Jerry Shidell is running for the office of state treasurer in Wisconsin with just one goal in mind. He wants to get fired.
That comprises his entire platform as he campaigns for an office he doesn’t believe should exist.
“The office of the state treasurer takes two phone calls a month and that’s basically the duties,” Shidell said.
Under the state Constitution, the treasurer is a commissioner on the Bureau of Public Lands.
On the first and third Tuesday of each month, bureau staff call to give the treasurer a list of municipalities looking to borrow from the state trust fund and the treasurer makes recommendations for approval, which are usually rubber-stamped, according to Shidell.
“Those are the only duties the Legislature has decided to give to the state treasurer,” he said.
The job pays $68,000 a year.
The treasurer previously also had the duty of returning unclaimed property to the rightful owners, but that has since been given to Department of Revenue, where Shidell believes it belongs.
Shidell brought his campaign to get kicked out of an office he doesn’t yet hold to Shawano last week.
“I’m a Libertarian,” he said. “Libertarians believe in minimal government, maximum freedom. The only way we’re going to scale back the government is if we get rid of these useless jobs that are floating around.”
A retired business man from Rhinelander who still owns some rental properties, Shidell has served as mayor of that city and has been on the City Council and Oneida County Board.
“I don’t have any ambitions for higher office,” he said.
He feels he is doing his small part to curtail in a minimal way the growth of government by running for a job he will then campaign to eliminate.
Shidell may be half way there already. During the last Legislative session, the Assembly passed a bill eliminating the job, but it was never acted on by the Senate.
Shidell said that as treasurer he would be out actively promoting eliminating the position in the media.
“I would become the spokesperson for the elimination of the state treasurer’s job,” he said. “If I’m in there I have a pulpit from which to speak from. I have the ability to command a little bit of attention and rally the state to action. If person who gets the job doesn’t do that, the Legislature’s not going to act on its own.”
If approved by the Legislature, the voters must also concur with a vote to amend the state Constitution.
Shidell said he won’t seek a second term if the Legislature fails to act.
“If at the end of the first (Legislative) session, I haven’t convinced them to eliminate the position, I will donate half my remaining salary to charity because I failed in my job,” he said.
Shidell said he has an advantage in accomplishing his goal because he is neither a Republican or Democrat and has no political pressure.
He also said he provides a unique opportunity for voters who would otherwise never vote for a Libertarian.
“The job has no power, no authority, no influence,” he said. “If you really think this job needs to go, here’s a chance to send a strong message.”
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