Good morning,
fellow Wisconsinites.
My name is Dan Schaefer and you are listening to Civic Media Mornings.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
I am here in Radio Park in Racine.
with Mr. Greg Bach.
Greg, how are you this fine morning?
I'm doing quite well, Dan.
Thank you so much for asking.
It's a lovely day.
Most of the snow is melted and it's, oh, I can take these temperatures in February.
Let me tell you.
Yeah, not too bad.
So we'll take a quick look around the state at some temperatures here in racing, Wisconsin is 40 degrees.
Not bad for a February, February 25th.
And it's 40 degrees.
Not too bad.
I'll take it.
I'll take it, Greg.
Uh, it is 32 degrees in Wausau and 36 degrees.
in Green Bay.
You know, I really like these randomly, unseasonably warm days that we have.
As long as it's like the occasional ones, if it's a lot of them, I start to get worried.
But if it's like an occasional one.
I really enjoy it.
And so I'm enjoying after the deep freeze that we had after, you know, making it through January, almost all of February, it's, it's nice to get a little preview of what's to come with that with a warm morning.
I remember a few years ago, this pre pandemic and, uh, there was a week in February where it was like 70 degrees.
It was real.
And everyone's like, Oh my gosh, this is great.
And back in my head, I'm thinking to myself, yeah, but the world is on
fire.
So
yeah, it was just, I, I, I like these days.
I looked at my.
backyard, all the snow is gone.
The only problem is big old.
mud puddles.
We can't let the dog in the back.
Yeah.
That's
just terrible.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Got to, got to watch out for that.
But, but, you know, I'll take, uh, I'll take a little mud puddle to deal with if it's, if it's going to give me a 40 degree day in the middle of winter.
It's,
you know, it's
just a nice respite from everything else.
And actually I was thinking about this.
I have a friend of mine has this idea that like anytime where you get a 40 degree day in February or something like that, we should have a system.
in Wisconsin where you snap into action and beer gardens start to pop up because you know Wisconsinites will go to a beer garden regardless of what time of year it is.
If it's a 40 degree day, you're throwing your cargo shorts on and you're making it over to the beer garden.
Wait a minute.
I smell pine trees and IPAs.
It could be the same thing.
Yeah, definitely.
Uh, well, once again, you're listening to civic media mornings.
I'm your guest host today, Dan shit.
My name is Dan Schaefer.
I'm the political editor at civic media and the founder of a little publication called the recombobulation area.
Uh, I'm your fill in host today.
I hope you enjoyed the show yesterday with, with, uh, the host, Luke Mathers, uh, Chad Holmes is going to be hosting, uh, tomorrow.
Todd Alba is going to be hosting on Thursday.
Uh, and we're going to, you know, we're going to bring you.
some of the elements of what you know and love from Mr. Pat Crutlow's show here on the Civic Media Network.
So we'll be having some fun today.
We're going to be joined by Dr. Kristen Lyrely during the six o'clock hour.
The thing about being an OB-GYN the way Dr. Kristen Lyrely is, is occasionally you have to go deliver a baby.
So that's what she's going to be doing today.
I'm sorry, but I've never seen her deliver
a baby, so I don't
believe it.
I think she's just, once again, in a sunny place, having a cool drink, whatever.
Yeah, sure.
Well, we wish, well wishes to Dr. Kristen Lierly as she is off to some, of course, some very important work there.
But we will miss talking to her, but you know, you know, she'll be back on the airwaves here very soon on Civic Medium.
mornings.
In the seven o'clock hour, we're going to be joined by my friend Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good.
You've heard her on the on the airwaves here with Mr. Crichtlow as well.
And so we'll be talking about all the work that she is up to at Motherhood for Good.
We'll be talking about some of the big topics that she's been focused on postpartum.
Medicaid coverage for new moms.
That's a big deal Some of this fallout from Tony Evers budget released just a week ago Some of what's going on in the Wisconsin Supreme Court rate and just some general motherhood for goodness That we'll be getting into in the second hour of the show So if you want to check out what Kate is up to go check that out at motherhood for good I find most of their stuff through Instagram.
So do do check that out as well and then
He will also be joined by Chad Holmes at the end of the show here because his show begins at eight and he'll be joining us just at the very end of the show this morning as well.
But because Dr. Liarley is not going to be here for the first hour of the show, Mr. Bock, it's just me and you, buddy.
Oh,
yeah.
That's right.
We are recombobulating in the morning.
And as we, so we've been talking about, you know, guest hosting today, just getting our plans together and just talking a little bit last week.
So you do, you produce this show every morning.
Yes.
Yes, sir.
I.
I'm not a regular guest on this show because of two reasons.
One is because I'm a parent, and it's because it is very difficult for me to make time in the six to eight a.m.
window.
Because if I am up, I am taking care of two little ones,
my two daughters.
And who do like to get up early?
I imagine they are up right now, bothering my wife today.
But we kind of trade off who's going to get up with the girls on certain days.
blah, blah, blah, whatever.
So today is my wife's day to get up and I'm sure everything's going great, but usually when it's my wife's day, I am sleeping in a little bit because I am not a morning person.
I am not a morning person
and
I'm sitting here in our studio and we're seeing looking at the clock right in front of me and it says 612.
Yes, it does.
For me to not be horizontal.
at 612.
This is the middle of the night, Greg.
I drove in.
I drove
in.
It is dark out.
I drove from my house in Milwaukee here to Radio Park and Racing.
It is dark out.
I don't understand why anyone gets up this early.
I really don't.
Unless you have to or unless you have kids that are waking you up.
I was going to say part of the reason why I get up every morning when I do is because every two weeks, civic media gives me money.
I, I understand what you're saying.
I think as I'm getting, I know that I'm getting older.
Well, because that's just what happens.
But also, so I wake up every morning around four 45 and I'm very lucky because I live close to the studio.
So I can sleep more, but on like a Saturday morning for me, sleeping in now is like seven 30.
Yeah.
If I can sleep till seven 30, I'm like, Oh, I've, this is the life.
So I don't, I guess I must be a morning person now.
I'm actually a morning person and a night owl.
I can stay up late and wake up early.
Just, I then need a nap during the day sometime, but- See, I'm also not a nap person.
I almost never take naps.
I have to, with this job and my other job, I have to take a nap midday or I'm, it's not good.
It's so not good.
But yeah, I mean, I don't know how different, how old are you?
I am 39.
You are?
I thought you
were
like 34.
Okay.
Well, I'm glad I passed as 34.
I could tell people I'm 34.
You absolutely do.
I just, I thought, oh, okay.
You know, when you hit your 40s then, but I don't know.
Maybe you'll never be a morning person.
And that's, that's absolutely fine.
Cause one day there'll be a day where your kids are like, don't, I don't want to wake it up.
I want to sleep.
And you're gonna be like, these are my children.
Yes.
These are
my babies.
Yes, that's right.
I don't think that it'll ever happen with my youngest because that's just she's just shot out of a rocket first thing in the morning with a million things to say.
But I, you know, I am much more of a night owl.
I am much more comfortable if it's just like 1130 at night and I'm watching TV and that's when I'm most awake a lot of times.
So a lot of the columns that you read at the Rika population area are often finished in that type at that type of time, you know, and like after I put my kids to bed and then I'll go back to my desk and sit down and pound out a column and
That's when I feel kind of most awake and most myself.
Which is at like the 830 to 1130 time range.
Are you a person who drinks coffee at night?
No.
Okay, because some people are like, I'll get a cup of coffee.
Like how can you do coffee past, I don't know, like two?
I don't understand that.
No, I drink a lot of coffee, but I, you know, it's usually, I'll just make a pot of coffee in the morning and have two or three cups and that's it.
Oh, yeah, that's I get I get to I get to well, I get two giant things during the day that I'm done.
Yeah,
a regular folders.
Just
need you
wake up
at 445.
It's
true.
It's very,
very
true.
And I'm usually wiping the sleep out of my eyes when I'm walking up to the stair stairs to the studio.
I'm like, it is.
I mean, I'm not gonna lie.
I'm not I am not one of those individuals would be like, it's the morning.
Let's get things
But once the lights come on the studio and I get sat down and I'm doing my work, then I'm awake.
Things are happening.
Juices are flowing.
And we're going to get ready for a good show because you're going to be having a great time today.
We got a great, a great, great show lined up, my friend.
I'm very excited to have you here today.
I'm excited to be here as well.
I mean, it's trying, I'm trying something new, you know, it's a new experience for me.
So I hope you all out there in the civic media listening audience will be able to join the show, have this conversation, help.
me recompobulate.
I, you know, I do a lot to try to help to recompobulate the news and politics and whatever else.
I need you guys to help me out to recompobulate today.
So join us on the, uh, on the, shoot us a text, give us a call, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, uh, you know, and join those, uh, join those comments on the live stream.
We've got Tony joining us this morning saying, uh, I've heard people get up early for peace and quiet.
You know what?
Time is also quiet.
2am.
2am is the best time of day.
I am, it's still, I am more comfortable if it's like staying up until 2am than waking up like I did today at 430.
I think I would be a night owl too.
I would be up that late if I didn't have a job ready to get up this early because when you do have to get up at like four, I used to have to get up, when we were in Walker show, I used to get up at four and I'm like, Oh, I have to go to bed at eight o'clock
to get a
decent night's sleep.
Yeah, that's that because it just throws your whole life off and like I've talked to you know, I when I run into journalist friends at like Milwaukee Press Club events or like whatever it might be You know, I would run into jaren Jordan who's a host on WSI and I sent well if he's a great guy So I'll run him run into him at these events and he he is the he I don't know if he still is actually but he was like the morning show guy on channel 12 forever and I'm just like how do you even operate as a person if you have to get he's I'm just like he showed me his like alarms that he has yeah
set for the morning and it's just wild to just like, it's just a strange kind of like shifted existence where you get up in these times.
It's a lot.
But it is a lot.
It's a lot, but you get used to it after a while
No, you don't you never do but if you know you don't but if you know if you're out there if you're if you're driving to work if you're starting your day We're glad you're starting it here with us on civic media mornings and once again I am your guest host this morning.
My name is Dan Schaefer Again, if you are unfamiliar with me in my work, you could go check out the recombination area You can find it at the recombination area dot news.
It's a weekly opinion column and online publication that I start
I started a few years ago as a kind of a part time thing while my daughter was napping to take the place of freelancing.
And now it's a, and now it's a whole deal.
And so now it is part of the civic media network and has been for about six months now.
Yeah, you have.
Yeah.
You've been, you've been a part of our little family.
Yeah, that's right.
So we're, we're going to be headed to a break right now, but stick with us.
We've got a great show planned for you here on civic media mornings with.
Producer extraordinaire Greg Bach and yours truly Dan Schaefer will be
Good morning, Wisconsin, and welcome back to Civic Media Mornings.
I'm your guest host today.
My name is Dan Schaefer.
On the board, we have Mr. Greg Bach, who is a co-worker of mine.
Darn right.
We are always excited.
to celebrate the fact that we are indeed coworkers.
So thank you again for joining us today on Civic Media Mornings.
We were going to have Dr. Kristen Lyrely join us for this segment.
But she got called away to more pressing business.
She's delivering a baby.
So we're going to be talking about a number of different topics, some of which that we were going to be talking about with Dr. Lyrely, some of which we just had general part of the rundown here.
So today is
Exactly five weeks to the day, uh, from the spring election.
Wow.
Can you believe that?
We're 35 days out from the spring general election.
Is that discombobulating for you, Greg?
It's making my stomach sick.
I like,
I just, I
really, I really, really, I feel like.
I feel like there was so much energy happening for Justice Janet Protase, which when she was running and that election just showed that, you know, Wisconsin had a plan as a people and we're coming together regardless of like who you voted for on the national level.
And now I don't feel that sort of energy yet, yet,
but it's still five weeks away.
Well, I think it's just because everything is being viewed, everything in the political universe now is being viewed through the prism of what's happening in Washington DC, right?
And it's just, so it's, you know, when, when Elon Musk dumps a bunch of money into this race, that's going to be the headline because he's the guy kind of running the federal government in a way right now, which, you know, I don't even know how to characterize these things half the time.
He's just
bulldozing the various federal agencies and what have you.
So he's obviously jumped into the race.
There's going to be a lot of more spending into that race.
I'm writing a column right now about not the Wisconsin Supreme Court race because I wrote wrote something about that.
I think we're going to, you know, we're going to have a lot to say about that in the coming five weeks.
And so just be prepared.
Make sure you are registered to vote.
There are certain deadlines for this.
If you want to request your ballot, go to my vote, be ready, be prepared.
Always good to be prepared to know everything that's on your ballot because it will not just be the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court.
in court that will be on ballot statewide.
There will also be a constitutional amendment regarding voter ID that will be on ballot statewide.
And there will also be the race for state superintendent.
And I'm working on a column about this race right now.
And I will say that education policy, and I know you guys talk about it on this show quite a bit.
And Matt Nair on air, I know you were talking about it yesterday with Emily Saphos and other folks.
would say you know I consider myself pretty well versed in a lot of public policy I would say education policy is probably my weak spot of what I understand within the realm of public policy so I'm writing this column not from like a public policy standpoint but more of a political one and so I
We'll have two candidates here in the race for state superintendent, the incumbent, Dr. Jill Underly, who is seeking another term.
She advanced through the primary last week, and then we'll have Brittany Kinzer, who is a bit of a different type of candidate than we have seen running for this office in quite some time.
Maybe ever.
Really, maybe ever.
And I think that is part of why I think this race is pretty interesting.
So the piece that I'm writing is basically just kind of asking the question, could Brittany Kinzer win the race for state superintendent?
You look at some of the results from last week.
Underly got about 38%.
Kinzer got 35%.
And Jeff Wright, the superintendent of sock prairie schools, was the odd man out with just over 27%.
So taking a look at that, I think there's a couple of different ways you could look at it.
One is that you have two Democratic-aligned candidates in Underly and Wright.
combining for more than 65% of the vote, suggesting that this race might not actually be close after all, right?
Yeah.
And that kind of is how historically this race has gone.
So I look back through the records, you know, before, before Underly, there was an interim state superintendent after Tony Evers was elected governor.
And so Evers had that job for almost a decade.
It first elected in 2009 as state superintendent and before him, you know, there was another similar candidate And so if you go back on this, it's it's just a lot of you know I think I had one person that I was talking to describe this to me like sometimes Republicans will vote for or sometimes people will vote for like a Republican State treasurer or something in that role kind of like bean counter.
Yeah, and then just vote for a more democratic aligned person to be
the, you know, public school administrator, right?
Which is basically what this, what this job is.
And so I think, but it, and so it's typically not been a close race.
Underly one, and it was one by a 15% margin.
And that was like as close as it had been in quite some time.
So usually the, you know, the, the person running in this gets more than 60% of the vote.
Tony Evers got more than 60% of the vote at the two times that he was reelected.
But so so it does stand to reason that like if you combine the underly vote and the right vote That will add you up to a pretty clear victory But on the other hand an incumbent only getting 38% of the vote in a primary Could be seen as a little bit of a red flag for those reelection hopes that maybe she was not able to kind of Consolidate the level of support that she needed to really make you know Bring some confidence into her campaign going forward.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that I think that there was a lot of
people are not thrilled with her.
But I also feel like now that it's her versus Brittany, there's going to be a lot more coalescing of forces.
But I understand what you're saying.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so there
Just looking back at this, there has never really been a candidate like Brittany Kinzer, who is an education consultant and former charter school executive, worked in a role with this group called City Forward Collective.
It's a pro charter group based in and around Milwaukee, essentially as a lobbyist for that group in a while.
So most of the people who are in this role have something in the background similar to Tony Evers, similar to having a background in public school administration.
And so Kinzer would bring a very different
very different policies to this type of role.
And I just don't really know if we know what exactly that would mean.
But we'll continue getting into that after the break here.
If you have questions about this office, about this election in general, give us a call 855-752-4842 or leave a comment on the live stream.
We're live streaming on YouTube and the platform that used to be Twitter.
Are we on Facebook as well?
Not this morning.
Not this morning.
That's okay.
We'll have to recompobulate on Facebook another time.
But if you have thoughts about this race, we'd love to have you join the conversation here.
because I think this is kind of emerging as a very, very interesting race.
Agreed.
So we'll talk about that a little bit more after the break here.
You are listening to Civic Media Mornings.
I'm your guest host, Dan Schaefer, and we'll be right back.
Welcome back to Civic Media Mornings.
My name is Dan Schaefer.
I am your guest host today here at Radio Park in Racine with Mr. Greg Bach on the board.
Greg, how we doing?
I'm doing pizza keen.
Glad to hear it.
Yeah.
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That's right.
That's right.
So if you are unfamiliar with me and my work at the Reconbibulation Area, I write a weekly opinion column and curate an online publication.
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It's not just me yapping over there.
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I put a roundup of all of my radio appearances for the week in there, often with a goofy screenshot of me and Mr. Greg Bach from the live stream.
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Hello.
So we are before the break we were talking a little bit about the spring general election and we are five weeks away
from that spring general election, April 1st, be prepared, get ready.
So we're gonna be talking a whole lot about the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court in the coming weeks.
And kind of the undercard race of this, in a sense, is the race for state superintendent, because that is also going to be on the ballot statewide.
We have incumbent Jill Underly going against challenger, Brittany Kinzer, and...
You know, I think this is a pretty interesting race.
We were talking about before the break, you know, the lessons we might have learned from the primary if, you know, the fact that two, you know, kind of democratic aligned public school advocates amounted to 65%.
If that in the primary, if that suggested, perhaps, that, you know, underly might cruise to a victory, or if the fact that she only got 38% in the primary is a red flag.
for her reelection hopes.
We were talking about Kinzer too and just the fact that she is a former charter school executive and was essentially a lobbyist for like a pro charter organization in and around Milwaukee There's never really been a candidate like Brittany Kinzer who has had a real shot at winning this race and she has talked about being a moderate She has said she's a blue dog Democrat.
She talked about don't donating to Tammy Baldwin So maybe not exactly a conservative candidate, but she now at this point she's advanced through the primary
She is going to be the choice for those on the right in this election and I think because the Wisconsin Supreme Court race is going to draw so much attention and so much money I think the fortunes of this race are in a certain sense tied to
the fortunes of the state Supreme Court race, because we don't have that many ticket splitters in this day and age.
And now I know this is a nonpartisan, ostensibly nonpartisan race, nonpartisan and name only type of race that we have in the spring election here.
You know, I don't really know if are there going to be people who are going to vote for Brad Schimmel and then vote for Jill Underly or they're going to people who people who vote for Susan Crawford and then vote for Brittany Kinzer.
I'm not really sure.
I feel like when you're, you know, you're seeing these campaigns and they're, they're knocking on doors and they're doing the outreach and things like that, they're going to have.
Campaign material, you know if a Republican group is knocking on your door They're gonna have campaign material for Brad Schimmel and they're gonna have campaign material for Brittany Kinzer the Wisconsin GOP celebrated Kinzer advancing to the to the general election and this as well We know you know just from the campaign finance reports that many of the typical Republican donors who fund statewide races in Wisconsin Dick and Liz Uline Diane Hendricks, etc.
We're also funding
Kinzer's campaign, and Kinzer raised a ton of money in the pre-primary period, had three times the amount of cash as any of her competitors in that race.
So money is a big deal in politics.
We know it's gonna go a long way.
We know it's gonna get ugly because of it.
But I do think we should...
really be paying more attention to this race, because I think it could be a more competitive race for state superintendent than we've seen in quite some time.
This is, you know, four years ago when Dr. Jill Underly won, she won by a 15 point margin.
Like these races have not been close.
Sony Heavers regularly got more than 60%.
of the vote in these races for state superintendent.
So I think because of the state Supreme Court race happening at the same time, and that's going to bring out a lot of Republican voters.
And because of just kind of the larger dynamics surrounding underly a lot of the frustrations that conservatives have had with their oversight of Milwaukee public schools, with this kind of...
wonky, complicated issue about the testing benchmarks that Republicans have been up in arms about.
And I think because of so many of these other factors, I think this is headed towards being a more competitive.
I'm not saying that Kinzer is the favorite.
by any means.
I don't think she is.
But I think this is headed towards being a more competitive race for state superintendent that we've seen in a really long time in Wisconsin.
I think when
you're talking about things like ticket splitting, I, you know, the way Brittany Kinzer has promoted herself and more of like that moderate type of thing.
She's not, she's not standing on a soapbox kicking and screaming and saying down with public schools, charters forever.
I could see somebody voting.
for Susan Crawford and Brittany Kinzer as a ticket split, quote unquote, ticket split versus someone saying, you know what?
I really like Jill Underly and Brad Schimmel.
That to me seems like
a less likely combination.
But I
can see someone voting for Brittany Kinzer and Susan Crawford at the same time.
And so I was also mentioning in the segment before that I don't feel like that well-versed in education policy.
But I am trying to, you know, be trying to learn more.
You know, most I was, you know, of course I was raised in Wisconsin.
I went to 12 years of public school in Wisconsin, went to a public university in the state of Wisconsin.
I now have kids who are getting into the school system.
So like my experience in this is more of like a student and now as a parent.
And like, I think education policy.
is just so much of it seems just preposterously agenda driven when it comes to the data on so many of these things.
So I find it really hard more than most fields to find the signal in the noise when it comes to education policy.
But I wonder if there is an element of this that could prove problematic for Jill Underly.
So let me walk through something here with you.
Go for it.
While the school choice movement, or however you want to characterize it, there are a lot of aspects of this that I do fundamentally disagree with.
But at the same time, what I do appreciate about it is that there is a recognition that the status quo isn't working.
Now, do I agree with their proposed solutions to the status quo?
Sure don't.
But I do appreciate that they are looking at this and saying like something needs significant reform This is the education that system that we have now needs significant reform and and I think that we Democrats and those on the left need to continue to be the party of change and the party of reform and they need to get back to that because I think Part of and I think this was an issue that Kamala Harris and Democrats faced in the election last year where they're
being kind of put in a position where they are defending a status quo or defending an establishment that isn't really working for people anymore.
And so I think it is easy as a candidate to run against the establishment right Donald Trump, but effectively did that Last year even though even as a former president as a longtime member of the ruling class In this country he was able to paint himself as an outsider Yeah, and able to paint himself as kind of change agent when we know he's going to campaign is this populist change agent change agent I'm making it really hard for me to say like simple things on the
agent of change
an agent of change
And then but we know when he gets into office.
He just governs like the same old Republican
or like
or worse or worse like yeah, yeah, exactly And so I do wonder if this campaign and obviously spring election electorates are very different from presidential ones There's obviously this is not a one-to-one comparison, but I just wonder if like thematically if under Lee is going to be
the defender of an establishment that isn't working for people.
And, you know, just like in the last election, I would prefer a mediocre establishment than total destruction.
Yeah.
If those are the two options.
But I also think that we need to remember that.
And I think the underly campaign needs to remember this.
And I think Democrats at large need to get back to being the party of change, get back to being the party of reform and not necessarily be
defenders of an establishment that isn't really working for people anymore.
I think, you know, we've talked about this and it wasn't just about about education.
This had more to do with, you know, post 2024 election.
And I think one of the big problems is, is a thing like education and a thing like the border.
But let's stay to this education is
Easy to when asked a question to simply slough off by saying it's a really tough problem and what we need to do Dan is we need to come together as a country This isn't a Democrat or Republican issue and you you talk away
the issue.
You talk away the question without actually answering the question.
I think what needs to happen is we need to have someone come through with a bold solution and not be afraid of saying
it.
Right.
You got to say it with your chest.
Yep.
You got to say it with your chest and you got to say, if you don't like it, do something better because right now it's not working.
And I don't believe that public schools are bad and I don't believe public schools are beyond repair,
but
we need wholesale change and this is how we're going to do it.
We need an investment from the state.
We need an
from the community, but we can't, we can't keep asking communities to raise their property taxes.
They're getting tired of it.
I live in Kenosha.
Our, our referendum failed because the people in Kenosha are like, no, we don't want to keep funding these schools that aren't working.
So yeah, I think what you need to do is you, and, and honestly, Brittany Kinzer isn't really coming with any, any fire or flash either.
She's just not Jill Underly.
I think.
what you're talking about and we've talked about before with Democrats in the federal level of the elections is a full-throated, big chest, huge, like, change idea and say, this is what we're doing.
Let's
do it together.
I know it sounds scary because we've never done it before, but the status quo isn't working and you don't want that.
Let's do it.
I think back to the Barack Obama campaign was an effective one because it was about change.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think that's what Democrats need to get back to.
They can't just be like, oh, we need to uphold the norms.
We have to do this.
We have to do that.
You have to tell people how you want to do things differently and say it with your chest.
And so I think that is, again,
There are complications with making this comparison when it comes to a race like state superintendent.
But I think the broader issue, I think, is that Democrats can't be the defenders of a broken status quo.
And I think that that is just kind of like the big picture headline that I think from a thematic standpoint You need to get back to if you're just joining us.
This is civic media mornings.
I'm your guest host Dan Schaefer You can join the conversation here 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 that's 8 5 5 7 5 civic join our conversation Text or talk
Give us a, throw us a comment on the live stream.
We're live streaming on YouTube and the platform, formerly known as Twitter.
And we will continue to have.
To be talking about this if you have thoughts on the state superintendent race if you have a thought on you know Just kind of the direction that Democrats need to go Going forward Join the conversation
Tony on the live stream says yes back to the party of change and reform love that I mean that's the thing is it's about reform It's about doing things and doing it together.
This is not like the Democrats have to do it on their own It's just you have to have somebody who has the big idea and can also make sure that the big idea also isn't just
Everyone gets their own school.
Like, you know, it can't, it's gotta be a real, real thing with real, like, you know, data behind it, which isn't the favorite of a lot of people, but that's besides the point.
Sorry.
I digress.
And then, but I, yeah, and that's, and that's the thing is so I'm open to ideas.
Of course, you know, as I said, I'm not education policy, not my forte.
I'm open to ideas.
I don't think the school choice idea is a great one, but you know what?
Again, I'll say it's the recognition that the status quo wasn't working, I think is an important aspect of this as well.
So we're going to be continuing to talk about this for the next five weeks before the election.
This election for state superintendent has not been decided by less than double digit margins in decades.
That might change in 2025.
So do not sleep.
on this race.
I think this, we just, you know, we're going to be talking so much about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
Do not sleep on this one.
We're going to be joining you after the break with a little bit of a Pat Crightlose history lesson.
We're going to bring that back.
We're going to be talking some history lessons.
Welcome back.
Specific media mornings.
I'm your guest host today.
My name is Dan Schaefer.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Greg Bach on the board playing some wonderful tunes.
One of my all time favorite songs.
Yeah.
Here comes the song by the Beatles.
Very, very, from the best beetle, my favorite beetle.
Your favorite beetle.
I'm a George guy.
I'm a George guy.
You're a George guy.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, how's this for a segue?
Well, in our history lesson.
The first item for our history lesson today is that today, in 1943, George Harrison was born in Liverpool.
Oh, nice.
And also, Danny,
you
know what?
This opportunity to introduce myself.
I
was going to say we have a
guest, too.
We have a guest here, so let's introduce our guest.
We have Dan Hagen from WJFW in Rhinelander.
Dan, thank you so much for joining us here in Civic Media Mornings.
Of course, glad to be here.
You know, it is remarkable that George Harrison like probably did the best two songs on the Beatles final album.
Yeah, something like after coming out of, of nowhere, how much talent in that band?
It's wild.
Well, Frank Sinatra used to do this song in Vegas and he said it was his favorite Lenin McCartney song and
when George Harrison, when the Beatles finally broke up and he went to go on to make his triple album, all things shall pass.
He had 300 songs.
Cause when you, when you're in a band with Lenin McCartney, you get like maybe a song aside, maybe,
but
beyond that, it's like, yeah, just save it for your solo record someday, Georgia.
You're good.
You're good.
Did you guys watch that documentary that they had on, I think it was Disney plus or something like that about the Beatles making.
uh, recording parts of abbey road
it was let it be
yeah it was let it be that's right yeah
i watched it but honestly it was a seven hour it was seven hour like you know it wasn't so much a documentary in my opinion it was just watching them work
There was no
like,
so, so we were there one day, you know, doing our thing, sipping some tea and making some song.
It was just like, I'm just watching these guys work.
Yeah.
I really enjoyed it.
But it was also kind of funny that the diamond dynamic they had when it came to George, like George was going to bring up a song or something like that.
And Paul and Paul was just like, yeah, okay.
But fun, fun story about this song, this, this song, here comes the sun.
I, uh, so I'm a big music dork.
I'm a huge Beatles fan.
Um, this is the first song I played for each of my daughters when they were born.
Oh, here comes the sun, uh, for both of them.
That's sweet.
Yeah.
So, uh, always, always think of some of the most joyful days of my life when I hear this song, which is wonderful.
Love it.
And then it went
downhill right after
that.
He had to come here at five 30 in the
morning.
And now I'm here and racing.
Um, okay.
So.
How does this work?
Do I just walk through the rest of it?
Dan, you're going to join us to riff on this as well.
So 1957, you know, February 25th, 1957, Buddy Holly stepped into a recording studio in New Mexico along with his band, the crickets.
And this is the result.
That'll be the day.
And not long after this song became the number one song.
in the country in 1957.
It still holds up though, doesn't it?
Yeah.
Still a jam.
He played in a little Rhinelander bowling alley.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's, I mean, this, it's two minutes and 15 seconds and it's just a power pack and pop song.
Just really, really.
Good stuff.
Love it.
I love this.
Absolutely.
Also on this day, uh, as, uh, Mr. Critella notes and his history lesson notes here, Samuel Colt is granted a patent for revolver that uses interchangeable parts and could be mass produced.
Great.
Okay.
So it's named after a guy, Samuel Colt.
I always figured it was an homage to the, the horse after the guy's name.
There you go.
If his last name was Hagan, it would be the, the Hagan 45.
I gotta invent something.
The
Bach 45?
That's got
all the
ring to it.
The Bach 44.
It's the most powerful handgun in the world.
Now you've got commercial guy voice.
I've got commercial guy voice.
One truck.
Roll over.
One truck
for them
all.
The Bach truck.
Some birthdays today.
1971 Daniel Powder, who wrote the song Bad Day.
Remember how ubiquitous that song was 20 years ago?
Oh, you mean this
song?
Oh, man.
I feel like this was in, so it says this song came out.
I think this song came out in 2005.
I think it was in every commercial in 2006 and
every TV show
and every TV show like montage at the end of, you know, Grey's Anatomy or whatever.
Everyone's
realizing they had a bad day, but really know how good they have it though.
Or just if you've ever been in a mall before.
Yeah, if you've ever been in a mall before, this is still playing.
It has been playing on
a loop
in a mall since 2005.
You know, I don't want an invention.
I just got to do one song, right?
If I had a song like this, that would be even neat.
Exactly.
Exactly.
What hits all you need, buddy?
I heard that Norman... Spirit in the sky guy.
Norman Greenbaum.
Norman Greenbaum.
He gets like a million dollars a year.
Awesome.
It's the dream.
It's the
dream.
All other birthdays today.
We have 1975 Chelsea Handler was born.
She's 50 today.
Nice 1976 Rashida Jones was born.
She's
49
today.
And the new director of the FBI, Cash Patel.
He's 45 today.
So happy birthday to Chelsea Handler and Rashida
Jones.
That's a solid sound effect there.
Yeah.
1984.
We'll just move right on from the birthdays.
We don't need to talk about Cash Patel and his new deputy Dan Bungino.
1984, Van Halen's jump hits number one and stays there for five weeks.
Oh boy.
Does this one, does this one hold up?
I think so.
Cause
you, cause you still do drums.
I still do.
Yeah.
You can't, you can't not.
Oh, you're doing the air drums back here.
The people on the live stream are loving it.
One more here, 1970, Ernie on Sesame Street sings Rubber Ducky for the first time.
It goes so well that the song is released as a single.
A few months
later, reaches number 16 on the Hot 100.
And
how about
that?
