Leftists, Centrists: Adversaries or Allies? (Hour 3)

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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.

Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.

That would be me, it's 8 0 6 on a Tuesday morning, August 19th.

Nice to have you back here up north, live from Lake Quasota where the fog has lifted.

At least here the sunshine is out.

Everything is lush.

It is lush and green out here and we're going to talk about the forecast with meteorologist Brittany Merleau in just a moment.

First, a little note that tomorrow the show here

will not be here in the Lake Wissota studio.

We will be live from Wisconsin Rapids.

Our friends at WFHR are celebrating their 85th year of broadcasting to the Wisconsin Rapids community.

And so they're having a big party this week to celebrate it.

And so we wanted to go out and be part of the celebration.

Well, the celebration isn't until later.

So I guess I'm just part of the setup crew.

But hey, whatever they need.

So six to nine a.m.

tomorrow, I will be live from WFHR in Wisconsin Rapids looking forward to

talking to folks all about that.

But now let's get to that weather forecast and meteorologist Brittany Merleau.

Chad Holmes will be along in just a sec as well.

So Brittany, the fog lifting here, I'm guessing that's not a universal thing just yet.

No, no, not just yet.

A lot of us are still in that blanket of fog, cloudy skies nonetheless.

That is very lucky to see some sunshine and that's going to be the case today.

More sunshine peeking out far northwest, more clouds hanging on along Lake Michigan.

Speaking of Lake Michigan, big waves three to six feet out there.

So beach hazard statement for Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha area.

Um, rip currents, pretty dangerous out there.

There's a lot of water that is rising, right?

Those rivers are rushing to those currents are pretty strong right now.

We're seeing some flooding far south in the state.

Beloit got hit pretty hard with nearly four inches of rainfall yesterday.

And of course, a lot of areas seeing some basement flooding, cropland flooding.

And again, those rivers are rising today.

So some of them are in a flood warning, especially south and east in the state.

And as we go through the rest of this week,

Will we have relief?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, finally.

A high pressure system is moving in.

So we do have spotty showers or light sprinkles possible today, especially by the Great Lakes.

A little bit more inland, you have less of a chance.

But by tomorrow, the high pressure settles in, clears the skies bright and blue for both tomorrow, Thursday,

and for a lot of friday before another front swings by so dry conditions are expected comfortable too with winds out of the north will be in the mid 70s to low 80s today kind of hanging around that 80 degree temperature for the rest of the week as well.

and enjoy it because summer is limited.

We are going to see some fall like temperatures moving in by the weekend.

It's going to be crisp, refreshing.

Crisp and refreshing.

That's one way to put it.

Yes, or summer going away.

Boo.

I

know.

But I'm glad to have it so bright.

Yesterday, it was cloudy, gray.

all day.

And I recall telling Sherry a couple of different times, you know, normally the the gray gloomy weather, you know, makes me gloomy, you know, it's kind of contagious.

And I said, you know, but, but things are going along.

I had a lot to do yesterday.

So I was just plugging along, everything's fine.

And long about six, seven o'clock last night, I was like, okay, this is old.

Now I just, I feel like the weather just so gray and gloomy.

So to have the sun out like this and Chippo right now, I could get used to this for a little while.

I can tell in your in your talk and you got a little step to it.

And

I was

like,

whoops.

Well,

it's

also because Chad Holmes is here.

So, you

know, the

discussion's about to get spicy.

So

thank you,

Brittany.

Have

a wonderful day.

You too.

All right.

I'm really glad Chad Holmes is here right now because we're going to talk about the case of the mayor and the heist of an absentee ballot drop box.

And I'm glad that we've had a little bit of time to process this news.

And I know I mentioned it briefly on the show.

yesterday, or maybe it was Friday.

I can't remember now.

Chad, good morning.

I'm going to restate all this again.

So I better get the good morning out of the way right away.

Good morning.

You're good.

I'm good.

You ready for this?

I'm ready.

For those who've missed it, the mayor of Warsaw, a conservative who loves spouting Republican talking points about not being a fan of absentee ballot drop boxes, who then took it upon himself to remove an absentee ballot drop box temporarily from its location outside of City Hall against the expressed wishes of others but who did it unilaterally, even though he was not authorized to do it unilaterally.

is still awaiting any consequences for this.

Beyond the city's ethics board, beyond the State Department of Justice investigation, the Marathon County District Attorney wanted to avoid a conflict of interest and called for a special prosecutor.

The special prosecutor has been named.

It's Republican Fond du Lac district attorney Eric Tony the last Republican to run for attorney general against Josh Call in 2022 the same Eric Tony who agreed with the state Supreme Court when it was conservative majority and said Dropboxes were illegal and had to go away Eric Tony is on record agreeing with the notion of Dropboxes being illegal Chad Holmes do you feel like this is going to be a special

prosecutor who's going to bring consequences to Lawsaw Mayor Doug Denny for the unauthorized removal of an absentee ballot drop box?

I don't!

It certainly appears to be somebody that would be very sympathetic to everything that Doug Denny has said and done.

since late September of 2024.

Look

how

well we've calmed down since then.

Like I said at the time, was Pam Bondi not available to do this investigation?

I mean, come

on.

Another point that I always see in these situations, whether in this situation, you can go back to when Donald Trump was investigated by Robert Mueller.

You can go

back to way back.

You can go back to when Bill Clinton was investigated by Ken Starr.

Why is it always that a Republican is put in charge of these investigations if there is a Democrat who is being investigated?

Well, you have to have a Republican to do the investigation if there is a Republican who's being investigated You gotta have a Republican do the investigation.

Why is there?

Every time, I can't remember.

I should have done a little research on this before I came on with you this morning, but when is the last time that there was an independent or Democrat named a special prosecutor in these cases?

Why is there this default that we have to name a Republican all the time?

It feels like, again, the finger is on the scale.

It's pushing down on that scale, which is supposed to be exactly balanced.

And the funny thing is, when you mentioned Ken Starr, I mean, that triggers

all kinds of memories of a guy who was, I mean, long before there was, you know, Michael Gabelman at the Wisconsin end of things.

When you talk about renegade rogue special prosecutors,

I forgot Michael Gabelman.

Yeah, Ken Starr, I mean, he he created the mold that is still being used to this day, a guy who was supposed to be investigating a land deal in Arkansas, but allowed himself the latitude to go all the way to, you know, things that

Bill Clinton was doing that were wildly inappropriate in the White House, but had nothing to do with the original investigation.

But because Ken Starr was, you know, again, a politician doing the investigation, it took us in that direction.

So let me bring it back to Eric Tony and again, give the same disclaimer.

I'm not saying that the fix is in and that Eric Tony is going to let Doug Denney walk Scott free.

It won't surprise me, but I'm not saying that that's what's gonna happen Eric Tony has a chance to show some independence I'm sure he'd like to run for Attorney General again or maybe

even a

governor and so are you going to take those political ambitions and play to your base and lick Doug Denny get a slap on the wrist at best or are you going to show that you actually stand for election integrity and nobody know

body should ever move a ballot drop box without authorization.

I'm not going to speak specifically of Eric Tony.

I'm going to throw back at you how many politicians and we've seen them I think you know of all political stripes are willing to give up their future political ambitions in order to do the right thing in a situation like this that would specifically hurt

a for lack of a better term a fellow traveler when

it

comes to your political beliefs.

I don't I don't think it's a fair situation even for Eric Tony to be in because he is still a young man He is not Robert Mueller in the twilight of his career.

I mean you could argue whether or not again He's the right guy to to a investigated Trump six seven years ago Whatever it's been now, but Eric Tony is a guy that had definitely has political ambitions So if you're looking for the right person to investigate this that has no excess baggage

of any kind when it comes into this investigation, that is not the guy you

you appoint.

No, once again, once you take out Marathon County for the DA there, and let's just set aside Eric Tony, that's 70 other counties, and I know DAs are busy people, they have big caseloads, so I'm not saying there were 69 other choices.

but it wasn't zero that we had to go with the last guy to run for attorney general on the Republican ticket.

And the thing is, here's what's still missing from eChat.

And I really did try to look through all the news coverage and find this, but you know, the difference between active voice and passive voice.

And all of the coverage was in passive voice that Eric Tony has been named special prosecutor.

Who I never saw a who did Eric did?

Did the Marathon County DA specifically ask for him?

Did the State Attorney General's office specifically ask Eric Tony to take on the case?

I still don't I still don't know exactly how this came to be other than the Oh, he has been named the special prosecutor.

So I don't even know who to ask these questions of.

That is a very good question and process matters.

Yes, because in this case, that is a rather significant moment in this case.

Well, let me do this and I'm now going to cast dispersions on Josh Call.

That may not necessarily be fair.

But if that call came from the State Department of Justice and Josh Call is the State Attorney General, then people would be right to say, why did the Democratic Attorney General sign off on having his last opponent, a Republican, be the special prosecutor?

of a case against ostensibly a fellow Republican when it comes to their thoughts on absentee ballot drop boxes.

If this has got any kind of a trail through Josh Call, that's not a good look for him.

Again, I don't know that it is or not, so I'd really like to know where this trail, where the process goes, like you said.

Well, absolutely, and I think that is definitely a question that I would say potential Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Call might be asked.

in the very near future.

I would hope that anybody that has that opportunity in the very near future says that or asks that.

And again, I thought the DOJ, the state DOJ has been investigating this for how many months now.

And

now we're at the point, we're going to point us, but I mean, there is something that just does not smell right again.

Well, it seems to be again, where it comes to people with political

capital like the Maravasa, whether or like other political figures.

I'm just looking at treated differently than than a normal investigation.

Looking at Robert Mueller and Merrick Garland and now this and saying, why do these things take so long?

Chad Holmes from 98 nine WXCO catches local cut ends and follow them through the civic media website and the app.

Thank you, Chad.

Have a great day.

You too Pat still ahead a local update for some of you and then when we're all together in about 15 minutes We'll be talking to Dan Schaefer of the recombobulation area.

I'm Pat Crichtlow This is the civic media radio network and we have a full minute left to go here Pat.

Oh Did we?

Yeah, we did that.

Yeah,

you're on the old

clock, aren't you?

I I am but put your camera back on over there young man.

It's uh As I remind

how's

it

going?

It's good.

It's good.

Um

Sorry, I was looking at, here I was looking at bringing up the old social media video here to let people know that we're on Blue Sky and now we're on all the others, Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and YouTube.

And as I was looking for the video to call up, I just let the clock run away from me

in the sense

that I looked at the old clock as well.

But let me tell you, we're on, we are on all the aforementioned social media channels.

And we've got baseball again today, double header, brewers and cubs game one pregame at 1245.

Now, I'm still pack right low.

This is still the civic media radio network.

And now it's time to go.

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Up North News is part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network with all kinds of newsletters and video series and podcasts.

And one of those newsletters that keeps an eye on mega extremism is called American Freak Show by Nina Burley.

And this week, her column is entitled Trump World Weenies and the Rock Ribbed Ladies Holding Them Up.

And so reading a bit here from Nina Burley's newsletter, American Freak Show, says here it's talking about the blonde conspicuous cross-wearing women like Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, political strategist Susan Wiles, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Agriculture Secretary and longtime hard-right conservative think tank figure Brooke Rollins, lawyer and media star Janine Pirro, profane

right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, media personality and lawyer Megan Kelly, and White House spokeswoman Caroline Levitt are the current de facto standard bearers for empowered American women.

Nina writes, these women and their regime are quantifiably setting women back on many fronts.

And one need only look at before and after photos of every woman over the age of 40 in Trump's orbit to know that they remake themselves physically to conform to his archaic caricature of femininity.

The bargain that these women make with the sexual assaulter in chief is this.

pretend that he and his men are actually protectors of women in exchange for personal gain and access to power.

During the last weeks of his 2024 campaign, Trump was explicit on this in a menacing way, declaring he would be the protector of women quote, whether they like it or not.

Protectors like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who recently shared a CNN clip in which a pastor from his nominally Christian sect said that women shouldn't have the right to vote.

The 19th Amendment should be repealed and women should, quote, submit to their husbands.

Hegseth is a mascot for Trumpy Maga Men.

The sole upside Nina Burley writes of the current assault on our rights is that it must energize a new generation of young women who are having to relearn an old lesson.

In one of the oldest conflicts in human history, the war between the sexes, women can never leave the front lines unattended.

That again is from the newsletter American Freak Show by Nina Burley.

Head over to couriernewsroom.com to learn more.

All right, there was this meeting yesterday between President Donald Trump and Ukraine leader of Vladimir Zelensky.

Zelensky this time was wise enough to bring friends, representatives from basically every major European country and coalition to be there to put up a united front to say that they

want Donald Trump to live up to America's promise to be a full partner with Europe in staving off a wave from the Soviet Union.

Oh, I'm sorry, Russia, but Russia that would like to be the Soviet Union again.

It was interesting that Zelensky had to come to the White House.

I didn't see, you know, the kind of red carpet treatment that Trump gave to Russia's dictator Vladimir Putin back on Friday in Alaska.

There wasn't a limousine ride.

There wasn't the military flyover.

At least there wasn't the brow beating anyway, as happened back in February.

But it is worth noting, as the New York Times puts in its coverage, that things yesterday did not go exactly according to plan.

as Trump always seems to do in taking questions from an increasingly friendly White House press corps, meaning he's kicked out the reporters he doesn't like and has stocked them with friendlier questioners.

Trump used that time to talk about all kinds of other topics, crime in Washington D.C., his media coverage, mail-in ballots, Democrats, transgender athletes, and more.

Trump went so far as to give, to talk to on the phone, Vladimir Putin, while he was still meeting with Zelensky and European leaders in the White House.

Trump said, President Putin wants to find an answer too.

I don't know that that's necessarily going to be the case.

As for an eventual meeting between Putin and Zelensky and Trump.

Putin has made no secret of the fact that he does not consider Zelensky to be a legitimate president since the war has delayed elections in Ukraine.

Which is really something coming from the guy who repeatedly altered the Russian Constitution in order to remain as president.

In other words, he's an actual dictator.

But he got the red carpet treatment

last Friday, whereas Zelensky again had to come hat in hand and thank Trump for the opportunity to buy more military assistance rather than what was given during the Biden administration.

It's a dynamic that does not lend itself to a ceasefire.

Trump again, rather poo pooed the idea of a ceasefire, which makes sense because even as the talks were getting going.

Russia continued its attacks on Ukraine's major cities through drones and attacks on the battlefield as well.

There is no other way to deal with Putin than to stand up for him.

The talks yesterday took an unfortunate turn about swapping land for peace and in the end it may come to that to at least buy a little security and save some lives.

But

It isn't made any better by a president who reports back to the dictator of Russia in the middle of his talks with European leaders and Zelensky.

We'll talk to Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation Area coming up in just a bit here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

You are just about 30 minutes away from Matt Nair on air here across the Civic Media Radio Network.

Todd Alba will be stopping by to visit with Jane and Greg at 9.30.

Dr. Ben Weston, the Chief Health Policy Advisor for Milwaukee County will be visiting the show just after 10 a.m.

And then later today on the Maggie Dawn Show from four to six, Angela Lange is guest co-host in the four o'clock hour.

And in the five o'clock hour, Dr. Melinda Brennan, Executive Director of the Wisconsin ACLU.

discussing how Wisconsin Sheriff's offices are profiting off of Donald Trump's ICE.

So all that and more coming up on Civic Media to learn more head to civicmedia.us.

Well one of the things that Donald Trump talked about when he was meeting with Vladimir Putin and then with Vladimir Zelensky was mail-in balloting.

of all things and saying that he is again going to go after mail-in balloting because it's it's rigged it's you know you can't have a fair election with it however you put it and he said he heard that from of all places Vladimir Putin the dictator of Russia who questioned how can you have mail-in balloting a guy that has rigged his own elections for over two decades and so

Again, essentially getting marching orders from Putin is what's led Donald Trump to once again say that he's going to attack a cornerstone of democracy.

Mail-in balloting, according to an article by Molly Beck in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was used in some way, shape, or form either mail-in or absentee in-person balloting by three quarters of a million Wisconsin voters in 2022.

It's something that has proven to work.

And yet we have to go through this all over again.

So let's hit that in other topics with the political editor from Civic Media and the founder of the Reconbobulation Area, our friend Dan Schaefer.

Dan, how are you?

I'm doing well, Mr. Kratlow.

Thank you as always for having me on the show on mornings with Pat Kratlow.

Thank you.

It's nice to have you here though.

I will admit I am weary.

We are we are again having to defend democracy and a core value of it.

is making it easier to vote, making it easier to participate for all who are qualified to do so.

This, to quote one Todd Alba, this, or is that Jane Mattener?

I'm sorry, get it with Jane Mattener.

This shouldn't be a thing.

And yeah, here we are.

And yet here we are once again, yeah, there's a lot of pretty awful, anti-democratic, small-D democratic things happening all over the place right now when it comes to the Trump administration, whether it's encouraging states to gerrymander their congressional maps, or we're seeing the latest with the push to end mail-in balloting, you know, not so coincidentally right after the Russian dictator.

said as much as well.

Yeah, this is pretty frightening.

This is why so many times in the election last year is that people were saying you need to vote for Kamala Harris, vote against Trump to save democracy while we're seeing all of these examples right now of attacks on democracy that are happening from the Trump administration to say it's troubling is absolutely an understatement.

And while certainly not in any way an explicit endorsement of this, we have noted in the past that...

Congressman Brian Stile from the first district has talked about the need to protect quote unquote election integrity and he put out another similar statement recently and it does lead to this concern that you know whether he and other Wisconsin members of Congress are going to be complicit.

I would dare say accomplices in this plot to undermine this this key part of democracy.

I feel that this is a very important thing for people to keep their eye on is to watch how Republican members from the Wisconsin Congressional delegation weather and how they act on a stance like this from the president.

Yeah, I mean, and if and if history is any guide to us here, we're not I don't think we should expect to see any pushback from any of the Republicans in Congress when it comes to really anything that Donald Trump is saying as president.

And so, yeah, it's, you know, I think style has a pretty high ranking job in the House.

I believe it's the administration committee, which oversees a lot of federal elections.

And so, you know, this is

they're going to try to do his bidding in some way or another when it comes to what's happening for the midterms.

And we're already seeing it with the push for states to gerrymander.

Texas has certainly been in the news over the past few weeks, but there was news last night that he's pushing Indiana to also gerrymander their congressional maps to bring more seats to Republicans.

And so whether it's gerrymandering, whether it's these attacks on mail-in voting, and again, just to reiterate, the attack on mail-in voting, this is going to make

it harder to vote for people who are serving in the military overseas, people who have disabilities or people, older folks who might have certain mobility concerns.

So this is going to limit legal voting.

for a whole lot of people and you know the goal should be the opposite the goal should be to bring more and more people into the voting process make it easier for people to vote safely and securely and you know what mail-in balloting proved to do that in the last election like here in Wisconsin Republicans really promoted that as a way to you know kind of counter what Democrats had been doing to you know Democrats were voting in higher numbers for with mail-in balloting particularly

during the pandemic and now we're seeing the attack on that just as we're seeing attack on all kinds of legal voting.

I wouldn't be surprised to see another push relating to some immigration issues or however Trump might want to frame that as well.

So we are going to, I think between now and November 2026, we're going to be seeing a whole lot of attacks on

democracy in this country and it's going to be really important to push back in any way that we can.

And that pushback is coming from several fronts, not the least of which the fact that there are already three Democrats in Wisconsin's third congressional district who are itching to run against Derek Van Orden.

And for one of those candidates, Becca Cook, who was the nominee last time around for the Democrats against Derek Van Orden, she's already getting some big name help from other members of Congress who are coming into Western and Central Wisconsin.

Yeah, I am fascinated by the Rebecca Cook campaign right now.

I think she's running such an interesting race and I think she has this event coming up this weekend in Verroqua with Bernie Sanders.

She just had an event last weekend or maybe yesterday, I forget, I don't know the exact timing here, with the newest Michigan center, Alyssa Slotkin.

She's been endorsed by the Blue Dogs.

She was at this centrist think tank.

convention a couple weeks ago.

So if you're looking for somebody who's actually approaching the Democratic Party wanting to have a big tent with lots of different voices for representing lots of different, you know, kind of groups and constituencies and whatever it might be, I think what Cook is doing right now with this is really interesting.

And I think with Sanders in particular, we've kind of reached this moment now where, you know, Bernie Sanders maybe in 2015 when he was coming on the scene as a, you know, as running for president.

as a democratic socialist and the way that people had reacted to that at the time.

I don't think people have the same kinds of negative or wary or divisive reactions to Sanders that maybe they once did.

We're seeing in the New York mayor's race, even Andrew Cuomo is trying to campaign in certain ways to promote a connection to Bernie Sanders or a piece of legislation that he signed.

Obviously Sanders has not endorsed Cuomo or endorsed Mondami in that race.

It is very interesting to see the approach that Cook is taking.

And really, if we're talking about Democrats needing to kind of rebuild that big tent, which is something that I've talked about a lot since the 2024 election, I think this is what it looks like.

I think this is inviting people from all across the ideological spectrum to come campaign.

And I'm really fascinated to see how the rest of her campaign plays out in the race to unseat Derek Van Orden.

I lost track of how many times you said either interesting or fascinating.

Because look, let's call it what it is.

The whole reason there are three Democratic candidates in this race already is that there are folks who believe that Becca Cook has been too close to the blue dogs, has been too close to a moderate position when there are progressives and liberals in that district that want to be

to stake a position more in line with Bernie Sanders, and yet here's Bernie Sanders now campaigning with Becca Cook.

I mean, Becca has been approached by me and by other shows at Civic Media to come talk to us.

She has declined those invitations, and I think perhaps it's, again, to keep up this appearance of being moderate, not beholden to the party machinery.

They're definitely establishment Democrats that have preferred either Emily

or Laura Benjamin, who are already in the race, which is again, here's that word, fascinating, that Bernie Sanders is looking at this and embracing Becca Cook's candidacy.

I don't know if it's a left versus center thing or if it's more of an electability thing has has has Bernie Sanders and others taken have they taken a look at the field and said well there may be other Democrats but they believe that Becca Cook as the last nominee who came close is the one who's more electable and you know we won't worry about you know her more moderate positions.

Right, and I do think what she the way she's running as you know really emphasizing kind of her working-class background is you know

Certainly an extension in a certain way of kind of like Bernie Sanders progressivism It might not be you know This is the the social democratic socialism or whatever you want to characterize it as but I think that the divide in the Democratic Party is less of this Progressive versus moderate that we saw maybe ten years ago certainly animated in that primary between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders I feel like the Democrat the divide in the Democratic Party right now is almost on action versus

action or something along those lines or focusing on the working class versus focusing on, you know, more neoliberal friendly corporate interest or whatever want to buzzwords you want to throw in there for that kind of thing.

And I think even if Cook, you know, has expressed more moderate views on certain things over the years, I think I do think the working class connection that she has, you know, can be seen as an extension of a Bernie Sanders style of leadership.

But she had a campaign ad last year where she literally was standing in the middle of the road with

a

drone shot and making the case for somebody who was moderate and for people who are closer to the far left of the party.

That was a maddening image of, you know, are you going to fight for us or are you just going to be squishy in the middle?

But for that third congressional district, as Ron Kine knew as a Democrat and as Steve Gunderson knew as a Republican before him, that middle of the road is quite often the only way that that road leads you to Congress.

that's right and you know it's about winning right and you've got it at the end of the day you know you can have all the purity tests that you want but if you don't win it's it's not going to matter uh so i think you know cook uh outran expectations i mean we have to consider that piece of it as well you know the fact that she uh outran you know not only Kamala Harris but Tammy Baldwin who did

pretty well for a Democrat in Western Wisconsin in that third congressional district and for Cook to have better numbers than each of them.

I think part of that is, I think, because Derek Van Orden is a weak candidate.

But I think also it has something to do with the campaign that Cook is running.

And I think what she's doing right now, I'm going to say it again.

It's very fascinating.

It is because it is.

And that's why we get to say it.

We're talking to Dan Schaefer from the Reconbobulation area.

Less than a minute left.

So I just want to throw out, you know, proper kudos.

Senator Tammy Baldwin.

A lot of people during the August recess, they just disappear.

Tammy Baldwin has not disappeared.

She has been all over the state this month.

She has and I think you know that that's I think such a hallmark of who Tammy Baldwin is as a senator It's that constituent services.

It's getting out and talking to people in Wisconsin Maybe she doesn't you know have the big flowery speeches that go viral of on C-span or whatever it might be But when she gets back to Wisconsin talking to people, that's really that's her bread and butter right there

She absolutely is just a road warrior during the month of August Dan Schaefer from the recombobulation area joining us for some of you a local update is next for others we will

continue chatting with Civic Media's political editor.

And then tomorrow, I will join you live from Wisconsin Rapids from WFHR celebrating their 85th year of broadcasting to the Wisconsin Rapids community.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

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.

Let's see.

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This is from Tiffany in River Falls.

says speaking of up north my husband and I have an ongoing debate about whether where we live in river falls is actually considered northern wisconsin i grew up in green lake county so river falls is very north to me but when i tell people where i'm from and i say northern wisconsin my husband likes to correct me and say western wisconsin settle this debate for us where does up north wisconsin begin

Oh, Tiffany, we can't solve that debate for you.

If we did, I mean, that's half of our business model right here is having fun over where Up North begins.

Because, again, the whole business model of Up North News is all of Wisconsin.

Is America's Up North?

So we cover all of Wisconsin.

But where is Up North Wisconsin?

I don't know.

Let's ask Dan Schaeffer.

He's in Milwaukee.

Dan?

Where does Up North begin for a good Milwaukee boy like you?

Oh, that's a great question.

Say the Dells.

Say it because you know everybody in

Milwaukee says

it.

Yes, it's not the Dells.

Well, everybody in Milwaukee has different definitions of what Up North is.

You know, I like to refer.

You say Up North covers all of Wisconsin because it's because Up North refers to all of Wisconsin.

I like to I think we should incorporate the phrase the deep north, like we say the deep south in certain ways, too.

So I think.

I would say the deep north to me is once it's it's less of like an actual geographical mark marker and is when you're when you're driving up north and all of a sudden you stop seeing chain restaurants and you stop see and you start seeing lots and lots of trees on the borders of the highway and and there's the scenery is much more beautiful and there's so much open space and all that that's up north.

I would say usually it's like once you get through Wausau

A little bit north of Wausau, maybe.

We'll consider up north.

I don't know.

Is that too Milwaukee of me to say

that?

Nope.

That's not at all.

And in fact, you actually do hit it right on the money.

And I just don't have the geographical or the geological term for it or whatever it is.

But it's basically the tree line.

And if you look at a satellite picture of Wisconsin, you can very clearly see there's a tree line, but it's not a straight line.

It kind of meanders a bit, dips out, then comes back up north.

But it is.

It's the trees.

You hit those trees rather than a lot of farms or cities, and you're there.

But you're there in the land of George Webb.

Are you going to be in line tomorrow for your free George Webb burger for the Milwaukee Brewer winning streak?

You better believe I am, Pat.

You better believe I'm going to George Webb's to get my free cheeseburger.

I'll bring the kids with.

We'll make a whole thing of it.

It's going to be a good time.

How's the city doing with all this?

I mean, especially coming through the flash flooding, I noted last week that even the day after the flash flooding, they still had to sell out crowd at American Family Field.

How's the vibe, as the kids like to say?

The the vibes as the kids say around the Brewers are immaculate right now.

The the city is this is such a fun team and so many people are so into this Brewers team right now where there's obviously a lot of people dealing with dealing with the flooding.

I mean, we had another round of thunderstorms here last night that were so I imagine there are some people waking up today and dealing with that as well.

So, you know, it's it's been tough for a lot of people, but this team this team is a

really fun, enjoyable team.

And I think, you know,

We've got the, not just the George Webb's celebration that's happening tomorrow in and around Milwaukee, but the Euker celebration that is happening this weekend, the celebration of Bob Euker's life.

And I think Bob Costas is going to be broadcasting from Milwaukee and there's going to be a whole thing of it.

I'm going with a couple of friends.

We got those tickets as soon as they went on sale.

So it's a great time to be a Brewer's fan, that's for sure.

Oh, without a doubt.

We're talking to Dan Schaefer from the Recon...

population area, who's working on a new column.

And I like how you describe the column because it really describes the political feel right now.

How do you describe the column?

So I put out a call for a mailbag column before I went on vacation.

And just so happened that pretty much all of the questions that people sent me were about one topic, were about the governor's race for next year.

I think, you know, might have something to do with the column that I wrote earlier this summer, perhaps.

But a lot of interest, I think, is certainly among reconpopulation area readers.

So I characterize it as my too early assessment, my too early breakdown of the field for governor, both on the on the demo.

on the Democratic side and on the Republican side.

Because it is.

I mean, by our own admission, it's way too early for

this.

But we also know, as we learned from the residential raise last year, it's possible for these things to start too late.

So, you know.

you'd almost rather be in a place, especially if you're if you're Sarah Rodriguez, this is a good place to be right now.

I mean, David Crawley, the Milwaukee County executive has talked about jumping in, but he hasn't yet.

Senator Keldor Royce has talked about jumping in, but she hasn't officially yet.

No, no other Republicans have jumped in than the two who are relative unknowns across, you know, most of the state of Wisconsin.

So, you know, if you're, if you're happy, if you're Sarah Rodriguez, Lieutenant Governor, I think

You're moderately happy if you're Tom Tiffany, because, again, I don't think he actually wants to run for governor, but maybe is now feeling the pressure, given the public opinion polling, which, by the way, I think is just based on name ID.

Not any kind

of love

for the guy.

Yeah, I think it certainly seems like he's running, right?

Like I was out of town for much of it, but I saw some of the social media stuff that he was doing at Wisconsin State Fair and all of that.

And like that's the type of thing you're going to do if you're running as a statewide candidate.

It seems like he's probably headed in that direction.

And I think the main thing in the Republican side is a Trump endorsement.

Like there was this poll that the Daily Caller put out that showed Tiffany at the top of the field with like 40% to like, you know, somewhere between 10 and 15% for for Barry and and showman.

And then they said, if Tiffany were to get a Trump endorsement, it was something like 60-some percent of the Republican voters would back Tiffany.

So I think the whole thing on the right for their gubernatorial primary is a Trump endorsement.

That's the whole ballgame.

Yeah, it's almost why even have a primary, you know, which gets back.

We end as we began an attack on basic democracy itself.

It's just whatever Trump wants.

It's not great.

It's not great.

Dan Schaefer, not great.

You can you can read his stuff, which is always great at the reconbobulation area and political editor for civic media.

Dan, thank you so much.

Appreciate

it.

Have a great time

in

the deep north.

I will do.

Although I'll be central Wisconsin coming up tomorrow as I report live from WFHR in Wisconsin Rapids for their 85th anniversary.

My thanks to today's guest Dan Schaefer there, Dan Hagen, Chad Holmes, Fred Clark, also Brittany Merlot, Parker Olson, and to you for being here today.

I'm Pat Critello from Up North News, the Wisconsin outlet for Courier, a pro democracy news network.

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday.

I'll see you tomorrow morning from Wisconsin Rapids.

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