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.
You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, from our Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Hey, welcome back.
Good morning.
It is nice to have you here back up north on a Tuesday morning, November 4th.
2025, Parker Olson producing things down in Madison Studio A2.
And I was so looking forward to seeing the mint green walls of Cam Stephenson's place in Washington DC.
And I see a note came in saying that he's got a scheduling conflict.
He might join us later in the hour here.
But so so too will Dan Schaefer.
And I I know we have a lot to talk about already.
But I feel like we've kind of baited the hook here talking about
asking Dan about lanes and adding lanes or not adding lanes in places like Milwaukee
as well.
That's a very good point.
Yeah, I have not heard him go off about this, but to my understanding, it is a sight to behold.
Oh gosh, from a standpoint of his writing at the recombobulation area.
Yes, this has been a very near and dear thing.
So we'll talk to Dan about that along with everything else that's going on in Wisconsin politics coming up in just a bit.
Let's also...
mentioned some of the temperatures around the state here, which I have at my fingertips.
And by fingertips, I mean scroll down Pat and see them.
It is 30 right now in Mozanie and Annego and Merrill.
I think just about everybody's out of the 20s now.
Hey, words at 36.
Wasaw is at 34 degrees right now.
It's 39 in La Crosse, Wisconsin Rapids at 37, Richland Center 36, Oshkosh 43 right now.
And it is 37 degrees here in Chippewa Valley.
Did Rob check in from Tigerton in the comment section at YouTube?
Yes, he did.
Good morning from Tigerton.
It is cloudy and 32 degrees.
It was a very beautiful day despite the windy conditions He says on social media some folks are talking about snow making it sound like a major snowstorm But he's he's not buying that prediction neither am I because I've seen some meteorologists noting on social media as well that Yeah, there are some some elements out there that that could conceivably, you know look like a snowstorm, but don't believe the hype
because everything has to come together just right for that to happen.
And that just probably ain't happening in this case.
I mean, let's let's not rush the seasons.
Okay, please.
Again, you can join the show 855-75-CIVIC 855-752-4842.
Call that number or text that number, or use the Civic Media app to call us, text us, or send us a voice note as well.
Also sign up for our daily newsletter, head to upnorthnewswi.com.
In the newsletter today, a link to our article about the state of emergency that Governor Evers declared because of the government shutdown and the cutoff of snap food assistance where
Apparently, the Trump administration has said that they will comply with the court order to reinstate SNAP assistance, but that it will only be partially restored and it will take a while for it to come down, meaning they're like everything else, much like Donald Trump in court.
They're going to drag this out as long as they possibly can to try to, again, maximize the pain.
And that is...
what this is all about.
This is about maximum pain to win a political battle.
Donald Trump and Republicans see themselves in such a true win-win for this, because either, if they get their way,
If Democrats eventually cave on this and say, you know what?
You're right.
We need to restore everything in the government because too many people are getting hurt.
Too many people are missing paychecks.
And so we're going to cave in for now.
And we're just going to make it an election issue next year.
Well, what happens is Republicans still get the higher health insurance costs that they want.
They want people to not be able to afford health insurance because to them it proves that Obamacare doesn't work.
It just means that it proves they managed to mismanage it and It gets the further dividend of if Democrats cave So many of their supporters will say I don't believe this I don't believe you caved again to Republicans like you did earlier this year is what a lot of them think avoiding government shutdowns in the past and so Republicans feel like they can just make people hurt enough that Democrats will cave
Republicans will get their way on undermining your health insurance costs and the undermined Democrats in terms of being trusted by voters.
So it's small wonder that, you know, some Democrats are definitely sweating this.
They don't like this.
They don't like seeing people hurt, but they also know Republicans are always going to shoot the hostage.
And at some point you have to stand firm for a greater principle and hope that more people recognize this, and they do according to the polling.
but continue to let their Republican members of Congress know that they ain't buying the spin.
They know that this is all one big Republican strategy and that they need to knock it off.
But until more Republicans feel that kind of heat, this now longest shutdown ever is going to continue.
It is a kind of hardball politics that I do wonder how it would have been welcomed by Dick Cheney.
the former vice president who has passed away, who is a former student at UW Madison.
who attended the school as a doctoral student in political science from 1966 to 1968.
He worked for a time for Governor Warren Knowles while he was at Madison.
His wife, Lynn Cheney, is a UW-Madison graduate as well.
And again, having passed away after a long history of coronary problems and now has a quite the congressional legacy, shall we say.
For those of us who follow politics very closely, it's always kind of interesting when you see somebody come on the national scene and they're brand new to a lot of people.
And that was definitely the case with Dick Cheney who'd been in the House of Representatives for a long time before he became an advisor to George W. Bush on his campaign and then was in charge of the committee to screen potential running mates.
for George W. Bush and then wonder of wonders it turned out he was the choice for vice president and you know a lot of people didn't know him at the time and i'm like oh oh this guy this guy he is as as right wing as they come uh George W. Bush wants to claim to be a moderate this guy is not gonna help that at all and of course people said oh what do you mean i've never heard of this guy he's fine give him a chance
The some of us were right who who look at these people again for those of us who study this stuff We try we try to let you know what's happening and try to explain like I just did some of the reasoning behind things happen like this government shutdown Which led to this interesting moment yesterday while I was running some errands and I was busy, you know checking out and just kind of making you know pleasant talk with somebody
who was working and they she said are you sure you won't run for governor and I laughed I'm like no you know I've I've run for office I've served I was very happy with it but now I don't have any intention of doing that I just thought it was kind of you just kind of making making conversation making a little light joke but then she talked about how you know her son's in the military and here in Wisconsin
and has now missed his second paycheck.
And he's not getting that paycheck back because he's been furloughed.
He's on furlough in the military.
In the military, when you're furloughed, you don't get back pay.
There are a lot of federal employees who are currently on furlough, but the ones who have to work anyway because they're essential, they're right now, they're working without pay, but they will get back pay almost certainly when the shutdown ends.
That's how it has always worked previously.
Even though I know Donald Trump has said he's threatened to not allow for back pay because again, he's trying to inflict maximum pain But for people in the military who've been furloughed There won't be back pay and she talked about how you know her son who served in Iraq has now missed two paychecks and how you know, she his aging mom has had to help out with house payments and how
You know her ex-husband his dad has had to help out with paying some of the bills a sibling has written a big check That she's not gonna get back and that's what you do for family, but the point is He's not getting that back pay and he's just one person who served us in Iraq and Others who have served us who are not getting paychecks and they're not getting paychecks not because Democrats don't want them to but because
Democrats don't want them to also have to pay health insurance bills that go up 100, 200% or more of their costs.
And Republicans are the ones who run the government right now.
They are in the White House.
They control the House.
They control the Senate.
And they say, well, yeah, but it takes 60 votes to pass anything.
Yeah, you know that.
You know that that's already baked into the equation.
You don't have 60 Republican senators So the only way you're getting a budget passed to keep the government operating is to negotiate it's what you do and We can't even say well, you know, the Democrats are asking too much and so the Republicans are counting with this they have encountered Because they won't even meet Because they don't want to meet
They only want to crush their opposition.
They want Democrats to cave.
They want to undermine Obamacare.
And then they want Democrats to fuel all the heat for caving.
So this is hard.
It's hard because we've never had a party this extreme in this country as the Republican Party so willing to inflict this much pain.
And so it's only until then, until people start to see that.
and put pressure on people like Tom Tiffany and Derek Van Orden and Ron Johnson and others to make them say, all right, we actually have to show a little compassion for our constituents and let's negotiate with Democrats and let's find a way forward in this.
Because if they don't, then too many more knuckleheads like me are gonna get asked to run for governor.
Or for something else when we already have the people in place that can do these things They just have to actually want to run the government and not just win a political fight You've heard me say it before you're gonna hear me say it again and again about people who are always Anti-government and believe they just want to cut government and they just they think they quite literally hate government What do I always say?
People who hate government the most
should be trusted least to run it competently.
Because they don't want to.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy when they break government to say government is broken.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy when they undermine elections and say democracy is broken and so we need to make it harder to vote.
Oh, they're not really doing that, are they Pat?
Yeah.
In Madison, Republicans just introduced the bill that would once again ban
absentee ballot drop boxes despite no no let me say the word again no evidence that absentee ballot drop boxes have ever been misused in anything that would remotely approach swinging the results of an election but it is a matter of undermining democracy in that way and that's not what
rank and file your Republican friends who've never run for office who don't want to be in politics, they don't want any of this.
They don't.
They want to disagree on what the tax rate should be, whether there should be voucher schools, whether we need to raise taxes for, you know, expanding the streets and building sidewalks.
Not whether we should undermine the integrity of elections and make people who have served in the military go without paychecks and possibly not have their home anymore.
That's not what any of these Republicans should have been elected to do, but they need to hear from more of you to finally figure that out.
Dan Schaefer, coming up in about 15 minutes, I'm Pat Crightlow.
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.
Welcome back.
It's just about 823.
It's a Tuesday morning, one year away from the elections here in Wisconsin for governor, for Congress, for seats in the legislature.
If you missed it last hour, we talked to Emily Berge, who's a candidate for Congress in the third congressional district, one of two Democrats running in the third district race.
If you missed that interview and want to catch it.
Just subscribe to this show as a podcast.
Head over to Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts and follow us that way.
You can listen on demand.
You can listen again to something you heard.
You can hear something else the first time.
If you missed it, again, sign up for us as a podcast over at Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
Parker Olson producing things down in Madison Studio A2.
where it has just occurred to me that, uh, lunchtime is going to come a little early here in the Lake WSOTA studios.
Cause somebody, uh, skipped breakfast this morning and I was up at three.
That's the thing.
How did you skip breakfast?
You had all that time.
I sat there with my coffee for the longest time reading and writing and doing all those things.
And then, and actually part of it was that I had a really good dinner last night and then.
I've got some I've got some leftovers that I'm going to be warming up here in the next 36 minutes
or
so.
What are you working with?
Did I mention over the weekend going to Albertville Tavern for some ribs?
I still got some to to warm up.
And here's the thing about ribs and air fryers.
My good.
There's so many fancy kitchen gadgets out there.
I mean, there's like $3,000 toasters, you know, and everything.
You just need a good air fryer.
for your leftovers.
And I'll tell you what, ribs, when they're done right, when they're tender the first time, an air fryer just keeps them that way.
And we always get like the full rack of ribs, which actually looks more like two racks of ribs by the time it comes.
But I don't know if you ever saw the Flintstones.
But you know in the in the opening they're at this drive-through and the car hop comes out and puts these Brontosaurus ribs on the car and they're so big the car tips over that's how big these ribs are I cannot man I only left a couple of them of left But they're they're gonna make a very tasty lunch here coming up in just a bit.
I I know it just I just occurred to me and I wanted to share that everybody else going wait I've hardly finished my oatmeal I know some of us are looking a little farther ahead here
We mentioned earlier that we wanted to know if you ever returned it to an old job site Would you be would you be welcomed?
Would you be greeted?
Well, like hey Parker's back or would it be more like?
Oh Look what the cat drag back in you know, you're like a bad penny.
I thought we got rid of you Well, Miles Turner was hoping for one reception After the former Indiana Pacer came back to Indiana with the Milwaukee Bucks last night
and didn't work out that way.
He didn't get cheers.
He got booze all night long before the pregame video tribute that the Pacers put together for him.
Every time he touched the ball, every time he scored a point, every time he checked into the game, and he said it was very frustrating after working for 10 years.
I mean, imagine being with an employer for 10 years.
You go somewhere else, maybe it's a competitor, but you still think, well, you've made some friends and things and
And instead they don't want to see you no more.
And that's exactly how he felt.
Yeah.
That's really tough.
And Mike Clemens has a good, uh, sports update right now with, uh, I think it's Doc Rivers talking about like, yeah, he didn't, Miles Turner didn't choose to jump ship.
They didn't really want him back.
So, well, you know, I heard that and I thought, well, wait, I thought, uh,
I thought Indiana said it was a priority to sign him.
What I'm gathering, I wasn't in the room, obviously, but that they did want to sign him, but they just weren't willing to pony up what he thought he could get elsewhere.
And you know what?
That's the business of sports.
That's how that works.
And, you know, so you look at whether it's Willie Domus or Chris Middleton or others, you sometimes get a warm welcome back, and sometimes not so much.
And that was definitely the case for Miles Turner.
And again, given all the grief that I've heaped upon Craig Council, I'm not one to really criticize, but there is something about going to a division rival as opposed to going somewhere else.
It does add a little something.
It would have been poetic to tell you that the Bucks did win on a buzzer beater that it would have come from Miles Turner.
It did not.
It, of course, came from Giannis Anatocumpo.
33 points.
Last night including a buzzer beater for the bucks to pull off a win 117 to 115 over the Pacers they right away traveled to toronto for a game tonight And then they will be home friday versus chicago And one last time We get to make fun of cambell university and the fighting camels And if i asked you cambell university are they the fighting camels or the fighting camels or the fighting camels soup cans or the the chicken noodles
I don't know how many people would have actually said the fight in camels But they are well, they didn't they didn't fight a lot they they lost by 32 96 to 64 the badger men's basketball team ranked 24th in the country but The ap story about this and I don't know if you saw any of this parker, but the game was closer than the final score reflected Yes, Campbell was only down by five with less than eight minutes left 67 62
But then Wisconsin scored 15 straight points to put the game away.
Yeah.
The, uh, the badgers went on a 31 for run, I think over the last like nine minutes or something like that.
So, uh, also a slow start for the badgers again.
And I'm not going to really say that the game against Platteville was exactly a telling thing, but when you see it in an actual game, it's like, okay, let's, let's kick it down a little bit here.
Let's.
We'll get the horses going.
It's what I thought.
I thought that's what the Packers were going to do to Carolina.
Like, okay, we'll just pour it on at the end and we'll be fine.
And of course,
we're not fine.
The Badger Men's basketball team now will host Northern Illinois on Friday.
Coverage will begin at 7pm on several Civic Media stations.
Then on Saturday, the Badger football team is back in action against Washington.
Coverage begins at 9 o'clock Saturday morning.
on some of the stations of the civic media radio network and then on saturday the badger mens hockey team plays at michigan they actually play friday and saturday you can hear saturday's game on wfhr in wisconsin rapids and wjms in ironwood michigan one of the new civic media stations that again is saturday at 6 30 and then uh no packer game on sunday because it's monday night football where they are playing the philadelphia eagles
And Jair Alexander.
And Jair
Alexander,
who was just traded to the Eagles.
Yes.
So that should be a very interesting game on Monday night.
Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation Area joins us after this.
I'm Pat Kratlow.
You're up north.
Hey, we have added a couple of new ways for you to follow the show on social media.
On Facebook, we have mornings with Pat Krightlow at the page.
And then on Twitter and Blue Sky, we have a new account, PK Radio Show, PK Radio Show on Twitter and Blue Sky, Instagram and TikTok.
You can follow me at Pat Krightlow.
Here's Dan Schaefer.
I'm going to say good morning to him so that I can take a little sip of water here.
Mr. Schaefer, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning, Mr. Crichtlow.
Always wonderful to join you here on Mornings with Pat Crichtlow, powered by Up North News.
Did I get the full name this time?
Yes, you did.
And I appreciate that very much.
I think maybe maybe I got a catch in my throat.
I was looking at the lake, which Sunday and Monday had white caps on it from the wind.
And this morning is as smooth as glass.
It's just a lovely but chilly morning here up north.
We have our usual run of political topics that we want to talk about.
We also of course are following the breaking news about the death of former vice president Dick Cheney that you'll be hearing about throughout the day here on Civic Media, but I want to pick up on something we talked about in our last hour about in the city of Eau Claire
and they're considering taking one of the major streets downtown from four lanes down to two lanes adding more street parking kind of slows things down and we saw that that's we've seen that done in other places Dan and if there's anybody who I know is my go-to person on
You don't need to add an extra lane everywhere.
It would be you, and your discussion not only of the I-94 there through Milwaukee, but I-794, that elevated freeway through downtown.
You've had a thing or two to say about whether you still need that elevated freeway to nowhere, or if you could actually turn it into a parkway downtown.
Yeah, there's you know, it's it's funny you bring this up today, because yesterday began the was the official kickoff for the I 94 widening project in Milwaukee, where they will be adding lanes in each direction, which I am not thrilled about.
But I'm glad that Eau Claire is making decisions that are more community minded, bringing those lanes down.
And I think we've seen several success stories of that Milwaukee taking down the kind of unnecessary Park East freeway.
spur about 20 years ago or so now and that
you know, opening up a ton of development, which is where Pfizer form in the box in the deer district is now resides.
So you can you can turns out if you get rid of overbuilt roadways, you can actually use that space for development for all kinds of things that can make a city and community more vibrant.
Yeah, I think about that.
You know, the park east freeway, of course, there's the stadium freeway that, you know, isn't really a
a freeway and again, just kind of another unnecessary
freeway
spur.
It's a
racetrack to Wendy's basically.
That's what it is in Milwaukee right now.
That's true.
I grew up in a part of St.
Paul where again, there was a just, you know, an unfinished freeway forever that eventually became, you know, 35 E through St.
Paul.
But again, as as a parkway rather than as something where everybody's speeding through it 80 miles an hour, it turns out you don't actually need that in some places.
So
highways are great for going to cities, not through cities.
Putting highways through cities tends to create all kinds of problems that we don't want.
I like that.
Have you
put that any place else?
You really should.
I probably have, but you know, I've lost track of all the things that I've had to say about highway widening over the years.
I'll
bet.
Dan Shea, for sure, you can follow him through his newsletter, therecombobulationarea.news.
Well, here we are one year away from the elections in Wisconsin for governor, Congress, legislature, things like that.
I don't know what you thought things would look like a year out, but I'll ask it anyway.
Do things look like how you thought they might look a year out?
Or did you expect like even more?
candidates for governor or things like that?
I think it's shaping up about how I expected, as far as the governor's race goes, I was expecting Josh Call to run.
So I think that is the one difference of what my expectations would be going into this.
I also think on the Republican side, I thought
possibly Brian Stile would consider running for governor, but he is he is running for reelection in Wisconsin's first congressional district, which frankly, I think is good news overlooked to good news for Democrats, because I think Stile would be probably the most formidable statewide candidate of any of the members of Congress from Republican members of Congress from the state.
But I think, you know, largely it's looking out like we expected.
I think there are some as far as the legislature goes, I think there are some, you know, still some big decisions looming.
on a number of key races, particularly in the state Senate, which I think Democrats, you know, that a lot of candidates have really announced early.
They have been pretty aggressive in putting out, you know, getting ahead of the game here.
And, you know, we had candidates announcing for state Senate before announcing for governor.
So I think that, you know, goes to show how much focus there's going to be from state Senate Democrats around this time.
Dan Schaffer is our guest, Civic Media's political editor.
and writer for the recombobulationarea.news, the newsletter site that he founded and has a really, really good overview of the governor's race in this one particular area.
Now I'm going to share my two cents first and then I want your your take from what you wrote over at the recombobulation area.
Former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.
Now, he came within a whisker of unseating Senator Ron Johnson, who, as I've said frequently, in my view, his campaign carcass was dragged over the finish line by billionaires who put tens of millions of dollars into racist ads.
And yet it's Mandela Barnes who's the target of some not so subtle talk in Democratic circles that he shouldn't run for governor because he didn't beat Johnson and the billionaires in 2022.
So Dan, you've summed all this up.
The New York Times did a story about it recently.
Milwaukee Journal, the Milwaukee Courier with an editorial on why you shouldn't run.
Can you make the case both ways as to why Mandela Barnes could, should run for governor or should not run for governor?
Yeah, I absolutely can because I do think it is a tough decision.
And I think, you know, the piece that I wrote published last week at the Reconvibulation Area looks back at Mandela Barnes' 2022 campaign, at which I think people have
you know, kind of drawn their own conclusions of to kind of map onto their own priors and whatever it might be.
But my take on this was that his 2022 campaign was both overrated and underrated at the same time.
And underrated first in the sense that I think he did overcome a whole lot of obstacles that many other candidates would not have been faced with.
You know, you're right, there were a whole lot of very racist ads run largely by a group
called the Wisconsin Truth Pack, which was funded by the ULINE family and the Dian Hendricks that they spent.
you know, tens of millions of dollars that really had no equivalent on the side supporting Barnes.
I think that financial discrepancy was something that he had to overcome.
I think he proved himself to be a pretty strong fundraiser by the end of things in the race.
And I think he also had to overcome.
And I think at the end of the day, like he wasn't a uniquely bad candidate.
It's just he was running against a well funded two term incumbent in a Republican advantage midterm.
And he came within a
coin flip away of winning the race.
And I think people can, you know, make more of that than maybe what it actually is.
But then I think there is also the overrated side of this too, which is that if you look at some of the mistakes that the campaign made, you know, I don't think they were truly tested by a primary.
There's no, you know, real negativity in that race.
I think primaries are good.
I think there's this iron sharpens iron quality that can make a candidate ready.
for the general election.
And I think that was one of the Barnes campaign's biggest problems is that they were not ready for the general election when the inevitable onslaught of these ads came after the primary in August and early into September.
And I think they were flat footed in that.
I think the ad that they put out in response to it was awful.
And I think they making that like the main ad that they were running throughout the campaign where, you know, you remember the ad that he's unpacking the bag of groceries and talking
about how they're saying lies about me and reminding people, curiously reminding people of the positions that they are also attacking him on, which I think was a huge mistake.
And so I think there were certain tactical and strategic errors in that campaign.
And part of my point in that column was that if Mandela Barnes is going to run again, and he, you know, he might, he probably will, who knows exactly, but if he's going to run again, I don't think the campaign that he would run in 2026 should look like the one he ran.
in 2022.
I think that was a too-safe, consultant-fied, risk-averse campaign, and I think there were errors in that that meant that led to him not winning.
It's not just the money, it's not just the incumbency.
Part of it is the race that he ran to.
Dan Schaeffer is with us from the recombobulation area.
You can read his column, Barnes22, revisited at therecombobulationarea.news.
This aspect of the primary that wasn't.
and that you had Alex Lazary, Tom Nelson, Sarah Godluschi, all dropping out pretty much one by one, you know, along the way.
It did kind of have this look of clearing the field, but I know that Alex Lazary for one has said
What are we talking about here?
It was clear he was going to win.
I'd either have to go nuclear to have a chance or we could, you know, just get our eventual nominee, the head start that he needs to run.
And it sounds like you're not entirely buying that.
Well, I think by the time that they dropped out, I think Mandela had consolidated enough support in the primary to win.
I don't think Lazer or Gauduski would have won that primary, even if they fought it all the way to the finish line.
But I'm talking about the like.
You know, I mean, Tom Nelson was running in this race for before the 2020 election was even done.
Like I think there were some debates that could have been had in that primary well before.
the decision from a number of those candidates to drop out.
And I think that is when, you know, you have you would have those iron sharpens iron situations.
I remember there was one debate that I attended in Milwaukee for that.
And I thought there was a good conversation to be had among those candidates.
And I just don't feel like we ever really had it.
And I think, you know, I think Democrats are so risk averse in so many ways.
And just like, well, we're not going to beat up this candidate who
you know, is probably going to be the nominee.
But at the same time, not I think him being so flat footed out of the primary and not being ready to respond to the the inevitable onslaught of ads because we all knew this was coming.
Like we all knew this was going to happen as soon as he won the primary that they were going to load up the super packs and everything else and come after him.
The fact that they were so flat footed and coming out of that was was, you know, a
Perhaps I've heard people say that that is when they lost the race is that they were so flat footed and coming out of that that primary That they lost the general election because of
it.
Yeah, Tony puts up on YouTube I was volunteering on Tom Nelson's campaign and when he dropped out it was clear there was no path He did go negative against Mandela Barnes.
I remember that and it got no traction Least of this question if Mandela Barnes decides to get in
Does he get in and right away basically start throwing elbows at his primary opponents to show that he's not a punching bag or is it that he becomes the best at punching at the Republican brand and making a name for himself?
If you're giving him advice, how does he treat the primary?
Yeah, I think you know, I wouldn't come right out and just be really combative because I don't think this race has a clear frontrunner But I think you want to go after you you want to let people know that this is a race That's I think a race for senator is very different from a race for gun And you want to let people know that you are in tune with what the major issues going on in the state are And speak to those and speak to where Republicans have failed on this and try to draw that distinction right out of the gate instead of
Doing what he did last time and just waiting for those attacks to come and then backpedaling to varying degrees of success.
Yeah, I mean again the the the the only
the best offense is to go on offense.
The best defense is a good offense.
That takes us to the Milwaukee Bucks.
We'll get to that maybe in our next segment here with Dan Schaefer.
From the Reconbobulation area, I'm Pat Critello.
We'll have some final news and notes from Lake Wissota coming up here.
And again, a reminder, Congressman Mark Pocan will be with us tomorrow at 7.35.
I'm Pat Critello.
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.
I don't really get too deep into the comment section, not to encourage the trolls, but I have to share one of my favorite ones here.
Another POS lib in the media go away Go away pal you turned it on Move to another page go away.
Yeah, right.
I'm just gonna go to dark and rush Limbaugh's best ofs will pop up here in just a moment It's a Tuesday morning.
It's November 4th and we're talking to Dan Schaefer from the reconbobulation area civic media's political editor and one of the Newsworthy items from the past few days has been the latest Marquette poll and
The thing I liked about talking about it is that it isn't the horse race stuff.
I mean, yes, they did ask about the candidates for governor and, of course, the usual job approval things.
But there was some interesting stuff on just the issues themselves.
What kinds of things stuck out to you from the market poll?
Yeah, I think the horse race polling on the governor's race was not particularly enlightening for the
numbers there.
Every Democrat running for governor was within the margin of error of the entire poll.
So I don't think there's a whole lot that we can learn from there.
But I think the issue polls that Marquette included here give us a good snapshot of just kind of where we're at and what issues matter one year out from the governor's race.
And so the
the market pulled what are people's top concerns and what has people very concerned.
And inflation and tariff concerns rank very high on this.
Inflation and the cost of living is still a very concerning issue to nearly 70% of voters in the state that leads the way by a comfortable margin, followed by health insurance, public schools, and gun violence, and jobs in the economy.
And then if you look at what is the most important issue,
inflation and the cost of living leading the way considerably there, 27% of Wisconsin voters saying that is the most important issue followed by illegal immigration and border security, health insurance, and jobs in the economy.
But if you look at some of the details within this, Wisconsinites are very much against tariffs.
You know, I think this is really emerging as
A major weakness for the Republican Party is their position on tariffs under Trump.
I think he had, you know, Trump had fairly strong marks on the economy throughout his first term.
Those are cratering now.
And I think the question is asked of whether tariffs help or hurt the economy.
55 percent of voters said it hurts the economy.
Only 33 percent said it helps.
11 percent said it doesn't make much difference.
And then also when it comes to Wisconsin farmers as well, people can
also recognize that these tariffs are very much hurting Wisconsin farmers.
62% of Wisconsin voters say it hurts Wisconsin, say tariffs are hurting Wisconsin farmers.
Only 16% say it's helping.
And even in regions of the state that are traditionally, you know, maybe more supportive of President Trump or a little bit redder in the north and west part of the state, only 12% of voters say tariffs are helping, helping Wisconsin farmers.
And I think, you know, and
Milwaukee as well, the tariff opposition is the most pronounced there of any region of the state.
So I think if we're looking at issues that Democrats are going to focus on going into the midterms, we're seeing the cost of living and affordability emerges a major part of some of these fall races that we're seeing in New York City and New Jersey and Virginia.
But I think tariffs in particular are really going to emerge as a major issue going into the midterms.
When people say are there still issues that cut across party lines, there most definitely are.
There's like proposals to allow concealed carry of guns without a license.
That's opposed by nearly 80% of everybody's surveyed.
Should businesses be required to provide paid family leave for mothers and fathers of newborns, 77% favor that.
That includes 64% of Republicans.
So Dan, we talk about politics being broken.
There are definitely issues.
somebody can run on and get bipartisan support.
Not everything has to be divisive.
There definitely is.
There are a number of issues that most Wisconsinites do agree on, even in this 50-50 divided state.
I want to pull out one more result here that I think is interesting for us to focus on.
Marquette basically pulls all of the three branches of government in the state of Wisconsin on their approval rating.
So voters remain broadly positive on Tony Evers.
He's a net plus five in his approval rating.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court, despite conservatives freaking out.
about the liberal majority is viewed also very positive and net plus five.
The most negativity though is for the legislative branch a net minus 11.
And I think that result has some added significance now with Democrats having the opportunity for their first trifecta in more than 15 years.
And I think this with the state Senate for reelection under new maps for the half of the state Senate and under new maps for the first time.
I think this number.
matters more now than it maybe has in years past because I think people are and have been for a while, not.
Approving of the job this legis this Republican controlled legislature is doing
and and then one more I toss out should those enhanced tax credits for health insurance purchase through the Affordable Care Act be extended 58% of people surveyed in Wisconsin say yes So so there you go.
God can't can't leave without talking about The Bucks and that buzzer beater by Yanis yesterday last yeah, how about that?
Miles Turner did not get a warm welcome and we're we're torn on whether
It's because he went to a division rival, or if Indiana fans just couldn't appreciate what they had.
You know, I think if Indiana fans should be booing anybody, they should be booing their ownership in front office who did not spend to keep Miles Turner on their team.
My friend Eric Naim, the reporter at the F-Bucks reporter at the Athletic reported that they only offered Turner a shorter term, not very
well-compensated contract considering the type of player that he is.
And the Bucks offered a four-year, $100 million contract.
And the Pacers, I think, only offered like three years, 65 or something like that.
OK.
So I think the difference is a little bit financial there.
They should be booing their ownership and not Miles Turner.
Sounds like it.
Dan Schaefer, read what he has at the recombobulationarea.news.
Dan, thank you so much.
Have a great day.
Thanks.
Be well.
All right, appreciate it very much.
Coming up next, Matt Nair on air.
I'll be joining Jane and Greg coming up about 935 or so.
My thanks to today's guests, congressional candidate Emily Berge, Dan Hagen, James Kelly, Dan Schaefer there, Hans Brighton Moser, Keith Phelps and Scott Hirschberger taught us so much about forest management and more carbon capture to help a changing climate.
Thanks to all of them and thanks to you for joining us.
I'm Pat Critello from Up North News.
Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday.
We'll see you bright and early back here tomorrow morning, 6 a.m.
here up north.
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.
