In a stunning admission this week at a WisPolitics Luncheon, Senate Democrat Leader Dianne Hesselbein told attendees that her number one regret of this legislative session was failing to pass what was dubbed Right of First Refusal.
That’s right. The leader of Senate Democrats did not list any of their party’s normal priorities: school funding, abortion, environmental regulations, or minimum wage, but instead a bill that was nothing more than a giveaway to monopoly utility companies.
This is the problem with Democrats: they are disingenuous in their policy priorities. On the campaign trail or during their district town halls, they will prioritize their normal talking points. But in a room full of utility lobbyists and big labor bosses, they prioritize a handout that would have done nothing more than protect the monopoly utility system and raise your monthly utility bill by ending competition for building billions in new transmission lines.
Let’s be clear about what Right of First Refusal actually does. It hands incumbent utilities the automatic right to build any new transmission infrastructure in their territory, no competitive bidding required. No competition means no incentive to keep costs down. And who absorbs those inflated costs? Every Wisconsin family and small business that pays a utility bill.
Free markets work precisely because competition forces providers to innovate, cut waste, and deliver value. The moment you hand a government-protected monopoly to a corporation and shield it from competition, consumers lose. This is Economics 101, and Hesselbein knows it. She just doesn’t care, because the campaign checks from utility PACs and union bosses don’t come from your kitchen table.
This comment exposes a broader truth about the modern Democratic Party. They have mastered the language of the working class while governing on behalf of the donor class. They rail against corporate greed on the stump, then fight to entrench the most powerful corporations in the state when the cameras are off. The only difference between them and the lobbyists they claim to oppose is that they remembered to bring a press release.
Wisconsin deserves better. Real representation means prioritizing lower energy costs, not protecting the profit margins of utilities that already have captive customers and have benefited from over $2 billion in rate hikes since 2019 alone. It means welcoming competition that drives down prices rather than legislating competition out of existence.
Hesselbein’s candid admission at that luncheon was a gift to Wisconsinites. She told you, plainly and without embarrassment, whose interests she is actually advancing and prioritizing. You should believe her, and you should ask her to start putting Wisconsin families first.
