Live across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Crichtlow powered by Up North News.
Now from our Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Crichtlow.
Thank you Don, real good morning.
It is 8.06 and it's a nice to have you here Up North.
on this Wednesday morning, April 23rd, 2025, as we grow the show.
from what had been Up North News Radio to now a three-hour program with some local cut-ins from around the civic media radio network.
More guests, including William Garcia, who's coming up in just a few moments.
He is one of the candidates running for chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.
We will ask why.
He's the current chair of the third congressional district Democratic Party and also is a vice chair in La Crosse County.
for the Democratic Party, so we'll certainly talk about issues all across greater Wisconsin when it comes to the Democratic Party having organization and outreach and what he would bring to the post if elected chair.
Then at 830, we will have Melissa Baldoff, listeners to Up North News Radio know that we typically heard from her on Wednesday mornings at 630.
We're going to bump that over to 830 now on Wednesday mornings.
We'll talk a little bit of climate as we always do, but we'll also get into other political headlines as well, given her work as a political strategist, along with her hubs, Joseph Peckie.
who will be with us tomorrow.
He too is a candidate for a Democratic Party chair and we are still working to set up something with Devin Remaker who is the third announced candidate to this point.
But for now we just want to make sure we got to
You know the this third hour and got got going I mean, it's it's the third hour if it's anything like the today show I feel like Al Roker should be walking in here any minute here, Brittany Merleau I have and Sam's in Madison now Sam runs the board during our third hour here So that Greg Bach can get ready for Matt and Aaron air which follows next at nine o'clock So Brittany Sam welcome to our new 80806 gig over here
I know we're looking forward to it.
And so the big challenge, Brittany, for this hour is that I get two cups of coffee a day and now I've got to make two cups of coffee stretch out over three hours instead
of
three instead of two.
So so far so good.
I think I'm at the proper caffeination level.
We'll see.
But sometimes I do get a little worked up.
But what do you got there?
That's that's
got some iced coffee.
I'm almost out.
So I'm doing you.
We're almost at the end, right?
See, I play barista every morning.
I make sure that before Sherry leaves, she's had her one cup of coffee with breakfast, and then there's a tumbler of hot coffee, and then there's a tumbler of iced coffee for the drive up to Rice Lake.
And so I'm glad to see somebody else is a nice coffee drinker this early in the morning, which has been a little weird when the temperatures have still been in the 20s and 30s, but we are finally coming up.
Spring is finally sprung here, Brittany.
Finally, yes, yes, I know right 34 degrees right now into Solon Springs So flirting with that freezing mark far up north.
Well, meanwhile down south along the state line 57 degrees right now into Monroe So a huge difference across the state, but we are all warming up today We've got this warm front and lifting through and that of course is going to be sparking up some scattered showers Maybe some thunderstorms this afternoon.
None are expected to be severe But of course rain is in the forecast especially as we go through the next four
So spots of sunshine are still out there today, but we are going to be stuck under more clouds than sun.
Of course, scattered showers are going on in southwestern parts of the state this morning.
They're going to be working their way towards Madison shortly and in towards Milwaukee as well.
Well up north, some spotty sprinkles this afternoon.
And of course, like I said, some showers and storms mainly between two to five today are possible, but those high temperatures.
They're sweet into the mid to upper 60s up north till.
below 70s down south, sort of finally feeling those nice conditions.
We're going to hang on to the warmth tomorrow too.
It'll be partly sunny with rain really ramping up into that late evening and into early Friday.
Of course, the timing couldn't be any worse with the NFL draft going on tomorrow and Friday.
But of course, we are drying things out by Friday afternoon.
into our weekend and we're moderating those temperatures too as we move into Sunday.
So yes, we will be cooler on Friday with highs in the mid to upper fifties for a lot of us, but by Saturday and Sunday, we're into those low to mid sixties with some seventies again, once again, south.
And you know, the nice thing about getting two visits with you now in the mornings is that on those mornings where things are a little crazy after seven o'clock
and I
completely whiff on Rob and Tigerton.
I've got a chance for redemption here.
So Rob says, good morning from Tigerton.
Now an hour ago, it was partly cloudy and 36.
He said, I got Molly, my car fixed yesterday with a grease and an oil change.
My brakes fixed.
So my mechanic, Todd, did an awesome job on that Monday, May 5th.
He's got a colonoscopy scheduled at ThetaCare and Chano.
Looking forward to that, he says, I don't know if that was sarcasm or not.
And he says, I'm listening to you on my new iPad and it sounds very awesome.
And Melissa Kay was with the show earlier.
And he said, the last time I saw Brittany and
Melissa in person.
I bought them a drink in Appleton on election night, which I know that you recall.
Yes, I do.
It was wonderful to meet you, Rob.
I love being able to meet the people that mean so much and really care about the weather too.
He's always on it.
Rob is on it every day.
He is.
He also says he has his diet sun drop.
Of course, you have to have that in the Tigerton area.
And he notes, and I just caught this out of the corner of my eye too, saying passing along the passing of Mike Patrick, who was the play by play announcer for ESPN Sunday Night Football from 1987 to 2005 and did some college basketball as well.
So Rob from Tigerton not only brings us his own personal news, but passes along some other headlines along the day as well.
Brittany, thank you so much.
Have a wonderful day.
You too.
All right.
It is 812 right now.
And we, before we get to William Garcia, I just want to let you know that the Brewers were winners over the San Francisco Giants late last night.
And it was a, it was a big margin thanks to
A Grand Slam by Christian Yalich, a two-run homer by Jake Bowers.
The Brewers beat the Giants 11-3.
You can hear game three of that series coming up.
Coverage begins at 8-10 on several civic media stations, including Richland Center, Oshkosh, Racine Kenosha, a couple of cities up north.
Head over to CivicMedia.us to learn more.
The Bucks are down 0-2 in their playoff series, losing to Indiana last night, 1-23 to 1-15.
William Garcia is chair of the third congressional district
Democratic Party and is a candidate for chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party with Ben Wickler stepping down convention delegates from around the party will gather in Wisconsin Dells in mid June to choose their next party chair William Garcia.
Good morning.
Thank you for being here.
Are you with us, William?
Hi, thanks for having me.
Yep.
No, nice to have you here.
I think we have a slight delay in my apologies.
I can.
Can you hear me?
Yes, so here you just find we have a little delay there, but let me put it out rather generically here and say, William, first off, make a pitch.
Why'd you decide to run and what do you think you would bring to the position of Democratic State Chair?
There is a disconnect between the state party and local county parties that must be fixed for the long-term health of the party.
Basically, we're getting a lot of information and directives in a really top-down approach from the state party.
That means the state party tells us exactly how to organize, they do all of our messaging, they basically tell us what to do.
But they're not listening all the time.
to local people on the ground who know better how to talk to people in their community and how to organize in their community.
Some examples, as Chair of the Third City, I'm in charge of a lot of rural areas.
We have rural areas where when we tell organizers to go door knock, it takes them an hour to knock four doors.
And we have local people on the ground saying, this is not an effective way of communicating and connecting with voters.
There are better ways.
So I am running in order to realign the state party to listen to county parties about how to do messaging and how to do organizing in their area.
So I've essentially have a three word platform, grow, persist, resist.
Grow means I want to grow the county parties by giving them resources, tools, and infrastructure in order to talk to voters in their area in a way that will connect with voters and bring people into the party year round.
Persist means I want to keep doing the great things that DPW already does.
Things like fundraising.
Wisconsin Democratic Party is a fundraising juggernaut and I want to continue that.
that progress.
We desperately need those funds.
I also want to persist in keeping the media folks on Wisconsin.
Ben Wickler was incredible about going around the country and talking about what's happening in Wisconsin and why it's important.
I also think DPW does a really great job of working with our candidates in the assembly and the Senate, the state Senate, and I want to continue that close relationship.
and finally resist I have to say I've been disappointed with some of the national Democrats leaders who have been very timid in the face of Trump I intend to be the strongest loudest voice in Wisconsin against the Trump agenda and Republican policies that are hurting Wisconsin families and that's basically my pitch
It's a very healthy pitch.
One from William Garcia who chairs the third congressional district Democrats and is running for state party chair and Tony puts up on YouTube.
I love the idea of year-round organizing.
It's something that I have been talking about for nearly 20 years here.
And I know other people are having discussions, even as we speak coming out of this last cycle about year round organizing, not just parachuting in at campaign time and you as somebody outstate clearly have some thoughts on the need to do that all throughout Wisconsin.
So when we talk about year round organizing, the first thing we have to do is redefine what organizing is right now with the Democratic Party.
Organizing is essentially two things.
The numbers of doors knocked and the numbers of phones called.
And that is basically how we are defining organizing.
Now, that definition of organizing does not work in a year round context.
Because why on earth would I call someone right now and tell them to vote for so and so in 2026?
The person is just going to be befuddled and slightly annoyed to be getting that phone call.
What year-round organizing should mean is bringing people into the county parties.
That's what real year-round organizing is, is giving strength and power and true agency to local parties so that they can work in their community year-round, community service, community activism, working with our local politicians to get things done.
increasing the engagement at the local level.
We increase our volunteer base.
We increase our enthusiasm about the Democratic Party at the local level.
And then when it does come time to knock on doors and make phone calls, we're not parachuting in.
We are established in the community already.
We're talking to people that we've talked to before.
And that's how true year-round organizing is going to function.
And that's exactly what's being talked about by folks throughout Wisconsin.
William Garcia, among them, a candidate for Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair, who we are talking to this morning.
Before we go to a break, a reminder that tomorrow on the program, we will have Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godluschi around 7.30.
Her name has been bandied about for something that might be voted on at the State Party Convention as well.
We'll ask her if she has any future plans that she would like to tell us more about.
As mentioned already, Joseph Peck, you'll be here tomorrow.
We'll have a discussion about Robert Kennedy Jr.'
's rants about autism.
We will have a guest who has some very strong feelings on the subject.
And we actually heard some strong feelings last week from Emily Berge, a candidate for Congress, about Robert Kennedy Jr.'
's remarks.
And Chad Holmes will be along tomorrow as well in the program and a reminder for folks who'd been listening in this hour to Chad Holmes or to Earl Ingram that Chad and Earl will continue to be integral parts of the mornings here on civic media and throughout the day, having the ability to work on some special projects along the way that don't just require a day to day show.
So we're very glad about that.
And again, still ahead this hour, Melissa Baldoff will talk about climate and James Kelly about news that he covers for Civic Media in the Chippewa Valley.
From the heart of America's up north, live from Lake Wissota, thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Krightlum.
Saturday is independent bookstore day across the country, certainly here in Wisconsin.
On Monday, we had author Laura Bird on.
talk about the reasons why you should support your independent local bookstore and in our daily newsletter that you can get at upnorthnewswi.com.
Today's newsletter talks all about some of the great independent bookstores around Wisconsin, the value of supporting them, some banned books that you could be reading to thumb your nose at certain people that want to restrict what you can see, all that plus
Veterans talk about being fired after serving their country by the Trump administration all that more in our newsletter sign up over at up-front news wi.com Let's take care of some housekeeping here on the text line from Jim and Brookfield
best wishes on the new format.
I am looking forward to listening during the extra hour.
Glad to hear you will continue to provide updates from Rob and Tigerton.
I enjoy hearing those, listening in southeast Wisconsin, because they make me feel connected to up north.
So please keep that aspect of your show.
Thank you very much.
Hey, we appreciate that.
And then we mentioned earlier, Randy in Madison asked a question about, you know, the show changing and what about the podcast?
And he wanted me to clarify
Will it be on the same feed where we've been getting our podcasts?
And I don't know the answer for sure.
I would assume it's the same because all we're doing is changing the name that's on it, but don't hold me to it.
because this is this is something I'll definitely need to double check.
But hopefully, you're still getting it the same way that you've always received up North News Radio, but just instead with a whole new name here.
Look at this just in from Luke Mathers text message from him.
Yes, same podcast feed.
John and Ashgosh has this Earl have any regular programming available?
He will.
in time.
Again, we're letting him and Chad and others get started on some special projects to broaden our focus, broaden their range of reporting and conversations.
And so be on the lookout for that.
Apparently, with them getting the new projects, they said, well, somebody's got a yep for three hours.
And apparently that's
me.
Apparently I have this gift of Gab and I'm going to prove it by talking for a few more minutes here with William Garcia, who is a chair for State Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Folks on social media, you're seeing his video, but we're hearing him on the phone line here.
So William, thanks for sticking around with us here.
Can you talk a bit about the support that you're receiving so far?
Because there are three candidates for sure right now for state party chair.
They're starting to tout their endorsements and things like that.
What can you tell us about your level of support to this point?
Yeah, I'm really lucky.
Most of my support is coming from county chairs, county chairs who agree with me that people are that that
DPW is just not listening to them, and especially that they don't have a seat at the table with big decisions that DPW is making.
So people like the chair of Eau Claire County, the chair of Grant County, the chair of Adams County where I was just yesterday.
So I'm getting a lot in, especially people that really know me and have been working with me a long time as third CD chair and also as lacrosse County chair are very much behind me because they really know that this is something I can do well.
This is a real concern of mine, and here's a role that I don't talk about from a past life.
After serving as a legislator, after being a candidate for Congress, I was later chair of the Chippewa County Democratic Party, and then later served as state chair of the Association of County Chairs.
So all the county chairs in the state, I led that group for a short time right before we decided, let's start up North News instead.
I am extremely sympathetic and understanding of what county chairs are saying around the state that they are the backbone or the heartbeat, whatever you want to call it of the party.
And sometimes it's not so much just a Madison, Milwaukee disconnect, but a disconnect from what some would call, say the consultant class or whatever you want to call it.
So I hear that in you.
And so the question isn't, you know, are you right or wrong?
The question is,
How do you bridge that to people who are not necessarily thinking about the party apparatus in greater wisconsin?
Well, the first thing
i want to
do
is point out one um true but terrifying fact and that is that one day and hopefully that day will happen because uh uh the democratic party has been so successful in the long term in wisconsin but one day wisconsin will no longer be the closest swing state in the country uh that distinction will go somewhere else
And when that happens, a significant amount of the money that is being poured into Wisconsin is going to go away.
And if we have let county parties wither and die on the vine by using all of this money and building a completely separate organizing structure from the county parties, we are in massive amounts of trouble.
And that's why I say that this is a problem that must be fixed for the long-term health of the party.
We need a system that is vibrant and alive, whether or not we are getting huge donation dollars.
Now, I want to bring in the huge donation dollars.
I want to be real clear on that.
I am signing up for a significant amount of fundraising.
That's going to be my life when I'm chair.
But we need to build a system that can survive without it.
Right because again that you know things have changed all along but there there is this mindset of Well, do you go looking for that one needle in the haystack?
Out state, you know one or two more votes or do you try to squeeze one or two more Democratic votes out of you know your larger cities Madison, Milwaukee, Eau Claire Again, I don't I'm not here to judge that one is right or wrong, but you'd be wrong to focus on just one or the other
Right you have to do both
And that's why I'm talking about giving local counties more control over things like messaging.
The message that works in Milwaukee is not the same one that works in Jackson County.
And so what we need to be providing is messages that work in both and letting the county party say, this is a message that's going to talk to voters in my neighborhood.
And then we can disseminate from there.
There are great things to talk about with Democrats.
And why on earth are we not, for instance, right now in rural areas, why are we not blasting rural radio about all of the Trump policies that are hurting Wisconsin farmers happening all the time?
We're not even talking about
it.
No, and which is again, part of my where I'm thankful for up north news and civic media, but there's more work to be done.
William Garcia, one of the candidates for Wisconsin Democratic Party chair William, thank you so much.
Good to talk to you again.
Have a great day.
Thanks so much.
Alright, coming up next, Melissa Baldoff will have climate check and some more political headlines right after this on the Civic Media Radio Network.
the program we'll have Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godluschi who may be making some kind of an announcement ahead of the State Democratic Convention.
We'll be talking to Joseph Pecky as usual on Thursdays who's also running for State Democratic Party Chair and we will have Chad Holmes here as well as mentioned with the restructuring of the civic media lineup that will mean that folks like Chad Holmes will
be dropping into this show, not just during local breaks throughout the show, but also on the on the main body of the network show.
And having listened to Chad's show yesterday, I am quite confident that one of our topics tomorrow will be about Warsaw Mayor Doug Denny, who you will recall took it upon himself to remove a drop box for absentee ballots last year.
something that should not be done, may even have been a criminal act.
But the wheels of justice are grinding rather slowly, not just from a legal standpoint, but from the standpoint of the ethics board up in Wausau.
Those members' terms are about to expire, I should say.
But they can stay on the ethics board until the city council nominates and confirms their replacements.
And yet,
Doug Denney took it upon himself recently to announce new appointments to the ethics board.
Now, there's little to no chance that the city council is going to take those up and pass them, but that the mayor would even make those appointments of Republican stalwarts while he's awaiting the ethics board to review his actions, removing the absentee ballot drop box.
isn't sitting well with some folks, chat homes among them, and we will talk about that tomorrow here on the program.
But we are joined now by Melissa Baldoff, who you'll now hear instead of at the really early hour at 6.30 for her and others at a more humane 8.30.
Melissa, it's great to see you here.
It is great to be here.
Good morning.
Yeah, good morning to you.
Now, by and large, we talk about climate issues on Thursdays in our weekly climate check feature.
It's an area of focus for you professionally, but you have a very well-rounded career as a...
political strategist as a staff member.
You worked in Governor Evers office for a time as well.
So we get to expand the conversation a little bit more.
So when we, when we do turn to climate, we're going to talk about green schools in Wisconsin and a new way to recognize them thanks to cuts from the Trump administration.
But before we get to that and many, any other climate issues, I want to come back to your work with Governor Evers and the fact that he put out some guidance
about what should happen in the workplace if there is some kind of a you know an immigration raid from ICE so that people know what their rights are and that is getting some angry pushback from Republicans who say that the governor is trying to somehow circumvent you know ICE and law and order
And I have to say from what I know of the Melo's comments and from what you know of the governor, he doesn't really strike me as somebody that's giving, shall we say, extra legal advice.
Yeah, so I would just say this, that we're in this situation where Republicans are not looking to follow the law.
They seem to have decided that
innocent until proven guilty, doesn't matter, doesn't mean a thing anymore.
They are, you know, just completely ignoring the Constitution left and right, especially when it comes to immigration, you know, we're seeing the just devastating effects of that, you know, examples.
all the time here.
So it makes all the sense in the world that anybody who is leading a large workforce is the executive of a large workforce like Governor Evers is.
We have a large and wonderful workforce of state employees and any responsible employer is going to want to make sure that
their employees are safe and feel secure at work so they can do their jobs and have the guidance that they need to exercise their rights.
And, you know, whether the Trump administration wants to accept it or not, people do have rights.
And we have seen that ICE
you know, operating under the Trump administration policies, you know, are not always, you know, operating in ways that are, you know, conducive to people exercising their rights and they want people to be confused.
They want people to be scared.
And it is incredibly important that everybody knows what their rights are and how to exercise those rights safely.
and responsibly so you know it's it's unfortunately not a surprise that republicans are mad i mean if republicans in wisconsin are mad about something with you know the governor has done all the time they will never not be mad about something um
And it is fairly standard advice.
It's a five point memo.
It tells state employees to remain calm, immediately notify their supervisor, ask the agents to identify themselves, present documentation of why they are there.
They are not to answer questions from the agents and they are not to give them permission to enter non-public areas and not give them access to paper files or computer systems without first talking to an attorney because as the memo points out,
every Wisconsin State employee has a responsibility to protect confidential data and information.
This is all pretty standard stuff in lines of, uh, you know, workplace safety, due process, equal rights.
And so again, if you're hearing a lot of criticism of this, that Governor Evers is standing with the Venezuelan drug cartels or something like that.
Now, you know,
a little bit more about the actual legal advice that is in there.
It doesn't strike me, Melissa, that the governor is working in cahoots with Venezuelan drug gangs.
Here's what I can tell.
That's the best I can tell as well.
It certainly was not.
When I worked for the governor, I wasn't aware of any strong alliances.
with any with any cartels.
But I was very aware of a commitment to doing what's best for the people of our state.
And I
think
that's what we're seeing here.
That's exactly it.
Turning to a climate matter and again making our public buildings greener and cleaner, there was a press release from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction yesterday and I really want to salute whoever was the writer on this because there was no need to mince words coming from the Wisconsin DPI taking a shot at the Trump administration right off the top saying
Following the elimination of the U.S.
Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools program, Wisconsin has launched its own initiative
through Green and Healthy Schools Wisconsin to spotlight schools that are leading the way in environmental stewardship.
And the Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Award is first going to West Depeer High School and Mahone Middle School in Kenosha, all about reducing environmental impact and cost, support student and staff wellness, and advance environmental literacy through their school communities.
Melissa, this is something that we've talked about
consistently is that in this age of Trump cutbacks, we could sit here and ring our hands.
There could be a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
But what we've done instead is say, well, the work has to be done locally at the state level, the local level that it's not all what was me, we can all still show leadership in our own various circles.
Absolutely.
And I think that we saw, you know, we saw that happen.
during the first uh Trump administration and we're seeing that happen again now um and you know that's uh you know not not that there are many uh bright spots here in this second term but you know one of the silver linings is that we had a lot of uh you know subnational organizations whether that's local government state government um nonprofits community organizations uh really learn a lot in that first term you know what what what can they do
at a more local level and how can they continue to advance climate friendly policies that are smart and going to make a difference and move the needle.
And, you know, it's not like that work stopped under the Biden administration.
It just had a lot of support from the federal government back then, which was wonderful.
But now they, we're seeing that a lot of these organizations are very well equipped to
continue making progress and move this move this work forward.
So it's really wonderful to see it happening and it's especially great to see it happening in our schools and you know that it's a way that schools are you know able to save money.
and have cleaner, healthier classroom environments for kids to learn in and educators and staff to work in.
And it's something I think that's great too.
Also in the release that you were just talking about, they discussed a little bit more about Environmental Education Week in Wisconsin, which Superintendent Underly had announced.
So I think that's really a great component of this too, is that we know that
that kids are learning about the environment.
They are much more aware of kind of how everything comes together and how they can make their natural spaces cleaner and healthier, how we can move forward into a clean energy economy.
And I think it's really wonderful to know that this is a priority for our kids too in this state still.
they're still learning about science and climate and doing it in a way that is going to be interesting and exciting to them.
And one of the other things related to this with energy and delivering electricity to places is a topic that we'll cover in a future discussion here because we've run out of time today for it.
But there is a bill about building new power transmission lines in Wisconsin.
And it
It's one of those unusual bills, Melissa, where it doesn't cut neatly between parties, that there are folks who support this particular bill about who gets first dibs at building new transition lines in the state versus whether it should be much more of a national process.
And so I'm just going to speak very generally in the minute we have left here because we'll get into the specifics later.
But it's almost refreshing sometimes when a bill comes up and it's not
very cleanly Democratic or Republican, that you can actually talk about the merits of a bill and whether it passes or not.
I would imagine we'll get into that in a discussion real soon.
Yeah, I mean, who knew that legislators could still do that?
It's wonderful to see a robust debate on a piece of legislation.
But I hope to see it come together in a way that is
you know actually protecting our residents and you know keeping keeping rates low and not just making this a you know give away to.
wealthy big corporations.
And that's the main thing here that we're real watching here is how much of this is just about what companies build power lines versus who's looking out for the consumers, who's looking out for the environment as well as part of this process.
Melissa Baldoff, this is going to be fun.
Thanks for being along for the first edition.
Have a great day.
We'll talk again real soon.
Sounds good.
All right, and we will continue here on the mornings with Pat Critello on this Wednesday morning.
It is April 23rd.
Tomorrow, Joseph Pecky, Chad Holmes, and Sarah Godluschi.
Remember, you can follow my team at Up North News all day long through our newsletters, through social media, through our website, upnorthnewswi.com.
And of course, right here, mornings on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Critello reminding you
to never let this nation fall short of its full promise, liberty and justice for all.
Back now with our Civic Media Chippewa Valley reporter, the pride of Binghamton, New York, James Kelly.
James, how are you?
I'm great.
Yeah, the pride of Binghamton.
I spent maybe a whole year there, but occasionally somebody will send me a picture of like a Padre shirt or something and be like, Hey, remember when James Kelly was here?
That's where the days.
Where
are you from originally?
Long Island originally.
Long Island.
That's right.
Okay.
It has been covering the Chippewa Valley for civic media for a couple of years now from the heart of downtown Chippewa Falls.
They're on Bridge and Grand where there's
several good coffee shops to choose from to keep this man caffeinated throughout the course of the day.
Hey, the checking.
And we're gonna do this throughout the course of the the new three-hour show is we're gonna have civic media reporters and hosts in from Different parts of the state tell us about the things that they're working on I've clearly already talked about Chad Holmes doing this James Kelly will be joining us probably Wednesday mornings in this slot to talk about what's happening in West Central Wisconsin and Northwest Wisconsin and one of the things is that there there is another
candidate for Congress in the third congressional district.
That's the one with Derek Van Orden, central parts of central Wisconsin and a big chunk of western Wisconsin.
And it's now three women running all three women from the Eau Claire area.
Tell us about the third candidate to get into the
race.
The third is Laura Benjamin.
She was a former Eau Claire City Council member, now very involved with a lot of activist groups out here, was involved in the hands-off protest a couple weeks ago.
Her announcement was kind of a town hall-esque event, which have clearly become very popular in recent weeks, as we saw Mark Pokan down in La Crosse yesterday for a town hall waiting for Derek Van Orden to host a...
public event in the district itself instead of just kind of the remote events.
So she took a lot of questions, kind of painted herself as the most progressive of the three candidates, an interesting event for sure, and a lot of, you know, community excitement to kind of get these questions specifically answered.
Yeah, and I'm going to put on my political analyst hat here for a moment when you say that she's painting herself as the most progressive candidate.
And
That works wonderfully when you're running in a place like Eau Claire or Madison or what have you.
There are the conventional wisdom, of course, is that in a purple district like the third, and it is still purple, Derek Van Orden's wins have been very narrow, is that, you know, folks want to run more toward the center, want to be more of a moderate, you know, Brad Paff, tried that a couple years back, Rebecca Cook did recently.
And since Donald Trump's win in November, there have been all kinds of folks saying, Nope.
that Democrats need to stop running to the middle.
They need to really stand up for their values, their progressive values.
And so I think this is a sign of coming attractions where you're going to have candidates who very purposefully are running even more to the left or even more to the center.
And so in the case of Laura Benjamin, it sounds like she has chosen her lane as to where she thinks there is going to be the appeal for votes in 2026.
Yeah and that was actually a question that I did ask her before the town hall portion of the event yesterday was you know there's been a lot of pushback on things that the federal level there's been a lot of organizing across the country and you know it does seem like there maybe is more of an appetite now for that.
further to the left progressive figure in these positions.
Whether or not that's gonna be enough to kind of keep up with Rebecca Koch, who won the primary last election and narrowly lost to Derek Van Orden already.
I was also even just thinking the last time I think I saw you in person was at her announcement party when a cow was trying to eat my jacket while she was speaking.
We were in a big old dairy barn there in Chippewa Falls.
And since that time,
Claire City Council President Emily Berge has announced her candidacy.
So again, you've got three women from the Eau Claire area.
You've got Emily Berge and Rebecca Cook and now Laura Benjamin as well.
And look, I don't have any kind of inside information.
I'm just saying, I'm playing the odds here that with three people running from Eau Claire, there, I would bet you are people in either the La Crosse area or the Stevens Point area.
Thinking there might be a lane for them in this race and it's a long way till the Democratic primary So I I would not put money down that these are gonna be the only three candidates
Yeah, and and that's another question that I asked both Emily Berge and Laura Benjamin if if the early announcement from Cook did kind of change their timelines for when they wanted to announce their campaigns and put themselves in the race Both kind of said not really
Emily Berge last week told me that you know she just wanted to make sure people knew there were other options in the Democratic primary if they if they wanted to support a different candidate this time she wanted to get her name out there early.
All right and some of the other stories you're covering include in Hudson they're looking at building a new athletic complex and I don't just mean like one softball field.
Yeah, no, a very big 22 acres of land, athletic complex, five turf fields.
The town board voted on a zoning change earlier this week to create kind of this new recreational youth district for the land.
It was purchased by the Hudson Boosters, so privately owned, but they're kind of looking to become that regional hub for youth sports and improve the offerings that they have in the area.
A lot of residents who showed up at the town hall were saying, you know, we barely have enough leagues and fields to play on.
it is for the kids we have here so this would benefit the local community and and maybe you get a little extra economic boost from having tournaments and whatnot.
I would bet a big boost given that in the Twin Cities there when Blaine built a big old complex now this is many years ago but I mean they became like the epicenter for sports and it brings a lot into the economy all those all those sports parents and all those kids getting meals and needing hotel rooms and then finally the Eau Claire Marathon is coming up.
Yeah, Saturday and Sunday this weekend there's going to be a whole lot of running in Eau Claire.
I used to be a runner myself have never dared to run 26.2 miles.
I always think it's funny that the legend of the marathon was created because a Greek soldier way back in the day had to run 26.2 miles with important war information and promptly died upon his arrival at his location.
Drop dead.
So let's celebrate that.
That's why I'm glad you said it was Saturday and Sunday because I would need both days to run something like that now with these knees.
James Kelly is a civic media reporter for Chippewa Falls for the Chippewa
Valley.
Thank you very much, James.
Have a wonderful day.
You too, Pat.
All right.
Good to talk to you.
And again, coming up tomorrow, we will have Sarah Godlowski on with us, along with Joseph Pecky.
Thanks to today's guests.
And there were a lot of them here on day one, Melissa Kay, Melissa Baldoff, Denise Gomer Hutchison, Representative Ahmaud Rivera-Wagner, Green Bay Mayor Eric Gennrich, William Garcia, Todd Alba, James Kelly.
and all of you for being here this morning.
I'm Pat Critelaw, founding editor of Up North News, the Wisconsin Home for Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy newsroom.
Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday.
See you tomorrow.
