29th Senate District
Candidate Look would undo Act 10, fix Wisconsin’s highways
Bob Look, a Democrat from Rothschild and a former radio broadcaster, is running against Mosinee businessman Cory Tomczyk, a Republican, for the 29th District state senate seat vacated by the retiring Jerry Petrowski, Marathon.
Look, a native of South Milwaukee, grew up in a Polish blue collar household and, after graduating from South Milwaukee High School, enrolled in the Institute of Broadcast Arts, Milwaukee, to follow his lifelong ambition to be a radio broadcaster.
He started his on-air career with a 10year stint at WGLB, Port Washington. He worked as a radio host in Milwaukee and Peoria, Ill. before he was hired in Wausau to turn WDEZ from an easylistening to a country music station in 1988. After working in South Dakota, he returned to Wausau to host the Morning Show at WSAU in 1998. Later, he was a radio broadcaster in Madison, Wisconsin Rapids and on Relevant Radio, a Catholic radio station.
Look said his life changed when his wife, Dianne, a bank branch manager, was killed by a gunman on March 22, 2017.
Since that time, Look has worked part-time jobs, including being the announcer for the UW-Madison hockey team. He has been that team’s announcer for 25 years. Look belongs to no clubs or churches. He has no previous experience serving as a government official.
Look said that he is a common sense, not ideological candidate for office. He pledged to listen to opposing viewpoints in Madison and work towards compromise.
“Finger pointing and yelling won’t get the job done,” Look said.”You learn a lot more when you listen.”
Look said he supported Jerry Petrowski, a Republican. “I was at Jerry’s election party in 1988 for the assembly,” he said. “It came down to the wire and he just squeaked through. We’ve been friends ever since.”
Look said he supports having the state provide more aid to local units of government. He said state cutbacks to schools and municipalities have hurt services. “They’ve said no to the point where nothing works,” he said.
He charged Republicans in Madison of not helping local units of government “because they don’t want to give credit to the state executive of the other party. That’s just wrong.”
Look said the Republican gerrymandered shape of the 29th Senate District is absurd. “It takes three hours to drive from the top of the district to the southern tip,” he claimed. “We are choking on the poison of gerrymandering.”
The Democrat said he supports use of sin taxes on legalized marijuana and video poker to help fund government. Otherwise, he does not see any need to significantly change property, sales or income taxes.
On the environment, Look said he supports further regulation of farmers to control ag run-off. He said the state government should pay farmers for reducing pollution.
On abortion, Look said he supports codification of Roe vs. Wade by the state. He does not support the state’s current 1849 ban on abortion with an exception to save the life of the mother. “The legislature shouldn’t decide what a woman does with her own body and health,” he said. “It’s basic rights.”
Look said he is worried that opponents of abortion will also try to halt gay marriage and interracial marriage. “There is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” he said. “Why do so many people want other people to be unhappy?”
A “number one priority” should be using the state surplus to fix highways, such as STH 29.”We need to repair the higher traveled highways,” he said.
If elected, Look said he would vote to undo Act 10 and Right to Work legislation passed during the Walker administration. Act 10 neutered the power of government unions in Wisconsin. The Right to Work legislation allows workers in union shops not to pay union dues, if they don’t want to.
“This is the path to poverty,” he said. “They want to have the best people work jobs, but not pay them. If you are good at something, you should be paid.”
Look said he supports the current election system and believes it delivers fair and accurate results. “The last election was as fair as it could be,” he said.
The candidate said he doesn’t understand critics of the 2020 election who complained that Trump lost but never about the results of assembly or state senate races.
Look gives Gov. Evers credit for the way he handled the COVID-19 pandemic. “I can’t think of a better chief executive who followed the science looked after the health of the citizens than Tony Evers,” he said., “I compare him with Trump who said COVID-19 would disappear, that it would go away.”
In his road sign advertisements, Cory Tomczyk has one word to describe his political orientation: “conservative.”
Asked what one word described his politics, Look replied: “fair.”
Editor’s note: The Record-Review tried to contact Cory Tomczyk for an interview through his campaign webpage. The campaign did not return the message.
