Good morning.
Welcome.
Welcome to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Calvin Butenoff.
Coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
Join us.
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On Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter today is Wednesday, March 19th.
As of today, the average price of a gallon of milk in Wisconsin, 317.
down 33 cents from January 20th of this year.
And as of today, the average price of eggs in Wisconsin, 561 down 37 cents since yesterday, still up about a buck and a half since January 20th, but they're coming down.
Fewer outbreaks of bird flu is what I have seen, at least in March, so that's all good news.
We have a big, big show coming up for you today.
Pat Critello from Up North News Radio is gonna join us at 1030, of course, that big April 1st election, less than two weeks away now.
It was two weeks as of yesterday.
Susan Crawford, Brad Schimmel vying for the open spot on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court.
We will be talking about that with Pat Krightlow.
I heard him and I heard you both this morning when I was driving in talking about why Elon, co-president Elon Musk, is pouring so much money into this race.
Not that he has any personal interest in this or anything.
Nah.
Nah, wouldn't be that.
He's just a guy who loves America.
Right, so we will have Pat Critello join us.
After 10.33, next hour, we'll do a little update on the Doge Wall of Efficiency.
Stick around for that.
At 11.30, which is where we'd like to lighten things up a little bit, what we call our audio sorbet.
So we can all take a breath.
Whoa.
Nicely done, Calvin.
Corey Atkins will be joining us from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society.
They found a ship in Lake Superior that's been there for 132 years.
This is for historians, this is a big deal.
Okay.
And so Corey's gonna join us to talk about that.
As we always do, we will wrap up the show with this shouldn't be a thing.
Today it is the down the crapper edition update.
There we go.
It's an update on an earlier tizbet.
I love our updates.
I know.
So stick around for that.
As always, if you ever have a thing you think should not be outside of politics, send it into Jane says at civicmedia.us, J-A-N-E-S-A-Y-S.
Jane says at civicmedia.us.
I wanted to start off with this though and I would love to hear.
your reaction to this, if my husband is listening, I can, I know his reaction already because we talk about this at home.
The headline from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today, Laura Schulte with the byline, Governor Tony Evers budget proposes $120 jump in vehicle title fees to pay for roads and bridges.
In the governor's proposed by any old budget,
Tony Evers recommending hiking the fee 120 bucks.
So currently it is 164.50.
Period.
Period that we all pay every year if you have a car.
Just a car.
Just a car.
Because it's more for SUVs, right?
It's more for EVs, more for hybrids.
Yeah, it would go from 164.50 to 284.50.
Yep.
Estimations say that price jump would raise
Nearly $122 million next year and more than $160 million in 2027.
They'd use that money to support the repair and development of Wisconsin roadways.
Vehicle title fees are paid once.
When someone purchase a new vehicle, normally lumped in with the purchase of the car.
Oh, I'm wrong.
It does not have to be paid again.
So it is a one time fee if you purchase a car.
Oh.
Vehicle title fees are paid once.
I see.
when someone buys a new vehicle and that normally gets lumped in with the purchase of the car, doesn't have to be paid again.
Now what do you want to talk about?
Along with title registration fees, the governor also suggested raising the driver's license renewal fee.
This is what we do pay annually from 850, which is what it is now.
Oh, they want to raise it by 850 from $24 to 3250.
Any time
I hear about a fee being raised.
That to me is just code for we can't get it done the legislature.
We can't work on a tax plan that will properly tax everybody and raise the funds we need to raise.
And also, Jane, it would be also awesome if maybe Wisconsin had like a pile of money.
Just sitting on the side, just like,
like,
like, like they're all in the office and then in a room, you just open, it's like a pile of money.
Like $4 billion.
Like $4 billion would be a great start.
If we only had $4 billion just laying around that we could work on infrastructure plans, maybe give, I don't know, just give that to local schools for programs that need to be funded anyways that aren't being funded through the joint finance committee.
I'm just saying, would it be great if we had $4 billion extra?
One can dream.
One can dream like a dreamy boy.
Department of Transportation says with the increased fees, Wisconsin would still be a bargain for owning a vehicle compared with neighboring states.
The agency says it would cost about $361 in fees and taxes for a Ford F-150 truck, while it costs $966 in Minnesota, $941 in Illinois,
and 663 in Michigan for a Hyundai CRV or a similar model.
Wisconsin's fees and taxes would be 199 compared with 615 in Minnesota, 493 in Illinois, and 328 in Michigan.
That's a pretty big discrepancy, but I don't know that that's the biggest selling point on this.
Is this now also, this is the...
This is the one time fee or the yearly registration for a vehicle.
Well, the yearly registration would go up from 24 to 30 to 50.
The one time fee when you buy a vehicle would go from 164 to 284.
I mean, and again saying, yeah, but all the states around us, it would cost you so much more.
I don't know that that's everybody's going to go.
Yeah,
us.
Nobody cares.
I mean, I bought my car in Illinois.
So you
paid so you already paid that I
paid I paid
a fee a lot our large fee by the way Department of Transportation says this money if this would get passed The money generated with support roads and bridges in addition to air rail public transit harbor harbors and bike and pedestrian facilities and Again, they're saying that this is a bargain compared to other states.
I don't disagree
But again, I don't know that that is the winning message here.
No.
And correct me if I'm wrong.
What about all the vehicles we see on the roadways who do not have plates?
Well, if they get busted, if they get pulled over, they're going to get...
I don't think they ever get pulled over.
And what happens to them when they get pulled over?
Well, if they get pulled over, they get a separate ticket for a non-registered vehicle.
And what is the enforcement mechanism to make sure that that gets paid?
Well, there's no enforcement other than if you don't pay for it, they'll probably issue a bench warrant.
Again, I just don't see how this
would fly.
Well, I don't see it as being a grand fix.
And also, when it comes to the votes and whatnot, like things like air rails, that doesn't care about that.
Don't care about any of that stuff.
If anything, they're just going to take it and they're going to slap Tony Evers with it and say, he raised your fees.
He raised the prices.
He made it more expensive to live in Wisconsin.
Roger texting in on the live stream.
I live in Portage County.
My current renewal for my vehicle is $115.
$30 of that goes to the county for just its highways.
No local municipalities get a dime.
Thanks for sharing that, Roger.
Again, I don't see how this is a winning.
a winning thing for Governor Evers.
I don't.
I don't know either.
And also, you know, if it's a one time fee for when you buy a car, how often are you buying a car?
Most likely
every 10 years, every 12,
I would, I would probably, I would average out about five to six nowadays.
People are trading in and what, yeah, people trading
in.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I feel like I'm, I had my car for 12 years, but
I think most people nowadays, they're trading their cars in every five, because you want to get a better trade in value and you don't also want to trade in a hunk of junk.
I must be an outlier.
I'm going to drive my car until the doors fall off.
And
that's fine.
And that's absolutely fine.
I know a lot of people who feel that way, but I also like with the car that I own right now.
I have a ticking clock and I'm going to have it for about like another two and a half years.
And then I want to trade it in so that way something could get something better with a lower price, a better trade in value, all that kind of stuff.
So even on that, even if people are getting a new car every four, five, six years, that's not all, I don't see that, I don't see that fee raising as
much as they think
they project.
And it's still a raising in the fees.
Yeah.
Which when they can't raise your taxes,
they raise your fees.
How often do you buy a new car?
I would love to hear this because now I really think that I'm odd.
My car is from 2012.
I love this car.
And again, I will drive this thing until I can't anymore.
855-752-4842.
We're talking about a proposal in Governor Evers' proposed biannual budget that will hike fees quite a bit from
$164.50 to $284.50 for buying a new vehicle.
And then the title registration fee that we all pay every year would go from $24 to $32.50.
855-752-4842.
Again, I just don't see this getting embraced by a lot of folks.
Even though, yes, we could use the money for roadways.
But we have the money, we could spend it.
It's Robin's money.
I know.
We can't just spend Robin's money willy-nilly like that.
Ask the popcorn king for permission.
Exactly.
It will be interesting to see what happens with this.
Yeah.
But again, I just don't.
I feel like it's going to quietly go away.
Do you think so?
Yeah.
I don't think it's going to be a controversial issue, but also it's just irritating that when they can't,
put together a feasible tax plan for all Wisconsinites where everyone pays fairly.
We have to raise fees and that like whether it's on garbage pickup, whether it's fees on your registration, like I remember the first time I got, cause I used to drive a hybrid when I got that first registration with the hybrid or the EV mandate on it.
That was another like 75 bucks.
Pricey pricey pricey pricey pricey pricey when we return.
We're gonna have an update on gold bar Bob Menendez.
We haven't talked about him in a while.
He's asking for help from someone in particular.
We'll have all the details on the other side.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right back.
Good morning.
Welcome back to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Box, Sweet Calbee on the board.
Coming to you live from her studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us.
Call her text at 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter men's basketball action Wisconsin at Montana.
Gonna happen this Thursday.
That's tomorrow.
The broadcast starts at 11 30.
You cannot stream this if you want to listen to the games.
You do have to listen on air and you can catch it on WLAK in Amory, on WFHR in Wisconsin Rapids and WRCE in Richland Center, Wisconsin at Montana tomorrow.
The broadcast starts at 1130.
However, you cannot stream it on the app.
These are NCAA rules.
Can't do anything about that, but you can listen live on air.
on WALK, on WFHR, and WRCE in Richmond Center.
Right before we went to the break, we were talking about a proposal from Governor Evers in his biannual budget proposal to hike the fee, the vehicle title fee, that you pay when you buy a car from $164.50 to $284.50
And he would also increase the title registration fee that we pay every year from 24 to 30 to 50.
We were talking a little bit about the age of cars and how often people buy cars.
We have a couple of folks who have been waiting on the line, Cindy from Appleton.
Good morning, Cindy.
Thanks for joining us.
What do you want to say about this?
Well, I'm surprised Governor Avers is proposing this because to me, this is just another way to stick it to the poor people.
I would be more in favor of a gas tax hike because then the people who have the money that drive these great big honking SUVs and great big honking trucks that run several hundred dollars worth of gas through them a month and the people with the big boats and all these other things, they would be paying more of their fair share instead of sticking it to the rest of us.
Yeah, it is a good point, Sidney.
Thank you for that.
I just don't see how this is going to fly.
I really don't see a lot of people embracing this and going, yay.
Even though we might all agree that our roads need some attention and these other things need attention as well, this just isn't going to be very popular.
In this article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, it does say that the governor elected against seeking an increase in the gas tax.
which would be more of an everyday fee.
We also have Mark on the line.
Good morning, Mark.
Thanks for joining us.
What do you think?
Yeah, well, I'm not really sure on the vehicle fees, but that's right.
The license fees for the DNR are going to go up.
And my guess is that most sportsmen are going to be in support of that because they're usually going to advocate and that the DNR needs more money to do its thing because
I buy a patron's license every year and spend like $165 a year for a long time now and I think it's going to go up to $200 and I'm not kicking about that at all.
The DNR has been drastically underfunded for decades now and with the federal government backing off on environmental regulation and beautiful clean coal coming back according to Donald Trump,
We're all sucking in mercury from the cold smoke.
What's going to happen then?
I mean, it's just, it's insane.
I
appreciate it, Mark.
Thank you for checking in on that.
855-752-4842.
If you would like to join us, we were also talking a little bit about how old is your car and how often do you buy and get a new car?
How are you like me?
You drive it until the doors
follow.
Jim from Appleton says, I have an 06 Toyota Highlander, just like the 95 Jeep Laredo.
I will drive it until it's too expensive to repair.
And Jack from Marabak says the average age of vehicles on the road in the US is 12.6 years.
Oh,
so I'm not, I'm not an outlier.
Mine's a 2012.
You are the rule.
I, isn't that nice.
Ollie from the North Woods also on the line.
Good morning, Ollie.
Thanks for joining us.
Hi, good morning.
I do have a 2005 and by necessity we'll be driving mine until it falls apart.
But I have just a clarification.
When you first talked about the changes in the prices, you said something about the driver's license going up.
No, not that drivers I was I was incorrect Ali when I when I began and that's that's on me The fee that he's talking about is the vehicle title fee that you pay when you purchase the vehicle That's the biggest increase that goes that hikes 120 bucks the vehicle title fees Are what are paid once registration fees are what we pay every year and that will also go up by 850
So it's not as big of an increase, but I just think it's a tough sell when you go to any constituent and say, yeah, we're going to, we're raising taxes again.
Well, and I think that, I think that, um, sending me a great point is you're sticking it to people who can't
afford it.
Exactly.
Um, before we run out of time, because we've been teasing this now for a couple of days and we never seem to get around to it just quickly.
Yeah.
Gold bar Bob Menendez, who was a Democrat, who was caught for essentially working on behalf of Egypt, found gold bars in his house, swads of cash, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
Apparently everybody does that.
Now he is turning, he's not in a Democrat anymore because they call for him to step down and he's out.
Now he's an independent.
Now his wife is set to begin trial on bribery charges.
Gold bar Bob.
is reaching out to President Donald Trump to delay the corruption trial of his wife.
Let the trial go through and then just ask for a pardon.
Right.
Pledge fealty, pledge loyalty, bow before the king, and she'll be out before lunchtime.
It'll all be good, nothing to worry about.
But Goldbar Bob says, President Trump was right.
This process is political and corrupted to its core.
I hope Donald Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores integrity to the system.
New Jersey, your
flavor of your inconsistency is so consistent.
Gold barb.
Gold barb Bob says he appealed to Trump by suggesting both his and Trump's criminal charges are politically motivated.
Nothing about the hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash stuffed in pockets all over your house and the gold bar thing.
But other than that, yes, completely.
politically motivated.
My wife and my buddy Donnie here on being treated fairly.
Yeah.
What a shame.
When we return after the news, Pat Crichtlow will be here from Up North News Radio.
Very important election April 1st.
Be a voter, baby.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Naranier coming to you across the vast statewide, countrywide, go global on the app, baby.
Civic Media Radio Network.
Don't go away.
Good morning.
Welcome.
Welcome to Matt Nair on Air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Dr. Slide on the board coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
Join us, call her text.
The number is the same, 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream.
On Facebook, YouTube.
And what used to be Twitter, it is almost here.
Civic Media's next statewide text to win contest.
Kicking off on Monday, this Monday at 7 AM, your first chance to listen for a keyword to enter in for an hourly winner or enter to win the grand prize.
You will have four chances to enter the contest, listen at seven.
11 o'clock with us, 1 p.m.
with Todd, 4 p.m.
with Dom, throughout the two weeks that this contest will go on.
Daily chances you can win a getaway at Chula Vista Milwaukee Brewers Club level tickets, $100 cash plus every entry puts you into the grand prize drawing from Verlo Mattress.
So download, you do need to download the app.
Yes, we do.
Wherever you get your apps, go to your app store, look for Civic, C-I-V-I-C, Civic Media, download the Civic Media app, and then you will be all ready to go come Monday when our next statewide text to win contest gets underway starting at 7 a.m.
and then Monday with us at 11 o'clock.
It's a lot of fun.
The app is great.
You can do, look at Pat Kratlow.
You can do all kinds of things from the app.
You can call.
and text directly into whatever show you're listening to across the network, right from the app, and you can get news updates and all kinds of great things, so, and it's free.
Darn it, I
told them, charge $1,000.
Nope, it is still absolutely free.
Joining us right now at the last minute, and we really appreciate it, Pat Kratlow is here from Up North News Radio.
Good morning, sir.
Thank you for adjusting your schedule for us and joining us at the last minute, appreciate it.
Happy to I
actually just got back at the house.
I've made some last minute I looked outside I'm like wait if we're about to get like five to ten inches of snow I better get my errands done now.
So why is decision?
Yeah, sometimes sometimes he actually thinks ahead of time and doesn't look out the window go
Oh, has it started has it started snowing there yet?
It has not.
It's one of those where the radar says it is, but it's not hitting the ground yet.
So
I heard in the neck of time.
Yeah, I heard Britney Merleau on your show this morning and some parts of Wisconsin are going to get just crushed from this storm.
They're talking six to nine inches of that terrible, heavy, wet snow.
So please be prepared and and and five one one W I dot gov.
That's what will bring up the state map with all of the accidents all over the place.
It's really, really useful.
And you can download that too as an app, because Greg has used it many times.
511wi.gov.
Download that and please be safe on the roadways.
Yeah, one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on this morning, not that we don't want to have you on every day.
But as I was driving in this morning and I was listening to your show, and I heard you talking about the Supreme Court race, which is now less than two weeks away.
April 1st, Susan Crawford and Brad Schimmel running for the open spot on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
And I thought you had a really great explanation about why this is such an important race and the long term ramifications should Brad Schimmel get on the court.
You know, you were just talking about the Civic Media app and texting.
And this was actually prompted by a text from Tiffany in River Falls, who was listening on Lake Air in Amory.
And she wrote in, Pat, tell me your response to the people that say, but Crawford is backed by Soros in response to the Elon Musk is backing Schimmel.
And so I dropped everything that I was going to be doing, which was probably, again, debating Girl Scout cookies with Greg
and said, why don't we
take on this weighty question instead?
And.
All I came back with was what it means for you, dear voter, and your state and the future of your state.
And who should have access to the court?
And should that access be, shall we say, on an equal basis?
And you probably have already covered that Elon Musk, through Tesla, has filed a lawsuit against the state, wants to overturn a state law.
And the state law doesn't matter.
Okay, it's whether a car maker has to work through dealerships as the state law says or can sell directly as Elon Musk would like to do.
Set aside the merits of the law and the question is this, should a really rich guy or woman owning a business be able to shower a Supreme Court candidate with literally something approaching $15 million?
Yeah, we're close.
And have greater potential.
to have a court that is more sympathetic to their case.
And look, if George Soros were putting $15 million in and he wanted to do whatever he does.
I don't even know how he made his money.
I just hear the name all the time.
But want to do something in Wisconsin, that too would get some funny looks from people, including on the progressive side, because the root issue of all this isn't about whether a billionaire is coming
to you from the political right or the political left, it's should any billionaire be able to come into a state Supreme Court race like this and have better chances of getting their definition of justice than you and me.
And since George Soros doesn't have a case before the court right now, and Elon Musk does, voters should look at that.
The other thing too, and we've talked about this, as you said, Pat, many times before, in my estimation,
And like you said, George Soros has been the boogeyman from the right for a long time.
George Soros and the U-Lines, their donations kind of cancel each other out, right?
We've got George
Soros on the left, the U-Lines on the right.
They're both big donors and have been big donors for a very long time.
Elon is a whole different level unto himself.
Yes,
I mean the world's richest
guy.
Yeah, the world's richest man coming in it's already he's already poured in almost 13 million dollars into this race think about
that and that's that's after Everything that he paid to get Donald Trump elected and if you're if you're saying well Donald Trump would have won the election without Elon Musk Don't kid yourself.
Yeah, you know people don't spend that kind of money on political races Unless they know and they know
Political ads, as much as we hate them, make a difference.
They work.
All those social media ads, all those commercials, all those influencers, whatever, it's all out there.
And it's all out there because people from the right have loosened the rules to the point where, because they know they have more billionaires on their side, they can influence elections.
So you've got the world's richest man able to influence a presidential election.
a president who instead of saying, hey, thanks buddy, appreciate it, I got it from here, instead puts him in charge of dismantling parts of the federal government.
Okay, that part we're still working on, you know, resisting or reversing or whatever.
Do you really want him to get a toehold into Wisconsin state law?
And if you do, what's the next one?
What's the next thing that comes in and what is, what happens to that state law that either keeps Lake Wasota clean or, you know, preserves our public education options or things like that.
If you want to get back to elections that are more relevant to you, the voter, then you really should send a message that, uh, hey billionaire, uh, I don't care about your political affiliation.
I'm not going to let you influence this particular race.
Pat, quite low is our guest from Up North News Radio and we are talking about the April 1 election.
Please make a plan to be a voter.
Go to myvote.wi.gov.
It counts more than you realize.
It really, really does.
And this is all going to be dependent upon turnout, especially for this election.
So I think.
Talk to some friends, make it a thing, go vote, go brunch, go get a, I don't care what you do, but go vote.
On April 1st, early voting is also underway right now.
I did want to point out that Fred Schimmel, of course, and he said this, this is, I believe it's on, it's recorded.
He has said that he wants to be on the state supreme court so he can act as the support network for the Trump administration.
I didn't realize that was a state Supreme Court justice duty.
And
he was
asked about this recently.
Galvin, let's play this clip and hear Brad Schimmel's non-answer about being a support network for the Trump administration.
You have welcomed an endorsement by President Donald Trump.
You had an event with his son, Donald Jr.
last night.
And said you'd be part of his support network.
I wonder, you know Why should voters believe that you wouldn't be wearing a Trump jersey if an issue involving him or his supporters were to come before the court?
I enforce the law as a judge.
I interpret the law the way it's written I Don't it is hard to go out all throughout the state of Wisconsin get your message there on your own Okay, you have to have a support network yourself to help deliver that message
What does that mean?
So he doesn't,
he's not
answering the question on how he said he will be a support network for the Trump administration.
Now he's trying to turn this into, no, I'm talking about the support that the Trump administration is giving me in order to get my message out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, no, and
no, and we don't need that on our state Supreme Court because we've already seen just how unbelievably corrupt.
the United States Supreme Court is right now with justices who have accepted probably millions of dollars in luxury travel and gifts and yacht rides and private jet rides and RV whatever you name it and these are things that should lead to an automatic recusal and it doesn't matter if the billionaire patron has a case directly for the court or is helping bankroll
other people who may have cases before the court, the line, you know, one of the more famous lines from any Supreme Court justice is the one that says, you know, I can't define pornography, but I know it when I see it.
Yeah.
Same goes for corruption of a Supreme Court.
Yeah.
Same goes for that.
And when you look at what is happening now with some of those justices and what they've accepted from billionaires, you have to look at that and say, do we really want
a billionaire starting that same trend with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, or are we again going to get a court like the U.S.
Supreme Court, overturning Roe v. Wade, which is supported by 60, 70 percent of the American population.
Do you want a court that's representative of you or of the biggest donors out there?
And that question is so cleanly and clearly before Wisconsin voters this time.
And guess which
which favorite trope now is surfacing again.
This is from today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from Allison Durr.
Two weeks before Wisconsin Supreme Court election, Brad Schimmel raises Milwaukee vote counting trope.
Oh, come on.
Oh, yes.
Now
again, we're talking about the bags of ballots being brought in and counted late at night and trying to again cast
suspicions on the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Shimmel, he's all there for it.
He is all there for it.
Yep, we're still not sure whether the results were fair if you listen to Brad Shimmel.
And he just said this this week.
And I do
want to point out, I'm sorry to interrupt, Pat.
This could be a non-issue if the Wisconsin Republican legislature in Wisconsin had made it.
legal for early ballot counting to start.
They didn't do that exactly for this reason, so they can continue to bring this up and to cast suspicions on the validity of our elections.
All I'm gonna
say is this, when it comes to discovering ballots that tip a Supreme Court race, let's ask State Supreme Court Justice Joanne Kloppenberg what she thinks, oh wait, she lost her race because
7000 votes for David Prosser were found by the Waukesha County Clerk.
I remember that.
Now there was investigations and audits and nothing unseemly was found.
But let's just make clear that that is the only documented case, even remotely documented case, where there's something funny happened with the ballots in the state Supreme Court race.
So
If Brad Shimmel, who's from Waukesha County, would like to first answer a few questions about that.
Maybe then he can opine about what's happening next door in Milwaukee County, but I think he ought to clean house closer to him first.
We're going to continue our conversation with Pat Crichtlow from Up North News Radio.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right back.
Good morning and welcome back to Matt Nair on air, Jane Matt Nair, Greg Buck, Calvitini on the board coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
Join us, call or text at 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream, on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter.
We had some callers lined up right before the break.
Sorry, sorry, we didn't have a chance to get to you if you want to give us a call right now.
We will try and get you on.
Pat Critello is our guest.
From Up North News Radio, and we are talking about the April 1 election, now less than two weeks away, a number of very important races on the ballots, including State Supreme Court between Susan Crawford and Brad Schimmel.
We have Jill Underly and Brittany Kinzer to head the Department of Education.
Brittany Kinzer, a big supporter of voucher schools and private schools.
And then of course, there is that constitutional amendment, which I firmly believe is going to pass.
I think the Republicans have done a pretty good job of selling it, and I think that is going to pass.
But there's a great column from Bruce Murphy in Urban Milwaukee, and we will include this in our show notes when the show is over.
He talks about other reasons why they would like to get, they would like to get Brad Schimel on the court, and it plays along with
I think there is this assumption, Pat, that if this constitutional amendment changes regarding the requirement of a voter ID, folks think that that's going to be the end of it.
Bruce Murphy posits that this will be just the beginning of other changes, other efforts to make changes to make it more difficult to vote.
And I think he's right.
Oh, I don't doubt that for a moment.
I mean, it never ends.
When you are inclined to lean toward authoritarianism, you don't just take a little bit.
You look to see what is the next group of people that we can, if not disenfranchise, then at least make their lives a little less comfortable.
And it may be something, and I didn't read the column so I don't know what all he is thinking might happen here, but you may see maybe the next one is gender, that you can't vote if this gender doesn't match the gender on your birth certificate.
Yes, we're now gonna have genital police at the polls or something like that.
And if you think, ah, that's too outlandish, that could never happen.
Again, Roe v. Wade, kids.
Yeah, look where we are.
Anything's possible.
Absolutely.
And I think especially, and we've talked about this too, the SAVE Act, which is part of Project 2025, the SAVE Act for married women, if this gets introduced.
If your birth certificate does not match your driver's license, if you got married and took your husband's name and didn't go to court to have it legally changed, they can deny you the right to vote.
Or at least send you home and say, well, now I need your birth certificate and your marriage certificate.
And because all of us have that just right at our fingertips.
And by
the way,
This won't happen just at this won't happen at every polling place.
Of course not.
But where they decide to selectively enforce this kind of thing, huh, just might be in places where there tend to be more Democratic voters than Republican voters.
So maybe before voters, you know, cast a ballot on something where they go, well, this seems to make sense.
I guess I'm going to vote yes on this.
Let me just remind you of this.
One, voter fraud is miniscule to nearly non-existent, no matter how many times Donald Trump says it, doesn't make it true.
Number two, when you send a piece of mail and you go to put it in the mailbox, there is nobody there scanning it to make sure that you are who you are and that it's an honest piece of mail and that you're not committing mail fraud.
But if you commit mail fraud, if you're caught doing it, there's going to be a big penalty.
That's what voter fraud is.
That's what the law should be.
You live here, you vote here.
If you commit fraud, which sure seems to happen a lot on one side of the aisle lately, then, then yeah, the hammer should come down.
But to have laws like this or even a constitutional amendment like this designed to suppress a group of voters.
Again, I hope people see that that is just wrong.
It is a solution in search of a problem and vote no on it.
I think a lot of people are going to see it as, because I said this to you, Jane, yesterday after the show, if you look at all of the, if you look at all of the questions that have been on ballots for the past two, three cycles, they're always written in a very confusing double speak way where you're like, I don't know what this means.
Is this
good?
Is this bad?
If you read the language on this one, it is so plain.
It is so simple, but it makes you in the ballot booth say,
Well, yeah, of course you should have your ideas.
That just makes sense.
Yeah, of course.
Yes, with no thoughts or ramifications after the fact and what you are all talking about.
So I hold hope that if it passes, it doesn't pass with a huge margin.
But I don't want to see this pass because this is just the beginning of total voter suppression at the hands of Robin Voss and his minions.
Well, and again, I think this is a good reason to throw your support behind Susan Crawford.
And
Brad Schimmel is still bringing out the old tropes about, oh, there were hinky things going on in the 2020 election, and we can't trust him.
And we spent over up $2 million of Wisconsin taxpayer money to find voter fraud.
And guess what Michael Gabelman found?
Uh, Zippo.
Buc-kiss.
Buc-kiss.
Buc-kiss.
Buc-kiss.
Yes.
Dick
Buc-kiss.
No, he didn't find him either.
He found nothing.
Gabelman found nothing.
The fact that Schimmel is going the way that he isn't trying to moderate anymore tells me that he is basically just sending the signal now to conservative voters, hey, we think a lot of progressive voters are going to stay home as has happened in other Supreme Court elections.
So you all get out there.
I'm your guy is what he's saying to the far
right.
Come on, folks.
Make a plan.
April 1st or vote now.
Early voting is underway.
Please be a voter.
Everybody who's anybody, everybody wants to be a voter.
It's sexy, baby.
It is sexy.
Pat Krightlow, Up North News Radio.
Thank you so very, very much for your time.
Really appreciate it, Pat.
You are welcome.
Have a great day, guys.
You too.
News coming up next.
When we return, we're going to talk about the wall of efficiency.
You're listening to Mantnir On Air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.