Friday, July 8, 2016

Big Bad Mandy Wright!

By Jeff Simpson

One of my favorite WI Legislators(and regular readers know I do not have many) is Representative Mandy Wright.   Mandy Wright is a former teacher who in 2012 took the legislature by storm.  She was a first term-er, who not only represented the 85th assembly well, but truly represented Wisconsin.


Mandy Wright is an educator and involved citizen focused on empowering her 
Mandy Headshotcommunity.  As a wife, parent of three beautiful daughters, teacher, and volunteer, Mandy has deep roots in Central Wisconsin.Born and raised in Wausau, Mandy grew up exploring the woods and Wisconsin River near her childhood home north of Wausau.  She attended Riverview Elementary and earned Varsity letters as a cross-country ski captain, goalie and captain of the girls’ soccer team, and the football kicker.  After graduating from Wausau East, she studied English and Norwegian, receiving her B.A. from St. Olaf College.  She worked for the Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and as an after-school coordinator at Jefferson Elementary organizing many community programs and events.  In 2000, Mandy organized a Food Camp for children focused on local, sustainable food production.  Her family is a member of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  The Wrights also frequent local farmer’s markets and make a point to shop locally.  Mandy and her husband volunteer to teach religious education at their church.  With an MA in Education from Viterbo University, Mandy worked for four years as an English and English Language Learner teacher at Wausau West.  After her third child was born, she took a year to be a stay-at-home mom and taught evening classes for Upper Iowa University.  She taught sixth grade and was coaching soccer at Horace Mann Middle School prior to her election in 2012.  Since serving, she has worked as the State Policy Coordinator for the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service and as a High School English teacher in the Mosinee School District.

Mandy was one of the biggest, loudest and best voices advocating for public schools and our children which did not go unnoticed.   American Federation for (profiting off of) Children(AFC) had no time for anyone who stood in their way of squeezing profits from our childrens classrooms.   

AFC, with the Devos family billions backing them, and unethical, formerly convicted felon Scott Jensen running the ground game in WI, attacked Ms. Wright Mercilessly.  They shelled out over $110,000 of trackable money to smear her during the election season, and less than $40,000 promoting her opponent.  

In case you missed that, reread that sentence again, slowly!  

 They shelled out over $110,000 of trackable money to smear her during the election season, and less than $40,000 promoting her opponent.    

AFC and Scotty Jensen did not care who was running, which shows how little they care for the kids, they could have run a box of rocks(and apparently they did as Mr. Heaton announced his retirement after a year and a half of his two year term).   

Their main objective was to privatize schools and Mandy Wright stood in their way.

Unfortunately, they won that round, by a whopping 86 votes.  That works out to $1744 per vote they needed.  Next time your school has an operating referendum to keep the lights on, remember that the billionaires pay Scott Jensen over $200,000/yr to take money away from your schools.   

The 86 votes though was too close for the owners liking, so they demoted Mr. Jensen and brought in Americans for (their own) Prosperity (AFP-WI).  AFP recently opened an office in the 85th Assembly district so they could have (well paid)boots on the ground daily to try and keep Ms. Wright out of Madison!  

Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin field director and Wausau area resident Jim Joyce had the following comment:
“Having an Americans for Prosperity office in Wausau is a real game changer. I have spent years fighting for freedom in central Wisconsin and now activists will have a permanent space to work. I cannot wait to see what we will accomplish here.”

If the name James Joyce sounds familiar, it is because it IS remarkably familiar to Rep. Bob Kulp's Treasurer Jim Joyce.    Not that I am accusing AFP-Wi with coordinating with campaigns or anything---- O hell, of course I am accusing AFP-WI of coordinating with these campaigns.    

To be fair though, in Wisconsin with such a strong reliance on WMC and ALEC to write their bills and tell them what to do, the Wisconsin Republicans have lost all critical thinking skills(if you dont use it you lose it), so someone needs to think through their campaign for them.  

As Scott Jensen himself said, 
In an interview, Jensen laughs off Heck’s “compliment” but notes that AFC won six of the eight legislative races it targeted. “Our goal was to elect as many school choice supporters as possible, so we focused on races we thought would be close, where our efforts would make a difference,”  he says. 
Do we really want a guy, who is not even qualified to substitute teach in our schools deciding legislative races that effect the quality of education your children receive?   

As for Mandy Wright, luckily for Wisconsinites and the people of the 8th Assembly District, she has decided to throw her hat into the ring again.   

We know that she has so scared the oligarchy, that two dark money orgs, backed by multi billionaires are uniting to attempt to stop her from regaining her seat back!   

If that many out of state billionaires are scared of her, isn't that all the credentials you need to elect her?   Isn't that EXACTLY who you want sticking up for you in the Capitol?  

Here is Mandy's website and Facebook page.   Check them both out, send her a few dollars and by all means give her some of your time!   

Please Send Mandy Wright back to Madison, if anyone will fight for us all, she will!!



1 comment:

  1. the thing about your blog is, it is not hard to find scum to talk about and jensen is one of the worst. good Luck to Mandy and sorry I am not in her district.

    ReplyDelete