Hey Matt Rothschild here host to the Wisconsin Ford Podcast all across the Civic Media
Radio Network and at civicmedia.us for the next several episodes of the Wisconsin Ford
Podcast.
I'm going to be interviewing Democratic candidates for governor.
Joining me now in the Wisconsin Ford Podcast is Ryan Sternat who's running for governor.
You may have heard Zads on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Ryan Sternat welcome to the podcast.
Thank you for having me.
That's my pleasure.
I just always like to start off interviews with the most obvious questions so why are you
running for governor?
I feel I can make a difference.
I feel I'm outgoing and I believe that I have some good pro working ideas that could benefit
the entire state of Wisconsin.
What are some of those pro working ideas?
Really stick up for the working class, stick up for people who want to make money.
I joined the Democratic Party 24 years ago after I ran as Republican first day assembly in
2000 last came on board with the Democrats then and they really welcomed me with my pro
worker beliefs.
I really enjoyed being a part of the Democratic Party and now after all these years I
get to run as a government.
I'll also be working at a limiting act 10 and getting rid of right to work legislation
first chance I get.
So tell me a little bit about your background.
Were you raised in a Republican family, is that why you were a Republican at the beginning
or what attracted you to the Republican Party at that point 25 years ago or whatever?
A few things.
Yes.
He really grew up as a Republican and I grew up and turned around Reagan administration
and I know he had a big influence on a whole lot of people, a few would debate that.
And with also me being a military veteran, you know it pretty much got me start thinking
about Republican views and then when I joined the rent for assembly in South Milwaukee in
2000, I did bring some pro worker beliefs in that race, be more of a Republican name only.
And after losing, I lost to the late Jeff play, I was basically a token candidate.
So I decided to join a Democratic Party right after that.
You mentioned Ronald Reagan, what did you make of Reagan at the time?
What did you make of Reagan retrospectively?
Big difference.
I looked up, I was in the third grade when Ronald Reagan took over, became a president and
I was in the eleventh grade when his term ended.
So I really was growing up in school and looked at Ronald Reagan as, you know, the powerful
man.
I mean, he was very respected.
I really don't think much about politics or both sides back then.
And I know by partisanship happened a lot more back then than it does now in my opinion.
But then retrospectively when I look at Ronald Reagan, he made some key mistakes.
I mean, he fired the air traffic controllers, that was not a good move on his part, regardless
of what it said in the air traffic controllers contract.
And I know he was, he was making a move by appointing the first female U.S. Supreme Court
justice and Sandra Dale Conner, but that move tended to backfire him because Sandra Dale
Conner's legacy was to rule on either side.
So I think that too backfired him.
And Ronald Reagan could have been more of a pro-military president, which I was surprised.
He wasn't, as you look at retrospect, just look at the, in the bombing of the barracks
back in 1983.
The barracks there in Lebanon.
Correct, yes.
Okay.
And of course, there is Iran Contra too, which was a huge screw up.
Yes, it was.
So tell me a little bit about what do you think your qualifications are to be governor?
Well, I'm known for, with me being an NC beer vendor at the Brewer Stadium.
I've been working at Brewer Stadium since really the late 80s, and I joined the Union
there in 1998 when I went from Selom Soda in the seats to beers in the seats, which I
joined the Union.
I became a Union steward.
I took part in four different negotiating committees, including when we last had.
And about eight years ago, I took it a step further as I turned in my Union steward spot,
and I started a political action committee and became a lobbyist for the group called
Drinks in the Seats, which I've created and trademarked.
And there have been some politics going on at the stadium, as there always is, including
the workers there, including alcohol sales there.
So I made some waves back over the years when the brewers in the concessionaire who worked
for Delaware and North companies wanted to add more concession stands.
And I tried to go to City Hall to stop the foreplant from that happening.
I also was, unfortunately, I failed at that attempt, but then we had the coronavirus restrictions
there.
And I took a rare step for a Democrat back then to fight against the coronavirus restrictions.
Simply because we were having crowd sizes in the year 2020, they went into the year
2021, and even though we have to take some safety precautions, our jobs were eliminated
for a year and a half there.
And I was vocal in the year 2021 when they started about crowds back at baseball games
and everywhere else in the country to allow for in-seat beer vending to happen again, because
we were simply without a beer vending job in the Seats for that year.
And then finally, midway through the 2021 season, we got our beer vending jobs back.
What were you doing in the interim there when things were shut down during COVID?
Well, I work elsewhere too.
I do have a full-time job.
I work in a factory, a third shift.
I'll leave it at that.
And I actually have, I'm still associated with the dry cleaners as well, where usually
in the winter time when there's no baseball, I'd pick up some hours there, work at a front
desk or drive a truck or something, make some deliveries.
But no, I definitely keep busy.
And tell me what you thought should have happened during COVID?
I just wish that the elected officials, they really didn't get a second of pink.
And they put a lot of stock in whatever Dr. Fauci said.
And I know that when all the restrictions happen, it happened just a few weeks before the
baseball season was supposed to start.
And we were expecting to have our beer vending jobs where we get paid commission tips and
at normal.
And we're hearing elected officials say, though that's it, we're nothing more than a 200
person crowd size or whatever.
And I just wish that some more care would have been put into that when you think of everyone,
not just the baseball players.
But when you make decisions like that, sure, you may think that you're saving lives and
all that, which is super important, don't get me wrong.
I wish there could have been some more thinking before that, you know, and maybe do like a
step by step, sort of speak, let it go for a month or whatever, which they started
to do so.
But what turned out to be just a temporary hall on things for a few weeks turned out to
be a complete shutdown for the rest of that calendar year.
So I just, I wish they would have put more care in everyone's job before they went ahead
and made that decision on the crowd sizes.
I mean, we could argue it forever, but it wasn't just Dr. Fauci public health officials
all across the country were predicting if there wasn't a shutdown, there were going
to be two and a half million dead Americans.
So that was kind of a, and Trump himself admitted that that was the number that he was looking
at.
So it was a tough situation, especially for people directly impacted like you and for kids
couldn't go to school and for a whole bunch of millions of other Americans.
But it was certainly a health care pandemic crisis.
My wife's a public health nurse, so I was all about, you know, the public health protections.
But I understand in hindsight, there's a lot of second guessing on what should happen,
shouldn't it happen?
But let's get back to the governor's race a little bit.
People listening to this are going to say, okay, here's a guy who's a beer vendor at
Brewer Stadium working third shift.
I mean, anyone can be governor, but what are your political experiences, qualifications
that might strike a listener or someone they could get behind?
Well, that's that.
I picture myself as a one of us candidate that's kind of an unofficial slogan of mine, where
I can naturally say that I know what's like to have working class experience and to govern
as if I were in the Red River voting season shoes.
As far as my experience, true, I don't have elective experience, but I have some lobbying
experience.
I have some negotiation experience and I have some resiliency experience too, which I feel
I can stand up to whoever it is and stand my ground if need be and if we have hurt feelings
so be it, I'd love to work with people, you know, and maybe have to go as far as vetoing
an entire budget if we want to get something done.
So I would have the goal and the little part of one of do that if possible.
Do you think governor Evers should have vetoed the last budget or the one prior to that in
its entirety?
Really, yes.
And I'll tell you why because that was his only real weapon with the houses being both
of Republican assembly and Senate that could have been a viable option to him, especially
what comes to taxing the wealthy.
And so, and then there was a lot of back and forth going on between the parties and the
budget came right for fourth July, if I believe, and then our state was backed up to whatever
Donald Trump was doing where a lot of hospital funds were in jeopardy.
So we all remember he had to sign it at one in the morning.
So I mean, that's kind of a different situation, but yeah, I think if Tony could have done
a better job with the budget, how do you view the whole thing?
What was the worst part of the budget?
Do you think that had you been there, you would have wanted to see the whole thing of vetoed?
The lack of taxes for wealthy and then to the lack of funding for schools.
I know that was kind of a complaint among some of the Democrats who are in a legislature
as well.
I saw an interview with you about the environment.
I looked at your website, you talk about protecting the environment, but doing it sensibly.
You said in one interview, you don't believe there should be any emission controls on vehicles.
Why do you think that?
I think that because I used it as a compensation, and I said this in my press conference, my announcement,
I made back in late August, that why I picked up trash receptacle, it's right here, but nevertheless.
And so I said is an alternative, going to a hardware store by a $15 trash recyclable
and I just showed you, and we could do recycling more there.
I live in a apartment right here in McGonagall, and myself and my fellow tenants do a real good job of filling
that receptacle that the one that gets picked up by the village of McGonagall every week.
We got that thing full of recycled cardboard plastics, aluminum, you name it.
Now I believe though that this, I think that with the recept with the emissions tests,
I want to see gone is because it happens where a lot of people who own cars simply are sucking right now for money.
And when they get that, notice in the mail that they have to not only get their registration every other year,
but it comes with this year, you need to pass your emissions test.
If that check light engine is, if that check engine light is on,
you'll automatically fail your test.
And in most cases, you have to go to the auto park store and buy a device costing a few hundred dollars to get the thing fixed.
And I just think that we can do without these emissions tests right now.
Other states don't do it.
The reason why it was constantly has it because we have two big cities, big enough cities, Milwaukee and Madison,
which forces us to do it.
So like I said, we'll trade in the emissions test, but we'll push for recycling more.
Forgive me, but that just sounds awfully simplistic given the amount of pollution caused by car emissions.
You know, you could recycle from here to six ways to Sunday and you're not going to recover as many footprints as you would if you do car emissions.
I mean, getting rid of car emissions is just to make pollution and global warming and climate change even worse than it is now.
No amount of recycling is going to solve that or compensate for that.
I hear where you're coming from.
I hear where you're coming from.
It's just we have to sacrifice in the environment right now.
You see how times are.
I mean, people are hurting for money right now.
So we'll try that and I just think that that could be the way to go.
Another plank on your website is back to police.
I know a lot of the protests for police reform came after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer up in Minneapolis.
Don't you think issues of police brutality are important to address?
What's important for elected official and clean a governor to pay attention to?
I will say this.
I went to the police academy at Milwaukee area technical college.
I never became a police officer.
I was married at the time we had a kid and we did some our things.
But my dad is a retired federal law enforcement.
I'll tell you this.
I know police officers.
Those police officers are very brave in their decade to their jobs.
They're married to their jobs.
We.
It's easy to take those people for granted, but we really need them here.
We really do.
I've been to the police academy.
Those police officer recruits the cops.
They're trained.
They're trained real good.
They're trained real tough.
And they have to go through that training every year to like 24 hours a year to re up their train.
But again, I have yet to meet one police officer who was crooked.
I'll be asked.
I've known some police officers who've gone fired before for maybe intradition or did something.
But when those police officers are on their jobs on the jobs, they are dedicated to enforce things.
Did you not see the video of George Floyd being murdered?
I saw the video.
And what did you make of that?
Well, I also saw the video of Ronnie Kane being beaten way back in the in the 90s.
Okay.
The video always shows so much.
I'm not saying anything was photoshopped there.
But a lot of details happening there.
There's a lot of swearing going on.
I'm talking about any general video.
Okay.
Yes, I saw the video.
I can't roll decked my memory right now and talk and analyze about that.
George Floyd video.
But let me just let me just refresh your memory.
The police officers got his knee on George Floyd's neck for nine and a half minutes.
You said I can't breathe.
Yeah.
You said I can't breathe.
All right.
Yeah.
All right.
The police officer.
He was convicted.
He got punished for it.
Okay.
I'm just getting you know.
And again, when a police officer makes a mistake, it goes to court just like anyone else.
They're not above the law.
And that's the case.
And they get punished.
The officer was found guilty.
He's in jail now.
And there have been other instances of police brutality.
It's not just that one officer.
I mean, Milwaukee has a reputation.
Chicago, Philadelphia, LA police departments have had really bad reputations for police brutality and racist police practices.
I agree with you.
Most police officers are doing their job and are doing a courageous job.
And police officers should be respected for the work they do.
Some cops here in Madison who've done a great job.
Don't get me wrong.
But there is that history and that practice of police brutality that is a problem.
And so would you do anything about that as governor?
I'll be watching.
I'll go up to the chief command and I'd be on top of that.
But like I said, I put a lot of trust into into the law enforcement.
I really do.
And so I'll just leave it like that.
But I don't want anyone in Wisconsin thinking that I won't be watching the police.
And what about ICE?
What about immigration officers in Wisconsin sent here by Trump, masked,
grabbing people off the street throwing them into unmarked vans and driving away?
I'll see it right now.
That's the feds.
Okay.
I'm not going to mess with the feds.
I mean, if they do, if they do some things that affect the ongoing at the state level as governor,
I'll get with their Senator Tammy Baldwin.
Now, I'm not going to put words in her mouth that she'd help us or not.
But I know she'd listen.
So honestly, I'll let the feds do their job.
And I'm going to run my state provider.
I'm governor.
Part of learning the state is running the state National Guard.
What if Trump wants to, you know, say the Wisconsin National Guard's got to go police in Portland, Oregon?
How would you respond to something like that?
Well, I don't like the micromanaging.
That's for sure.
So, so we'll see.
But I would definitely talk if Donald Trump won't take my phone call.
I'm sure I can get a hold of someone in the staff.
And I'll be working with the Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin and our two congressmen here.
And, but like I said, it says, I don't want the president stepping on us, stepping on our National Guard.
And so I'll be taking opinions from all across.
And I'll make a decision when it comes.
And then switching over to health care on your website.
You say health care administration will be on a tight leash.
What do you mean by that?
I mean that it'll be on my watch.
And I don't want to see anything.
If I see something, I'm even assigned a task force.
But if I see any evidence of overbilling or negligent billing in that case,
where my residents have to pay too much in medical bills, I'm definitely going to address that.
What about expanding Medicaid?
It hasn't happened in the state.
Many most states have expanded Medicaid, including states, I think like Mississippi, even Wisconsin's one of the few who hasn't.
Are you in favor of expanding Medicaid?
I am in favor of expanding Medicaid, yes.
And where are you on like universal health care, single payer?
I'm okay with that.
As long as it benefits a consumer.
Don't you think it would benefit the consumer?
If all of us essentially could have Medicare for all,
and then just kind of get rid of the middleman in the insurance industry?
Well, definitely, yes, yes.
No, I mean, I'm usually against the middleman.
I mean, I heard what was being talked about in the latest budget negotiations over Capitol Hill about Gingrich and middleman.
Yeah, but no, I do like it when you get rid of another party because what that does,
it just adds up cost and the rich get richer.
And of course, the working class gets poor and I don't want that.
One of the issues I worked a lot on at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign was gerrymandering.
What's your view of gerrymandering and how do we solve that problem?
Yeah, go off with the law says.
I know there's talk about trying to gerrymander the congressional districts now.
But it does have me scratching my head as well.
I know there is an effort to in the courts to go after the gerrymandering and congressional districts.
But what I'm driving at is do you think a partisan gerrymandering should be banned by the legislature and the governor
and independent commission should establish the lines like they do an Iowa, for instance,
in a nonpartisan way or should whichever party wins be able to draw the lines the way they want?
No, I think what you said first about partisan commission, you know, it should be even.
It's been that way before 20, 30 years ago.
In fact, I used to have chat with Scott Walker back when I was a Democrat and he would talk that way too about, you know, what the courts handle,
what that'd be, that'd be the way of doing it.
Well, the Walker had the biggest gerrymander in American history practically in 2011.
So yeah, Scott Walker once said though that he wouldn't do right to work legislation, one sign it,
and then when the Republicans brought to his desk on a virtual silver plan or he went right hand sign it,
he started to brag about it because he knew he had a presidential campaign coming up.
So Scott Walker's known to pull some fast ones.
You said you talked to Walker, what, how did that happen?
That was back when, yeah, when I ran for for assembly in 2000, you know, he was again, you know,
they're recruiting me more so to be a token candy run against a incumbent because a strategy for Republicans,
then was to keep the incumbent Democrats from going up north to help with those swing districts up there.
And so I remember Walker called the house a few times and, you know,
tell me a whole bunch of stuff and, you know, and like that, but, yeah, he was,
but he basically said something about after that election.
I was Republican about two months before I went to Democrat Party.
It was in Patric State actually of 2001, but I was talking to Scott through an email.
And yeah, he just kept on saying the courts will decide.
But I was back when it was a Republicans' assembly and a Democratic Senate.
So, but like I said, I think knowing Scott had, we had Republicans would have had both houses back then.
I think he probably went ahead and he would have been Jeremy Andrew Happy,
although back then he was just a stay assemblyman in Walto's.
Yeah, but when he was governor, he sure was, Jeremy Andrew, happy.
Hey, look back at Walker, what do you make of the Walker rule here?
Walker's administration here, record here in Wisconsin.
It made me sick.
It made me sick. I mean, he went ahead and imposed act 10.
He did not say anything about the tennis campaign.
You know, it's just in, I think what got him not elected for a third term was because
he just listened to the corporate people.
And he wanted their money and wanted their money and wanted their money.
There's also a non-binding referendum that benefits us as a Democrat about legalizing pot.
And that may have got some more Democrats on boards.
We find, we find Godmother.
I was so excited that day. I went and celebrated off my patio with the bottle of champagne.
And I told Maggie, done this my last year, where you are ahead with you guys.
It said about a week later, after Tony got elected, I stumbled at my overnight job.
I was working in a factory then.
And I was like, I said to myself, you know, Ryan, you should run for governor.
And well, now here I am running for governor seven years later.
It's a long shot by any estimation, Ryan.
So people listening, maybe saying, you know, why the hell is this guy doing it?
And, you know, you're spending money.
You're spending a lot of time.
I mean, was this a lifelong ambition of yours?
I mean, you had some political ambition because you ran from state assembly once.
I know some folks, you know, they don't want to go to their grave without at least giving it a shot.
You know, are you one of those guys?
I'll start by saying I'm in to win it.
And secondly, I'll say, yes, I have some catching up to doing the polls.
Well, I'm ahead of Brett Halsey.
I'm not ahead of Caldera Roy's, Missy Hughes, Sarah Rodriguez, David Crowley and Francesca Hong.
But that doesn't mean I don't believe I catch up to him.
I have a fundraiser coming up and some other projects.
Now, by saying that, I'm having a time of my life right for governor right now.
Really?
Yeah, I'm having a time of life.
This is why I live for.
I'm not married.
I do have some divorces under my belt.
But I have a real nice 23-year-old daughter and I'm 54 years old.
And this, I don't know.
This is just part of my fabric.
It's something I want to do.
I love doing it.
How many times have been divorced?
Three.
Wow.
Yeah.
They're dumb, not that you are, ma'am.
No, I mean, and I've, I've, I've actually paid off.
I don't want to get too much of a detail.
But, you know, all three of them, I haven't heard for the first one a while.
I was married back when I was in military.
But the second wife I had, I'm a kale with her daughter.
Matter of fact, we had a birthday dinner for my daughter.
A few nights ago, and her mom was there.
We had nice time.
Matter of fact, she even helped us stamp some envelopes from me on the champion.
That's wife number two.
And I just talked to Heidi, my last ex-wife, we divorced like eight years ago.
And I was helping her out with something too.
And I told her, she knew I was right for governor.
I said, please vote for me.
And she said, we'll talk about it.
So I'll leave it at that.
All right.
And so what is so much fun about running for governor right now for you?
Something new to do.
It's a challenge.
And, best of all, I love hearing what people have to say.
And I love talking to the citizens.
They're the ones who make the vote.
We're doing us the Democrat way.
We're voting for who's the governor.
And I just feel proud and proud and love the responsibility.
I've just tried to be the leader of the state.
And what do Democrats need to do to win?
Both in trying to get the base out and then trying to talk to people who may not have voted Democrat for a while.
Not get complacent.
And keep talking to people.
And maybe promote a little bit of bipartisanship.
I want to see some bipartisanship return.
We haven't had in a few decades.
If someone wants to support your campaign, Ryan, how do they do that?
Two of ways.
They can go to my website.
Ryan Sternad, you see this film in the background here for governor.com.
And I also have a Facebook page.
Again, that's Ryan Sternad for governor.
Is there anything I haven't asked that you wanted to talk about?
Any last point you want to make?
Yes.
I took an interview with Vanessa Keltson on mass.
And I brought up a suggestion of a way for high school.
A way for schools to make some money is to resort to selling alcohol at school events,
where it'd be football games or even some theater events.
And I got a lot of feedback from it.
All different views.
But I do want to say this so.
I'm not going to back off of that.
But I do want to see schools maybe start to throw that divorce they have
when it comes to incorporate alcohol or establishments associated with alcohol
as to helping them.
Because I think that that could be one avenue to generate some much needed revenue
there for the school system.
But is an alcoholism a terrible problem for young people?
Well, again, I mean, one thing I forgot to tell you.
It's I'm not saying we're going to serve alcohol to teenagers and all that.
I would be open to lowering the drink age to 19, not 18, but 19.
Make sure kids are graduating from school first.
Now, selling alcohol, yes, you know, having a football game there,
parents drinking and we have a student section.
I do find that a little bit rude.
It also would be an issue about where you get story alcohol.
Story alcohol on school property.
That'd be swallowing something.
But, but like I said, I think having the understanding.
Something also too is that it could also teach the kids growing up.
Is there is there an environment with alcohol around them?
Is that, well, you know, look, but don't touch.
I mean, because it could resist that temptation to want to get an alcohol.
So I could produce, promote some responsibility as kids are growing up.
And they could stay away from the alcohol until they're all enough,
even when they're all enough.
And like any adult should be doing should always drink responsibly.
So I think like I said, it's a touchy subject, but that could be a goal
mine as far as revenue if we were to go that route.
It just touched the subject one more time.
You've been a beer vendor at Brewer Stadium for many years.
My sense, I wasn't born in Wisconsin.
I've been here 45 years, but I think the level of alcohol consumption in this state is just kind of crazy.
And the celebration of the alcohol culture is kind of crazy.
What do you, what's your view on that?
I see it firsthand in my brewers job.
Okay, the brewers thrive off that alcohol revenue we give them there.
I will say this, however, since I worked there since 88, I missed three years,
I was in the 90s in the Army.
The number of arrests that have happened during brewers games have gone way down since the 90s.
We used to have fights in those county, DM bleachers all the time.
We'll have something here and something there at Amphanfield.
But it's just that, I mean, Wisconsin is known for alcohol.
That's true.
But we can still walk and chew gum at the same time.
We could drink the alcohol, but also be careful.
Well, Ryan Stern, it's been a pleasure.
A very interesting conversation we've had.
Thanks for being on the Wisconsin Ford podcast and good luck on the campaign.
I appreciate it. Thank you.
Well, that's going to have to be it for this episode of the Wisconsin Ford podcast on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Matt Rothschild. I want to thank you for listening.
I also want to thank my engineer and producer Dom Lee, who's always great to work with.
And I want to thank Sage Wilde of Civic Media for giving me this platform.
I'll be back in just a day or two with another Democratic candidate for governor.
So stay tuned for that.
