Race For Veteran Fox Valley Senator’s Seat Could Be Close

One of three open state Senate seats that could determine whether Democrats take control of the Senate is in the Fox Valley, where a high-profile and long-serving senator is retiring.

Sen. Mike Ellis has been in the Senate since 1982, and most recently served as Senate president. University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh political scientist Jim Simmons said Ellis has been a mostly independent voice. However, Simmons also said scandals in recent years have tripped the senator up. Ellis criticized a Green Bay high school as having the “poverty possum.” Then, he was recorded discussing setting up a false political action committee to fight off a challenger, Democrat Penny Bernard Schaber.”

“Even before that happened he was caught on camera gaveling down women over an issue and telling them to sit down and shut up,” Simmons said. “Penny drew support among women’s groups, even some national women’s groups.”

Had Ellis decided to run against Schaber, Simmons thinks it would have been a tight race.

“I actually think Schaber might have had a better chance against Mike than Roger Roth,” he said.

Simmons described Roth, the Republican candidate in the race for Ellis’s seat, as a conservative who would consistently support Gov. Scott Walker’s agenda should he win a second term.

“He’s not as ‘colorful,’ let’s say, as Mike Ellis was,” said Simmons.

Roth co-owns a family contracting business, and served in the state Assembly from 2006 to 2010. Former longtime U.S. Congressman Toby Roth is his uncle.

The younger Roth said he’ll carry on Ellis’ independent streak, and that he is willing to cross party lines if need be.

“At the end of the day I’m charged with representing the people of the 19th Senate District,” he said. “That’s what they’re electing me to go down there (for). They’re not electing me to vote the way Madison does — they’ve already got representatives. Or to vote the way Milwaukee does — they’ve got theirs.”

If elected, Roth said one of his first priorities would be to change income guidelines so that people with disabilities can marry without losing health benefits.

“We’d have to see what income levels to set that to, but we just want to make sure an average couple who wants to get married, if one of them is totally and permanently disabled, (that) it’s not going to force them off Medicaid,” he said.

Voters in the 19th District supported Barack Obama in the last presidential election, so Democrats see it as winnable. Democratic candidate Penny Bernard Schaber, who has been in the Assembly since 2008, calls herself a moderate who’s willing to work with Republicans on things like transit and an electronics recycling bill.

She bristles at ads that she says lie about her record.

“Me taking a raise is actually factually incorrect and has been very much misrepresented,” said Schaber. “Now, my opponent was in office and actually did take a raise. For (Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce) to be pushing me around because I apparently take a raise — in their interpretation, they should be doing the same thing to the person they’re supporting, because he actually did take a raise.”

Schaber also disputes claims that she has raised taxes for all residents.

“I closed a corporate tax loophole and I increased income tax on high-end earners, but I did not increase taxes on the other people,” she said. “I did two things I said I would do in my campaign.”

Whichever candidate wins on Tuesday, political scientist Jim Simmons said that the Fox Valley will lose political clout with the powerful, colorful character of Mike Ellis no longer around.