Thomas Kemp

Thomas Kemp is the Chair of the Eau Claire County Democratic Party, and an At-Large Member of the Eau Claire City Council from the 3rd District. He was elected to the City Council in 2007 to succeed Toby Biegel, who decided to not seek re-election. On December 17th, 2009, Kemp was elected unanimously as the Chair of the Eau Claire County Democratic Party. Prior to serving through public office, he volunteered for many local, state, and federal campaigns. He was the Campaign manager for Michael Turner (a Democratic Candidate for the Wisconsin State Assembly) in 2006.
Kemp came to Eau Claire in 2002, when he was hired to teach as an Assistant Economics Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Prior to teaching at UW-Eau Claire he taught at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China as a Visiting Professor, at the Vietnam National University in Hanoi, Vietnam as a visiting professor, at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado as a lecturer, and as a teacher of Principles of Political Economy, Industrial Organization, and International Economics at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Upper Education and Experience
Dr. Kemp graduated from Carthage College with honors in economics and a minor in German. He received his Ph.D. from Colorado State University in 2002.
He is on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Economics Association, and has served on the board since 2007. Kemp has also been an Elected member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Institutional Thought since 2006. He is a member of the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE), Association for Institutional Thought (AFIT), Western Social Science Association (WSSA), and Downtown Eau Claire, Inc. (DECI).
City Council
Kemp was elected as an At-Large Representative on the City Council from the 3rd District in 2007. The 3rd District of Eau Claire consists of Wards 3, 20, 24, 30, 31 & 32. As the 3rd District of Eau Claire has many college residential areas, Kemp gained many votes from that specific group of people. Kemp received much support from students; In March of 2007, A Facebook group, Students for Kemp, was created.
As a councilman, Kemp wants to see expanded opportunities for all students. On council, he has voiced his support of additional entrepreneurial opportunities as well as better training for students and community members who are interested in starting their own business in Eau Claire.
The City Council is responsible for establishing priorities, policies and city ordinances, all legislative action pertaining to the City, adopting an annual budget and hiring the City Manager. Kemp has worked in cooperation to see a continued effort to revitalize downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Kemp has continued to state that the City of Eau Claire needs to work hard to seek the appropriate funding from the State.
On March 25th, 2008, the city council made statewide headlines when they approved a smoking ban in the city. Kemp supported the ban. He stated that it was a move that was right for the city of Eau Claire.
City Arts Budget
On the November 5th, 2009 city budget meeting, it was made apparent that funding local arts organizations was a divisive issue among council members.
The majority of the three-hour long meeting came in council members’ suggestions to amend the proposed budget, and while some concerned hundreds of thousands of dollars, the most heated debate concerned a request to allocate $17,200 to fund outside arts-related groups in 2010 the same way the city did in 2009. “These are the many sources of entertainment that people rely on, and perhaps more so now given the times we’re in,” said Kemp, the amendment’s author.
The 2009 budget allotted $205,000 to the Chippewa Valley Museum, Chippewa Valley Symphony, Chippewa Valley Theatre Guild, Community Beautification Association, Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra, Eau Claire Regional Arts Center, Paul Bunyan Logging Camp, Children’s Museum of Eau Claire, and Municipal Band - a that total Kemp suggested remain the same, instead of $17,200 less, as the proposed budget recommended. Kemp’s motion would require taking the funds from the Parks Capital Improvement account, less than 3 percent of its total of $297,000 dollars.
The motion saw some hesitation from council members Bob Von Haden, Jackie Pavelski,and Vice President Dave Duax, saying the parks account has already been reduced and some of these organizations need to know that they must raise funds on their own because there will come a time when the City will not be able to support them.
Chair of the Democratic Party
As of December 3rd, 2009, Kemp was the only announced candidate for Chair of the Party. He was elected on December 17th, 2009 at the General Meeting of the Democratic Party. He has stated that he would like to see the party become more accessible to people with new families and youth. A motion was made at the December 17th meeting to unanimously elect him as the Chair without any opposition.
The mission of the Eau Claire County Democratic Party is to promote democratic and progressive principles and to elect Democratic and progressive candidates—from town halls to the White House. It is one of the most comprehensive and effective local political parties in the State of Wisconsin, with a full majority in the Wisconsin State Assembly and Wisconsin State Senate.
Personal Life
Kemp is married to Rula Qalyoubi, an Economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. The two of them co-wrote the Student Reviewed Publication, Reciprocal Transactions, Social Capital, and the Transformation of Bedouin Agriculture for the Journal of Economic Issues. They also wrote the working paper, Discretion and Enforcement in the Market for Automobile Emissions Testing: A case study of the Colorado AIR system. Kemp and his wife have given presentations in Chicago, Illinois and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They reside in the 3rd District of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

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