Vinehout directed both the graduate and undergraduate programs in health administration at the University of Illinois at Springfield,serving for ten years. She was a member of the faculty and teaching in the Health Services Administration and Women’s Studies Programs. Her academic work focused on state health policy,the history of health care reform and health problems facing rural communities.[6]
Family business
After working in academia,Vinehout worked as the primary operator of the family's fifty-cow dairy farm. The farm had a rolling herd average of 21,000 pounds of milk and received many quality milk awards. Vinehout's family farm in Alma is certified organic and produces hay and grain.[6] Vinehout was president of the Dairy Herd Improvement Association in Buffalo County,Wisconsin,for several years and represented the district at statewide meetings. She also assisted the Wisconsin Farmers Union in agriculture and dairy policy and worked part-time in 2005 as an advocate at the state capitol for the Farmers Union.[7] She served on the Buffalo County Agricultural Fair Association Board and the Buffalo County Farm Bureau Board.[8] Vinehout was formerly a member of the Wisconsin Holstein Association and she and her family have shown cattle at district shows.[6]
Wisconsin Senate
Vinehout was elected to the Wisconsin Senate in 2006,defeating Republican Incumbent Ron Brown.[9] She was reelected in 2010 and 2014.
Committee assignments
In her first term,Vinehout chaired the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Higher Education and served as Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Audit. She also served in a leadership position as Vice-chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus and as a member of the Economic Development;Children,Families and Work Force Development;Public Health,Senior Issues,Long Term Care and Job Creation Senate Committees.[10]
Vinehout was the chair of the Democratic Party of Buffalo County and served on the Mississippi River Regional Planning Commission and the Alma Chamber of Commerce. In 2005,the Democratic Party of Wisconsin awarded her with the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for her work in grassroots organizing.[8] On November 2,2010,Vinehout was reelected to the Wisconsin Senate beating Ed Thompson.[11] On November 9,2010,with only 352 votes separating the two candidates,Thompson asked for a recount. On November 19,2010,Thompson conceded the election to Vinehout.[citation needed]
Four candidates (including Vinehout) at recall primary debate for Governor of Wisconsin, 2012
During the protests in Wisconsin, Vinehout, along with the 13 other Democratic State Senators, left the state to deny the State Senate a quorum on Governor Scott Walker's controversial "Budget Repair" legislation. She returned to the State of Wisconsin on March 12, 2011.[12]
Wisconsin 2012 recall election
Vinehout was a candidate in the Democratic Primary during the 2012 Wisconsin Gubernatorial Recall Election.[13] She garnered four percent of the vote, coming in third.
In June 2017 Vinehout officially registered a committee for the 2018 Wisconsin governor election.[15]
Political positions
Health care
Sen. Vinehout describes fixing health care as a passion of hers.[16] Before she was elected into the State Senate, her family was without health care for a couple years when her son required an emergency appendectomy.[6]
She believes Wisconsin should accept the federal Medicaid expansion that current Governor Walker rejected.[17] Doing so would cover 79,000 more people and give Wisconsin roughly $286 million in cash to spend. In her alternative budget, she puts this extra money towards mental health and substance abuse programs.[18]
She favors creating a Wisconsin-based market-place for health care, which would keep coverage and prices in the state relatively stable even if funding from the federal government were to lag. It would also allow Wisconsin to offer BadgerCare as a public option.[16]
Education
Vinehout believes that Wisconsin public schools need to be funded more by state money instead of property taxes [19] and that the state needs to fix its school funding formula that representatives from both parties have described as "broken."[20][21] On her website, she says that "Despite increases in the Governor's election-year budget, schools haven't recovered from the massive cuts in state aid in 2011. In real dollars, schools will be getting less in the next two years than a decade ago.[19]" In her alternative budget, she eliminates corporate tax breaks and cash payments and uses that money to pay for public education.[18]
Her alternative budget also includes replacing the money current Governor Walker cut from the University of Wisconsin system over his eight years in office and investing an additional $100 million in needs-based financial aid.[18]
She was also a member of the Wisconsin 14 who left the state to protest Governor Walker's contentious Act 10 bill that eliminated collective bargaining for teachers. She believes that Walker's actions disrespected school teachers and had a profoundly negative effect on Wisconsin's schools.[19]
Environment
Vinehout favors having DNR run by an independent Secretary appointed by the Natural Resources Board rather than a Secretary appointed by the Governor. She has called for restoring funding of the Department of Natural Resources, rehiring scientists, seriously addressing the threat of climate change, and stronger environmental protections, especially of sand mines and CAFOs.[22]
Economy
Sen. Vinehout has criticized the slow rate of growth under Gov. Scott Walker's policies. She believes state must create an environment in which the private sector thrives. The public sector should be focused on enriching the economic soil so that all plants can start and grow.[23]
Local control
Vinehout states that the government must stop forcing local communities to accept policies and priorities that do not reflect local needs, conditions, or values. Local community decisions must be made by local residents.[24]
Veterans
Vinehout wants to fix the management problems that are present in Wisconsin's Veterans homes. She wants to restore funding to veterans' programs including for homeless veterans (the Veteran Assistance Program) and the Assistance to Needy Veterans program that was cut by Governor Walker.[25] She also believes it is necessary to restore the advisory organizations that have been disbanded, especially the Board of Veterans Affairs committees that deal with program review, legislation, long term care, and financing.
Racial equality
Vinehout insists on a $15 an hour minimum wage, changing Truth in Sentencing standards, offering treatment alternatives to prison, providing mental health services, improving inner city public schools, and expanding home ownership. She believes that President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing holds the steps toward building trust between our citizens and law enforcement.[26]
Controversies
In 2009, Planned Parenthood revoked its endorsement of Kathleen when she authored an amendment to a reproductive rights bill that was designed to ensure access to birth control.[27] Under the original bill, pharmacists would be required to fill prescriptions for abortion medication regardless of their religious beliefs. Sen. Vinehout claimed that such language violated the Wisconsin constitution, which states that no "control of, or interference with, the rights of conscience be permitted [27]" and authored an amendment to the bill that allowed pharmacists to conscientiously object as long as they ensured that the patient would be able to receive the abortion drugs.
A bill very similar to the one Kathleen proposed passed in the Wisconsin state budget in 2010 with the backing of Planned Parenthood.[28]
Vinehout considers herself pro-choice and believes that contraception should always be accessible and that abortions should be safe, legal, and rare.[29]
In 2010 and 2014, Vinehout received an "A" rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund.[30][31][32] However, she has disagreed with their policies on many occasions. She supports increased background checks, banning bump stocks, and a continuation of the ban on fully automatic weapons.[33]
When speaking about gun issues, she has referenced her grandfather's death because of gun violence.[34]
Vinehout owns a farm with her husband, Doug, a former member of the Illinois House of Representatives and current member of the Board of Education in Alma. Her family operates a 223-acre (0.90km2) organic farm near Alma, Wisconsin. She owns a cat and a pair of horses. Doug and Kathleen have one son, Nathan, a graduate of Macalester College.[6]
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