Women's, worker's rights at center of Racine Senate recall debate

RACINE -- Women, and discrimination in the workplace have found their way to the center of debate in the John Lehman/Van Wanggaard Senate recall race, as election day draws near.

Racine Senator Van Wanggaard is facing former Senator John Lehman in the recall election.

The recall race for Wisconsin's 21st Senate District is heating up, as the June 5th general election approaches. The latest bout occurred Wednesday, May 23rd, when the district's former Democratic Senator and current recall challenger John Lehman brought in national women's right activist Lilly Ledbetter.

"There is a bill that covers the small, average, working American," Ledbetter said.

Ledbetter was referring to the recently repealed Act 20. The law had allowed discrimination suits to be brought to the Wisconsin State Court level, in order to seek compensatory and punitive damages - damages that could previously only be sought at the federal level, and only for certain types of discrimination.

"The individual who often has fewer resources, quite frankly, to get into the courts, doesn't have the same kind of clout, and so that kind of discrimination goes on," Lehman said.

"This is just a distraction and it's not true," Wanggaard said.

Wanggaard believes the former law did not better a person's ability to fight discrimination. Instead, he says it hurt businesses and benefitted well-paid attorneys.

"It took the ability for the trial lawyers to have two separate paychecks to put in their pockets from being able to obtain compensatory damages," Wanggaard said.

Lehman and Wanggaard will debate the issue and others Thursday night, May 24th at 7:00 p.m. in Mount Pleasant's Village Hall. This is their only scheduled in-person debate.

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