The Centrist Independent Voter Political Action Committee endorses Rick Crosson in the August 11 Democratic primary for Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District.
The winner will face Republican Representative Tony Wied in a district that currently favors Republicans. Democratic voters should therefore consider not only which candidate most closely reflects their own views, but also which candidate has the experience, temperament and broader appeal required to present a credible alternative in the general election.
Crosson is the strongest choice.
A Lifetime of Service and Management
Crosson served for two decades in the United States Army, retiring as a lieutenant colonel and master Army aviator. His assignments included surveillance missions along the Iron Curtain and service as a military liaison in Mexico.
After leaving the Army, he spent nearly 20 years in transportation and logistics, including work at Schneider National and leadership of a Wisconsin trucking company. He later served on the Green Bay Area Board of Education and on community boards involving libraries, education and the YMCA.
That is an unusually useful résumé for Congress.
Crosson understands the military, international cooperation, business operations, transportation, workforce management and local government. His experience has required him to make decisions, manage people and accept responsibility for results rather than merely advocate positions.
A Practical Approach to Immigration
Crosson offers a sensible combination of border security and immigration reform.
He supports a lawful, well-resourced border; stronger action against trafficking and fentanyl smuggling; faster processing of legal immigration applications; modernized agricultural visas; due process; and an earned path to legal status for people who have lived, worked and contributed in the United States.
That position recognizes realities frequently ignored by both parties.
An uncontrolled border undermines public confidence and the rule of law. But Wisconsin farms, food processors and manufacturers also depend on immigrant labor, and a legal system that leaves applicants waiting for years is not functioning properly. Enforcement and legal immigration reform must proceed together.
Crosson’s willingness to defend lawful immigration and agricultural visas is particularly appropriate for northeastern Wisconsin.
Military Experience and Executive Accountability
Crosson has criticized the Trump administration’s handling of military conflict and argued that the public deserves strategy and accountability rather than political performance. His military background does not automatically make every foreign-policy judgment correct, but it gives him a practical understanding of the consequences when civilian leaders deploy military power without clearly explaining their objectives.
Congress badly needs members who understand both national defense and the constitutional obligation to oversee the executive branch.
Crosson’s campaign emphasizes service, integrity and accountability. Those words can become campaign clichés, but his military, business and school-board experience gives them greater credibility than they would otherwise possess.
The Alternatives
Mark Scheffler, who is also a candidate for this position, is an intelligent and unusually imaginative candidate. He has developed detailed proposals rather than limiting himself to familiar slogans. But there was a reason Edmund Burke advised against dramatic changes in institutional structures. There are often potentially catastrophic consequences.
His signature tax proposal is a case in point. It is too sweeping and economically risky for CIVPAC to support.
Scheffler proposes replacing much of the federal tax system with a tax on essentially every transaction in the American economy. Even at a seemingly small rate, a tax imposed repeatedly as money moves through supply chains, financial markets, bank accounts and ordinary commerce would create cumulative costs, avoidance incentives and potentially enormous disruption. A proposal to reconstruct the federal revenue system on that basis requires far more evidence than Scheffler has provided.
Katrina deVille, on the other hand, openly identifies as a democratic socialist and supports a $22 federal minimum wage, universal health care, free childcare and filing articles of impeachment against President Trump on her first day in Congress. Those positions place her far outside CIVPAC’s range.
Crosson’s program is less novel than Scheffler’s and less ideological than deVille’s. That is an advantage. Congress needs practical reform more than another grand theory.
Health Care, Agriculture and the Cost of Living
Crosson emphasizes health-care affordability, prescription-drug prices, rural hospitals, veterans’ services, housing and the economic pressure on family farms.
He supports Medicare drug-price negotiations, clearer medical pricing and limits on insurer practices such as excessive prior-authorization requirements. He also supports stronger competition in agriculture and the right of farmers to repair their own equipment.
CIVPAC would approach some of these issues differently. We prefer reforms that preserve competition, improve incentives and avoid broad price controls. But Crosson’s focus on the interaction among prices, access and market concentration is legitimate, and his experience in logistics and transportation gives him useful insight into supply chains and rural economic pressures.
Our Reservations
Crosson remains a center-left Democrat rather than a centrist.
His campaign uses familiar language about price gouging and placing a heavier tax burden on the wealthy without providing enough detail about definitions, rates or economic consequences. “Price gouging” is too often used to justify price controls that reduce supply and make shortages worse.
His health-care platform describes medical care as a right but does not yet explain the complete financing and delivery system he would support. We are in general opposed to defining any good or service as a right. Providing a good or service publicly may sometimes be good public policy but it demeans the concept of political rights to describe goods or services as rights.
He should also provide more detail about federal spending, the national debt, trade policy, Ukraine, NATO and the standards he would apply to the use of American military force.
The Best Candidate for the General Election
Rick Crosson has served his country, managed businesses and participated in local government. He understands that institutions must produce results and that leadership requires more than ideological certainty.
His immigration position is both enforceable and humane. His military experience gives him a valuable perspective on national security and executive accountability. His business and school-board experience should help him communicate with voters who might not ordinarily consider a Democratic candidate.
Center-left is better than far-left. Practical experience is better than an untested attempt to reconstruct the entire federal tax system.
CIVPAC endorses Rick Crosson in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District.