John Jagler, communications director for Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon), today announced his candidacy for the 37th Assembly District seat.
Jagler is a former AM 620-WTMJ news anchor who served with Fitzgerald through the 100th Legislative Session, including the months of protests and the pursuit of Gov. Scott Walker’s pro-growth, pro-jobs conservative agenda.
Jagler, a resident of Watertown, will run as a Republican.
“As I have learned over the last year, it takes strong leaders in Madison to bring about the necessary changes that are needed to get people working again,” Jagler said. “As the father of three, including a daughter with special needs, I understand the importance of providing services to our most vulnerable citizens, while also balancing the need to provide opportunity and prosperity to all. It will be my goal to keep Wisconsin moving forward, to standup against special interests who seek to halt economic expansion, and to bring common sense solutions to a fractured state legislature.”
The Legislature has reconfigured the 37th Assembly District, but that redistricting plan is being challenged in federal court.
The court is considering whether the Republican maps unconstitutionally dilute the Latino vote, and whether 300,000 voters were unnecessarily moved into and out of districts, thereby delaying when they can vote in a Senate election.
“What could have — indeed should have — been accomplished publicly instead took place in private, in an all but shameful attempt to hide the redistricting process from public scrutiny,” wrote the three-judge panel in a Feb. 16 order requiring the GOP turn over redistricting documents.
The court was critical of Republican legislators who agreed to sign a secrecy pledge to refrain from discussing the redistricting process in the public.
As it is reconfigured, the district includes Watertown, which is located at the border of Jefferson and Dodge counties, as well as the villages of Ixonia and DeForest.
Jagler is the younger brother of BizTimes executive editor Steve Jagler, who will moderate a Milwaukee Press Club Newsmaker Luncheon featuring Fitzgerald, who is a candidate for U.S. Senate, today.
