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Now, from our Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Kratlow.
One happy camper this morning at 8.06 on this Tuesday morning, July 29th, might have something to do with the brewers beating up on the cups.
Did not look like it during the first inning last night.
Jacob Mizorowski had a terrible start.
eight batters, 40 pitches, three runs with hardly anything getting out of the out out of the infield and then he settled down and the Brewers bats came to life.
Brewers win eight to four.
Game two is tonight.
Game three is tomorrow afternoon.
But for now your first place Milwaukee Brewers are a top alone.
The central division and again game two tonight coverage begins at 6 0 5 on stations across the civic media radio network Meteorologist Brittany Merleau is here Chad Holmes will be joining us in a sec from 98 9 WXO in Warsaw One thing I noticed Brittany looking at the TV coverage of the game last night and from my being at American Family Field on Friday when it was another hot and steamy day is You know the roof is only partially open which is to kind of not have the sun completely baked down
But if you closed it all the way, then you'd be in a roasting pan.
And there's just, you know, this time of year, there's, there's no way to avoid the heat.
Just go get some ice cream or a cold frosty beverage or whatever, because we're, we're in the dog days of summer, at least, at least for one, one more day.
Well, first of all, I'm so excited that they beat the Chicago Cubs.
I'm from Chicago.
I hate them with a passion.
So I'm just so excited to hear that news.
And then also maybe some ice.
a cup of ice.
I was doing that at
Oshkosh, putting ice on the back of my neck, putting it, you know, on my arm, my leg, wherever, just to help cool me down.
So while you're in line for a brew, grab a cup of ice too.
There you go.
All right, look at that.
You get a great forecast and tips, spectator tips from Britain News going to tell us where the forecast is today as the rain moves out of the southeastern part of the state right now.
It sure does kick that on out of here.
Let the sunshine more and more sunshine throughout the day today.
Comfortable temperatures further up north, not so comfortable further down south.
We are still battling dew points, muggy conditions, high heat here today.
Temperatures rising to about the low to mid 80s far north to low to mid 90s far south.
Plus you slap the humidity on top of that.
It's going to be feeling like the mid to upper nineties for a lot of us in the southern part of the state today.
So sunshine becoming abundant.
A few spotty sprinkles or small brief showers are possible this afternoon.
I think they're going to stay more towards the Green Bay area, but pretty much by the lake is your best chances for those to pop up later on this afternoon early evening.
No big deal with that.
But tomorrow, we've got another low pressure system moving through.
It is going to bring some more widespread, steadier rainfall, probably overnight far west, early tomorrow morning for the southern parts of the state.
And that'll continue for the southern half tomorrow throughout the day.
Overcast, all of us.
but much, much more cooler, refreshing highs in the mid to upper seventies tomorrow and that stays the case for the rest of the week as a high pressure starts to build in.
It kicks the clouds on out of here and we've got nothing but a beautiful summer day on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and even into Sunday.
It's going to be amazing.
The top is coming off the Jeep Wrangler and it is going to be just a gorgeous couple of days of running those errands.
Brittany, thank you so much.
Really
appreciate
it.
All right.
Have a good day.
You have a great day as well.
Let's check in with Chad Holmes from 98.9 WXCO.
So he's following up in that area because you're still in your, as we learned from Jimmy Koska yesterday, this is, I don't think this is an official title, but this is like the dead week in high school sports where there's not practices and things like that.
So the kids get a break, the coaches get a break.
There's a lot of vacations going on.
It would seem to me we should be sending you away to like another poker tournament someplace, but you got that out of your system, right?
Yeah, no, it's a it is the down week It's actually a perfect week here in the wasa area because everybody's Heading off to the Wisconsin Valley fair starting today.
So it's like fair week and then next week Football practice begins and it could start to make the real countdown to the kickoff which is not too far away
No, no, not a bit.
And again, with the heat finally moving on, Joe and Superior on the text line listening on WBZH and Hayward says a comfortably cooler here by Lake Superior this morning.
And that that is very welcome.
Because again, this time of year, they don't have they don't have the two a day football practices anymore, right?
That's
that I've heard some that have a morning practice and then an evening practice.
It's not
Split it up, maybe have a couple of shorter get-togethers.
It depends on the schools.
Okay, all right.
Tell us a little bit about what you've had for some of the local segments up there for guests or topics.
Oh, I mean, it's been really interesting.
One of the exciting things that we have coming up here is that we just hired a new news person.
And that's going to really, I think, help in terms of the coverage that we have here in Wausau.
We had actually, it was really nice about a week and a half ago, our network news director, Shaly Pittman came up and we did some interviews and we
found a wonderful young woman who has done some work down in Illinois at the state capitol there and really knows her way around with government officials and and obviously as you well know that here in wasa you'll never run out of interesting stories when it comes to following area government so she'll be starting up in in august a little bit later in august so that is something we've been talking about that we're really going to try to
we're using a poker term double down in terms of our local coverage here in the Wase area.
So very, very excited about that.
Well, essentially, it's a matter of, you know, how should we say this, keeping them honest, you know, with the the
reduction in local news coverage around the country.
One of the offshoots of that, and I'm not casting aspersions in Warsaw specifically, but with fewer local reporters covering these city council meetings, school board meetings, county board meetings, things like that, there's been a little bit more, I guess shall we say mischief across the country as people realize there aren't as many watchdogs out there as there used to be.
And it's why
even as you see a reduction in newspapers around the area, you see, thankfully, sites like, you know, Civic Media springing up up North News, the Warsaw pilot and review as an independent, you know, non-corporate owned source of covering these places.
Because again, as much as we'd love for politics, you know, local politics to just be our friends and neighbors and everything's on the up and up, you and I have seen enough from local government over the years to know that there still better be some watchdogs in the room when these
things are going on?
Yes, absolutely.
And, and frankly, the lines are getting harder to see.
Yes.
I'm going to give an example.
I may not I may regret it in a moment where we're going.
But yesterday, word came down that the warning host of the conservative talker here in Wausau, WSAU is leaving.
Meg Ellison, who's been
the voice of conservative politics in this area for a number of years, apparently leaving for some non-political entity.
I have no idea what that means, but it's not going to change what happens happening over there because literally before the ink was dry on that news release, Chris Conley, a gentleman I've talked about a little bit here on this radio station over the time, he has decided that
It reminds me a couple of weeks ago I don't know if you heard this that the Colorado Rockies who are in route to becoming the worst Major League Baseball team in the history of baseball had an opening for team president and after a deep dive into all the people that could come in and perhaps turn around what the Rockies are they said well hey
the son of the owners here, so we're gonna make him the leader.
And I thought of that when I heard, I saw this morning that Chris decided that he's gonna move into the Meg Ellison seat and continue to bring the truth to Central Wisconsin that...
that I'm so against according to them.
I'm off to a wonderful start this morning, I must
say.
Look, I don't have all the particulars in front of me, but I know that Meg Ellison from what I've seen online has been unhappy with some of the directions that Republicans are taking either at the state and or the county levels in other parts of Wisconsin.
We've talked about the controversy in Northeast Wisconsin about, you know, people who have, you know, perhaps checkered legal pasts who
who are in positions, who have said things that would normally not give you a leadership position in a local political party.
And yet, when anybody, you know, conservative or Republican, dares to criticize, they are suddenly, I mean, the avalanche of trolls just rains down upon them.
And don't get me wrong.
I'm not, you know, I'm not shedding a tear necessarily when conservatives who have been flamethrowers themselves, you know, have the weapon returned on them.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right, especially when the thing that they're reacting to is a genuine grievance.
But the MAGA folks, they don't want to hear anything of it.
They're willing to, you know, what did they always refer to it as?
The leopards eating their faces party.
I didn't realize the leopard would eat my face.
Now that's what leopards do.
Well, I mean, I'm going to push back on any idea that Meg is some sort of victim in this.
I mean, I had a candidate for the State Assembly, a Republican in the primary, who came on with me in the morning because Meg would not allow him to go on with her.
because she had her favorite candidate.
I think that's wrong.
Our model here is our doors are open to anybody who is a candidate or somebody that is a newsmaker or somebody that's in government.
The idea of picking and choosing who you're going to let
the voice go out there and then the man who's taken over this seat, Chris Conley, after getting criticism about this, he's a program director over there as well, basically said, well, Meg's number one, so we got a popular show, so whoever we want on the air, that's good enough for me.
I mean, so we live in this world right now that, again, that there's so many moving parts to it.
I just think that each and every day we should try to hear the most.
most voices and the most truthful voices and try to get the best information in terms of having the true battle of ideas, which I think is one of the foundations of
democracy.
Yeah, and that is exactly the role that somebody like you should be playing in the Warsaw area.
No different than what Todd Alba is doing, you know,
on his program from two to four, where he had Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez on yesterday.
He talked to Josh Shulman, a Republican candidate for governor, when he was here in Chippewa Falls at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair, and he's been very explicit in saying, look, I'll talk to anybody.
I'll talk to any candidate here.
You'll get a fair round of questioning and be able to make your case.
I have definitely said that in terms of primaries, especially among Democrats to say, look,
we're not going to, especially with the governor's race, we're not going to pick and choose here.
We want every candidate to come on and make their case.
Now, my being a former Democratic legislator, I'm not really expecting any Republican candidates to bang down my door and
get on
the show.
But I'd be willing to talk to them and see if we can't, you know, work out an appearance.
But
It's fun.
I tell you, it's
fun with a
Republican that's
across the way.
I like that.
Well, yeah.
And that's, that's again, bad old ideas.
I think
that is exactly what we have to do.
And not just on the radio, but I think within our communities to be able to, to listen to the other side and to sometimes it will reinforce what we believe.
And all the times will give us something to think about.
And you can't have things reinforced if they're not challenged now.
Exactly.
Because yeah, it might reinforce it.
I might it
You know, it might not.
It might actually get you thinking that, hey, I never thought of something that way before.
And I might have an example in the coming day or two about that.
I'm going to talk in the next segment for folks.
A lot of folks are going to have a local breakaway for local news.
Those who come back and chat with me, I'm going to talk about how AI has figured out a lot of things.
AI has not yet figured out cribbage.
Do you play?
I do not.
Okay, so you're poker.
We're going to talk sometime down the road about AI and poker.
We'll
talk about AI and cribbage coming up next.
Chad Holmes from 98.9 WXCO in Wausau.
Thank you, buddy.
Appreciate it.
You bet.
All right.
As mentioned, the aforementioned local update coming up next for many of you across the Civic Media Radio Network and then back here with Dan Schaefer in less than 15 minutes.
I'm Pat Breitlund.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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I am absolutely infatuated with this next article that I'm going to share for you.
I'm looking at it at the Warsaw Daily Herald site, but it is originally from the journal Sentinel.
Andrew Montquin is the author.
The headline is artificial intelligence, AI, is making advances every day, but humans are still best at a classic pastime, cribbage.
And we established just now that Chad Holmes, professional poker player, is not a Kribbage player.
And Parker, as the producer of this fine show, are you a Kribbage player?
It has been a very long time.
I have played very infrequently, but I do love Kribbage.
Oh, good.
OK.
So you understand the kind of the challenge, the reason people like it.
There's a little
bit
of unpredictability, the way that it can change right in the middle of a game.
I definitely have that feeling about Sheep's Head.
So I grew up with my parents.
My parents divorced when I was very young.
One of the few happy memories I have of them together was the times when they would play cribbage.
And Sherry and I have played, I would dare say thousands of hands of cribbage over the past 40 years.
But she grew up in a family that played Sheep's Head.
They would play for hours and hours on Sunday afternoons.
I don't understand how a computer can follow either one of these things because I mean it's, there's this randomness in the card that you're drawing or the card that somebody's laying that you can't see.
It's what makes card games so fun.
Why are we trying to spoil it with AI?
The robots get to do enough as it is already, right?
Yeah, you know, there are some games that are like solved games like chess.
Yes.
That's a solved game, like everything that can happen has been computed.
And that's, I guess, one way to look at it.
Much like sports, I like random stuff in my games.
Yes.
So the story here, again, from Andrew Montquin in the Journal Sentinel, is talking about how, yes, artificial intelligence computers have been able to get an edge when it comes to things
like chess.
But when it comes to cribbage specifically, the computer is not much better than a coin flip.
Because as it says in the article here, there are somewhere between a quintillion and a few dozen septillion possible games of cribbage, considering every combination of cards and the actions you take.
The numbers are so big.
They almost become meaningless, he writes, except to tell us with near certainty that no two games are alike.
OK, that may be fine.
I grant you all that.
And yet, sometimes it just seems weird that Sherry will get a 12 on this hand, a 12 on the next hand, you know, 16 on the next hand, and I'll get 15, two in a pair is four.
15, 2, and a pair is 4.
15, 2, 15, 4, and a pair is 6.
And I never get a double digit hand and anybody who plays Krippage with any regularity knows exactly what I'm talking about.
And in part, it is because of the, you know, the calculated risk that's involved.
You may think you're about to play one card, but then the other person, you know, plays something maybe you weren't expected and you've got to change your mind.
So they then get into in this article, the people who
make the computer games.
Now we're going beyond Cribbage and Parker, I'm sure you've played against the computer in other games, whatever they are.
So you're
not
just playing a person.
Sometimes you're just on your own.
There's Cribbage games, Cribbage apps.
There's a Sheepshead app, believe it or not.
There's apps for all these things and it gets into if you're designing the app, you can set this up for like, you know, beginner level, moderate level, you know, expert level, however they want to frame it.
But if you make it too tough, you know, people might not want to play with the app if they're going to lose every time.
So look, I know no computer coding whatsoever.
All right.
I got to put that out there first.
So now you're going to take this coding and you're going to design a game that's fun to play, but not to the point where you can't ever win or where you win every single time either.
You got to know what you're getting into.
Yeah.
There's a couple of games, video games that are like.
infamously hard, like dark souls, that is infamously hard and a pain.
I would never, I don't have the patience to play that game, Pat.
There's another one that our family, and our family started playing a lot called either RumiCube or RumiCube, and it's a bunch of tiles with numbers on them, and the numbers have different colors in the ways that you can run sequences.
you know, or straights, things like that.
And you can also play that on the app.
The funny thing about that is, again, when you can modify an app, you can modify the rules of the game, okay?
You can, like when we're playing in person, there's a certain person I won't name.
I might be married to her.
That takes a very long time to take a turn.
Whereas when I'm playing on the app, you can set it for 30 seconds or 60 seconds or 90 seconds, and you got to play within that period of time.
So that, that part I enjoy on the game,
but in
person, in person, it gets to be a little, you know, frustrating from time to time.
I'm really glad she's working right now and can't play a radio in the operating room.
Um, but I say that to tell you this, we have been, we've been married now for 39 years.
We've been together for coming up on 42 years here.
So there's a lot that we've disagreed on over time, you know, this or that, these, these rough spots.
I don't know if anybody else has this story, but we do tell the story.
Our first actual fight as a married couple.
First, where we really got angry with each other was about the house rules of playing Monopoly.
To the point where, I mean, we really got mad at each other about you're not following the rule.
Well, that's the rule.
Well, no, that's the rule.
And we've not really played Monopoly since or when we have, it's been under protest.
And
I know other other places have had that with monopoly like, Hey, if you land on the jail spot, you know, or get out of jail, do you get $500?
There's nothing in the rules about putting $500 in the middle or whatever the case may be.
It's fun to look back and laugh now, but they're marriages that have died on less.
So maybe there are times when you are better off just playing the computer.
Let the robot overlords be your source of recreation.
Play something else with your spouse instead.
Dan Schaefer from the Reconbobulation Area is coming up next.
I'm Pat Critello.
You're up north.
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It includes a question of the week, which this week is about cryptocurrency and state regulations.
Cryptocurrency.
Is it the future?
Is it a fad?
Is it a scam?
Is it too soon to tell?
What are your thoughts on that?
Plus all the other political news, I think we know what the big story was in Wisconsin politics last week, and we know the big story going forward, but we keep tabs on all of it in our Sunday morning newsletter, as well as a little thing called the recombobulation area that Dan Schaefer puts together.
You can sign up for that over at therecombobulationarea.news.
Correct, Dan Schaefer?
I think you got it.
That's the one.
That's where you can
find me.
I've got it up on screen there.
And I have a space.
And there should not be a space there between the and recombobulation, correct?
It's all one word.
Correct.
All one word.
The recombobulationarea.news.
There we go.
So what do you want to talk about today, Pat?
Yeah, you've heard this one already a few times, but I'm going to, I'm going to again.
So Dan, who are you taking down next?
Are you, can you, are you, do you have something about Justice Rebecca Bradley in the works by chance that you might be writing about or
no?
You know, maybe I should.
Maybe I should write something.
You know, I wrote something about Robin Voss last fall and how it needs to be his last time as assembly speaker.
That one didn't take, unfortunately.
But, you know, we'll keep at it.
You know, my batting average is improving here.
So we'll see.
The
thing is, in both cases, you laid out very specific and credible reasons why a decision should go one way or the other.
And
obviously, Governor Evers made the decision that he made.
He is now saying that he really didn't make up his mind until pretty close to the actual decision day.
And that really just underscores something we've talked about previously here.
And that is how hard it is for any
politician, much less one who's won five statewide elections and has never lost to say, you know, it's let's go out on top.
Going out on top is the hardest thing to do in politics.
Absolutely.
I think it is it is a really bold and in many ways selfless decision that the governor has made here not to seek a third term.
And I think it is, you know, you're right.
It's really important.
It's tough for people to step away, especially somebody like Evers who is
popular in the state.
It's not a Biden comparison here, not only because the Evers is about a decade younger than Joe Biden, but because he is popular and Joe Biden was not.
And I think to be somebody who has won five statewide elections, he's undefeated in statewide elections, that's a pretty remarkable thing in a state as closely divided as Wisconsin.
But I think
It's time to pass the torch.
I think running for a third term is a different ask of voters than it is asking just for reelection.
And I think for so many reasons, the time is right right now.
I think 2026 is shaping up for an advantageous year for Democrats.
I think there is a strong bench of candidates.
We can talk about a couple who have already announced.
And I think there is real risk involved.
with running for reelection in your mid-70s and, you know, being governor through your late 70s.
And I think the Evers is making the right decision, as he so often has as governor.
He is making the right decision and doing what's best for the state.
He always talks about doing what's right for Wisconsin.
And I absolutely believe that that is what he's doing here in not seeking reelection.
Yeah and look there isn't a fair comparison to former president Joe Biden except in that one way and that is all Evers has to do is stumble one time you know figuratively or literally and we get to spend the next you know 13 14 months with that as a topic so it's not fair to the governor but it does take that off the table where we now just talk about
who's next.
So let's talk about who's next because the article that I'm going to put up on our website later this morning up northnewswi.com I'm putting the finishing touches on it and I'm up to 19 names.
Holy cow.
Listed in this thing right now.
Some of them admittedly long shots and I'm looking for one more to see if I can make it around 20.
So I'm going to ask you as well to give me a potentially surprising name of somebody who
might be thinking about running for governor.
But let's start at the very top from a Democratic standpoint, and that would be the Lieutenant Governor, Sarah Rodriguez, who will be joining the show here Friday morning in our 8 a.m.
hour, being first out of the gate.
And again, I just said in a previous segment here, we're not going to do an endorsement here.
We're going to have every candidate on from all these races, third congressional district, legislative races, everybody come on and make your case.
So this is not an endorsement of Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez.
But that introductory video is definitely one of the best I've ever seen.
It was a really strong video.
It had told her personal story, talked about her background, talked about her family, talked about her career.
She has had, before getting into politics, her career was largely in the healthcare field.
She was a nurse for a time.
And it was funny and it was engaging.
Yeah, I think it was a really, really strong first out of the gate introductory video that was, I guess, maybe posted a little bit early before Tony Evers made that.
announcement, which I do find amusing because it does seem like the governor's office pushed this announcement to react to some media coverage that was beginning to ramp up in the week prior to the announcement.
Yeah, I mean, it really was for folks that haven't seen it.
It's a classic example of what's called the walk and talk video.
And she's just talking, you know, directly to camera about her career and what would make her a good governor in her view.
Then there's the half announcement.
I always say there's one and a half Democrats in because Milwaukee County executive David Crawley announced that he was going to announce and is holding and people always go, well, what are you in or out?
because it does trigger something.
When you fill out a certain piece of paper with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, now you can start fundraising, but you can't start fundraising without signing that particular piece of paper.
So that's kind of the background behind the scenes, but David Crawley wouldn't have put out the statement that he did if he wasn't thinking very seriously.
Yeah, I'm in here too.
Yeah, no surprise whatsoever to me.
Crowley is somebody whose career I've covered pretty closely, being here in the city of Milwaukee.
You know, I actually endorsed Crowley for County Executive at the Reconbibulation Area in the spring of 2020.
I endorsed him over Chris Larson and then County Board Chair Theo Lipscomb.
I think he is an absolute rising star in the party.
He actually first told me in an interview at the Reconbibulation Area in December 2023 that if Evers were not going to run again, that he would be interested in running for governor.
He has experience as a state assembly representative, so he knows Madison.
He's also
run the largest county in the state as the Milwaukee County executive for the past five years now.
And I think he's done a lot of really good, smart, under-the-radar things in Milwaukee County that has really cleaned up the county in a lot of ways and positioned it well to go into the future.
My question with David Crowley and his candidacies, how well known is he outside of the Milwaukee market?
Because I think when I ask people about this list of candidates in and around Milwaukee, and I mentioned Crowley, they're like, oh, he's a great candidate, young guy rising
star doing great things at the county.
When I mentioned Crowley's name outside of Milwaukee, it's a little bit more.
David who?
So I think the name ID challenge for him, you know, outside of the Milwaukee market, you know, reaching voters in the Fox Valley and Green Bay, reaching voters in Western Wisconsin, the Northwoods, whatever it might be.
But, you know, I actually did a I did a live podcast with him a couple of years ago as well.
And before he came up on stage to do the to do the interview with me, he stopped at every single table in that coffee house to introduce himself personally to every single person.
So his retail politics
are like an A-plus level.
So I'm really interested to see, you know, as he gets out there and as he starts campaigning, how people are going to respond to him and his message.
Let's set aside Secretary of State Sarah Gottluske for a sec just because she has indicated she's not interested in running for governor but may declare for Lieutenant Governor.
So let's move to State Attorney General Josh Call, who often rises to the top of lists.
And I don't know how much of that is.
because of Josh Call or how much of it is the Jim Doyle path that we've seen a state attorney general rise to become governor previously.
But regardless, you know, his name is going to continue coming up until he takes it off.
Well, you win two statewide races in Wisconsin.
Your name gets to be on the list for the next opening for a statewide race.
And I think, you know, I do think it's even possible that if Josh Kahl gets into the race, which I absolutely expect him to do, that he would start it at probably as the front runner.
I don't know if it would be like an overwhelming front runner necessarily.
But I do think, you know, you win two statewide races.
He's been doing the job of the Attorney General, so people see him.
little bit more name recognition than many of the other candidates on the list here.
But again, I don't think he'd be the overwhelming favorite.
I think he'd be, you know, but I do think he brings a lot to the table.
And, you know, I was talking to somebody about this race not too long ago and, you know, Tony Evers won.
by kind of being a pretty boring candidate.
And I think he even said it in 2022 after he was reelected saying, hey, boring wins.
Maybe that's a path for Josh Call to a certain extent too.
Because he's not exactly a super flashy attorney general trying to grab every headline he possibly can.
He's more in the background doing the work type of guy.
So
I do think there will be voters who respond to that too.
And in this time of chaos and Trump and whatever, having calm, sane, competent leaders.
is I think what people like that of Tony Evers and that could be a path for Josh Call as well.
A name that has come up the past couple of days here has been Missy Hughes, the CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
And she considered her run for third district Congress in 2022.
But in much the same way, David Crawley is not well known outside of Milwaukee.
I don't know that Missy Hughes is well known outside of certain business and political circles.
And so she too will have to
First off, if she decides to get in early and do a lot to build up her name ID, right?
Absolutely.
And, you know, her name does keep coming up in these potential candidate lists and all of that.
And because the list as of late has, or in the early going here, has leaned pretty heavily into Madison and Milwaukee area politicians, I think it's good to have somebody from outside the two major cities in the state running for this.
But again, yeah, it would be a real challenge for her name ID-wise.
But I'm very interested to see what she does next because the WDC has gone on
gone a pretty big transformation.
You know, I was a business news reporter in the much of the 2010s covering a lot of what Scott Walker's administration was doing things.
I covered projects like Foxconn when I was at the Milwaukee Business Journal.
We all know how that one went.
And I think the WDC like post COVID had this really big focus on small business and bringing small businesses back after the pandemic.
And so there is a record to run on there.
But you know, again, the name ID question would be it would be a challenging one.
I don't want to give a short shrift to the others, but we want to make mention of others' names in the mix.
State Senator Kelder Royce of Madison, State Senator Chris Larson of Milwaukee, former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, former State Democratic Party Chair Ben Wickler, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, even Dane County Executive Melissa Agard, or State Senator Brad Pfeff could all be in the mix as well.
The Republican field we know about Washington County Executive Josh Schoeman, businessman Bill Berrien.
There's been all this talk about Congressman Tom Tiffany or State Senate President Mary Falskowski.
Other names out there include
former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Cleafish, and here's my one surprise, it was surprising to me, was that people are trying to recruit former Congressman and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to make a run.
I got less than a minute before the break here for you to tell me, do you have any names I haven't mentioned that could theoretically be a surprise candidate on that list?
I don't have any beyond what you said there I had one really funny reply in my Twitter mentions when I was talking about candidates Somebody said David Gruber should run for governor one call.
That's all
Oh,
gosh, could you see that?
And then of course, Russell Nicolay.
What a primary that would be.
You know,
personal injury
attorney primary.
Goodness.
Yes.
We're talking to Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation area.
And again, the Reconpopulation area dot news is how you can sign up for the newsletter.
A local update is next for some of you.
And if so, I will see you tomorrow morning at six for the rest of you, some final news and notes here from Lake Wissota coming up across the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Krightlum.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Game two of the three game series between the Brewers and Cubs at American Family Field continues this evening, 6.05.
The three game coverage begins on stations up in Hayward.
Park Falls, Racine Kenosha, Richland Center, and Oshkosh as well.
Dan Schaeffer does not live too far from American Family Field.
And boy, if you, if you, if this series went the way the top of the first inning went with all those Cubs fans in the stands, I would be morose right now.
Thank God the top of the first inning was not indicative of how the
rest of the game
went.
a
resilient win for the Brewers last night, a resilient performance too from the young ace,
Jacob
Mizorowski,
battling
back from a really tough first inning to get that win.
And you know, I had forgotten that the Cubs were coming to town until yesterday afternoon when I was picking my kids up from summer camp, and all of a sudden there's a crazy amount of traffic coming back to my house on the west side of Milwaukee, which is not too far from American Family Field.
And it's just like, what is going on with all this traffic?
Is there a major accident?
Nope.
It's just the fibs.
It's just the fib traffic coming to Milwaukee to come cheer on the bad guys at American Family Field.
Yes, all kinds of new friends and neighbors from just across the border making their way up here and they will be vocal again tonight.
That's for sure with who's on the Mount.
Quinn Priester is on the Mount, correct?
Yes.
Quinn Priester versus Conray.
Thank you, Quinn Priester versus Colin Ray.
There it is.
You know, if I just hit this button a little bit quicker, I would be able to get to that.
So getting back to, you know, some of the news that we've been covering here with the governor making his announcement, you could call it.
Democratic dominoes and that one incumbent running for another race could open up a race and then another incumbent could run for that office and it opens up another.
And from the way that we run elections here, there's so many statewide offices that we elect on the same day as opposed to staggering them.
We could see a staggering change in state government after November of 2026.
Yeah, I think there's a real possibility that we could have all five of our state constitutional offices have open primaries on the Democratic side at least You know with Sarah with Sarah Rodriguez running for governor that opens up the role of lieutenant governor So I think we're gonna see a couple people running for that and with Sarah Godluschi is
could be one of those candidates as the couple places reported yesterday.
She might be running for lieutenant governor.
That would leave the secretary of state's office open.
So there could be a primary for that.
A Republican is currently the state treasurer.
So there could be a Democratic primary for who is going to challenge the incumbent.
Republican state treasurer, John Lieber, is that his name?
John Lieber, who by the way, I did a Google search over the break looking up John Lieber, Wisconsin governor, and there were absolutely zero matches.
So on the Republican side of potential candidates for governor, the state treasurer is currently not among those talked about.
Well, he's the he's the most successful electoral Republican not not named Ron Johnson in the state right now.
So
very true.
And then as as different legislators like assembly reps running for state Senate seats,
There may be other people getting in the races for congressional seats.
I mean, we already know there are going to be many open seats, many open primaries, and many ways for Democratic and independent lean left voters to go, I don't know how to pick from
all these
people.
Well, I think this presents as an opportunity though too because I think we've all had these like post 2024 election Conversations about oh, where should the Democratic Party go from here?
What should what should the the next phase look like what should the
What do we want to see from this party going forward?
And I think this really presents an opportunity for the voters to be the ones to determine that path forward.
It should be the voters who decide, not consultants or people looking for the Joe Rogan of the left or whatever it might be.
It should be the voters who decide the next path forward for the state.
And we all know that everything in American politics always starts in Wisconsin.
So as we have these conversations about what's next for the party,
I think it's another example that we're seeing over and over and over again, that it is time to embrace this generational shift moment that the Democratic Party has resisted for so long, and it's time to embrace change.
And we're going to see a whole lot of change for all of these offices in Wisconsin in the next year and a half.
And if I could make a personal
plea, no novelty candidates.
Because, and I say this, you know, semi-seriously, I thought, you know, what if I get really frustrated one day and I'm just gonna put myself out there, you know, or somebody else on the radio or somewhere as almost a publicity stunt, essentially.
But with a primary like this, where somebody with like 15% could be the nominee, I mean, every spoiler vote.
is truly a spoiler boat.
And this is something to take seriously this run and not for novelty purposes.
Or did I just destroy the Dan Schaeffer for governor, you know, Reconpopulation Party platform?
That would be the party I'd run for.
It would start my own party and the party for greater Reconpopulation.
How would this, you know, there's going to be so much activity in the next year except governing.
There may not be, I've asked legislators about their plans for post budget.
There's things they want to work on, but with a lame duck governor, could we see some bipartisan progress on things?
Or does everything grind you a halt for the next year and a half?
I'd like to be optimistic and think that this would set up for some, you know, put our egos aside.
Nobody's running for reelection in the governor's mansion.
Maybe let's get a couple things done here.
My more realistic side tells me that I think things might grind to a halt a little bit more.
I think we saw a lot of, you know, an overlooked story about the budget is how much dysfunction there was from state Senate Republicans who were all over the place in where they were in supporting the budget, negotiated mostly.
by Republicans with the governor.
So I wonder if they can even get their caucus in line to vote on anything and need to get anything across the finish line.
And I guess we'll see in the next 17 months here.
But we know that Republicans like to take like a nine month break every election year.
So we've got a few months before that.
And then they're going to get ready to go fundraise and campaign and all that.
So we'll see.
And hopefully re-combobulate.
Dan Schaefer, thank you again.
Enjoy your break.
We'll see you in a couple of weeks.
Thank you.
All right, tomorrow we'll have Melissa K. on with us.
Talk a little pigeon quest.
Chad Trowbridge from the Chippewa Falls School District will have Melissa Baldoff and Jim Santel as part of our climate project that we're talking about our climate update.
Earl Ingram will be along.
Coming up next is Sarah Godluschi as a guest for Matt and Air on Air.
My thanks to today's guests and all of you for being here as part of Up North News, the Wisconsin Digital Outlet for Courier, a pro-democracy news network.
I'm Pat Kratlow.
We'll see you tomorrow morning here up north.
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