Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike McCabe talks rural connections, open government on campus

In a continuation of their Coffee with Candidates event series, the UW-Madison College Democrats hosted Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike McCabe at Coffee Bytes on Tuesday.

McCabe, a longtime reform activist and founder of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, an open government watchdog, talked to a group of about 20 on issues he said were important in his decision to run.

Among those issues was connecting with voters who may not make up the traditional base of a Democratic gubernatorial campaign in Wisconsin.

“I’m the one candidate in the race, as a matter of fact, who was born and raised on a farm,” McCabe said. “And that’s actually important because we are not going to get a new governor, and we are not going to put Democrats in a position of governing this state, unless we can win in places outside of Milwaukee and Madison.”

McCabe reminisced on the days when his hometown in Clark County was represented solidly by Democrats, though in 2014, it voted more overwhelmingly for Gov. Scott Walker than any other county in the state.

A UW-Madison journalism graduate, McCabe’s career was largely spent building the Democracy Campaign — a nonpartisan group that tracks, researches and publicizes the financial contributions and lobbying activity of political groups in the state.

McCabe has sought to continue that work and has emphasized taking on what he sees as privileged special interests as a priority of his campaign.

“We’re not going to get clean air and clean water from dirty politics, we’re not going to get good health care from a sick political system, we’re not going to get a living wage from a dying democracy, and we’re not going to get anything more than thoughts and prayers after every new mass shooting when our elected officials are paid to take no other action,” McCabe said.

Taking on nine other serious contenders for the Democratic nomination for governor, McCabe will seek to build momentum and name recognition as August’s primary approaches.

Samantha Nesovanovic contributed to this report.