I’m a lifelong Monroe County resident calling rural Sparta my home for 54 years. I grew up in a faith-based home, my mother was a factory worker, and dad was most of the time a self-employed roofer. We were a blue-collar working family.

At the age of 16 I started with a three-thousand-dollar loan to buy the heifers that ultimately become my base for a milking herd. I spent the next 30 years dairying. Later, I partnered with my father who had been running a recycling business for about 15 years. I currently have a small cow calf beef operation in partnership with my brother.

I’m a graduate of Sparta high school, married my wife Rachel of 33 years. We are care givers taking care of our adult disabled children that call our rural residence in Sparta home as well.

At the age of 26 I took the challenge to run for county board and successfully won becoming the second youngest member to serve on the Monroe County Board. I have served on and off over the last 30 years. I was recently re-elected to Chairman of the County Board.

I have also been involved in town government and have served as Town Board Chairman. I have volunteered in other service organizations to include FFA Alumni, shelter care, and the Mississippi River Regional Planning Commission. My favorite public service which I really love doing is taking Monroe County Safety Patrol kids to Washington DC to tour our Nation’s Capital. I recently completed my 28th trip!

My involvement in politics came about because a man named Ronald Reagan, an outsider to Washington, understood that as a nation we are to run government from the bottom up and not top down. Those principles of empowering men and women to succeed when freedom's door is open are unlimiting!

In the State of Wisconsin, we need checks and balances. Madison mentality can be summed up in a phrase that they believe a more perfect government is “of Madison for Madison and by Madison”. Well, I would like to remind them that western Wisconsin is “we the people for the people and by the people”. In short, it is bottom up not top down.

We have serious issues facing western Wisconsin such as mandates passed on school districts, counties and cities are once again top down. Seniors that are leaving our great state need the tax cuts they earned so they need not worry about staying in their own homes; and yes blue-collar workers need tax relief as well. We the residents here in western Wisconsin do not have much influence on Washington’s failed monetary policy, but we can influence Madison. The Legislature in Madison can give tax relief for families engulfed with inflationary costs they experience every single night sitting at the kitchen table.

We need to look deeply at why young Wisconsinites are leaving the state and that means prioritizing our commitment to clean up the PFAS polluting our wells and streams. It also means more money for research and clean up as all Wisconsinites want clean water. Broadband is greatly needed in rural western Wisconsin and more funding is needed for the entrepreneurs that call the last mile home. Wisconsin needs to have conversations on how roads are funded given the era of EV vehicles. There are many more issues that Madison can address but it begins locally here in western Wisconsin. It’s neither “R” nor “D” but rather WW for Western Wisconsin.

By now you probably wonder who this guy is, and what is he running for? Well I’m Cedric Schnitzler and I’m running to be the next 95th Assembly Representative. And in case you missed it, its bottom up not top down!