Do Your Candidates Know You?

by Steve Panten

The Wisconsin Legislative Session has officially closed. The Legislators are headed back to their Districts to start the campaign season unless there is something that comes up requiring an emergency session. The end of the session means that all the bills that have not been passed by both the Senate and the Assembly are done and will need to be re-introduced next session. We had 3 pieces of legislation that are affected, overriding the veto for our 2 Consumer Choice bills protecting the sale of vehicles or devices regardless of their fuel source, and our Vehicle Data Privacy Bill – SB 1080/AB 1174.

Now that the Legislators will be home campaigning, we will have a great opportunity to attend meetings and events to push our legislative agenda. Since they are in the district, we can ask them how they feel about allowing a consumer to choose a vehicle or piece of equipment with an engine type that we feel is necessary for our use. If we feel that electric technology is appropriate, then we should be allowed to purchase something with an electric motor, but if not, we should be able to choose an engine with a fuel source that would be appropriate. Here is our chance to ask them in front of their constituents “would you support a piece of legislation that would prevent any government agency from preventing the sale of a vehicle or equipment based on its engine’s fuel source?” This is an important issue to ask not only the current candidates that are running to retain their position in the legislature, but also those running against them. We need to remember who our friends were that supported and voted for our bills AB 141/SB 212 and AB 141/SB 213 and support them. If you live in a district with a current Democrat Legislator, go to an event and ask them if they would support it next session since they did not vote for it this session. If they say that they won’t support it, you can ask them what we would need to change to get their support. Be polite about it, don’t push it too much. This is a very important time to get the information and to find out if their opponent would support it.

While the State Legislature is adjourned, the Federal Government is still in session. Later this month we will be visiting them in their offices in Washington DC as part of the Motorcycle Riders Foundations, Bikers Inside the Beltway event. This year we will have 13 ABATE members traveling to Washington DC to Lobby for issues that affect motorcycling in Wisconsin. This is a great opportunity to meet with them in their office and to talk with their staff members. Remember how important staff members are? Well, we don’t get to work with them much since Rocky, from the MRF typically handles that, but we do communicate with them on occasion, so this is a great opportunity for us. More about that next month hopefully.

Last month we got to visit with other State Motorcycle Rights Organizations in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for the Heartland STEAM Conference. ABATE of Wisconsin was well represented both at the event and as experts on issues by doing presentations. John Reblin and I were invited to present on how Wisconsin is so successful with our grassroots efforts. The message was clear, be the motorcycle issue experts in your state. Stick to motorcycle issues only when meeting with legislators or candidates so you can present a clear message. The success of an organization’s grassroots efforts is all about the members showing up and being informed and engaged. We do a great job with that, but of course we can always do better. Stay informed and share your knowledge with other motorcyclists in the state. Our success is dependent on all of us working together with the same message and we need all the help that we can get.

The fact that the State Legislative session has ended does not mean that our work is done. We are going to continue to stay vigilant and work with our legislative friends to determine the best way to approach the 2025 session. While we are doing that, we will put a focus on lowering motorcycle fatalities. In 2023, motorcycle crashes remained fairly constant with respect to 2022. There were just under 1600 motorcyclists injured in both 2022 and 2023, but fatalities went up over 25%, and 54% of the fatalities were single vehicle crashes, that we need to work on. The top contributing factor is not having the vehicle under control which is something that we can fix. Training is a push for 2024 for both the State Department of Transportation and for ABATE of Wisconsin. There are opportunities across the state to improve our skills with training classes being offered. Take an experienced rider course if it’s been a while, but also important, take care of your brothers and sisters. We need to watch out for each other and know the skill level of the people that we ride with. If you are riding with a group, it is important to remember to only ride as fast and as hard as the least experienced person for everyone’s safety.

One opportunity for a refresher is the DOT’s sponsored Wisconsin Motorcycle Training Summit at the Waukesha County Technical College on June 7th – 9th. On Saturday and Sunday, they will have workshops and range activities that you can participate in. You can plan on attending one day or both days. There is a lot of information being presented so if you went both days, you could do range one day and workshops the next or look at the agenda on the Mosac website and pick which day works best for you. There is more information on the website www.mosac.us. There is a small fee of $40 per day for the training but that is the cheapest training you will find anywhere in the state.

I know the summer is very busy for all of us but here are 3 things to try to accomplish; #1 – Ride Safe, #2 – make sure our brothers and sisters are safe, and #3 – get out and meet the candidates running to represent you in Madison and Washington DC. Keep in mind they are going to represent you, make sure they understand what is important to the motorcyclists in the state because you are the motorcycle issue expert.

That’s It,

Steve