OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) – Oshkosh Mayor Lori Palmeri has entered the ring to seek the Democratic Party nomination to run for the 54th Assembly District seat being vacated by Rep. Gordon Hintz.
“Oshkosh citizens have made it clear, time and again, that they want their state government to be focused on job creation, tax fairness, fully funding our schools,
preserving our environment, and protecting our right to vote,” Palmeri said in a statement Monday. “I will carry that message to Madison and make it heard. To the citizens of Oshkosh, I say this: I will be your voice in Madison.”
Palmeri said that her main priorities as a State Representative will be:
– Bringing high wage, family supporting jobs to Oshkosh
– Improving the state’s health care options
– Environmental protection
Palmeri has been part of the city council since 2016, being elected mayor in 2019 and 2021.
“It’s been a pleasure to be able to contact Gordon’s office on local issues that overlap with state issues and reliably expect a return call and follow up,” Palmeri told WTAQ News. “And that’s what I’d like to continue is that kind of responsiveness just as I have over the last 6 years on the city council and most recent years as mayor. That responsiveness, and getting the voice of Oshkosh in Madison to have that reliability and dependability, is important and critical.”
That responsiveness was put on display when WTAQ called Palmeri. We received a call back within just minutes of leaving a voicemail.
“Being available and working through some of the nuts and bolts of how to get answers, really it is a style of service. I’ve been humbly honored to do that at the city level, and ready to take it to the next level,” Palmeri added. “I have served on at least a dozen different boards and commissions, both in the city and in the private sector, nonprofit. The experience at that local level, I think, is pretty important.”
Oshkosh City Councilman Aaron Wojciechowski is also bidding for the Democratic nomination. He previously served on the Winnebago County Board, and unsuccessfully ran for the 18th State Senate District seat against Republican Dan Feyen in 2020.
“I’m very much running on the idea that it’s time for a new generation of leadership, because we have this kind of older crowd in the legislature. I think we have this opportunity to like someone younger, like myself, and someone with more diverse qualities,” Wojciechowski told WTAQ News. “I think I have the experience and the resources to actually win this seat, so that’s one of the many reasons why I’m running.”
Wojciechowski calls Hintz a mentor, and says he’s one of the first local elected officials he met after arriving in Oshkosh in 2015.
“He was one of the people who inspired me to want to run…and someone that I used for inspiration when it comes to having the courage to fight for a lot of these things,” Wojciechowski said. “What I would carry over from him is that spirit. He was very outspoken and not afraid to talk about the issues and challenges Republicans on what they’re doing…We might differ on the solutions to different topics, notably marijuana legalization. I don’t think he was as vocal about it, and I know that’s one where I would take the lead on.”
As for the primary competition, they’re both looking forward to a friendly race.
“We’re colleagues and we’re friends. She was one of the first people I had told prior to announcing that I was going to run, and she told me the same,” he said. “Think of it not us running against each other, but us running with each other, because really we’re going to be fighting for a lot of the same ideas and having a lot of the same values and morals…Where we differ is my experience in running for office and being in office, and just my life experiences being a young person of color – LGBTQ and Hispanic – those are a lot of great qualities that people in the district will connect with.”
“Aaron and I have a very cordial and well-acquainted relationship. We’ve consulted each other on a variety of topics and resolutions going back to even when he was on the County Board,” Palmeri said.
Wojciechowski calls Palmeri a ‘great candidate’ and says if she wins the primary, she would have his full support.
“”We have a good relationship, and I wish him luck as well,” she responded.
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