Democratic Rep. Doyle doubles down on centrist approach in reelection bid

Democratic Assembly Rep. Steve Doyle, D-Onalaska, has served Wisconsin’s 94th Assembly District for thirteen years. Doyle has a reputation for working across the aisle, even touting himself “Mr. Bipartisan.”

But this year, he faces an aggressive challenger in Republican Ryan Huebsch of Onalaska. It’s a rematch for Huebsch and Doyle, having faced each other in 2022. Doyle says a challenger from the political right won’t make him adopt a more progressive agenda.

WPR has invited both candidates to appear on “Morning Edition.” Ryan Heubsch was unable to schedule an interview by our production deadline.

This conversation has been edited for clarity.

Ezra Wall: What are your top legislative priorities for the district?

Rep. Steve Doyle: Well, I think it’s the same thing that I hear when I knock on people’s doors, which is things like education and health care. And we’ve got to do something about the cost of groceries, including the cost of gasoline.

So I think that those issues, all of them that I just mentioned, require one thing that we have seen very little of, and that is bipartisan action. We have an over $3 billion surplus that we’re sitting on that should go back to the taxpayers in the form of a tax cut or tax relief, and we can’t even get together in the same room to try to work out those issues. I mean, that’s just shameful.

I was asked the other day if I had a magic wand, what would my wand wish be? It would be that we all (legislators) stop getting paid until we get together and actually produce something. So we’ll see if that ever happens.

EW: You’re now facing a Republican opponent who seems pretty determined. He ran against you two years ago and lost. Now he’s running again. Does that consistent pressure from the political right make you rethink your centrist approach?

SD: Not for a second. I represent a district that leans Republican. Just because the official Republican Party would like this seat currently held by a Democrat doesn’t mean that my constituents have abandoned me.

You know, I look at every election as an opportunity to again present myself to the voters, and they can decide if I’m doing the right thing or the wrong thing. I know my opponent doesn’t like to do debates or interviews, which I think is really not fair to the voters. All they get to hear are his attack ads against me. They know what he doesn’t like about me, but they don’t know what he’s going to do for them.

Whereas I think that a campaign should be about telling people what you’re going to do. What I’m going to do is the same thing that I’ve done all along, which is I’m going to continue to co-sponsor an equal number of Democratic and Republican bills. I am going to try to continue to be the most bipartisan member of the state legislature.

If you look at the last six years, you put those all together, nobody beats me in terms of voting in a bipartisan way. In other words, reaching across the aisle. But I’m going to try to work even harder than I ever have with regard to trying to get people on the same page. And I think it’s going to be a little bit easier this time with the numbers in the Assembly probably being a lot closer. Instead of a near Republican supermajority, both sides are going to have to move to the middle, and I think that’s a good thing.

EW: What are your plans to ensure schools are adequately funded and staffed?

SD: You know, that’s an issue I hear a lot of. I talked to a lot of teachers who live in my district, but I also talked to a lot of parents in my district and what we’re seeing across the state. There’s a lot of budgeting by referendum, where the state doesn’t provide enough money.

So what happens is, for things that the voters agree are necessary expenditures, they’re approving by referendum. But what that does is it takes the responsibility away from the state. So, let’s say we have a new library we want to put in a school, and it’s going to cost a couple million dollars. Instead of the state paying that out of the state coffers, now local taxpayers get stuck paying that bill. That just doesn’t seem right.

So what I’m going to do in that regard is to support the guy who’s “Mr. Education,” Gov. Tony Evers, with his budget proposals, which always call for full funding of education. I am going to continue to oppose a basically unlimited voucher program that takes away public dollars from our schools. And I think we also need to look at the issue of special education. Those are budget breakers and I think the state needs to play a greater role in funding, not just public education in general, but special education in particular.

EW: What changes or updates to Wisconsin’s abortion law do you support, if any?

SD: I support Roe v. Wade, which says that there’s no compelling state interest in the issue of abortion in the first trimester and that you have to have abortion rules that are tailored very narrowly in the second trimester and really extremely narrowly in the third trimester. I think that that worked for over half of a century. I think it made sense. I think that’s what the public supports.

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