Press Release from the Committee to Elect Phil Atwood:
Phil Atwood, a local community volunteer and restaurant manager from West Bend, has announced his intention to seek the 20th district State Senator position being vacated by Glenn Grothman. While a crowded field shapes up for the Republican primary, Atwood will instead seek the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin nomination to compete in the special election, expected to be held in the spring of 2015.
Semi-retired after many years as a manager at the Culvers restaurant in West Bend, Atwood originally grew up in Wauwatosa and Big Cedar Lake, before graduating from UW-Oshkosh and starting his own small business. He is also a volunteer member of the Washington County Red Cross disaster response team, a role that recently led him to assist with providing emergency aid to those evacuated from a large hazardous material spill in Slinger.
Atwood says he shares the smaller-government sensibilities that dominate politics in the conservative 20th district, but he doesn’t see cause for hope in either of the factions competing for control of Wisconsin’s Republican party. Also, like most observers, he dismisses the possibility that a Democratic candidate can be viable in the district.
“There is real demand to have average citizens in the state legislature, not just establishment cronies and narrow-minded ideologues,” insists Atwood. “Someone who knows what it’s like to try to make ends meet in the private sector and live on a modest income, and how government gets in the way of that. A legislator who recognizes the difference between being business-friendly and giving away taxpayer’s money to special interests, who isn’t interested in being a divisive culture warrior, and who hasn’t spent their whole life campaigning for one election after another.”
The 63-year-old’s penchant for bucking the norm in politics started early, having voted for Shirley Chisholm in 1972 and John Anderson in 1980 in their historic long-shot bids for the White House. He says in most years since then, he has voted for the Libertarian candidates on his ballot, including Rep. Ron Paul in 1988 and Gov. Gary Johnson in 2012. It’s a unique perspective he hopes to take to Madison, as the state’s first Libertarian member of the Legislature.
“I think the Libertarian Party brings a dose of common-sense that is missing from the establishment parties. Most voters agree that you want a restrained government that doesn’t cost too much and lets people make their own decisions about their lives, and they want long-overdue reforms like term limits and serious anti-corruption laws. I look forward to taking this message to the voters in this election.”
The Libertarian Party is Wisconsin’s third-largest and fastest-growing political party, advocating views widely described as fiscally conservative and socially tolerant, with a focus on individual liberty and shrinking the size and scope of government. Thanks to the party’s performance in the 2014 elections, a Libertarian column with Atwood’s name will also appear on primary election ballots.
I should have said so the first time, but that too!
Good luck to him!
AC:
Incidentally, nothing wrong with posting press releases here yourself even if you wrote them, if they are for LPWI or an LP campaign. The non-editorializing rule would only apply to something you write as an individual, in which case one of our other writers can post it.
Thanks for the post. This will be, unless another vacancy and special election arises, the only partisan election in Wisconsin in 2015. As Phil’s campaign manager, I feel good about the conversations with him about where we want to take the campaign.
Also, other state parties should perhaps take note that we found a candidate through a public appeal to party members. This is something I think state parties should be doing more of when internal efforts to recruit a candidate fail, particularly in special elections. If you’re upfront with people about “We want a nominee for this district, and it will take X number of petition signatures to get on the ballot.”, then local members who haven’t necessarily been active or on the radar before will step forward.