You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Krightlow powered by Up North News.
Doing this again,
this is cool.
Now, live from Music City in Midtown Nashville, the guy that keeps interrupting me while I'm doing this, here is the founding editor of Up North News.
packed quite low.
Oh, yeah.
Hey, that's me.
All right.
Good morning.
And welcome back.
Nice to have you here on this Thursday morning, October 2nd.
Yes, on the road for the rest of this week and part of next week, which would explain the bad lighting and the orange complexion.
But you know, hotel lighting is what it is.
So thank Parker.
Park girls and producing things for us.
I usually say down in Madison, I guess I have to say up in Madison,
up and over.
Yeah,
yeah.
up and over.
I mean, look, it's, it's, it's not, it's not Wausau, you know, but Chad Holmes has that nailed down for us and joins us now to tell us about stories of these following.
Joseph Peckie is coming up at the bottom of the hour.
Sean O'Malley is off today, as is Todd Alba.
So it's, it's, it's Chad here.
And then it's Joe later.
And Chad, it's nice to have you along.
How are we at the point of the season now where I kind of have to do a personal check in like, you know, all the football that you're covering and everything else you doing okay?
I'm doing fine.
It's actually the winter where I'm going to be sort of, you know, not knowing where I am or what time it is or what day it is, but this week I've been a little bit, for the first time in many months, caught a little something.
Nothing terrible, but it just stinks when you do that.
It makes it harder throughout the course of the week, you know, and I'm glad I've had it.
was started like early in the week.
And my hope is by the time that we do our games, I have one Friday night and then Saturday afternoon that it'll be gone.
So I don't I don't know why because it's been, you know,
80 degrees all the time and say, Why am I getting?
Why am I getting anything?
Oh, you know, it's the start of the school year.
And you get, you know, kids start to get together again in those little Petri dishes of schools.
And it
eventually works its way around and gets to people.
I've got, you know, I'm very fortunate that I don't get, for example, seasonal allergies.
Sherry, on the other hand, gets terrible seasonal allergies every spring.
And yesterday, I forget who I was talking to, but they were especially susceptible to ragweed.
And I guess
people who have fall allergies like to ragweed, they're not happy the best week ever right now either.
And comes comes with the seasons.
Yes, it does.
Whether it's the blooming stuff or the ragweed or whatever it is, the little urchins are spreading around when they're touching all the doorknobs and things like that.
So hopefully you get to feeling better soon.
How would you characterize the high school football season that you've been covering so far fairly typical?
Any surprises out there?
Well here in central Wisconsin and last night actually we do our high school sports show and we're talking about the fact that this year's been as interesting as one as we've had in a while in terms of a few teams that usually are down to move their way up and
the competitiveness in the conferences that we keep an eye on has been really, really good.
Over the last number of years, it feels like the gaps have been kind of widening in some areas where we have so many blowouts.
And this year it's been a lot of fun seeing some of the teams that had struggled working their way into position for playoffs and maybe even conference championships and just a lot of fun.
I mean, those games I did last week were both fantastic, both were, I would call, upsets and both were for the teams that we cover.
So you love that, where you get these
these these feelings at the end of a game where man hey we expect this and it's so much fun we're fighting and having a lot a lot of fun so it's actually been really interesting it's not been what you call shock
You know, in terms of what you expect, NCAA tournament time, you have chalk.
It's like everybody, the higher seed always wins.
No, it's not been that way.
And that's, that's one of the, and the old saying is why they play the games.
You know, we talk about it.
It's like with the baseball playoffs.
I mean, it's like all these, we had a number of game threes coming up.
It's, it's, it's fun.
It's the way you like to do it.
Yeah.
The opposite of chalk, of course, is parody.
And when you, when you've got, you know, very evenly matched teams all the time, well, you know, that's fine.
You don't get the dynasty.
You know that that some places are and you know We're kind of seeing that in the the baseball playoffs at this point as well I see the Cubs and Padres series is tied at a game of peace So they will decide this afternoon which team will advance to play the Brewers this weekend I don't know if you've caught any of that or if you have any feelings about facing the Padres versus the Cubs
I'm nervous either way to be honest with you.
It's one of those things where
The brewer is so overachieved this year.
I mean, what they did is just amazing to be honest with you.
And I told some folks that, man, don't you wish this was the year because for most of, I mean, for most of baseball history, the Milwaukee Brewers would already be in the World Series because from.
When the World Series started in 1903 until 1968, it was one team for the American League, one team for the National League.
Whoever had the most wins in the league, they were in the World Series.
And then from 1969 to 1992, or 1993 actually.
It was where they had two divisions.
And then, you know, you had one series and then the World Series.
And nowadays it's got to win all these multiple series.
And now it's a wild card round, too.
So let's go back to the old days when there was one team in the National League, one team in the American League, and the first to be in the World Series.
Yeah,
one round of play.
We had the Colorado Blue Jays.
What a series that would be.
Yeah, the TV network.
That'd be awesome.
The TV networks are all over this.
They love the idea of having fewer playoff games and less revenue.
Absolutely.
So we know who's making
it.
I'm an old geezer yelling at the clouds again.
That's my that's
my role here every
week.
I understand.
But if clouds, but if we're going to have this, if we're going to have the system, I will say this much, the three game series for the wildcard.
So much better than the the one game, you know winner take all wildcard thing that was I did not like that at all
No, and I agree with that only thing that I I feel for is the teams fans that don't get a playoff game at home because it's like if you don't get at least one playoff game at home
in baseball or basketball or hockey or those because it's different than football because these are series.
But the only thing is it feels like you're not in the playoffs at all.
If you don't get a chance that opportunity to go there in person and cheer on your team.
But I think in terms of the way that baseball is the one and done, yes, it has that quality of, you know, the winner take all.
But it's it's very on baseball like baseball is our metrics.
Baseball is meant for a series.
Yes, it is.
We're talking to Chad Holmes here who's in Wausau and therefore in the heart of the Seventh Congressional District.
Where yesterday, former state assembly rep Fred Clark announced on our program that he is running for Congress on the Democratic side.
He was a Democratic state rep from the Baraboo area for a number of years and then relocated a few years back to the Bayfield area.
and has now decided to throw his hat into the ring into what is going to be an open race now with Tom Tiffany running for governor.
And my question to you, Chad, mostly for the rest of the audience listening around the state, is to talk about the challenge of running.
for Congress in the 7th District and covering these folks because, I mean, it is one of, if not the largest congressional district east of the Mississippi.
And again, I know all this from experience, but from you as a journalist covering this, you understand just...
This is not like those little, you know, let's say the fourth district in Milwaukee, which
is
pretty much the city of Milwaukee.
You got to put some more gas in the tank if you want to represent northern Wisconsin.
Well, and it's really up and down the line in terms of the folks that try to get folks elected.
In fact, this right before I joined you, I had Nancy Stenzo with me.
We were talking about the you're breaking news yesterday and she says, you know, I'm so glad it was finally announced because she kind of knew about this because she has her hands on the pulse of what's going on with the seven district.
But you're exactly right.
I mean, for folks like her who are working to try to elect Democrats in this district, you, you mentioned, you know, the sports that I do, sometimes I have to go up to superior to cover a game.
And I think, boy, that's a long track.
Well, that's basically part of this.
That's the part of the same district.
I mean, if you want to run for office, you have to come here to wassa.
You have to go up to superior.
You have to go to Hayward.
You have to go all over the place in terms of trying to reach out and connect.
And it also means that if you're known, maybe here in the wassa area, you're not going to be known in some different areas of the state as well.
You have to get out there.
You have to talk to people.
You have to be able to know spread the word on what you believe and the such.
It is, I mean.
There are many, many states that are not as big as what the 7th congressional district is and the challenge and what you have to put into it.
I mean, over the years, I'm sure that you, you know, you did it yourself.
you talk to folks in about the number of miles you put on your vehicle just to be able to travel around and talk to folks, it is such a hard job.
And it's also really hard to establish yourself.
I mean, fortunately for somebody like yourself who had that base where people kind of knew you from your, from your work channel 13 and the such, for other people, boy, it's I just
The challenge is immense, and it's also immense for folks that try to cover them, whether in this part of the state or different parts of the state as well.
It makes for a challenging situation.
And sometimes we talk about maybe the campaign's being too long.
In the case of this, I think the time is needed for somebody to spread the word on what they believe in and to reach the voters and to get their attention and to hopefully be able to make an impact where they can say, hey, that's somebody we would like to have represent us or that's somebody we don't want to have represent us.
You know, the seventh is a huge challenge for somebody that does not have a lot of money to spread around and buy a lot of advertising and the such.
And by the way,
to raise the funds to do that, to run for Congress in any district, of course, means you're on the phone a lot doing fundraising calls and reaching out to potential donors.
And I think what
pretty much every campaign in a district like the seventh starts with one mindset and then reality hits.
The mindset is, okay, well, we've got this two hour drive to superior, you know, or we've got this three hour drive, you know, over to the eastern part of the district.
But you know what, during those two or three hours in the car, you can just make a bunch of fundraising phone calls.
I mean, you're a hostage, your campaign manager is just there with a clipboard saying, okay, now this call this call.
And then the reality
is that there's nothing worse than calling somebody and you want to ask them for money and then the call gets dropped.
And then you maybe try a little bit later when you get through that wooded area or you get over that hill and the call gets dropped again.
And so really it's not nearly as productive as a candidate and their staff think it's going to be.
So again, no, I'm not expecting, you know, pity points for any politician who runs for office, but it's that you think that you're using a disadvantage to an advantage
But without the infrastructure, it's just not really there.
So
yeah, and I agree with you 100%.
But one thing about this race now, it's very interesting with Tiffany running for governor is the fact that it is an open seat.
And I will add as well, the national landscape here that's very unpopular administration right now.
I think a very unpopular political viewpoint that is mega and that
The combination may be of losing that name recognition that a guy like Tom Tiffany had and also the the national political Winds that maybe are going against the right wing of the Republican Party that so often is in control here in the 7th Congressional District
I'm not saying it's not going to be a very difficult race for any Democrat in the seventh, but listening to Fred, hearing what Nancy had to say about Fred as well, that maybe there's a chance to gain a little bit of traction, to get people that otherwise wouldn't listen to you, an opportunity to listen to you, and maybe.
It's going to take a huge tsunami of a change because of the gap that's been in this district recently.
But maybe there's an opportunity for people to listen a little bit more and maybe open themselves up to different ideas that they haven't in recent years since.
Dave will be retired.
No, but I mean, you do have those wave elections 2006 when I was elected to the legislature was one of them where districts flipped that hadn't flipped for, you know, decades upon decades.
And we've seen that in other swing years as well.
And I don't doubt for a moment that given the current stewardship of the economy and now a protracted government shutdown looming out there, that a whole lot of people would look at the opportunity to make a change at least once.
And in 2026,
that might be the chance for voters to make that kind of a statement.
If you want to hear more from Chad, I listened to him on the Civic Media app, just call up 98.9 WXCO out of Wausau and give a listen.
Chad, thank you very much.
Good to visit.
You too, Pat.
All right, still ahead.
We're going to be talking to Joseph Pecky about some of the political headlines of the week.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Normally, Sean O'Malley would be joining us right about now to talk about your money in the markets, but Sean is doing some traveling as well, and you know, there's only so many of us can do the show from a hotel room at one time.
Plus, he's traveling a little further away this week, so we'll touch base with him when he is done with some of his travels, although it would be tough to tell you the kinds of things that he would be talking about, things that are affecting the economy right now.
Obviously, the government shut down.
Down is one band you know the economic impact of it government shutdowns don't happen in a vacuum government shutdowns are expensive Not the kind of expensive like oh it costs a little money at the front end and then we make it back at the back end No, no government shutdowns cost money.
In fact Parker might have some audio from from Donald Trump private citizen Donald Trump back in I believe it was 2011
When there was the potential of a government shutdown Republicans during the Obama administration were looking to shut things down and I think it's probably about the time that I was running against Sean Duffy in the 7th congressional district and Talking about this Republican Congress at the time that was dead set at again a showdown that would shut down the government would cost the economy money
Donald Trump back then in 2011 knew that that wasn't a great idea.
Of course, in his mind, everything was Obama's fault.
But if you take out the fact that it was Obama and just listen to him talking about the role of a president during a government shutdown, give it a listen to what he had to say.
If there were a partial shutdown of the government come Friday,
That would be okay with you.
In my opinion, you know, I hear the Democrats are going to be blamed and the Republicans are going to be blamed.
I actually think the president would be blamed.
If there is a shutdown, and it's not going to be a horrible shutdown, because as you know, things will sort of keep going.
Well, it's a partial shutdown, right?
If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States.
He's the one that has to get people together.
I'm a deal man.
I made hundreds and hundreds of deals and transactions He never did deals before how can you expect a man?
That's not a deal man that never did a deal Other than frankly becoming president of the United States.
He never did a deal.
How's you gonna corral all these
people?
How
would you do it now now?
You're in the Oval Office right now.
I would
get everybody
together and we'd have a budget and
they've all
gotten together Well, that's because they don't have the right leader
Well, if...
If that's not prescient, I don't know what is about the whole world laughing at us because a guy who's supposed to be making deals can't seem to make a deal.
And so 2011 Donald Trump would look at 2025 Donald Trump and call him a failure and say, you look, you're supposed to be the dealmaker.
You're supposed to make this happen.
And Trump was working so hard to even when he said, well, I think he'll get it done.
He had of course right had to add well, I don't think he'll get it done.
He and his team will get it done the the the hatred that he has for Barack Obama the man is Continues to be stunning all these years later from the guy who started the racist birther campaign to what he's doing with DEI today.
There's there's really The the signals are pretty strong coming from Donald Trump about what motivates him but getting back to the whole deal maker thing He he is a guy who?
theoretically could get something done.
But here's the thing, he never has.
Mr. Art of the Deal had nothing to look back on in his first term to say that he personally brought people together and reached a compromise on something.
And the same goes here the guy who originally ran for president saying that I'm gonna be your voice on Wall Street I'm gonna make sure that that these people Understand what you the middle class are thinking and I'm gonna deliver you the win-win and it turned out that all along he actually was
the Wall Street president and continues to be to this day with the big bloated boondoggle that is ripping away health care from people through Medicaid and through Affordable Care Act enhanced tax credits solely to pay for tax cuts for the very wealthy.
So no wonder that it's not exactly a popular thing.
You've got the latest Marquette poll coming out, a national poll that shows Donald Trump's job performance continues to drop.
It's now at 43% approve and 57% disapprove.
And even among Republicans, you've got about one out of five Republicans who disapprove of Donald Trump's job performance.
That's not something you normally see of people saying about their own president.
On the specific issues, the approval rating is a little more fluid.
There's about 55% of people that like what he's doing on border security.
But when it comes to handling the Epstein files, his approval rating is around
28%.
It's almost like he's trying to, I don't know, maybe divert attention by going ahead with this government shutdown.
Then there's a different survey from the New York Times, the Times-Siena Survey, that shows that a significant number of Americans feel like our divisions cannot be overcome.
The divides are just too great.
But here's the thing.
Even though
We seem as divided as ever.
We know where American values are.
We know where Wisconsin values are.
And that's why you see the president with such a low approval rating.
Right now it is a minority faction in politics.
Yeah, they have access to a lot of money.
They have access to a lot of power.
They have the entire right wing media ecosystem to spread things that are, shall we say, factually lagging.
about this shutdown and about this budget.
But even though voters think that, you know, it's going to be tough to overcome these divisions, it's actually a lot easier than they think.
It's to not get caught up in the day-to-day mudslinging and truly vote your values and vote for the people you think will work harder for you.
Not the guy who said he was going to work hard for you and then proved to be otherwise, because
Has he earned your vote in 2026?
He's not on the ballot, but a whole lot of people are that represent him.
And we'll talk to Joseph Pecky more about what this could mean next year coming up next.
All right, welcome back.
Pat quite low here live in Nashville as I do a little traveling this week and Joe's Becky joining us from back in Wisconsin.
And I have to make sure I offer the proper disclaimer that I am doing this show without any coffee yet, because Joe, you've traveled your fair share.
And
this is a pretty nice hotel that I'm in.
And there's no coffee maker in the room.
And of course, I didn't get here till almost midnight last night.
So thank goodness, there's like this little mini bar where you get like this little mini bottle of Coca-Cola, which probably set me back eight bucks or something like that.
But there's no coffee maker up here.
Who does that?
Honestly, I mean, I've seen places with the Keurigs and the Nestrestos, they're trying to make these coffee makers fancier all the time, but no coffee maker kind of savages run this place.
Um,
I don't know, Pat.
Blink twice if you're being held captive and you need to send a message to us.
Also, the lobby can't be that far away.
I've been to Nashville.
The hotels aren't that large.
No, but there are these commercial breaks that only lasts so long.
So needless to say, I am 24 minutes away from sprinting toward that first cup of coffee.
So apologies if I'm not sounding as caffeinated as I would like.
Joe, let's let's talk about some of the races that have developed here over, you know, since our last visit.
Yesterday, of course, Fred Clark broke the news on our program that he's running for Congress in the seventh congressional district.
We talked to Chad Holmes in our last half hour about, you know, the challenge of
running in such an expansive district.
It helps if you have some kind of experience and or name ID.
And Fred Clark has both of those things from his time in the state assembly, the council on tourism, the council on forestry, the state natural resources board for a time.
So this is not some amateur who's trying to run in a very large Northern Wisconsin district.
No, I think this is the most serious candidate Democrats have fielded since a young man by the name of Pat Crichtlow.
I remember.
And that's no knock against any of the folks who worked really, really hard in the last few election cycles over the last 12 or 13 years.
But the takeaway here for today is like, be inspired by someone like Fred Clark.
Fred Clark, who is not
a particularly young man and would admit that himself.
66, that's right.
Right?
This is someone who has served his community, who has served the state and is signing up to run in one of the largest congressional districts by geography in this country that isn't an entire state.
And he's earned his retirement in
We all know, anybody who knows Fred knows that he is as happy as can be just out, you know, on a lake or, you know, hunting in the fall or winter.
And he's saying what so many people have recognized.
What is happening is wrong.
This is not who we are.
And it's getting worse, not better.
And I'll be damned if I'm not going to offer myself up.
to go back to public service and try to arrest the trajectory that the United States is on.
And so Fred Clark's not doing this for glory.
No.
There are candidates across the state and across the country who are running in districts even tougher than Wisconsin's seventh who weren't represented for a generation or two, but within living memory.
by a Democrat but they are saying we have to do something and we are the only ones who apparently can do something and I just tip my cap to Fred and to people who are running for the state legislature or the town board or for governor who at this insane moment are willing to put themselves forward and do the work
to say the voters deserve a choice when a out of control president is doing things that are so un-American, we have to do something.
So whether you're Fred Clark, whether you're a candidate for the legislature, whether you're a candidate for governor, thank you for stepping up.
And the least that we can do is take these folks who are running seriously,
go out and hear what they have to say, listen to what their policy ideas are, ask them questions, try to change their mind if you disagree with them on a particular issue or not.
That is how we come back from this.
Yeah, because again, you've got people out there that still believe in the notion of public service and who believe in the duties of the job.
And frankly, when Fred Clark, so when he was thinking about running before Tom Tiffany,
got out to run for governor.
He was thinking about challenging Tom Tiffany, which is, again, no easy task to take on an incumbent, but incumbents like Tiffany and Van Orden and style and weed and the others have
I mean, it is not hyperbole to say they have completely abdicated their responsibilities of oversight, of representation of their constituents' values.
I mean, they have literally assigned themselves to Donald Trump's peanut gallery, and Fred Clark and others say, wait, hold on a minute.
And Joe, you and I know full well that when there have been Democratic presidents and Democratic-controlled Congresses,
those Congresses still felt the need to engage in oversight and in changing what their own party's president's point of view might be in terms of his policies and his priorities.
And yet here on the Republican side, in this era of Trumpism, it's just all acquiescence, some sequestness.
I'm trying to look for words that don't involve the words kiss and butt.
But that's that and Fred and others say, Hey,
Maybe we can do better for representation in the seventh and other districts.
Yeah, and even if we're not assured of victory or assured of doing better, we have to try.
That's the point.
We have to try.
The Republican MAGA Congress is not even trying.
They're not trying to lower health care costs that are about to go through the roof.
They're not trying to do anything for our soybean farmers in northern Wisconsin who are getting hammered right now.
I like this is every week you want to go, okay, it can't get any worse.
And somehow it manages to.
They
do.
And again, we're getting to the point where it's going to be time for the, you know, the soybean harvest and corn and everything else.
And there is just literally nothing being done.
And now with the government and shutdown mode, we can't even have that conversation about, you know,
bailout payments to make farmers whole for the market that they've lost.
So we've talked a couple of times today about the Marquette national poll and showing Trump's approval rating dropping.
And we've mentioned before that multiple polls show by double digit margins, people understand who's at fault here.
I'm just not sure how we emerge from this.
If Trump and Republicans are willing to do this much damage,
to do what, Joe?
Protect health care cuts to fund tax breaks for the rich?
Well, let's remember that before we get to farmers, apparently the Trump administration thinks it's appropriate to bail out Argentina.
Yeah, which is fine.
We do have farmers who can sell soybeans right now, unlike in Northern Wisconsin.
This is, it's just all so crazy and makes so little sense.
How do we do it?
We win elections in 2026, full stop.
There's one of the old political TV shows.
The great thing about America is you get to overthrow the government every two years.
And 2026...
needs to be a landslide of historic epic proportions to make clear that what is what we're seeing out of Washington DC is not who we are.
I believe that's what will happen because I still believe in the American people who are far more resilient than being able to, you know, we've been at this for 10 years in the era of Trump and
whether it's small towns or suburban communities or, you know, folks in the cities, people understand that this is not the answer to what ails this country, what we're seeing out of Washington DC right now.
So let's get to the shutdown and the messaging behind it, which really is a game of applying pressure.
And the Republican point of view is that they believe enough pressure is being applied to, you know, so-called moderate Democrats that enough of them will vote for what the Republicans want.
which is just to continue operations, kick the can down the road with a continuing resolution and not do anything about all the massive cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
That enough Democrats will say, yep, we cry, uncle, let's just carry on with the way things are.
Then there's the folks who think, nope, the pressure is actually being applied to Republicans to say, hey, you're shutting down the government and you want to take away all of our, you want to take away our health care.
the easiest thing for Republicans to do would be to simply do a one or two year extension of the Affordable Care Act, you know, enhanced tax credits, the subsidies that make these things affordable.
Do you feel like that pressure is being better applied one way or the other to help us see how this might resolve itself?
I think Republicans are already showing signs of cracking.
What we've heard out of Senate leader, John Thunes,
office in the last couple of days suggests that Republicans know they have a political problem here.
And that is why you have to use the leverage you have.
Democrats don't have much leverage, right?
The American people voted for a Republican president, a Republican Senate, and a Republican House.
And despite having control of everything,
Democrats have a little sliver, like one iota of power.
And they're saying instead of trying to overshoot and use that little bit of power we have to get everything we want, they've picked one thing, which is the subsidies for Obamacare health plans, which without continuation, millions of Americans are going to see their health care costs double next year.
And so Democrats are being very straightforward.
Hey, great.
We'll come to a deal.
We just need this one thing.
We need you to extend these health care subsidies for folks.
And Republicans, they can't on day one go, OK, you're right, we'll do it.
They have to drag this out.
They are choosing to draw this out.
But John Thune is already saying, well, we're starting to talk.
We're going to see about a path to extend them.
So I think Democrats need to hold the line.
You have to stand for something at some point.
And standing for keeping people's health care costs from exploding next year at a time when they're paying more for everything else because Donald Trump has broken his promise to get prices down on day one is a fine place to say, this is the thing.
This is where we're drawn to line.
Well, I mean, you really get to the heart of why I posed our question of the week the way that I did last Sunday morning in our newsletter.
And that was to say, you know, how does this end?
A was Democrats Cave, which we've outlined.
B is that, you know, Trump caves, which again, he's, he's dug in really hard on this.
And option C was that it's actually Republicans in Congress and Democrats in Congress, just enough of them to say, you know, let's, let's extend these subsidies for a year or two for the Affordable Care Act.
Trump.
veto is the plan to try to look strong and Republicans actually enough of them actually vote to override a veto and it really hurts Trump standing now again I'm not saying it's likely but you see why I put that option there is He's not up for election, but a whole lot of people who are next year are starting to get nervous
Yeah, and they they should be nervous
Yeah, we're talking to Joseph Pekki here and we'll continue the conversation and have some final news and notes about it and about politics, including Bill Barion.
We'll see what have we learned from his time in office.
Again, tomorrow we'll have our weekend review with some of our regular Friday guests.
We'll have one more chance to win in the Go For The Green and Gold text-to-win contest.
Dr. Kristen Lirely of Bill Long and Mike Clemens will get us caught up with sports.
We'll know by tomorrow morning when Mike visits.
who the Brewers will be facing on Saturday in the National League Division Series, the Cubs or the Padres, who play that deciding game later this afternoon.
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.
Tomorrow when we have our regular weekend review panel, that includes former US Attorney Jim Santel, but let's say you can't wait.
You got to know what he's thinking about the news of the day right now.
We can take care of that in less than an hour.
Jim Santel will be Jane and Greg's guest for Matt and Air on Air coming up at 9.30 this morning and then at 10.30, JR Radcliffe, the Journal Sentinel Sports Guru, as they advertise, will join Jane Matt and Air and Greg Bach coming up on Matt and Air on Air right at the top of the hour here across the Civic Media radio network.
A few more minutes now with Joseph Pecky talking about
the way that some of the 2026 races are already shaping up.
We just got done talking about the seventh congressional district up north.
Now we get to talk about the governor's race where we know that Tom Tiffany entered the race, Bill Barry and exited the race.
The two are not related.
Bill Barry and left for other reasons altogether.
And Joe, you have been in the beginning of many a campaign, which means that you're familiar with the vetting process and how not fun this is when you learn something about a candidate that he didn't really volunteer in the initial screening.
Yeah, I alluded to it last week because when we visited last Thursday,
the story was already out and we sort of glossed over it and just say that Bill Barry hadn't had the best week.
Turns out we were
right.
We were right.
His week got worse.
I am sure that he is very embarrassed and wishes that he had never run for governor.
And that's too bad.
But I'm not going to feel particularly bad myself about someone who made the decision
the conscious choice to, as part of putting themselves out for office, decided to villainize and demonize an entire group of people.
And it turns out that that was a group of people who Berrien had shown some interest in.
And if you don't know what I'm referring to, you can go look at Dan Bice's column.
But I don't think we need to spend all that much time on pretty ridiculous views and pretty ridiculous behavior, when all we need to understand is,
If you are going to run for office, you need to be yourself.
You need to be who you are.
And the BS meter that voters have is pretty good.
If you pretend to be something you're not, whether it's, you're actually a pretty traditional mainstream conservative, which by all accounts, I think Bill Barrion actually is, but he pretended to be a MAGA extremist because he thought that was how you win power.
in the 21st century, and he was found out.
And if you are not a far left progressive Democrat in the mold of Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, you shouldn't pretend to be.
You should be who you are.
Voters have had enough nonsense.
They want people who are authentic, incredible.
And that to me is the big takeaway.
And so I'd rather spend a couple minutes talking about
people who are being authentically themselves.
Missy Hughes is now a Democratic candidate for governor and her announcement video showed me who she is and backed up everything I've ever heard about her.
I've never worked with her or encountered her, but what she put out and the way she's running her campaign is consistent with everything I've ever heard.
Same with Fran Hong and those two, you know,
great candidates took very different approaches with the way they announced their campaign because they're two different people and that's okay and that's what the Democratic primary for governor is about is figuring out if it's one
of
those visions or a different vision from a different candidate that is where we go as a party that is democracy in action and that is what is you know the work of the next
What do we have 350 days or so until the August primary?
Yeah.
And the whole reason I bring it up is not to dance on Bill Barian's political grave.
And you said to be yourself.
And I just want to add this other wrinkle to it.
You don't have to be perfect.
You know, there are people who are like, Well, there was a divorce and it was a little contentious or there was this or that.
That's okay.
be yourself.
Nobody wants perfection.
They just want you to be real.
And what bearing was doing was being hypocritical about something about him.
So we're not trying to chase any way anybody away from running for office who feels that calling.
But it was like, when I was first running, I remember Russ Decker, he was the Democratic Senate leader, and he was giving me advice.
He's like, Yeah, you're running in northern Wisconsin, you just got to have dead animals and all your campaign literature.
Everybody loves when you pose with dead animals, because you're a hunter.
I'm not a hunter.
I'm very, I'm very supportive of hunting, but that wouldn't have looked like me if I'd have posed with a bunch of dead animals like I was doing something.
So, so don't do that.
Talk to guys like Joseph Pecky, you know, before you before you launch your campaign.
So, so yeah, and I was going to get to to missy who again is going to be running from the standpoint of I've worked with business, I know about job development, I can make that those kinds of things happen a main street point of view.
The main question is whether she has enough time to build up name ID.
She may have great positions and a great record, but again, can she, she can fundraise.
She's proven that in the first few days.
So I'm not casting aspersions.
I'm just saying that the question is, will she be able to cut through the noise just like Sarah Rodriguez and others who may not be as well known as, you know, legislators like Keldor-Royzer, a county executive like David Crawley.
Yeah, well, listen, I don't think any of the current candidates for Democrat have the name ID you want on election day, right?
We have not seen like Josh Call or Mandela Barnes would each enter the race if they did with more name ID than any of the other candidates.
And that's okay.
Like that, you know,
The American people, the people of Wisconsin are crying out for something different for change.
And so getting to know someone through the course of a campaign or getting to know a lot of candidates in the case of the Democratic field, that's how this is supposed to work.
Yeah.
And I think we'll see that not only in the ads and the videos to social media and everything, but eventually we'll get to these candidate forums.
We'll get a month for more interviews and learn a lot more about the options that are out there.
Joseph Becky, thank you so much as always.
Have a great start to your weekend.
Go Brewers.
There you go.
We got a big series coming up.
We just don't know with who, but we will by the time we get together again tomorrow morning.
So we hope you enjoy the rest of your Thursday here.
Enjoy watching who we find out the brewers will be playing and we'll be talking all about that and more Friday morning, 6am.
Enjoy the rest of your Thursday.
We'll see you then.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
