If you’re one of the many students on campus who lives in Dane County District 5, Ashok Kumar is the candidate you should cast your vote for April 4. Kumar’s extensive experience in both campus and local politics, his impressive command of county issues and his progressive political leanings make him the best-suited candidate to represent UW students.

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Kumar, the progressive candidate, stressed the importance of his experience working for the district in the past. He has been involved in outlawing discrimination against low-income housing tenants and is endorsed by several environmental groups including the Sierra Club.

“I have worked continuously for almost three years in this district on behalf of students, and won victories,” he said. “I haven’t been here for five months and not actually worked on anything for students [like my opponent].”

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Student-dominated districts of downtown Madison have produced some of the board’s ablest members over the years — including a young U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, a young state Rep. Mark Pocan and current Board Chairman Scott McDonell — and every indication is that UW junior Ashok Kumar is ready to carry forward the tradition.

Active in Associated Students of Madison, Kumar led the fight to preserve transportation services for students. He was appointed to the Southeast Campus Advisory Committee by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, and he has served as a board member of the Indian Students Association and been an active participant in other campus groups.

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Ashok Kumar, a SLAC member, said his group’s referendum to raise wages would increase segregated fees paid by students by little or nothing.

Union administrators could find the additional money by cutting costs or raising program revenue, he said.

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The UW administration should seek state funding for the renovation, rather than saddling students with the cost, said Ashok Kumar, a campus activist and a candidate for the Dane County Board.

“Right now, higher education is inaccessible for working class families and people of color,” said Kumar, a junior. “Rather than ask the state for money, they said, Why don’t we increase segregated fees by $200 a year for every single year for the next 30 years for every single student?’ That’s a lot of money.”

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Kumar said the Regents’ concerns about fee use were borne out by the proposed union projects in the referendum.

“The union administrators want to put this on the backs of students and I don’t think they should,” he said. “It’s unnecessary. It should be paid for by the state if it’s that important.”

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Kumar said he’ll be a proponent for increasing cost-of-living wage adjustments for county service providers, construction of a light-rail system and reducing urban sprawl by building up, not out.

He also wants to fight the “inequality” in the criminal justice system, eliminating putting non-violent drug offenders in jail and putting them into alternate programs apart from lockup, so new hard cell jail space wouldn’t have to be built.

“We need to change our mindset and stop funding prisons,” Kumar said.

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“They want Union South not to serve the interests of students, but to serve interests of corporations and businesses,” said Ashok Kumar, UW-Madison junior, SLAC member and Dane County Board candidate.

“Students shouldn’t have to pay for something that the state and private entities should pay for.”

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Kumar, a junior, emphasized his vast experience of working at the grassroots level on campus, saying it would give him an advantage if elected to the Dane County Board.

“I’ve been an activist around this campus … for years now,” he said. “I’ve worked on a lot of issues and the issues that I’ve worked on at the grassroots level are the things I want to do at the County Board level.”

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County government is arguably the most boring level of government, but Kumar hopes to change that. His socialist agenda focuses on labor issues, government efficiency, relaxing drug laws and beefing up the county’s health and human services budget, an idea which the board’s current yokel’s surely clenched their dentures at.

Kumar sat recently with Dane101 to discuss why county government matters, why students deserve representation at the county level and how he would increase services without raising taxes.

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