Dick Ausman looks to unseat Tom Tiffany

By Peter Weinschenk,

The Record-Review Any political map of Wisconsin’s Seventh Congressional District is these days colored cranberry red.

That doesn’t deter Dick Ausman, a 61-year-old Democrat from Lac du Flambeau, from challenging hard-right Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in the upcoming Nov. 8 election.

Ausman, while not having anything close to Tiffany’s campaign war chest, says he will be the contest’s favorite because he has the issues on his side.

“I’m talking to a lot of Republicans and when they learn about Tom Tiffany’s record of voting they don’t like it,” he said. “Nine out of 10 people just don’t know his record. When they do, they don’t like it.”

Ausman, a Merrill native who attended UW-Madison, spent his career as a publisher of business publications, including Training, Presentations and Potential. Married with two daughters in college, he is a member of the Methodist Church. He has lived for 25 years on Big Crawling Stone Lake.

Ausman grew up in a Republican household but is now running as a Democrat because he no longer recognizes the GOP of his upbringing in the Trump era. He said old Republican legislators from his childhood would be considered Democrats these days.

Ausman said he would better represent Seventh District votes than Tiffany on a number of major issues:

n Health care. Ausman supports a Medicaid-forall, single payer health care system and faults Tiffany for voting against legislation that allows the federal government to cap the cost of medications, including insulin used by diabetics.

n Social Security. Ausman is in favor of removing the $147,000 income cap on FICA taxes that fund Social Security in order to bolster funding for the program. He noted that Tiffany supports privatization of Social Security. The candidate said that private investments can’t replace social insurance.”No matter how much you mess up in life, there is a safety net,” he said.

n Women’s rights. Ausman supports enactment of the Equal Rights Amendments for women and federal codification of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision regarding abortion. The candidate said women are justifiably angry that they are treated as “second class citizens.” He said Tiffany voted against keeping contraception legal. Ausman said this year’s Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court will, in time, give states the right not just to outlaw abortion but also vasectomies. “It will be guys, too, and guys won’t stand for it,” he said.

n Protecting the environment. Ausman said Tiffany, who receives campaign contributions from the Koch Brothers and mining interests, supports sulfide mining in northern Wisconsin and has earned his nickname “Toxic Tom.” He said a better way to power economic development in northern Wisconsin is to develop wind energy. This part of the state, he said, ranks 18th in the country for wind power potential. He said this approach would protect water quality in the Northwoods, which is vital for the area’s tourism industry.

n Supporting veterans. Ausman said he would have voted for the PACT Act which provides veterans with help from burn pit injuries and other environmental hazard illnesses. Tiffany, he reported, voted against the act. Ausman said Tiffany voted against the Gold Star Family Educational Act, which provides college help to family members of veterans. Ausman said he would have supported the bill.

n Support for Ukraine. Ausman said he supports President Biden’s aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia, while Tiffany, he said, voted against an embargo on Russian oil. “He voted pro-Russia,” said Ausman.”That would have been seen as unAmerican 45 years ago.”

n Truthfulness. Ausman said Tiffany routinely “spreads disinformation” about illegal immigration on the Mexican border and the teaching of Critical Race Theory in public schools to score political points. “You used to think your politicians would lie to you every once in a while, but now it’s all of the time,” he said.

n Support for democracy. Ausman said he “believes in democracy” but Tiffany does not. He castigated the congressman for voting not to certify the Electoral College votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania in the last presidential election. He said these actions meant to “overthrow the election… makes me want to throw up.” Ausman said Tiffany’s problems with the last election make no sense. “He would overturn his own election,” he said.

n Immigration. Ausman said Tiffany opposes additional immigration but that he supports having immigrants fill vacant jobs in this country. He noted that popular restaurants in Minocqua have partial hours because of a shortage of workers.

n Taming inflation. Ausman said Tiffany is wrong to blame Biden for the current rate of inflation when the causes trace back to the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said he supports ending the tariffs on Canadian lumber in order to lower the price of American housing.

Ausman criticized Tiffany for forgetting his true Republican roots. He said Tiffany proudly claims that the GOP, the party of Lincoln, abolished slavery in the nineteenth century, but that he hypocritically was one of 19 people in Congress to vote against having Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

“You want to talk about who in the room is a Republican in Name Only (RINO)...that’s Tom Tiffany,” Ausman said.

Editor’s Note: The Tom Tiffany campaign did not respond to a request for an interview.