

So I grew up in Ayola, Wisconsin, so not too far away from here.

And I grew up in a town of 1,301 people, where it didn't matter who you voted for in the

last election, or if you were a Democrat or a Republican, what mattered most is that

was neighbors helping neighbors.

And so when you're helping your neighbors, you learn a lot of different things that we

really need to restore back down in our politics down in Madison.

It's about making sure that we're returning our values of honesty, integrity, empathy,

respect, and hard work back to our politics and making sure that we are really restoring

representative government.

So I want people to be able to believe in their representatives, believe in their government.

So growing up in that town, it then automatically launched me to going to UW-Stevens Point,

where I was in the Student Government Association.

I served as a senator as president of the Student Body during 2020.

So I had a lot of experience working with federal, state, and local officials to make sure

that we got proper protections, to make sure we could keep students safe, to make sure

we could keep our community safe and keep mainstream businesses open.

And since then, you know, I've been working in a grocery store full time, prior to running

for office.

And even as I'm running for office, I still work full time, retail customer service.

So that's really what my story is about.

It's about working class values and making sure that we have a working class voice down in

Madison.

Why did you decide to run for office?

Yeah.

So as I was traveling around the district and I was talking with friends and co-workers,

I really heard from a lot of people who were disenfranchised by the process that, you

know, it doesn't matter who we elect because at the end of the day, all politicians are

just the same.

And it's hard not to agree with that, but at the same time, I have a different vision

for the future.

I believe that we should be able to believe in our representatives, to believe in our government,

to believe in democracy, and to believe in our state.

So I'm running to really restore those values I talked about a minute ago to our politics,

because I want people to know that when they call down to Madison with a Senator McNamara,

you are going to have someone who's going to pick up the phone, who's genuinely listening,

who's genuinely caring about what's going on in your life, and who knows what's going

on and understands it because they've lived it.

They've been there with you and they will be there for you.

What qualifies you?

How do you feel you specifically can best represent the area?

So I would say that the number one thing that helps me is lived experiences.

You know, right now we talk a lot about the high cost of everyday essentials, and going

paycheck to paycheck.

That's my story.

I grew up retail customer service.

I'm a working class kid.

My family worked hard, and sometimes you know what, there's times we have to put something

aside at the grocery store, and you have to make that hard decision.

Or there are people who are just one bad day away from total financial ruin, and I understand

what's going on in people's lives, and that's why I really want to bring that up.

But so when it comes to my direct experience, when I was in the Student Government Association

at UWSP, I worked with the legislature in order to achieve higher levels of funding

to make sure we got money back to our communities, to make sure that we were taking care of people.

So I know how the legislative process works.

I understand what we have to do, and I understand that it takes bipartisan nature in order to

get stuff done, and that's really what we need to bring back.

How do you feel your previous jobs or current job best prepares you for doing this job?

Yeah.

So what it really does is it really shows you that you have to work together as a team

and not every time, are you going to have people who agree with you 100% of the time?

And we need to make sure that we're willing to actually reach across the aisle and do what

we need to do in order to help people.

That's the number one thing that I've heard over the course of this campaign.

It's not about Democrat or Republican.

It's about who's going to get stuff done and who's not, who hasn't been getting stuff done

and who will get stuff done.

And so as we're going around, it's just about achieving results.

And that's what my entire career has been about.

It's about achieving results, working with people of every level, regardless of their

background, regardless of their story, to make sure that we're actually just getting

stuff done.

Speaking with candidate for Wisconsin Senate District number 24, Colin McNamara and

Colin, what are your passions?

What would you like to focus on if elected?

So I think the number one thing is going to be giving the middle class some tax relief

here in Wisconsin.

Right now we have a very complex system, but that is oversimplified to try and make it easier.

So right now in the state of Wisconsin, someone who makes $27,000 a year is in the same

tax bracket.

Someone who makes over $300,000 a year.

That's wrong to me.

And so some people think that a flat tax is the solution saying that you know the teacher

or the union factory worker here in Wisconsin Rapids should pay the same as the CEO down

in Madison or Milwaukee.

That's not what I believe.

And there's nothing wrong with being successful.

I think that we need to make sure that we're giving the middle class tax relief by creating

a different set of tax brackets and reevaluating the ones we currently have to make sure that

you know, there's a big difference between $27,000 and $300,000 a year.

That's the difference between having to put something aside at the grocery store and trying

to just make ends meet and you know, living a pretty nice lifestyle.

So I think that we need to make sure that the middle class is not getting left behind.

And in addition to that, it's about creating more affordable and accessible healthcare,

making sure that you know, once you leave some of these more populated areas of the 24th

Senate district, there are healthcare deserts where if something happens, if you get into

a car accident or something happens, the ambulance is about an hour away and you don't know how

quick you can get a helicopter there because they have to find a place to land and all of

that and the roads are narrow because they're surrounded by trees.

So it's about covering those pre-existing conditions.

It's about accessibility.

It's about affordability.

It's about giving the middle class a little bit of that extra bump in their paycheck.

People are feeling in their pocketbooks right now.

With that, what do you feel are some of the biggest, if not the biggest challenges facing

your fellow Wisconsinites?

I would say right now to go off of the last one.

People are feeling in the pocketbooks right now and it's hard not to agree.

You know what, there are higher prices going on right now and we can get into the difference

between why that is and all of those different factors with that.

But what it is is people are struggling right now and they need someone who understands

who's lived it every single day.

You know, like I said, working retail, customer service.

I see firsthand how the high cost of groceries impacts people's lives.

And when it's impacting people's lives, it's hard for people to start thinking about the

future, about owning a house, about taking care of their family, about trying to start

a family if they want to.

It's about all of those different decisions.

So right now I would say that the high cost of everyday essentials is something that's

top of mind for a lot of Wisconsinites and it's not about figuring out whether or not

the Democratic Party of the Republican Party is going to help you.

It's about making sure that you have people who are actually going to be taking care of

you, care about what's going on in your life.

Survey after survey, poll after poll, we are seeing people are done with the division

of today's politics and I'm curious, how important is it to you to be able to reach across

the aisle to work with the other side if elected?

I think it's the most important thing that there is right now because right now clearly

we are not getting stuff done for the people of this data Wisconsin.

Whether you're not completing our jobs and the current legislature is failing our communities

quite frankly and so right now with this toxic polarization down in Madison or in Washington,

we are seeing what happens when people aren't going to get, when people aren't getting

put first and so when everyday people aren't getting put first, that's how we get high

cost of everyday essentials, inaccessible health care, schools that are having to go to

the referendum.

That's how we're having hospitals close, all of these different issues, you know what?

I understand that we have to work together in order to actually achieve stuff.

Wisconsin is a purple state and it's time we actually start acting like it and not

thinking that every party is the right choice 100% of the time.

So if you're running to represent the 24th district, how would you best describe the

24th district?

I would say the 24th senate district is the purple list of purple swing of swingiest

areas in terms of our political makeup.

You know I often tell people I was like we live in one of the most competitive and some

of the most competitive assembly districts and some of the most competitive senate district,

the most competitive congressional district and the most competitive state in the country.

So you know what?

I see it every single day and you know what?

I'm not running to be the rock star of the left or the rock star of the right.

I'm running to be rock solid for the people of the state of Wisconsin and that's what

we really need to get back to.

Colin, thank you so much for joining us today.

Any final statements?

I would say that if you're tired of the noise, nonsense and the dysfunction in our politics,

if you think that you know what, the last eight years aren't working for us right now,

then you have a home with this campaign.

I am so sick and tired of the division and of all of this toxic politics.

We need to elect people who care about what's going on in your life who are going to

take care of the issues in your life by delivering middle class to actually, by funding

our public schools, by making healthcare more accessible and bringing down the cost

of everyday essentials.

So you have a home with this campaign and that's why I'm running to be your state senator.

Colin, thank you so much for the time.

Really do appreciate you joining us today.

If people have follow up questions, want to learn more about you, how can they do that?

So they can go to my website, which is www.colonforcentate.com, which is C-O-L-L-I-N-F-O-R-S-N-T.com.

And they can reach out there.

There's contact forms on there for reach out or there's issues and see my endorsements

as well.

Safe travels on the campaign trail.

Thanks a lot for joining us, Colin.

Thank you very much for having me.

Well, at more midday magazine for you coming up right here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR, locally

grown radio.