Anti-drunken driving activist challenges Rep. Robb Kahl

The top official at a construction group heavily involved in making sure prevailing wage and other employment laws are enforced is being challenged for his seat in Wisconsin’s state Assembly.

State Rep. Robb Kahl, D-Monona, is facing a serious challenge from Jimmy Anderson, a 29-year-old man who lost his parents, his brother and his ability to move from the chest down when a drunken driver hit their car in California in 2010.

Kahl is the executive director of the Construction Business Group, which is overseen by various officials at both unionized construction companies and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139.

According to its website, the Construction Business Group’s staff consists of six wage and hour investigators who are charged with ensuring that contractors abide by prevailing-wage, worker-classification and other employment-related laws. Elsewhere, Kahl’s ties to the construction industry include his seat on the state’s Building Commission, which has a say on most of the state’s vertical construction projects before they go out to bid.

Kahl told the Wisconsin State Journal earlier this week that he isn’t certain yet if he will seek re-election. Repeated attempts to reach him were not successful Wednesday.

Anderson’s decision to seek Kahl’s seat in the state Assembly sets up a possible Democratic primary battle in the area southeast of Madison that includes Monona, Fitchburg and McFarland. Anderson says he is being spurred on in part by an insurance battle that arose following his accident.

Anderson attended law school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, completing his degree in 2012. His studies were interrupted in 2010 by the car crash, which left him paralyzed from the chest down, including his hands.

He said he quickly approached the lifetime dollar limit on his insurance following the crash. That meant he and his wife, Ashley Anderson, faced the possibility of paying all his future medical bills — such as $2,000-a-day inpatient rehabilitation and a wheelchair whose cost approaches $50,000 — on their own.

“We didn’t know what we were going to do,” Anderson said.

But then the federal health overhaul kicked in, banning lifetime limits on insurance. Anderson said Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s opposition to the overhaul prompted him to get more involved in politics.

When Anderson found out his representative, Kahl, had voted for Walker in 2010, Anderson decided to run against him in the Democratic primary.

“It made me want to give the people a different choice, someone who truly believes in progressive values,” Anderson said.

Kahl, who is also a former mayor of Monona, has said that he voted for Walker in 2010 because he then agreed with Walker’s economic policies. Kahl has said, though, that he has since become unhappy with the governor’s decisions.

During his time in the Assembly, Kahl has shown willingness to reach across the aisle and work with Republicans on various matters. Still, he was among the primary opponents of two pieces of legislation that directly affect the construction industry and that GOP lawmakers have listed among their top accomplishments of the recently completed legislative session.

The first was the state’s right-to-work law, which bans contract clauses that require all employees at certain companies — not just union members — to pay fees meant to cover the cost of union bargaining. The second was a budgetary provision that greatly rolled back the state’s prevailing-wage laws.

Starting next year most projects commissioned by local units of government will no longer pay a prevailing wage. The chief exception will be local road projects that receive federal money.

One part of the prevailing-wage changes directly targeted the work Kahl does with the Construction Business Group. The provision makes construction workers the only people who can initiate an official state investigation into whether prevailing wages laws are being violated and, in effect, prevents state officials from acting on tips provided directly by Kahl and his associates at the Construction Business Group.

Another provision was aimed at hindering the Construction Business Group and similar organizations in future attempts at getting construction workers to initiate investigations into suspected prevailing-wage violations. To that end, it places several requirements on a person who is not affiliated with the state and contacts an employee about possible infringements. The person, for one, must identify himself in writing to the employee and also must state where the money for his investigation is coming from.

Kahl was first elected to the Assembly in 2012 and has served on committees on children and families, energy and utilities, insurance, state affairs and transportation.

Anderson has no political background and has placed emphasis in his campaign on the idea that the state should have a “citizen Legislature.” He works at a nonprofit group he started called Drive Clear, which helps victims of drunken driving. His wife is a veterinarian, and the couple has two dogs, three cats, two rabbits, a gecko and some fish.

Anderson said life is “no doubt” more difficult as a quadriplegic, but there are some advantages — people go out of their way to help him and are less likely to slam the door in his face while he’s door-knocking.

“Being in this chair, I always get to see people’s best sides,” Anderson said.

If Kahl decides to run, he and Anderson will face off in the primary election to be held Aug. 9.

The Associated Press also contributed to this report.