Democratic candidate for governor Mandela Barnes is crisscrossing the state this week to promote his goal of lowering utility rates − a household cost both political parties are putting front and center as Wisconsin voters point to the cost of living as their biggest worry.
The focus on utility costs comes as Wisconsin’s electricity costs continue to outpace those of most of its Midwestern counterparts. Polling by the Marquette University Law School in March showed 35% of voters surveyed said the cost of living was the most important issue to them − no other issue came close to receiving a similar level of attention.
Barnes, who held a news conference in Milwaukee on April 29, will head to Green Bay and La Crosse in the coming days to campaign on a plan he released earlier this year that seeks to keep utility costs down.
“For so many years, people all across the state have been forced to choose between food, medicine, and paying electricity bills,” Barnes said at the Wednesday news conference on North 18th Street in Milwaukee. “At the same time, these utility monopolies have seen their profits skyrocket.”
He spoke to reporters outside a north side home where workers with Green Homeowners United were doing a basement project aimed at lowering energy bills.
Barnes is pledging to freeze utility rates if elected, as well as place limits on utilities’ lobbying activity and executive pay, shift the costs of shuttered coal plants away from ratepayers and offer state tax credits for energy efficiency home improvements.
Barnes said he would only appoint commissioners to the state’s Public Service Commission who would freeze utility rates, denying any proposed increases from utilities. Utilities experts have said the promise may be legally questionable and unworkable.
He stood by the pledge on Wednesday.
“I want public service commissioners who have proven, who have already served the public interest, especially those who have shown no fear in taking on these industries,” Barnes said.
“The enticement of having a cushy utility job is not something that should compel a person to want to serve as a public service commissioner. It should be people who have fought to take on and hold these industries accountable in the first place.”
Barnes is one of seven Democratic candidates running for governor in 2026. The Democrat who prevails in an August primary will face Republican candidate Tom Tiffany in the general election.
In February, Tiffany made a digital ad buy focused on lowering utility costs, blasting Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ public service commission.
“Wisconsin needs a governor who fights for ratepayers and holds the PSC accountable instead of rubber-stamping higher bills,” Tiffany said at the time.
On Wednesday, Barnes said he is focused on the general election and criticized Tiffany for accepting donations in past U.S. House races from the political arm of utility provider We Energies.
“Tom Tiffany is a cliche D.C. politician who spent his career doing the bidding of the greedy corporations that fund his campaigns, including taking thousands from We Energies. He is quite simply a part of the problem. In fact, he is the problem,” Barnes said.
A spokeswoman for Tiffany shot back at Barnes for being part of the Evers administration between 2019 and 2023, “whose Public Service Commission raised utility rates by $2.2 billion — more than seven times what was approved under the (former Republican Gov. Scott) Walker administration.”
“As lieutenant governor, he never cared about those increases, and as governor, he would keep raising utility rates through his so-called green energy agenda that threatens our farmland, strains the grid, and makes life more expensive for Wisconsin families,” Tiffany spokeswoman Caroline Briscoe said in a statement.
“He was part of the problem then, and he would be the problem as governor.”
The focus on utility rates in Wisconsin also comes after Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey won governor races on a platform that included a promise to address utility costs.
Molly Beck and Mary Spicuzza can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com and mary.spicuzza@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: In campaign swing, Mandela Barnes touts plan to freeze utility rates
Reporting by Molly Beck and Mary Spicuzza, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
