Sen. Petrowski will leave big shoes to fill

During his more than 23-year career in the state legislature State Sen. Jerry Petrowski has been a quiet leader for central Wisconsin and particularly the rural communities in the state.

During his 14 years in the state assembly and nearly 10 years representing the region in the state senate, he has championed common sense and looked for solutions rather than scoring political points. Among the 160 bills that Petrowski authored that were signed into law were bipartisan measures to help farmers and loggers to keep these important rural economic engines going. He has championed the interests of local communities and has not been afraid to stand up to leaders within his own party when they strayed too far from serving the people.

This week Petrowski announced that he will not be seeking reelection and will retire from the state legislature at the end of his current term. This will be a loss, not only for the region, but for the state as a whole.

Central Wisconsin needs someone to stand up and be willing to step into those shoes and take up the yoke of leadership representing the interests of rural communities across the state. There is little doubt that party leadership on both sides of the aisle will attempt to install candidates who will toe the party line and happily or unwittingly follow leadership off the cliff of gotcha-last political gamesmanship. Voters in the 29th Senate District must not settle for who the powerbrokers in Madison want to fill the seat, but instead support candidates regardless of party who are willing to stand up for what is right for central Wisconsin and not just what is good for special interest lobby groups.

As the election season moves forward there will be candidates stepping forward to seek their party’s nomination for Petrowski’s seat. The partisan primary will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 9 with the general election on November 8. Between now and then, whoever is running must be able to convince voters that they have what it takes to take up where Petrowski is leaving off and continue to represent the people in the 91 towns, 26 villages, seven cities and 21 school districts that make up the 29th Senate District. Voters must demand nothing less than the highest quality of candidates who will place constituent needs above the politics-asusual gamesmanship that has turned the state capital into a cesspit in recent years.

Petrowski leaves big shoes to fill in his service to central Wisconsin. Hopefully high quality candidates will answer the call to service and step forward to fill those shoes.