Steve Kagen

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Steve Kagan

United States Representative from Wisconsin's 8th district
In office Term Starts January 2007
Preceded by	Mark Green
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	December 12, 1949 Appleton, Wisconsin
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Gayle Kagen
Religion	Jewish

Steven (Steve) Kagen, M.D. is a physician and politician from the state of Wisconsin. He is currently the representative-elect from the state's 8th Congressional District.

1 Early life
2 Medical career
3 No Patient Left Behind Act
4 Criticism
- 4.1 "Injun" comment
5 2006 8th Congressional mid-term election
- 5.1 Democratic Primary results
- 5.2 Election results
6 External links

[edit] Early life

Kagen was born on December 12, 1949 in Appleton, Wisconsin. His first professional employment was with the City of Appleton in the Department of Parks and Recreation as a playground leader during the summer months of both his sophomore and junior years of High School. After graduating from Appleton East High School, Kagen worked as an Teamster in a dairy bagging sugar and whey. He later attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he was awarded an Honors Degree in Molecular Biology. Kagen then entered medical school, and later trained at both Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois and the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, being triple Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology. Kagen's father, Marv, also a doctor, was an unsuccessful Democratic Congressional candidate in 1966. The younger Dr. Kagen performed extensive volunteer work for his father's campaign and cited to his father's campaign as a major factor in his interest in politics.

[edit] Medical career

Dr. Kagen went on to become a successful Allergist, founding four clinics in Appleton, Green Bay, Fond du Lac, and Oshkosh. He is also an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin.^[1] Kagen earned a national and international reputation for groundbreaking research while discovering new causes of asthma.

[edit] No Patient Left Behind Act

The predominant issue Kagen stressed during his campaign was an initiative he called No Patient Left Behind. This idea provides for Open Disclosure of all health care-related prices, Unitary Pricing where every citizen pays the same amount for the same product or service, a Single Insurance Risk pool to leverage down insurance and prescription drug prices, set deductibles at 3% of a household's federal taxable income, and provide coverage to all children and working adults.

[edit] Criticism

[edit] "Injun" comment

After attending a campaign event on the Oneida reservation and then in Green Bay, WI on October 20, 2006, Kagen commented, in part:

"Appreciate getting here almost on time. Our excuse in Oneida was, well, we're on Injun time. They don't tell time by the clock. Our excuse here is that I am a doctor and that we're never on time."[1]

Kagen later apologized.[2]

[edit] 2006 8th Congressional mid-term election

On November 7, 2006, Kagen, a first time political candidate, was elected to represent Wisconsin's 8th Congressional District as a member of the Democratic Party, to replace retiring Congressman Mark Green, who left the seat to unsuccessfully run for Governor of Wisconsin. Kagen defeated Wisconsin Assembly Speaker John Gard of Peshtigo in the most expensive Congressional race in Wisconsin history, a race dominated by negative attacks by both parties against the other's candidate. Some of the issues where Kagen and Gard disagreed were President George W. Bush's direction in the Iraq War, stem-cell research, and whether to increase the minimum wage.

Kagen narrow 51%-49% victory was largely thanks to his 10% win in Outagamie County and Appleton, his home base. Kagen also narrowly defeated Gard in Brown County including Green Bay, winning by less than 1,000 votes. Gard was able to carry his home base of Peshtigo, but only narrowly.

[edit] Democratic Primary results

Candidate	Votes	Percentage
Steven L. Kagen (D)	25,523	47.63%
Nancy Nusbaum (D)	12,731	23.66%
Jamie Wall (D)	15,427	28.68%

[edit] Election results

Candidate	Votes	Percentage
John Gard (R)	134,990	49%
Steven L. Kagen (D)	141,598	51%

Political offices
Preceded by: Mark Green	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 8th congressional district 2007-Present	Succeeded by: Incumbent