(The Center Square) – Nate Pollnow says he has a plan to do something if he’s elected as secretary of state.
Pollnow, a beef farmer and auctioneer from Dodge County, entered the race for secretary of state Tuesday.
“What we have now is an opportunity to get in there, roll up our sleeves, go to work, get a website built that’s easily accessible to the people, so that if they want to grab something from the state, if they’re wondering about something, where some money is going they can go and get it,” Pollnow said in an interview on News Talk 1130 WISN. “Shine some light into the dark corners of our state bureaucracies.”
Wisconsin’s secretary of state doesn’t do much. The office is not in charge of voting or driver’s licenses like in some states. Pollnow said the biggest jobs for Wisconsin’s secretary of state are to be the state’s official record keeper and to manage the Common School Fund.
The secretary of state is also responsible for the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, which handles millions of dollars in loans for local government and school infrastructure projects.
“[It’s] really a cool thing. It kind of makes a cycle [where] we’re always funding those things, and we’re keeping that money in house,” Pollnow added. “But right now, if you read the secretary of state website, it reads that we’ve got that money should be going towards green energy infrastructure projects.”
Pollnow said Democrats have, for years, used the secretary of state’s office either as a do-nothing office or a political parking spot.
“I’m not going to be there for 42 years like Doug LaFollette. and I’m definitely not taking this as a consolation prize,” Pollnow said.
If Pollnow wins, he would be the first Republican to hold the secretary of state’s office in more than 50 years. Democrat Doug LaFollette spent 42 years as secretary of state. After he stepped down, Sara Godlewski stepped in in 2023. Godlewski is not running for secretary of state this year, instead she is running for lieutenant governor. Democrat Jocasta Zamarripa is running instead.
