Ed Frami, who is running for Wisconsin secretary of
state, entered politics to further support his
abortion beliefs. Over the phone, he said although he
might not have all the power to bring about a strict
change for the issue as secretary of state, he can
"speak out and be an advocate for restoring the right
to life."
Q: Why should
voters look to the Constitution Party, instead of
Democrats or Republicans, which are considered the
main candidates?
A: One of the reasons is
illustrated by one of the current scandals we have
here in Wisconsin, and that’s the legislative caucus
scandal. Here, we had the legislative caucuses who
hired employees on tax payers’ dollars who were
supposed to work for the legislators for legitimate
things - items dealing with passing of bills and laws
- but instead ended up being paid with taxpayers
dollars to camp for members of their party. Both the
Democrats and Republicans knew each other was doing
this, and they didn’t blow the whistle on each other.
In certain things, there is no
opposition party. The Democrats and Republicans make
deals and allow each other to do things and look the
other way. Voters, if they want to start having a true
opposition party, need to begin electing more third
party candidates, and I believe my race for secretary
of state is a good place to start.
Q: What has
happened in your private life and while growing up
that might help you if elected?
A: The thing that influenced
me act to get involved in politics - I used to just
vote, but I actually started getting involved in party
politics because of the pro life movement and the
sections of the pro life movement, the Operation:
Rescue-style blocking of clinic doors and that sort of
thing. I basically thought that there was a better way
to change the abortion laws, and that was to get good
people elected, and so I got involved with the
Constitution Party because they were the strongest pro
life party out there.
Q: Why do you
believe the office of secretary of state must be
either "eliminated or strengthened"?
A: The Secretary of State’s
office needs to be strengthened, not abolished. The
reason is that it is part of what the founders of this
state and the founders of other states call or use as
an example of distribution of power. If you look at
the federal government, the founding fathers gave all
executive power to the president, and that’s because
they didn’t give a whole lot of things for the
president to do at that time.
However, the governors at that time
had a lot to do, the states were sovereign, and they
actually believed in the 9th and 10th
amendments. Governors were very powerful at that time,
so they divided up executive powers. Every state
divided up executive power in the state, and no
government held all executive power. In Wisconsin, the
executive power is divided up between the governor,
the attorney general, the secretary of state, the
state treasurer, and the superintendent of schools.
(Other states have other executive positions that they
elect.)
Also, as a matter of principal, I
don’t believe that all power should be given to one
person. Instead of abolishing the office of Secretary
of State or any of the other statewide offices, they
should be strengthened. There should be a division of
power checks and balances. What that does is assure a
greater possibility of honest government, ...because
with power divided like that you have less chance of
abuse of power.
Q: On your
website, you said you believe government is "too big."
How do you plan to make it smaller?
A: Government, as the
founding fathers of this country viewed it, dared to
do certain things that couldn’t be accomplished in a
private manner. In other words, there has to something
sometime where you get together corporately as a group
and decide how you’re going to do certain things.
Government shouldn’t be involved in a lot of the
things that it’s involved in today.
For instance, I don’t believe
government should be involved in running charity
programs. That’s something that should be done by the
private sector. Government shouldn’t be involved in
running retirement programs - something that should’ve
been in the private sector. Over the years, the
federal government, the state government, and the
local government have gotten involved in doing things
that they really shouldn’t be doing.
Now, as secretary of state, there’s
not a whole lot I can do about that. I’ve got control
of a budget for my office that I can work with to help
run more efficiently and use less tax dollars and
still get the same amount of job done. That’s what I
can do as secretary of state. Beyond that, I can be an
advocate for smaller government, but I would really
have no jurisdiction to bring it about.
Q: One of your
other issues is the right to life. What kind of
legislation do you think will impact abortion laws?
A: Once again, the secretary
of state has no jurisdiction over life issues as far
as what his responsibilities in office are, and
although that’s an important issue for me as a
secretary of state, there’s not a whole lot I can do
about it in that position. What I can do is speak out
and be an advocate for restoring the right to life, be
an advocate for the babies in the womb and try to
regain their right to life in this country, but in my
official capacity there’s not a whole lot I can do
about that particular issue.
Q: As
co-founder of the Wisconsin Constitution Party, how
have people’s views of the party changed since it was
first created eight years ago?
A: The actual political
philosophy of the Constitution Party hasn’t changed.
Probably what has changed is how we view that start of
building a party that is eventually going to win and
have the ability to affect the changing of laws here
in this country.
In the beginning, I think most of
the people that joined the party, myself included,
kind of had this hope for the dramatic, huge swing
from the electorate, sweeping into power - whereas
now, kind of a short term, getting involved type of
attitude politically and not expecting to see change
come about quickly; now that has changed.
The people in the party over the
years have realized that this is a long term vision
here, that things, unless there’s some sort of miracle
or something dramatic that happens, aren’t going to
change very quickly. So we have a greater
concentration on winning election at lower offices
right now than putting people for some of the more
powerful, statewide offices.
Now, I am running for a statewide
office, but that’s because we need to run at least one
candidate in the state of Wisconsin to maintain that
valid access, and we try to pick the office that we
have the best chance at winning. I have outraised both
my Democratic and Republican opponents combined, so I
believe I’ve got a shot at having the ability to
overcome the natural automatic vote that usually goes
with Democrats and Republicans, because in this case,
the Secretary of State’s office has been gutted so
much in it’s responsibilities over the last 20 years
here in Wisconsin, that neither major party pays a
whole lot of attention to it.
Politics
Today 
Politics
Today: Ed Frami, (C) for Secretary of State for the
State of Wisconsin