Hintz emerges as potential leader
Oshkosh representative wants to replace Barca, run Assembly Democrats
MADISON - Oshkosh Democrat Gordon Hintz said Friday he would run to replace Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, who announced this week he was stepping down.
In an interview, Hintz said that Democrats have to communicate to voters from rural regions to Milwaukee how his party can make their lives better.
“I’m a believer in a broad appeal,” said Hintz, a member of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee. “I think Democrats can explain what they’re doing to provide opportunity.”
Hintz would be the first new leader for Assembly Democrats during the tenure of Gov. Scott Walker, a period in which Republicans have racked up victory after victory on the legislative floor and at the ballot box.
Several other Democrats, including Rep. Chris Taylor of Madison, have been mentioned as potential candidates but so far none has committed to a run.
Taylor said Friday that she would not run for the post, saying she was “excited to support Gordon Hintz.” Rep. Evan Goyke (D-Milwaukee), who unsuccessfully challenged Barca in 2014, said Friday he was also backing Hintz.
Barca, a former congressman from Kenosha, announced Thursday he was leaving his leadership post after a lengthy private meeting of Assembly Democrats outside the state Capitol. Barca has been in the role for 61⁄2 years — a challenging period for his party.
Those involved in and familiar with the discussions said fellow Democrats told Barca Thursday that they had become frustrated with him, with some showing a willingness to quickly vote on whether to keep him as their leader.
The challenge to Barca’s leadership followed his decision last month to vote for a deal struck by Walker with Foxconn Technology Group, a Taiwanese company that has agreed to build an up to $10 billion plant near Barca’s district. The flat-screen display plant could employ thousands in exchange for up to $2.85 billion in cash from Wisconsin taxpayers.
Most Democrats — including Hintz — oppose the package because of its price tag and because of provisions in the deal that would exempt the company from some environmental rules.
“This afternoon I made the very difficult decision to step down as leader of the Assembly following deliberate, thoughtful discussions,” Barca said in a statement Thursday. “We ended our discussion this afternoon with a very constructive strategy session and are very focused on the work we must do to improve Gov. (Scott) Walker’s short-sighted budget.”
Assembly Democrats have been increasingly concerned about the lack of effectiveness of their caucus, with many feeling the group often failed to have a unified strategy in floor debates.
Many of Barca’s colleagues were comfortable with his support for the Foxconn package but were bothered by how closely he had worked with Republican leaders on the issue, said one person familiar with Thursday’s meeting. That person and others spoke on the condition they not be named because of the sensitivity of the meeting.
Another person said the Foxconn bill played only a small role in members’ frustration with Barca, describing it as a symptom rather than a cause of their dissatisfaction with him.
Walker tweaked Democrats in a tweet Friday that touted the up to 13,000 jobs that could come out of Foxconn’s liquid display factory.
At the ballot box, Barca had little to no success in winning legislative seats in districts that were drawn by Republicans. In November, Republicans won a 64-35 seat majority in the Assembly, their largest in that house since 1957.
Barca had played a prominent role in leading Democrats in his house during the massive 2011 labor protests against Walker’s legislation repealing most collective bargaining for most public employees. The Democratic leader marshaled a more than 61-hour continuous floor debate in an unsuccessful effort to kill the bill.
Toward the end of that debate, Hintz reacted to a vote by telling then GOP Rep. Michelle Litjens that she was “(expletive) dead,” a statement that Litjens later said she took to be a political threat rather than a personal one. Hintz later apologized to Litjens, who is now engaged to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester).
Only days before that February 2011 incident, Hintz had been cited by Appleton police in connection with an investigation of the Heavenly Touch Massage Parlor there for prostitution. Hintz pleaded no contest to the citation and apologized for the incident at the time, calling it a “bad decision in my personal life that was out of character for me.”
Outside politics, Hintz is a member of the American Air Guitar Hall of Fame, taking second in the 2003 national air guitar championships under the stage name of “Krye Tuff.”
Could there be an air guitar solo to celebrate a successful leadership bid?
“It is always there if needed,” Hintz said by text message.