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Hey, good
morning.
Welcome back to Up North News Radio.
Kid-Tested mother approved brought you by Courier Newsroom and carried by our friends on the Civic Media Radio Network.
At 706 on this Thursday, April 17th, nice to have you along, waiting in the wings is our friend, Joseph Pecky, who's going to join us live to answer the question, will he or won't he run for state Democratic Party chair?
Spoiler alert.
You should listen.
Brittany will have our forecast for us at 7.30.
We'll have Emily Berge who has announced her candidacy for the Third Congressional District in Western and Central Wisconsin.
Luke Mathers will be along as well.
But first let's turn to Brittany for the weather where again we're not in the 20s anymore and we're getting something more traditionally spring which also includes all those April showers with maybe a little April thunder along the way as well perhaps.
Yes, we got a little bit of everything going on.
I mean, the sun first, then we've got the rain, then we'll get the green up and some flowers soon.
I mean, it's all worth it, trust me.
And breezy too, right?
We get the wind as well, which
by the way
means that before we get any significant rain, don't be burning anything out
there.
Exactly.
We've had a record number of wildfires here in Wisconsin.
I mean, just yesterday, we had 22 wildfires that burned 57 acres.
That was just yesterday.
And we've got the winds still blowing about 30 miles per hour.
They're out of the south now, which is going to warm us up today to the low to mid 60s.
So a little bit warmer than we've been.
Temperatures right now are starting off in the upper 20s into Ashland to the mid 40s in La Crosse right now.
And of course, those showers and storms are moving in.
But before we get to that, I wanted to let you know I saw on a bird cast that a major migration of birds has moved into the state and into the region.
Last night, there were about 166 million of them in flight.
So spring is really, really
here.
A bird cast?
Yes.
We could see them on radar.
There's like a podcast hosted by birds.
I know here.
I was kind of thinking like fog horn, leg horn, maybe we would introduce it or something.
But
anyway,
back to the weather.
Yes, so we've got a low pressure system targeting us while it's bright and beautiful right now.
This is not going to last.
Unfortunately, we're going to be overcast in cloudy by the afternoon with already some scattered showers and storms that want to try to spark up late this morning down south, working its way across the southern areas and then more sparking up this afternoon.
Western areas of the state working central through the evening and into the eastern areas tonight and then more storms start to fire up overnight and through early tomorrow morning.
We are in a marginal risk for them to be strong to severe on the western slide today.
Now that would just bring some gusty winds and hail.
Tomorrow is a bigger concern because high temperatures tomorrow are going to be completely different.
Far north, we're going to be in the low 40s.
Far southeast, low 80s.
So when a cold front slams into that, if any storms spark up tomorrow from that, we are looking at those with the potential of hail, high winds, and maybe a tornado or two as well.
So we've got the spring weather in place.
We will dry things out for Saturday.
Stay partly cloudy for Sunday before more rain rolls in on Sunday night.
All right, from Rob.
Good morning from Tigerton.
It's sunny and 33 degrees.
I have a doctor's appointment in Shawno to and then a walk along the Wolf River getting ready for the sturgeon run in a few weeks.
He says tonight I take the advanced severe weather class online from the National Weather Service Office in Green Bay.
I want to learn more about the science of weather that Brittany got me interested in.
Many farmers around the Tigerton area have begun doing field work and the
are starting to turn green in places, so spring has definitely sprung.
And the
meteorologist here will
confirm that.
All right, Brittany.
Thank you so much.
We'll talk to you later.
Have a good day.
All right.
Let's not waste a moment here.
We've got Joseph Pecky standing by to talk to us.
Well, usually he's joining us on Thursday to talk about stuff in the news.
Maybe it's time.
It's time that Joe make a little news.
So, hello, Joe.
How are
you?
I'm good.
I'm a little tired.
It has been a long couple of
days, not enough sleep, but that's okay.
It's worth it because of what
comes next.
If, well, that would, that would be par for the course if you decide to run for state chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which you said last week you were interested in.
So how's that interest level now, Joe?
Will you or won't you?
Well, you put the news up front.
I'm in.
We're going to do this thing.
And, you know, it's taken a week because I wanted to talk to people across the state.
from every corner across our coalition, North, South, East, West, rural, urban, black, white, Latino, AAPI, you name it, we have a big, beautiful coalition, the Democratic Party, and we need every single part of it to win.
And that's what this contest for Wisdom's Chair is about.
It is about building on what Ben Wickler and his team have succeeded on in the last six years.
It's about refining the way that we organize and the way that we support local parties and local organizations.
And it's about fundamentally rebuilding the way we communicate as a party.
There is a real appetite for that.
There is a real appetite for a fresh perspective and someone from outside the direct party apparatus, which is the perspective that I bring to this.
And I'm just overwhelmed to
have the support and encouragement, not just of people I've been talking to, but of the first 20 people who are day one endorsers, they are on the team.
And that is part of today's news.
And I'm happy to get into that.
But it was important to me to be with you like I am every Thursday, because we got to keep our word and we got to reach out way beyond Madison and Milwaukee to strengthen our party and grow and win elections.
And that's why up north is so important.
That's why civic media is so important.
And so I just appreciate you.
having me on and doing all the work all these all these years.
Well, you've clearly done some of the work because this this is quite the list of day one endorsers ranging from a former State Chair Linda Honnold to State Rep Fran Hong from Madison, former Rep Stan Grasinski, Aaron Forrest, former Emerge Wisconsin Executive Director, Angela Lang from Block, Dr. Kristen Lierly, we all know her, former Regent John Miller, former Walsall Mayor Katie Rosenberg, former One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scott Ross,
State Rep Chris and Nikki who is also the Milwaukee Democratic Party Chair and the former Milwaukee Democratic Party Chair Chris Walton and on and on the list goes Why why are these folks there?
I mean a lot of folks know you a lot of folks like you but you have to be able to message you have to be able to organize you have to be able to fundraise What is it that you would like to think all these folks are seeing in you?
Well, I think I think in hope that they have built trust in when I say something
I mean it.
When I commit to something, I do it.
And we don't have time for anything but that.
And one of the things that I want to say right up top is one of my top priorities is making sure that the race to succeed, Ben Wickler, does not divide our party, that we do not fracture the way I've been putting it.
I talked to all three of the other candidates in this race last night.
and told them this is about more than who is the next chair of the Democratic Party.
It's that whoever is the next chair has so much work to do, so little time to waste that we cannot afford to have whoever it is waste time trying to stitch the party back together.
And I think the folks who are with me already and the folks who have encouraged me to get into this and who are thinking about joining the team maybe on day two, they understand that I am someone who tries to see the whole field that knows it's not about the four of us individuals who are running for chair today.
Maybe there will be more.
Um, it is really about the broader party.
It is about building the party county by county.
It is about, you know, winning elections and ensuring that every single day we are taking the fight to mega Donald Trump and the Republicans who are enabling him to do the most un-American things you can imagine.
This is a five alarm fire.
It feels like we have been living in that kind of alarm for way too long.
It is exhausting.
Sometimes people need to tap out.
My approach to that is you got to build a bigger team so that people can take a playoff and we all got to do more.
We all got to do everything we can.
One of the things that I think I can do is help be a voice that puts this party, you know, on an even sure footing going forward.
And I think the folks who are with me understood the nuance of what I was saying.
There are things that Ben Wickler and his crew have done that we don't need to monkey with.
The fundraising success has led to a lot of electoral success.
We're going to leave that as close to exactly what it is as we can.
When it comes to how we organize year-round and how we support local parties, it's good.
It's not perfect.
There are county parties who need more support, who want to grow and do more things and innovate and have more autonomy.
And that's a conversation we need to have.
And those are refinements we can make and adjustments we can make.
And when it comes to how we communicate, we got to kind of burn it down and start all over.
And we got to be really clear-eyed about that.
We have a messaging problem, and it's broader than just the words we use and the order in which we put them.
And I can't wait to get to work changing the culture and building out the way we communicate.
We're talking to Joseph Heckey, who is throwing his hat in the ring to run for state chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Pick your metaphor.
You see, they're walking and chewing gum at the same time, threading the needle, the right sets of balance.
What I'm getting at is taking the fight to Republicans, pointing out the many foibles of Donald Trump, Robin Boss and all that, versus being
proactive with this message of this is what Democrats are for.
And it seems like any discussion about Democratic messaging leads to that, like too much time is being spent on one or the other.
We talk every Thursday morning about finding that balance.
How do you communicate the way that you feel like you can strike the right balance for voters that they get that you're anti Trump, but that you're also for them?
You have to do both all the time every day and what I mean by that is There are people in our movement and in our coalition who are outraged rightly every single day by what Donald Trump is doing They need to be empowered to go and say that and say why with credibility and authenticity Because they care about it and there are people who are part of movement politics and part of the progressive movement who do it because they want to make
public policy at the local level, at the state level, at the federal level, and that is where their passion is.
We need them to communicate that and feel empowered to be a messenger for what we're trying to build here.
You have to do both.
That is the way the attention economy works.
It is the way the information space works, and it is the only way to operate in an environment that is very different than when even I started my career and without getting into how old you are, buddy, when you started your career too.
I was just having that conversation yesterday with with your wife on climate check about issues that were an issue.
20 years ago now when I was running for legislature and how some things have changed over time.
Joseph Pecky is our guest.
He is running for chair of the State Democratic Party here in Wisconsin.
We are going to continue that conversation in just a moment.
First, I got to tell you about the Brewers game last night against Detroit yesterday afternoon, where Oliver Dunn steps up to the plate with a torpedo bat in hand.
A runner on third.
Is he swinging for the fences with the torpedo bat?
No, lays down a perfect punt, scores Garrett Mitchell.
Three more homers later, the Brewers win.
against Detroit 5-1.
They're off today.
They start a series against the athletics tomorrow at American Family Field.
Back more with Joseph Ackie after this.
You're
up north.
This is another one from Jan Hammer, not just the Miami Vice theme, but this one's called Crockett's theme for Miami Vice.
He turns 77 years old today and catch her daily history lesson every morning at 6.50 here on Updorff News Radio.
which is growing and changing next week, growing to a three hour show with a new name to boot.
So stay tuned next week for some changes to this fine morning radio program.
And thank you for all your support to get us there.
Joseph Becky is with us.
He is running for State Democratic Party Chair.
The reactions are coming in online on YouTube.
Tony writes, I was hoping Joe would have a show on civic media, but I guess party chair is an okay second option from Alicia on YouTube.
I'm so glad Joe was running.
Thank you for putting your name out there.
On Facebook, tear bearer says, thank you, Joe, for your insightfulness and for being a positive voice and for running and Ardith on Facebook.
So glad you decided to run.
I think you can get the message out there for all of Wisconsin to clearly understand.
We need to unite the Dems to push the Republicans out of office.
You also have a great partner in
Melissa, who proved at the Overture Center that she knows how to message best of luck, to which people are going to say, should Melissa be running instead?
And then to
which we say, you know, she probably had the opportunity, but decided you're, you're, you're the one who can handle whatever all of this is arm gesturing widely to being a state party chair.
It can be said fairly.
that this may have been her idea.
Melissa is someone who a lot of you know, many of you listened to this week, what people may not know is that when she and I first met, she was working for the state party.
And I was working on the Obama Biden and Mary Burke campaigns in 2012 and 2014.
And that is where a friendship
blossomed that would later grow into something else.
But she's got some experience both inside the party structure and working for folks like Governor Tony Evers.
She's the best.
Yeah, she really is.
I'm honored to have
her
support.
I didn't see her on the list of endorsers, but I'm thinking it was understood.
So it's okay.
Joe, the next state party chair is going to have to keep their eye on the ball on several different things.
There's going to be a governor's race in 2026 with us not knowing at least
for the next couple months at least, whether Tony Evers is running for a third term or if it's going to be an open seat.
You've got with new maps, Democrats with the potential to take the majority in the assembly and or the state Senate.
You're going to have targeted congressional districts.
We're talking to Emily Berge in about 10 minutes here about running in the third congressional district.
And before all of that, there will be another state Supreme Court race in April of next year where conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley is going to be running for reelection.
talk about the challenge of a party that needs to keep many plates spinning at once.
Well, it's a challenge we are used to here in Wisconsin because
It is always election season in Wisconsin, it seems like.
And it doesn't just seem like it to those folks who are besieged by 30-second TV ads.
There's a lot more that goes into it.
It's the work of the neighborhood teams.
It's the work of local county parties to grow their membership.
It's actions to oppose the Trump administration to bring new people into the party at the local level.
However, they're ready to join.
Not everybody who is, you know,
been moved to feel like they need to do something by Donald Trump and this administration is ready on day one to go knock on strangers doors and talk to them about what's at stake next November or next April.
And that's okay.
We need to build a party that is inclusive enough and has enough ways to make people feel part of the team that on day one, they can get to work.
And we can point their energy and their passion in a direction, whether that is reaching out to members of Congress.
It only takes a couple Republican votes.
to stop the Trump agenda from being enacted into law.
And by the way, executive order after executive order is not enacting it into law.
It's not.
That's not how the Constitution works.
It only takes a couple of Republicans to grow a spine and assert their constitutional authority to be a check on an un-American, unlawful administration.
And that looks lots of different ways.
And we have to be able to be a place where
everybody can find a home and feel like they are part of the team.
That's what I'm committed to doing.
Now, you know, then to wrap things up here from an organizational standpoint, you know, one of my, you know, the one of the bees in my bonnet has been the ongoing almost
natural tension between the Madison Milwaukee wing of the party and Democrats all throughout the western or the rest of Wisconsin who sometimes either feel overlooked or take it for granted.
So can you tell us a bit about your experiences and your feelings at the local organizational level, not just where most of the Democratic voters are, but where all the rest of the Democratic voters are?
Yeah, this is where maybe my bluntness.
could work against me and I don't care because we don't have that kind of time.
Anybody and everybody can say and they will say that they care about places beyond Madison and Milwaukee.
Don't listen to what they say, watch what they do.
And what I have done over the last week is talk to people from every corner of the state have worked to win the support of people from every corner of the state.
I did one listening session
where I sat down with some county party members and activists and leaders.
Our friend Dr. Lirely was helpful enough to put that together for me.
And it was in Brown County because we need to be hearing voices from across the coalition.
I am not just talking about it.
I am trying to model it and embody it.
and watch the way that we do this.
When we bring voices to the table with different perspectives, we get better outcomes.
So whether you are black, white, old, young, working, retired, rural, urban, suburban, it takes all of us moving in the same direction.
Sometimes that gets messy.
Sometimes people have different priorities.
But when we're at the table together, when we're communicating clearly with one another, when we're willing to have hard conversations,
We are going to get to a place where we can make choices as a team, move forward, and know that everybody is coming from the right place.
That's the job of a party chair is to not just talk about it, but to demonstrate it.
And that's what I'm committing to do between now and June 15th.
When this election is held, if you want to be a part of that election, make sure you're a party member.
Make sure you are signed up to be a delegate to the convention.
There's plenty of time to do that.
And that's how we move this forward.
And I genuinely mean that whether I'm your first choice or whether someone else is, we need more people moving in the same direction and on the team.
That's how we get this done.
There's definitely time for that.
The WisDEMS 2025 convention will be at the Chula Vista Resort June 14th and 15th.
Learn more by heading to the state party website wisdems.org and then click on convention while you're at the homepage.
Joe's been
real quick.
I gotta do it.
And if you want to learn more about me, if you want to join the team, jozapeki.com.
Jozapeki.com.
There you go.
Joe, thank you.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for sharing the first word with us.
Good luck to you.
Thanks, man.
Appreciate
you.
All right, take care.
When we come back, we're going to take care of another race and another declared candidate, Emily Berge, running for Congress in the Third Congressional District.
That's next on Up North News Radio, live from Chippewa Falls on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Yeah, this show is going a little heavier 80s than I was planning on today.
But today is Michael Sanbello's birthday.
You remember Maniac, of course, but he also had a top 20 hit back then with a song called Automatic Man.
And there it was a little bit of that, which I had forgotten and I will probably forget again.
We are hopefully going to be joined by Emily Berge here in just a moment.
She is the Eau Claire City Council President.
She is running for a seat in Congress now in the third congressional district, which is a big chunk of Western Wisconsin.
And then there's an extension that runs up into central Wisconsin, thanks to some gerrymandering that was done in 2011 by Republicans.
And Derek Van Orden is now in his third term in this race.
In the race, their
was a primary in 2022 among Democrats after Ron Kind announced that he was retiring.
It didn't get negative, but it was clearly tense.
In 2024, there was primary, and it did get negative between Rebecca Cook and Katrina Shanklin.
And now in this third go-around,
For the 2026 cycle, Rebecca Cook has already announced that she's in.
Emily Berge has just announced that she's in.
And so we'll talk a bit about, you know, the fact that there will be a primary there and whether Democrats will be able to come together this time and then amass the numbers that are needed to unseat Derek Van Orden in 2026.
And Emily Berge joins us on the studio line now.
Emily, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning.
I'm good.
Good.
Technical difficulties.
Oh, no, that's all right.
We, you know, computer issues happen and we're just glad that you are here to talk to us a bit about your decision to run.
We.
had the news a couple of weeks back that you were thinking of running, but wanted to get through the April 1st state Supreme Court election.
And now that that has passed and had a successful conclusion, it has freed you up to other pursuits.
So let's just open up with that.
Why have you decided to make a run for Congress, hopefully against Derek Van Orden in 2026?
Right.
Well, I think we can all agree that things are not going well at the
national level.
You know, I know I didn't feel great over the election.
I worked really hard to get Kamala Harris elected, door knocking, did everything I could.
But then 2016, I felt like I didn't do enough.
And that's actually when I became involved in politics after that election.
I said, well, this time I'm going to throw everything into it.
And that night, you know, wasn't a good night for me and for half the country.
So, but really, since January, I didn't do things are going to be bad, but they have been way worse.
I mean, it's just terrible what's going on.
And with my place at, well, I have lots of roles in our community here,
you
know, being a mom, mental health counselors, city council president, just a community member.
Like in every part of that, like people are scared.
People don't know what's going on.
There's chaos at the federal level.
Again, with city council, I see that within cities across and cities and villages and counties across the state too.
So things just are not good and are very bad.
And just to put it simply, but yeah, it's chaos and I feel like I can be the leader to step up and be the calm and the chaos and to stand up for the people in the third CD.
Well, let's talk about then.
what you would bring to the role as a leader in the community and through your local government experience.
Because as we just discussed with Joseph Peckie and running for state party chair, you know, part of it is letting people know how bad things are from a Trump and Van Orden standpoint.
But voters also want to know, what are you going to do?
What do you bring to the table?
So tell us a bit about, you know, your own
leadership qualities that you feel would make you be a better representative and on what issues you think people should be selecting you, not just opposing Derek Van Orden.
Correct.
Yeah, and that's really important.
People want to vote for someone.
They want to believe in someone and fight for and get them elected.
And that's that excitement that propels us forward.
So yeah, that's really important.
I guess
I am a leader that I think we need because of just my city council role.
I've been on city council since 2018.
I've been president since 2023.
I've been a leader.
I know, you know, oh, no, Claire.
I've also been, I was on the executive board for Salem, the League of Wisconsin municipalities at the statewide organization.
I was president last year, now I'm past president.
So I have lots of experience being in leadership roles.
You know, being the person to put the messaging out there, guiding the organization, whatever organization that might be standing up for people, even, you know, people, disenfranchised people, vulnerable communities, I believe very strongly
in
that.
But yeah, and then just in my role with city, or I'm sorry, mental health counselor, I'm an LPC, licensed professional counselor.
So I'm very good at listening.
I'm actually more comfortable in the listening role.
I like to listen.
I like to get to know people.
I like to connect people, bring people together.
I think that we're going to really need that.
You know, on the top of the hour, you said, or just before we, as we started, you asked how we're going to bring people together.
And, you know, after the primary, and I'm a person that really unites people because I believe in that.
I love to just get to know people and listen, like I said, and as for the housing or the issues, I think housing, healthcare and water, those are the things that I see at the local level that impact everyone, no matter if you live in the city or out in the county or towns across the state, really across the nation.
You know, we're having a housing crisis.
People can't find housing that they can afford to live in.
We see that here in Eau Claire.
We
have a
healthcare crisis.
We've had that for a while.
And here locally, you know, with the closure of Sacred Heart, you know, and St.
Joe's up in Chippewa, Ellie Phillips, like this just been things are, again, things are not getting better.
They're getting worse and we need real solutions.
And then water too.
Again, at the local level, we've been working with PFAS in our water.
A lot of municipalities and towns and counties are dealing with that.
And that's, that's, that's not good stuff.
You know, that gets in our bodies and they're forever chemicals.
And so they stay in our bodies forever.
So those are just kind of just that simple issues that affect really everyone.
Emily Berge is our guest.
She's the Eau Claire City Council president and a candidate for Congress in the third congressional district.
And Emily, you know how the third congressional district is a sprawling bifurcated district with
many different ways to divide it.
There's the western part versus the central part of the district with things like the Stevens Point area, then there's the La Crosse area, then there's the Eau Claire area.
There are those cities versus a whole lot of rural area that is in there.
There are
very active party members, primarily in those three major cities, but also in the counties as well.
But again, also plenty of people who do not necessarily identify as a Democrat.
You would be in a primary against Rebecca Cook, which then adds a new layer of somebody with local government experience versus somebody who, you know, wants to bring in an outside perspective.
So.
There's so many reasons why when you look at the last two Third District races, you know where Democrats fell short because you're trying to deal with so many moving pieces all at once.
So can you talk a bit about that challenge and what you think you'll be able to do to emerge as the clear best choice for all of those groups wherever they find themselves in the Third District?
Right right and it is I do want to be representative for everyone and it it doesn't matter like who you voted for in the past or You know how much you have in your bank account or where you live where you're from and I really will stand up for everyone But yeah, it's a big district.
I think 19 counties It's just getting out there
You know, getting out there, yeah, I, you know, I've been in Eau Claire for 24 years.
I raised my kids here, volunteered in their schools with a running coach volunteer in my church, you know, so I'm very in Eau Claire and I know that I have to get out in the district.
I want to get out in the district.
So it's just putting, you know, just happen in the car and we're going to just go visit people and get to know them, listen to what is impacting them, what's keeping them up at night.
I think that's huge, just listening to people.
Politicians don't have to talk all the time.
I think we can listen once in a while, and I think that's really important.
And people want to talk.
They're hurting right now.
Again, I think people voted for Trump because they thought Trump did a very good job at explaining the hurt, the struggle that people are going through.
And so people voted for him.
thinking that things would get better.
Well, things are not better.
You know, I'm sure everyone's watching the 401k, you know, go down.
The tariffs are impacting, you know, our farmers and small businesses, you
know,
nonprofits are not sure where their funding is coming from and they serve vulnerable families, you know, veterans.
I just saw an article how, you know, he's flashing things from the VA, which also, and.
and just like services, the mental health part of that.
They're doing some changes with that where they're requiring counselors, then outcome in office.
However, they all like work in cubicles.
And so they have to tell their clients that I can't guarantee your privacy as we do your counseling.
I mean, that's just wild as a counselor myself, that's unethical.
And that's just one little example of how.
These things that he's doing is just impacting everyone, no matter what you did for a living, what you do for a living, again, where you're from, who you voted for.
And so it's like talking to people and listening, okay, how is this showing up for you?
And like, what do you see as a solutions to?
Yeah, I see this as a big tent.
I'll go ahead.
No, it is.
But it's also, like I said, a big district, and you're absolutely right to talk about the need to get around the district.
And it's been a dozen years since I was a candidate for Congress, but you already know that the other half of that job, besides getting around the district, is the fundraising.
And already to this point, Rebecca Cook has announced that she has already raised a million dollars in just the few weeks since she announced for the next cycle.
Now, this is her third
time through running for this race, so clearly fundraising is not as much an issue for her.
For somebody who has had local government experience but hasn't needed to raise a million dollars to run for Eau Claire City Council, what do you think of that particular mountain that you're going to have to climb to successfully come through a Democratic primary?
Well, I'll just say, I think it's unfortunate that there's that much money in politics first off.
I mean, that's kind of ridiculous, to be honest.
But, you know, Elon Musk poured millions and millions of dollars into, you know, the state Supreme Court and people showed up.
You know, I was door knocking every, not every weekend, but the weekend's leaving up to, you know, the race, working with Inevitable, trying to get, you know, people excited to go out.
Like, it's about the people.
people over money.
So yes, I know I need to raise money and I
need to
have a viable campaign definitely, but it's still about the people of the third CD and I'll do what I can.
You know, to ask people, I think it'll be a more small dollar donations because, you know, financially people are hurting right now too in the third CD.
So I think it's just the priorities people over, you know, money and politics and
Rebecca Cook, she has experienced fundraising.
She's ran for five years or so, plus she worked on campaigns as fundraising.
I guess I have a different skill set
than
that.
I've been a mental health counselor, I've been on city council president, I've been raising my family.
So yeah, we have different skill sets, but I think I bring a lot to the table, and I will still fundraise too, and I know that people will support me.
Um, as I get out talking to people as well.
All right.
And I, I assume you've got the, uh, the website up for people that want to learn more about your candidacy.
Yes, they do.
Yep.
Yep.
I do.
It's Berge for converse.com and yeah, I welcome welcome donation support volunteers.
Uh, anything people can do just talking to people about me.
Uh, I really care a lot about people and I care about this district and I know I have a lot of work to do and that's okay.
I don't, I've worked very hard my whole life.
So.
Um, I'm up for the challenge and I'm excited too.
I think it's going to be a fine campaign and I intend to for it to be joyful because that's part of, you know, the resistance rate.
They can't take away our joy.
And so we're going to have fun.
There you go.
All right.
Berge is a BERGE.
That's Berge for Congress dot com.
Emily, thank you so much for visiting with us.
I'm sure we'll talk frequently between now and the primary next year.
So thank you for all you do and take
care of
safe travels.
All right.
Thank
you so
much.
Bye bye.
You bet.
We will wrap things up here talking to Luke Mallers right after this.
You're up north.
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In honor of Victoria Beckham's birthday, we thought we'd play a little Spice Girls to make Luke Mathers morning as he joins us now at 7.52 on this Thursday morning.
Let's see, we had Joseph Peckian earlier in this hour declare his candidacy for the state party chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.
Emily Berge has declared her candidacy for the third congressional district.
Do you have anything to declare, Mr.
Manners?
I was thinking about the exact same thing, Pat.
I was like, oh, no, I have nothing to share with the class to declare like that.
Declare
your favorite spice girl right now.
Baby spice.
Pasha over there was basic.
Wow.
What would what would have been the wild card choice there?
Sporty.
I was.
Yep.
I was.
I thought you'd say sporty.
That's so you.
It's it's scary.
Ginger.
That's it.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
All right.
This ends the Spice Girls discussion on today's program.
Mr. Mathers, big changes come into civic media next week.
Not the least of which is this program growing an hour to go from 6 to 9 a.m.
starting sometime next week.
This is very exciting, but I gotta tell you folks looking behind the curtain, Mr. Mathers and I, we started with A to do list.
which looked rather manageable.
And it seems like for every one of these things, we tick off to prepare for the new show.
There's a couple more.
There's like two more gets added on.
Yes, ticked off.
Put on plunge.
Yeah, there we go.
And yet here.
Here you are doing it for us, for Matt Nair on air, for Todd moving to two to four, for Maggie Dawn moving to four to six.
And there's no shortage of news as you've had jam packed in this show that we continue to cover with all of these kind of behind the scenes changes.
So a lot going on.
I can declare this, I tried to make coffee without putting the water in the coffee pot this morning.
So it's that kind of Thursday morning.
I burned out a coffee maker a couple of years back with
that.
Not the first time I did it, but like a month or two later, I did it a second time.
At that point, the coffee maker said, I'm out.
Nope.
I'm just, I'm just gonna see,
I realized almost immediately.
So I don't even think the plate had time to heat up or anything.
But I was like, so rushed this morning, just trying to make sure that we're getting everything done ahead of the changes coming next week, Wednesday, April 23, across the civic media radio network, that I realized that just
I had no water or coffee pot for that matter.
I just put the coffee in the basket and closed it and turned it on.
And I was like, hang on, this isn't going to work.
This
isn't going
to give me what I
need.
The one that I've done, the one that I did one time, and I must have really been tired, was I put the water in, I put the filter in, I put the coffee in the filter and then turned it on.
And it's all just gushing out.
And I'm realizing I didn't put the filter holder.
in
there.
So there was a lot of room for the water to run all over the place.
So who knew?
Who knew?
Coffee making could be such an adventure for us.
And we had an excellent update from a local coffee maker here in Wisconsin earlier this week on the Todd Alba show, TJ Samanshin, the owner at Wonder State talking about the tariffs.
So we've got so much going on with the news of Joseph Pecky's announcement.
Today we've got
Excellent guests up and down the airwaves here across civic media, and we're very excited to be bringing a revamped and refreshed lineup for listeners starting next week, Wednesday.
And so a lot going on behind the scenes, but excited,
excited to be here with you guys.
I want to cover a couple points.
But first, Artith writes in on Facebook, and I don't know if we know the answers yet.
She writes, what shows will be repeated during the late evening hours for us night owls?
Well, I don't know if Bartlett
is that much of a night owl if they're awake right now here at 755 some
of us are all over the place trust me, but yeah
That's fair.
That's fair.
Yes.
We are still working on some of those details, but we will be working to have an emphasis for our local
programming here overnight.
And so with Tom Hartman, the Tom Hartman program moving into 11 to 2 p.m.
11 a.m.
to 2 p.m.
We will have more programming time in the evening that will feature our local civic media shows.
That's great.
And so let's take care of a couple of quick questions from from folks or comments.
First off, Tom Hartman national program coming on from 11 to two.
And folks going, Well, wait, you had this all Wisconsin line.
up.
I will tell you that the prospect of having a highly regarded national show on midday and that there isn't one of our shows on, we can all finally get in a room together and talk with each other because there's only somebody that's excluded because they're on the air.
So we've got that you get the addition of Tom Hartman
and the number nine talker in the entire country.
So the ninth rated talk show throughout the entire nation.
We're very excited.
That's practically top 10 right there.
And
And then we get all the questions about Earl Ingram out of Milwaukee and Chad Holmes out of Wausau.
They are still part of all of this.
And we're looking forward to the ways that they can shift their focus to more local community content.
They'll see more projects.
There will still be interviews.
And they'll all get folded into shows like this one and Matt Nair on Air and beyond.
So those guys aren't going anywhere.
Exactly.
And so we're really looking forward to being able to provide a statewide network program throughout the morning and throughout the rest of the day.
But then particularly in our morning drive, be able to feature those local stories as well on the hyper local stations.
And so really.
For the listeners, this will provide state and local news and interviews, conversations, discussions, and information in a way that it just doesn't exist currently on the radio.
And we're very excited to be able to provide it starting next week, Wednesday.
There you go.
Looking forward to it.
Mr. Mathers, thank you so much.
I'll get my updated to-do list to you real soon here.
Sounds great.
I'll
send
mine back to you as well.
Yes.
Greg Bach is back in two hours for Matt Naranair, which we can expect to learn about.
We're talking to Jim Santel at 1030, and then we have Brad Toll talking about the impact of the draft in coming to Green Bay, not to
mention
weather and sports.
So
lots, lots, lots to
talk about.
very exciting NFL draft that's going to be next week.
So yes, we have to, we have to start getting ramped up for that as well.
All right.
Thank you gentlemen.
Up North News is the Wisconsin outlet for Courier, a pro democracy news network, building a more informed, engaged and representative America.
I'm Pac right now.
Enjoy the rest of your Thursday.
We'll see you Friday morning, 6am here up north.
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