Michael McCabe (Wisconsin)

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Michael McCabe

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

August 14, 2018

Education

High school

Owen-Withee High School

Bachelor's

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Contact

Campaign Facebook

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Michael McCabe (Democratic Party) ran for election for Governor of Wisconsin. He lost in the Democratic primary on August 14, 2018.

Biography

As of his entry into the 2018 gubernatorial election, McCabe was the president of Blue Jean Nation, a nonprofit group he founded in 2015 which describes its mission as "to promote the transformation of democratic institutions that are failing America and reinvigorate our republic through community outreach, civic education and engagement, grassroots organizing, public policy advocacy and social action." Prior to that, McCabe served as president of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign between 1999 and 2014, where he was involved with public relations, long-term planning, and membership initiatives. Before joining the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, McCabe worked for six years as the communications director and legislative liaison at the Madison Metropolitan School District.

Education

• Owen-Withee High School (1978)
• B.A. in journalism and political science - University of Wisconsin at Madison (1982)

Elections

2018

See also: Wisconsin gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2018 and Wisconsin gubernatorial election, 2018 (August 14 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for Governor of Wisconsin

The following candidates ran in the general election for Governor of Wisconsin on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Tony Evers (D)	49.5	1,324,307
		Scott Walker (R)	48.4	1,295,080
		Phillip Anderson (L)	0.8	20,225
		Maggie Turnbull (Independent)	0.7	18,884
		Michael White (G)	0.4	11,087
		Arnie Enz (The Wisconsin Party)	0.1	2,745
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	980

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,673,308
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Governor of Wisconsin

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for Governor of Wisconsin on August 14, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Tony Evers	41.8	225,082
		Mahlon Mitchell	16.3	87,926
		Kelda Roys	12.8	69,086
		Kathleen Vinehout	8.2	44,168
		Michael McCabe	7.4	39,885
		Matthew Flynn	5.9	31,580
		Paul Soglin	5.2	28,158
		Andy Gronik	1.2	6,627
		Dana Wachs	0.8	4,216
		Josh Pade	0.4	1,908

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 538,636
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Bob Harlow (D)
• Michele Doolan (D)
• Andrew Lust (D)
• Jeff Rumbaugh (D)
• Ramona Whiteaker (D)
• Mike Crute (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Governor of Wisconsin

Incumbent Scott Walker defeated Robert Meyer in the Republican primary for Governor of Wisconsin on August 14, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Scott Walker	91.6	417,276
	Submit photo	Robert Meyer	8.4	38,269

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 455,545
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Ryan Cason (R)

Green primary election

Green primary for Governor of Wisconsin

Michael White advanced from the Green primary for Governor of Wisconsin on August 14, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michael White	100.0	817

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 817
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Libertarian primary election

Libertarian primary for Governor of Wisconsin

Phillip Anderson advanced from the Libertarian primary for Governor of Wisconsin on August 14, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Phillip Anderson	100.0	1,673

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,673
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign themes

2018

Campaign website

The following themes were found on McCabe's official campaign website.

“	McCabe: I Won't Live in Governor's Mansion once Elected Wisconsin governor candidate Mike McCabe announced today that he will decline to live in the Governor’s Mansion if elected but will leave it up to the people of the state to decide what to do with the residence. “Governors should be servants, not masters. To me, that means a governor is under the people, not above them,” McCabe said. “It doesn’t seem right to move into a 20,000-square-foot mansion in the name of public service. I’ve never lived in a mansion in my life and getting elected to represent the people is no reason to start.” He went on to say: “We have a poisoned political culture that glorifies greed and dooms us to a government and economy that work great for the rich and powerful at everyone else’s expense. Concern for the common good has fallen out of fashion. Genuine public service has given way to a lot of back scratching, nest feathering and ladder climbing. Bringing back true public service for the common good requires leadership by example.” If elected, McCabe will continue to live in the 1,400-square-foot home he shares with his wife and teenage son. He won’t decide the future of the Governor’s Mansion, however. “The house belongs to the people of Wisconsin. Let the people decide what to do with it,” he said. “If they want it sold, it should be sold. If they want to keep it for some future governor to live in, it should be kept. If they want to turn it into a museum, then that’s what should happen. Hell, if they want to make it into an Airbnb, it’s up to the them.” McCabe Won't Accept Full Salary of Governor once Elected Wisconsin governor candidate Mike McCabe announced today at a rally in La Crosse that if elected he will insist on an annual salary that is one dollar less than the average Wisconsin worker makes in a year.... The current salary of the governor is $147,328 a year. According to the most recent figures available from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average wage in Wisconsin is in the neighborhood of $45,000 annually, or less than a third of the governor’s salary. McCabe previously announced he will not live in the Governor’s Mansion if elected. “Governors should be servants, not masters. That’s why I won’t live in the mansion once elected and won’t accept the full salary of the governor. I’ll be paid one dollar less than the average Wisconsin worker makes,” he said. If state law or administrative procedures prevent the salary of the governor from being adjusted to reflect his commitment, McCabe will either return the excess amount of salary to the state treasury or donate it to charity. McCabe to Lead by Example on Money in Politics Wisconsin governor candidate Mike McCabe announced today that he will not accept any single donation of more than $200 for his campaign, despite state law allowing candidates for governor in Wisconsin to take $20,000 checks from individuals and $86,000 donations from political action committees. “These huge donations that flow so freely in our elections amount to legal bribes. I cannot in good conscience accept them,” McCabe said. “Our campaign is going to have to be people-powered and crowd-funded.” Supporters will be allowed to give more than once but not more than $200 at a time and no more than a total of $1,000 for the entire campaign. America’s political system is fueled – and corrupted – by large donations from a tiny sliver of the public. A mere one-half of 1 percent of the U.S. population make political donations of more than $200, but those contributions account for more than two-thirds of all the money given to candidates. “There is risk involved in taking this stand against the influence of big money. But there is an even greater risk if everyone keeps going along with the corrupt way election campaigns are regularly being funded. If big money rules again in the next election for governor, some candidate will win but the people will lose,” McCabe said. “If money decides the election, the people will continue to be stuck with elected representatives who scratch the backs of those who scratched theirs, and our government will continue to be controlled by the wealthy and well-connected. Breaking free of this trap involves risk. It requires faith and the courage of conviction,” he said. “Political insiders will call this unilateral disarmament. No, it’s acting on principle. The insiders say you have to spend four or five hours a day begging rich people for money if you want to be taken seriously. That’s exactly what has gotten us into the mess we’re in.” In 1995 McCabe was a founding member of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan watchdog group that specializes in tracking the money in state elections and works to make people matter more than money in politics. He led the group for 15 years as its director and during that time exposed money’s influence and called out wrongdoing by state officials, earning a reputation as a leading government whistleblower and one of the nation’s best political money trackers. Before the Democracy Campaign came along, the only way to see who was donating to elected officials and candidates for office was to travel to the old state Elections Board office in Madison and personally examine mountains of paper reports. The Democracy Campaign entered all of the information on those reports into an electronic database and published it online, making it vastly easier to follow the money in Wisconsin politics. For its efforts under Mike’s leadership, the Democracy Campaign was named the Citizen Openness Advocate of the Year in 2012 by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Change One Word in State Law and Make BadgerCare an Option for All Badgers, McCabe Proposes Speaking at the March for Health in La Crosse’s Cameron Park, governor candidate Mike McCabe called for a one-word change in state law to make Wisconsin’s whole population eligible to get health insurance through the BadgerCare program. “BadgerCare should be there for all Badgers who want or need it. What government does needs to be done for our whole society, not just a few,” McCabe said. “BadgerCare provides excellent insurance coverage and is affordable. It should be a public option that anyone in the state could choose in the insurance marketplace.” BadgerCare is Wisconsin’s version of Medicaid but existing state law has restrictive requirements including income limits that make only the poor, elderly and disabled eligible to enroll. Changing a single word in state law would allow BadgerCare to be listed as one of the options on the health insurance exchange that currently only includes private insurance plans, McCabe said. State law now says “An individual is eligible to purchase coverage...if all of the following apply:” and goes on to list the requirements. Changing the word “all” to “any” would open up BadgerCare to the general population. No one would be required to enroll, but anyone could if they choose to, McCabe said. Analysis done by the health care advocacy group Citizen Action of Wisconsin estimates that BadgerCare’s cost is on average 23 percent lower than other policies in the health insurance market. It also covers 100 percent of medical expenses, unlike many plans with sky-high deductibles and co-payments that leave patients paying for much of their care out of pocket. “Getting everyone in Wisconsin access to high-quality and affordable medical insurance not only will make our state healthier but also will stimulate the economy,” McCabe said. “There are so many people out there with great ideas for a new business who’ve dreamed of starting their own company but can’t leave a job that provides insurance for their families. If they could access BadgerCare, many could go ahead and start that new business.” McCabe Advances Clean Government Blueprint Wisconsin governor candidate Mike McCabe today put forward a comprehensive plan for freeing state government from the clutches of cronyism, corruption and what amounts to legal bribery of state officials. “Wisconsin was once known from coast to coast as a beacon of clean, open and honest government. Our state no longer deserves that reputation. I want a Wisconsin that is worthy of it again,” McCabe said. Once elected, McCabe will seek approval of a package of reforms to: Create full disclosure of political donations and election spending, and set tighter limits on campaign contributions that are a quarter of what current state law allows. Update Wisconsin’s conflict of interest law to prevent state public officials from taking actions benefiting donors who have contributed more than $1,000 to their campaign committees or spent more than $5,000 on election advertising favoring the officials. Take redistricting out of the hands of elected officials who stand to benefit from the legislative district boundaries they draw and assign the task to an independent, nonpartisan legislative service agency in a process modeled after Iowa’s system. Restore independent oversight of elections and government ethics by replacing party-affiliated elections and ethics commissioners with a nonpartisan agency headed by a board whose members cannot belong to a political party and cannot endorse or financially support candidates for partisan office. Bring back civil service protections for government hiring to ensure those getting state positions are chosen based on what they know and not who they know. Repeal discriminatory voter suppression measures such as Wisconsin’s Voter ID law. In the mid-1990s, McCabe helped start the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan watchdog group that focuses on exposing the influence of big money in state government and works to make people matter more than money in politics. He led the group for 15 years as its director. For its efforts under McCabe’s leadership, the Democracy Campaign was named the Citizen Openness Advocate of the Year in 2012 by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He left the Democracy Campaign at the end of 2014 to start Blue Jean Nation, a grassroots citizens group working to organize people locally to challenge the political establishment to change its ways. As a candidate for governor, McCabe is leading by example by refusing to accept any single donation of more than $200 for his campaign, despite state law allowing candidates for governor in Wisconsin to take $20,000 checks from individuals and $86,000 donations from political action committees. Supporters are allowed to give more than once but not more than $200 at a time and no more than a total of $1,000 for the entire campaign. Make state pension system an option for everyone in the state, McCabe proposes Speaking at a meeting of the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, governor candidate Mike McCabe said Wisconsin’s entire population should be eligible to participate in the state’s retirement system..... “What government does needs to be done for our whole society, not just a few. The closer we can get to the point where everyone pays and everyone benefits from what government does, the better off we all will be,” McCabe said. “In keeping with its name, the Wisconsin Retirement System should offer retirement security to all of Wisconsin. Employees and employers in every sector of the economy should be able to buy into the WRS, not only the public sector.” Currently, about 600,000 people are eligible to participate in the Wisconsin Retirement System, or only about one-eighth of the adult population of the state. “Wisconsin has one of the most financially sound retirement systems in the country. Making participation an option for everyone in Wisconsin would make it even stronger,” McCabe said. “More people invested in the system means even greater financial stability. It also means more people with a stake in sustaining the retirement fund and defending it against political attacks. Social Security has lasted for more than 80 years because every working American pays for it and everyone stands to benefit.” Employers in the private sector who want to provide a retirement benefit to employees should have the WRS as an option and so should those who are self-employed and want to set aside money for their own retirement, McCabe said. No one should be required to participate, but everyone should be eligible to buy into the system, he added. McCabe charts 5-year path to living wage for all workers Wisconsin governor candidate Mike McCabe today put forward a plan for yearly increases in the state’s minimum wage that take into account differences in the cost of living across the state, with the earnings floor reaching $15 an hour once fully phased in after five years. After that, the wage would be adjusted for inflation each year to keep pace with the cost of living. Turning the minimum wage into a living wage will have ripple effects up and down the wage scale, also boosting wages for those currently earning above the minimum. Putting more money in the pockets of workers will stoke consumer demand and stimulate the economy. “Wisconsin’s goal should be nothing less than an economy where if you work you won’t be poor,” McCabe said, noting that so far in the 21st Century no state has seen more shrinkage of its middle class than Wisconsin. “Low wages are a killer for our economy. They suppress consumer demand and inhibit sales.” A key feature of McCabe’s proposal is regional flexibility that recognizes the cost of living is higher in some parts of the state than in others, with the new minimum wage pegged to the average wage in each of Wisconsin’s 20 metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The most recent BLS figures show average wages for the state’s metro and nonmetro areas range from just over $18 per hour to nearly $26.50 per hour. In the first year, McCabe’s plan raises Wisconsin’s minimum wage from the current $7.25 per hour to $9.50 per hour to put Wisconsin’s wage on a par with neighboring states. The second year, the wage floor goes up to $10.50 per hour or 55% of the area average, whichever is less. Based on current BLS figures, the wage would be around $9.90 per hour in Wisconsin’s lowest wage area. In the third year, the minimum wage is raised to the lower of $12 per hour or 60% of the area average, generating an earnings floor of roughly $10.80 per hour in the state’s lowest wage area. The fourth year, the wage is boosted to $13.50 per hour or 65% of the area average. The minimum in the lowest wage area would be about $11.70 per hour. In year five, Wisconsin’s minimum wage goes to $15 an hour or two-thirds of the area average, with yearly adjustments for inflation thereafter. In the lowest wage area, the earnings floor would be in the vicinity of $12.10 per hour based on current BLS figures. Under McCabe’s plan, employers are allowed to pay employees 17 years of age or younger 85% of the new minimum wage. McCabe proposes test run for basic income program Wisconsin governor candidate Mike McCabe said today once elected he would move to start a small-scale pilot program to test whether establishing a Basic Income for vulnerable workers could help ensure that everyone shares in Wisconsin’s future economic growth, making Wisconsin a state-level testing ground for moving nationally toward expansion of Social Security eligibility to all age groups. The experiment is needed to prepare for the future as the global economy rapidly transitions to industry providing less human employment, with automated factories and roboticized production and driverless vehicles and artificial intelligence making many jobs of the past disappear. Wisconsin is especially vulnerable as the state’s economy relied more on heavy manufacturing than most states, and manufacturing employment here has been on the decline. Tech titans Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson and others have called for creating a Universal Basic Income (UBI) because of the severe job losses that will inevitably accompany the application of new technologies in manufacturing and other industries. A few nations and communities in the U.S. are experimenting with the concept, but McCabe’s proposal would make Wisconsin the first state in this country to test it. “We can’t afford to stick our heads in the sand about how the economy is changing. Robots are here. Driverless vehicles are coming. Many of yesterday’s jobs are in jeopardy today and are going to be gone tomorrow,” McCabe said. “Working people aren’t blind, they can see what’s coming. It’s why most Americans believe our kids will be worse off than their parents. That bleak future can be avoided if we renegotiate the social contract. Totally new approaches to maintaining social stability and cohesion in an increasingly jobless economy are going to have to be considered. The sooner we figure out which approaches work best, the better. We’re all in this together.” McCabe’s proposal calls for a $9-million-a-year program for 1,000 participants, with 500 people receiving a Basic Income of $1,000 a month and another 500 individuals receiving $500 per month for comparison purposes. The experiment will evaluate how participants fare economically compared to the rest of the state’s population. “If it has a positive impact, great. This could pave the way to Social Security for All nationally. If it doesn’t work or it has too many negative side effects, then we take what we learn and develop better ways to create economic and social stability so no one is left behind,” McCabe said. McCabe calls for ending 2 state subsidies benfiting select few to invest in community prosperity Wisconsin governor candidate Mike McCabe today suggested a rule of thumb for evaluating government spending priorities that should be applied when the next state budget is put together to free up funding for needed investments to empower working people in Wisconsin. “If a program works, keep it and fund it. If it doesn’t work, get rid of it,” McCabe said. “By that standard, the state’s corporate welfare office should be closed and taxpayer-subsidized private schooling should end.” Phasing out Wisconsin’s school voucher program and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation would save close to $700 million in Wisconsin’s two-year budget that could be used to make education and job training more affordable and bring high-speed Internet to parts of the state currently lacking access. Two other measures McCabe favors to empower working people involve no additional state spending and can be done without creating any new program or state bureaucracy. These include boosting wages by turning the state’s minimum wage into a living wage and expanding access to health care by changing a single word in state law to make nearly every state resident eligible to get affordable health insurance through the BadgerCare program. Handing out state-funded subsidies that make taxpayers pick up the tab for more than 33,000 Wisconsin students to attend private schools will cost the state in the neighborhood of $580 million over the next two years. Nearly 900,000 students attend public schools in Wisconsin. When the voucher program was started in 1990, it was pitched as a way to boost student achievement, improve school quality and give families more educational choices. Test scores and other indicators mostly show voucher students are not doing any better than those attending public schools and by some measures are actually doing worse. Overall school quality in Wisconsin has slipped. Most families receiving vouchers already were privately schooling their children before receiving vouchers, shooting a hole in the argument that the program provides choices that didn’t previously exist. “This private school subsidy program has been around for 27 years and has failed to deliver the promised results. Student achievement hasn’t increased. Wisconsin’s education system has not been made better, it’s been made worse. Families aren’t getting more choices, taxpayers are mostly just subsidizing the decisions some families already were making and previously were paying for themselves,” McCabe said. “Resources are being siphoned away from community schools, weakening them badly, especially in rural areas of the state. After all these years, it’s clear the voucher experiment hasn’t worked. We shouldn’t throw good money after bad. We should pull the plug on this failed subsidy.” The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation was created in 2011 to promote new business start-ups. WEDC’s budget is slightly more than $50 million a year, or over $100 million for the next two-year state budget. Wisconsin has ranked last in the nation in new business start-ups for the last three straight years. A 2015 audit of WEDC was harshly critical of the agency’s financial management and internal operations. A subsequent 2017 audit concluded that WEDC couldn’t account for the number of jobs its assistance programs had helped create or retain. “WEDC is a train wreck. It’s done a lousy job of keeping track of taxpayer money and has had chronic internal management problems. But most importantly, it has failed in its mission. Its purpose is to promote new business start-ups and Wisconsin is dead last in the nation in new business start-ups three years running,” McCabe said. “Why flush more money down this toilet? There are so many better uses for the funds being wasted on WEDC.” Under McCabe’s streamlining plan, three existing agencies – the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and the Department of Workforce Development – would share responsibility for business development efforts and protecting the economic interests of the people of Wisconsin.	”
—Commoners for McCabe

See also

• Governor of Wisconsin
• Wisconsin gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2018
• Wisconsin gubernatorial election, 2018 (August 14 Democratic primary)

External links

Suggest a link

• Office of the Governor of Wisconsin
• Mike McCabe for Governor
• Mike McCabe for Governor - Facebook
• Mike McCabe for Governor - Twitter
• Mike McCabe for Governor - Youtube
• Mike McCabe - LinkedIn