OSHKOSH — State Rep. Gordon Hintz is facing his first unopposed election.

The longtime Wisconsin politician, who has represented the 54th Assembly District since 2006, assumed the role of Assembly minority leader in 2017, taking over after the seven-year term of Peter Barca.

Before serving as minority leader, he served two terms on the Joint Finance Committee and was a member of the State Building Commission. He authored bills on payday lending regulations, the carbon monoxide detector law and public financing for Supreme Court elections.

Locally, he helped secure funding for The Grand Oshkosh and Sage Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He was named 2018 legislator of the year by the Wisconsin Public Health Association for securing funding for county public health agencies to fight communicable diseases.

Hintz lives in Oshkosh with his wife Elizabeth and daughter Beatrix.

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Anything would be better than what we are doing now, and all options for transportation funding should be on the table. The bottom line is that more revenue is necessary.

One of the most important purposes of government is to fund basic infrastructure like our roads and bridges. Yet for the past eight years, Governor (Scott) Walker and the Legislature have been debating (and delaying) how to best pay for Wisconsin's transportation infrastructure. We can't wait any longer to address our transportation revenue problem.

According to U.S. News and World Report, Wisconsin currently has the sixth-worst roads in the nation, and at the same time, the amount of our transportation dollars going to just pay for transportation debt has doubled under Governor Walker. Delays are costly. As older and crumbling infrastructure not only impacts public safety but is an additional cost burden on families and businesses in increased repairs and time.

Should Act 10 be partially or fully repealed? Why or why not?

Whether it's retaining enough teachers for our public school classrooms or adequate coverage of staff to keep places like Winnebago Mental Health Institute and Oshkosh Correctional safe, it is clear Act 10 has led to serious negative consequences for Wisconsin's largest state institutions and their employees.

While Act 10 was made for political purposes to eliminate public-sector unions, it was billed as a "tool" to help balance budgets. However, it has created a Wisconsin where our school districts are divided between "poacher" and "donor" districts, based on a district's financial resources and historical spending decisions based on the school funding formula. "Donor" districts often hire and invest in the training of new teachers, only to see them leave when better offers comes along from "poacher" districts, which are able to recruit the best and most experienced teachers.

For lower-spending school districts like the Oshkosh Area School District, Act 10 has led to a massive exodus of experienced teachers and made district initiatives more difficult to sustain. The crisis at Lincoln Hills and Winnebago Mental Health can be directly attributed to Act 10.


Make education a priority every year, not just in election years. We need critical thinkers and skilled workers.

The UW System needs sustained investment to create the workforce of the future. One of the reasons Oshkosh Corp. chose Oshkosh is because of UW-Oshkosh and the pipeline of talent it produces.

Our first-class technical college system has a proven track record of producing employment-ready graduates to fill area workforce needs. The increasing partnership with area industry helps make sure that training is modern and gives the workers specific skills.

Lastly, the union building trades in Wisconsin provide incredible training and retraining at world-class facilities that ensure their workers have all the skills necessary to fill important jobs.

Is Foxconn a good deal for Wisconsin? Why or why not?

When they announced that Foxconn had chosen Wisconsin, I was cautiously optimistic until the taxpayer costs came in. The Foxconn deal is the largest taxpayer giveaway by a state to a foreign corporation in our country’s history. And according to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, under the best-case scenario, Wisconsin taxpayers would not break even on the Foxconn deal for a quarter-century.

The opportunity cost of not investing the state's existing priorities, like transportation, our public schools and universities, and further incentivizing entrepreneurship is a significant trade off for the rest of the state. Just like public school and university cuts paid for massive tax cuts the past few years, you can assume that taxpayer funding for Foxconn will come at the expense of these programs again.

Would you support legislation ending the so-called dark stores loophole?

Yes, I am a co-author of the legislation, which has a remarkable group of 69 bipartisan co-sponsors. I also have voted in favor of bringing the bill to the floor of the Assembly for passage. Republican inaction on the "dark store" bill will continue to shift the tax burden from corporate retailers to homeowners and other small businesses.

Would you support changing state law to legalize marijuana and/or cannabis products? If so, under what conditions? If not, why?

It is time for Wisconsin to have a serious conversation of reforming its marijuana laws. The majority of states in the country have legalized medicinal or recreational marijuana use, and the benefits outweigh the concerns. Many communities in Wisconsin, including Oshkosh, have been decriminalizing marijuana possession. I support legalizing medicinal marijuana and full legalization depending on the details of the law and regulation.

Why are you running for office?

I’m running because I believe that state government has an important role to play in creating opportunity for all people in Wisconsin. I am committed to making state government a partner with local government in Oshkosh to address the issues facing our community.


Concerns about school funding, health care costs and uncertainty about coverage of pre-existing conditions. Increasing frustration with polarization and dysfunction of contemporary politics.

Responses have been edited for style. 

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