The driving distance between Superior and Madison is 328 miles, but the cities are separated by more than just a five-hour highway trip — and that’s in good weather.
More than just being geographically distant, residents in Wisconsin communities dotting the shores of Lake Superior sometimes say they feel like their political concerns are also distant from the consciousness of lawmakers at the state Capitol.
Helping to bridge that gap is Superior Days, an annual gathering in Madison of officials, business leaders, students and other civic activists from Superior, Ashland and neighboring communities to lobby and bring awareness of the region to state government leaders.
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“This effort has been a model for many other towns and municipalities throughout the state,” said Jim Caesar of the Superior Business Center and the local Development Association. He’s been a fixture on the annual delegation, now marking its 40th year.
Caesar, Superior Mayor Jim Paine and Kelly Peterson, a Douglas County supervisor who also heads the Superior Business Improvement District, joined WPR’s Robin Washington on “Morning Edition” as they prepared to make this year’s trip.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Robin Washington: Mayor Paine, you’re 43. Superior Days has been going on most of your life. Tell us the history of it.
Mayor Jim Paine: There was a really pervasive feeling at the time it started that citizens in the north were largely ignored. Even if we had good representatives in our Assembly and Senate seats, the idea was to remind Madison that we are still citizens of Wisconsin, and they shouldn’t take our votes and our support for granted.
RW: Jim Caesar, you’ve been a longtime member of the delegation. What are some of the successes in the past?
Jim Caesar: Two right off the top are the expansion of U.S. Highway 53, and then getting the state secretary of transportation up here and seeing the condition of Belknap Avenue in Superior. That visit got the reconstruction project moved forward by many years.
RW: Kelly, you’ll be riding elevators in the statehouse as you visit lawmakers. What’s your elevator speech?
Kelly Peterson: We’ll take every opportunity to talk about Superior and the great things that are happening here. One of them is the success with shared revenue we saw in the last go-round. We’re looking to create more opportunities with tax retention for our community.
RW: What are the most important asks this year?
JP: We have three legislative asks: One is a fair funding system for local schools to help address the very large tax increases that happened this year. We are also asking for the ability to retain more of the state sales tax so that we can fund local infrastructure with local money. And we’re looking to bring some more fairness to the Medicaid reimbursement rate. We have a very different reimbursement rate for mental health services than our friends do in Minnesota, and that’s been driving a mental health crisis in northern Wisconsin.
RW: Why should Madison care about things like Tower Avenue in Superior?
KP: We want to make sure that we have travel routes for our guests and our residents. One of the things we are asking is for an expansion of Tower Avenue all the way through South Superior, so that we have safe places to cross the road, and that’s also safe for motorists.
Also, our region’s roads last only about a third of the amount of time that they do in the southern part of the state. Having our roads maintained means that people can visit our community.
JP: There’s a joke I tell when I’m traveling — that I’m from Wisconsin, but I’m from Superior, Wisconsin, so you need to think “woods and water,” not “cows and cheese.” Superior has a lot in common with our neighbors to the east — the cities of Ashland and Bayfield and the counties that they are in. That’s why we work very well together, and we can represent one unified voice that doesn’t usually get as much attention down south.
Also, I’m not going to write off the fact that Superior Days is a fun time! This is a great way for leaders from our area to get to know each other better and to get to know their government better.
JC: It’s been effective for 40 years. A lot of the legislators in Madison who have experienced it enjoy it, too.
If you have an idea about something in northern Wisconsin you think we should talk about on “Morning Edition,” send it to us at northern@wpr.org.
