Is AOC Running for Congress in Wisconsin? (Hour 3)

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Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Critello, powered by Up North News.

Now, from our Lake Wissota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Critello.

Hey, good morning.

Welcome back.

Nice to have you here.

Up North on this Thursday morning, November 20th, 806 is the time right now.

Joseph Becky coming up in just a bit, and we will talk about the end of the legislative activity.

for 2025.

The Senate a couple days back, the Assembly yesterday passed some bills, left a lot of things undone, and so we'll find out what you're getting for your money.

as you pay this full-time salary to all these legislators.

Coming up from Joe in our next half hour, but first, let's check in with Chad Holmes from 98.9 WXCO, who was on a break last week, got to do a little time off in between sports seasons.

I did see it post.

You were at a Chicago Blackhawks game, if memory serves.

Oh, I also saw you sitting at Johnny Carson's desk at a broadcasting museum.

That was cool.

Yeah.

No Ed McMahon next to me, though.

That was disappointing.

Yes.

It was fun to sit behind Johnny's desk.

It was actually a cool place to go to.

They had a Centennial thing about Johnny Carson, his life, and also a big late night display, talking about basically history of late nights from the beginning right through the latest controversies.

I mean, they were right on top of it.

With the Kimmel and Colbert

and

everything else.

So it was really cool.

They had and also a couple of other things that were so fun When I was younger we got cable television, I think I was about 10 11 years old that's when cable TV came and of course WGN was the big Super station and Every morning as I would wake up would turn on the bozo show and see bozo circus on WGN And they had the grand prize game and they had a bozo

Exhibit and I was able to play the grand prize game finally after all these years

Fortunately,

I did not get all the way to the end, but it was still fun to do and also there was the as part of the museum of broadcast communications That's where they whole whole have the radio Hall of Fame.

So I went there to

Pitch myself and they were not too interested.

It's my

time yet.

Okay.

They said, uh, don't call us.

We'll call you.

Yeah.

Very nice.

And how'd you like being at the Blackhawks game?

Oh, it was fantastic.

I mean, it was really good seats and, uh, uh, hockey is of the sports that I've been, I've been able to go, you know, see the Brewer's major league baseball been to a Pfizer forum for basketball and, uh, but hockey live is.

the best.

It's the best.

It's far and away

the best.

Yep.

I mean

The way that you feel the game, the way that you see the game is so much better than it is on television.

And to see these guys, I mean, these are big guys, the way they move around the ice.

And I mean, sometimes I'm watching it, I'm thinking, how the heck is anybody going to score?

I mean, how are you going to break through these other guys whose number one job is to stop you from getting to the gold tender?

But I mean, it was fantastic.

And I got to tell you, and not to say anything good about Chicago people, because I'm not really, I'm not a Black Box fan.

I was rooting for New

Jersey.

There's nobody's a Black

Hawk.

But I will say that they were passionate.

It was an energy, the way that the whole game night experience was put together.

It was very, very impressive.

The United Center, I'd never been there.

It's a fantastic place to be.

I mean, I was kind of blown away by the entire experience.

I'd only been to one previous NHL game that was in Anaheim, the Mighty Ducks.

Oh, yes.

And I got to tell you, the experience was completely different because the fans here in the upper Midwest, I think, are just more...

into it, more passionate about it.

You just you feel the game so much better.

There is a website somewhere and I haven't done it for this season, but they track for all the NHL teams their their goal celebration, the horn that they blow.

Sometimes it's a fog horn, train whistle, whatever.

And then the songs that they play.

And I don't remember the song that the Blackhawks play, but it's kind of a catchy little thing.

I think

Chelsea

Dagger.

Chelsea Dagger, that's it.

That's a catchy little tune.

unless, you know, the team that uses it scores on you.

Then you hate, you

hate hearing that song.

You just hate it.

But yeah, that's,

but it is cool.

I mean, they, they did it three times last Wednesday night.

And, uh, you know, that, yeah, you're exactly right.

That's, they brought that from the old Chicago stadium.

I mean, that

was

like the.

back when they were in the stadium, which was called the Madhouse on Madison.

You know, and it truly is.

I mean, it's still just incredible.

I mean, the thing was, it was a TV game.

It was the second game of a national TV doubleheader.

So instead of normally where you start at seven o'clock, this game did not have the opening faceoff until 8.52 on a Wednesday night.

So I'm thinking that, you know, it's going to be maybe keep people

down a little bit because so many folks have to go back to work the next morning and this game would be over, you know, until like 1130 at night.

But nope, it was packed to the gills.

It was still just as passionate.

The people were just into it.

It was fantastic.

Oh, that's great.

We're talking to Chad Holmes from 98.9 WXCO.

You can catch him throughout the course of our morning show here, talking to local guests, but he was away last week.

and attending things and when you talk about you know going to a hockey game and now of course for from an NHL standpoint you know you pretty much got the state divided in half as far as your closest game is either a Blackhawks game in Chicago or a Minnesota wild game over in St.

Paul but you know again seriously everybody's a Packers fan you know people like the Brewers and the the Bucks and the Badgers and all that but if you get it unless you're like I'm a died heart baseball fan so

A lot of people think baseball is a little too boring to watch, you know, but I won't.

I love the intricacies.

Football, though, you get there and you realize just how much is on TV and you don't see it when you're sitting in the stadium.

Now, I'll still go.

Don't get me wrong.

But football is very much a TV sport now, whereas hockey on TV is definitely not for everybody because it's kind of the back and forth, back and forth.

But when you are there in the arena watching hockey and it doesn't necessarily have to be an NHL game, everybody knows I follow a particular college hockey.

team.

And even Milwaukee, you know, has the admirals and there's other minor league hockey teams out there that, again, this is just a general, a general plug for going to see a hockey game live, even if it's your high school, local high school hockey game, you're going to see some good stuff there.

Oh, absolutely.

And when you talk about, you know, going to a Packer game or a Badger game, even because I don't think you realize until you're actually there at the game, how long and how many timeouts there are.

Yeah.

I mean, because when you're at home, you can go, go to the refrigerator.

You can go, you know, grab a bite to eat.

You can, you can, you'll do things.

You can flip to the other game.

That's on the other network.

Boy, I mean, it's amazing how long those timeouts feel when you're just, you're sitting there in the crowd, especially on a cold day.

Yes.

But that's the hockey game.

The same way you do at a football game.

Yeah.

In much the same way that basketball, you know, first you think, Oh, there's less than a minute left.

That less than a minute left can go 10, 15 minutes.

sometimes if need be between the timeouts and the commercials and everything else.

You mentioned that you might engage in a little bit of your favorite personal activity, a little poker playing.

Did you get any of that in?

I did not.

Again, it was a case where I have the theory that you have to really feel it.

Okay,

I didn't feel it I didn't feel like I was ready to because you have to basically if you're if you do well It would be for the first day you'd be doing it for about you know 12 hours and you'd come back and finish up the next day I did not have I felt the patience.

Yeah

I just felt like I'm just gonna go, I'm gonna go walk downtown Chicago, gonna go to the museum, gonna go to the game, just gonna go hang out and try to survive trying to find parking downtown Chicago and do all that good stuff.

So I decided, no, I'm just gonna do some R&R this time around.

Now, because you are on break, you may not have been following this, but I'll ask anyway, since the state high school football championships start today, divisions four through seven today, divisions one, two and three tomorrow,

Obviously, you're not down there covering things.

So I don't know from a local standpoint that there's much to watch.

But do you see any storylines that are worth following as you look at the matchups?

Well, we have one area team.

That's Edgar.

Of course, Edgar.

Of course, Edgar.

And or Stratford perennials.

Well, I really am appreciative of Edgar coach Jerry Sins because obviously this week was a very busy week and being a Thursday afternoon game that they have at 1 o'clock today.

I reached out to him to say, Hey, would you be able to come on our high school sports show, which I do on Wednesday evenings?

And we were able to set up a time at eight o'clock on Tuesday night where he was just away.

This finished up a family birthday party and I was able to catch him and have a good discussion with him.

So I mean, that was very, very big of him to take the time as just before heading down to Madison yesterday, but.

Edgar has won two straight state championships the last two years in division seven, but because the WIAA has the success quotient now,

they

were moved up to division six and they are going for a third consecutive state championship and it's been quite a run here in the playoffs.

They've had three games of the four that were one score games and they've been right down to the wire.

They kept finding ways to win and Jerry Sins has been the coach at Edgar for more than 50 years and he's won an incredible number of championships, but one thing they've

done is win three in a row and they're gonna have a chance to do that today against Darlington and another thing that kind of jumps out about these seven games is today there are four games there are eight teams involved seven of which are 13 and oh and one is 12 and one I mean I've never seen Wow

so many undefeated teams going head-to-head in a game and to have four games with one loss combined between all the teams.

And then tomorrow there's three more teams that are 13 and 0 play-in.

And then there's a 12-1 team, an 11-2 team, and then a team that actually lost three games this season.

I mean, the level of success that the 14 teams that are going to be on the field at Camp Randall today and tomorrow is just...

really amazing.

It sounds the opposite of what we've been saying about the NFL that right now we're in a phase that you would call parody where everybody's pretty much on a level playing field where as for these high school teams right now there are dynasties in waiting and then there's everybody else.

Yeah and I like greatness.

Sometimes whether it's in different sports, I follow different sports and sometimes in certain sports, they'll say, well, the same team wins all the time or the same guy wins all the time.

That makes it boring.

I don't think that's boring at all.

I think seeing greatness is great.

I think that that means, you know, those folks, usually you either love them or hate them.

You either root for them really hard or you hate them.

I just sometimes find the whole idea of parody being a little milk toast.

Oh,

yeah.

I'm not a big fan of trying to make parody.

Hey, if it is parody, fantastic.

But was it Pete Rosell?

I think in the day, the whole goal was to have everybody finish eight and eight.

No, no,

no.

Back then they got so tired of Dallas and Pittsburgh being the winners all the time.

Well, mission accomplished on the Dallas front.

Thank

you, Jerry.

You work at the 70s.

I mean, you had Miami, you know, they went back to back and they were perfect.

Then they had Pittsburgh win four times.

You had Dallas win a couple.

The Raiders were great, but they kept losing.

Except for the one year they beat the Vikings in the Super Bowl.

So, I mean, you had truly great teams then.

And then you're right.

After that, it's been a lot of, you know, ups and downs.

Of course, you've had some franchises.

I mean,

Again, I'm not a fan of Bella check at all, but I mean it can't argue with

the results.

I know you can I mean in this era what he was able to accomplish in New England It blows the mind to be honest with you.

I mean, I don't know exactly how you could be able to do it

other than the fact he did have a guy at quarterback that seems to have been a linchpin because when he did go, Bill does not look quite as brilliant as he once did.

Although again, that guy, Mr. Brady, expectations were not high for him at all.

He's very much a Bart Starr-like figure.

Bart Starr was a 17th round draft pick for the Packers.

Nobody thought he was going to do anything.

And then he ends up winning five Super Bowls.

I mean, five NFL championships and a couple of Super Bowls.

So I think the stories between Brady and Starr are similar, except Brady, did you see the story Brady?

Cloned his dog?

Yes, we've had a lot of fun

with that.

Our star would not clone his dog.

No, that's

it.

Let's make that clear.

Chad Holmes, you can hear him on 98.9 WXCO.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

We'll talk to you in a couple of weeks.

Thank you, Pat.

All right, we'll talk to you later.

Joseph Peckie is on the way as well and still inviting your stories about Thanksgiving Day, the disasters and the heartwarming ones as well at 8-5-5-7-5 Civic.

I'm Pat Critello from Up North News.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

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Welcome back.

It's a Thursday morning coming up on 823 right now.

We've got a great team at Up North News.

Of course, you hear from reporter Selena Heller on Mondays.

And then on Thursday mornings around 6.20, Sharita Booker, our social media manager, comes in and talks about some of the big events happening around Wisconsin for the coming weekend that you might consider attending.

And then there's Ellie Bordo, who puts together our daily newsletter.

And in today's newsletter are nine different winter festivals that are especially worth note in Wisconsin and maybe worth your while to plan for and travel to.

And you can catch up with all that Ellie writes about Wisconsin over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

Click subscribe.

drive up in the top banner and see her weekday newsletter.

And then of course my Sunday morning one, which has more of a bent toward politics and especially Wisconsin politics.

And to that end, I've noticed that now of course there's going to be an open seat up north here in the seventh congressional district.

And one of those PACs, political action committees is coming in with all kinds of out of state money to help somebody who's running and that somebody happens to be

Sean Duffy's son-in-law, who is running for the seat on the Republican side up here in the 7th District.

According to WISPolitics, a new super PAC is going to spend six figures on a media buy to back Republican Michael Alfonso, and he is running of course as not just Sean Duffy's son-in-law, but as a close ally of President Trump.

The group is called Northwood's Future Pack.

It was created about three weeks before Alfonso even started his campaign in late October, and it is going to be spending just over a quarter of a million dollars, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission.

It's the first significant ad spending in the race, which again, Tom Tiffany is vacating to run for governor.

The group did not list contact information on its filing with the FEC according to WISPolitics, but according to one of the spots that has been seen

It features Alfonso in the campaign launch, talking about his grandparents fleeing communism.

The ad also shows images of Zoran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also of New York City.

Did you know that AOC and Zoran Mamdani are running for Congress in northern Wisconsin?

You didn't?

Well, I mean, based on what this pack is going to be running for commercials on behalf of Sean Duffy's son-in-law, Michael Alfonso, you're going to want to watch out for Mom Donnie and AOC as if they're going to be on the ballot in northern Wisconsin.

Because again, when you can't win on your ideas, you create boogeymen.

You always got to create something like that.

The commercial says Alfonso will partner with President Trump to defeat the radical left, defend freedom and protect Wisconsin.

really defend freedom and protect Wisconsin from what?

Affordable prices?

Is that what they're gonna do?

Because we just got done talking about how with Tom Tiffany and Derek Van Orden and others, there's no independence to represent Northern Wisconsin.

I mean, I ask in all sincerity to have you tell me what Tom Tiffany can point to for a legislative achievement that has directly

benefited Northern Wisconsin.

He's not there to fight for his district.

He's there to fight for his base and doesn't bring home the bacon, as they like to say.

And Alfonso's promising more of the same.

I mean, look at how Sean Duffy has debased himself since becoming one of Trump's cabinet secretaries.

Trump, like others before him, Scott Walker and more, we're trying to warn people of the dangers of Trumpism and that, you know, Donald Trump should not become the nominee

But boy, once it became clear that he was going to be the guy, they could not give up their party fast enough.

This party that used to be a bulwark against, you know, Russian influence in the world, now kowtows to whatever Vladimir Putin wants.

This is a party that has taken

Trickle down economics to new levels rather than governing.

Look at the trick that Robin Voss pulled in the assembly yesterday.

This one man is holding up a bill that would benefit so many women in Wisconsin.

But again, it's a group that's only putting ideology first.

Michael Alfonso, near as I can tell,

I'm looking for the qualifications besides being Sean Duffy's son-in-law.

I'm looking for local service, elected office, anything.

There might be something that I'm forgetting or that I haven't seen.

But if you're looking just to create a family dynasty, you know, much like people want Donald Trump Jr.

or maybe Eric Trump or others to run for office, we're not looking for another family business here in Wisconsin, okay?

I mean, this is a district up north that elected Dave Obey for 40 years.

You know why?

He brought home the bacon.

You can see it in the infrastructure that's up there.

You can see it in what was brought back in terms of making sure that workers saw benefits.

Somebody that did not forget rural Wisconsin.

Thankfully the state still has a senator like Tammy Baldwin who despite being a Madison native there is nobody that fights for rural Wisconsin in this state more than Tammy Baldwin period end of sentence.

more so than Tom Tiffany, much more so than Derek Van Orden, and more so, I would tell you, than Michael Alfonso could ever dream of doing.

That's why there's still no farm bill.

You've had Republicans running the House of Representatives for a number of years now, and they can't do any of those things.

You know what they can do?

They can scare people about AOC and Zoran Mamdani, who won office in New York City.

but they go on office by talking about affordability.

That's one of the greatest freedoms of all, is that you're free to be able to afford the things that you need to raise a family, to get an education, to get a better job.

That's the kind of thing we should be working on.

And instead, you've got Donald Trump saying, well, we live in a new golden age when it's actually much more of a gilded age.

So if you're looking for another Trump puppet, sure, you can go with somebody there.

I personally see on the Democratic side, Fred Clark making a real name for himself and making the pitch that maybe it's time for that district up north to swing back to a representative who'd actually give a damn about them.

Joseph Becky is coming up next.

You're up north.

Nice to have you back.

It's a Thursday morning, one week to go till Thanksgiving.

8.35 is the time right now and the Wisconsin legislature has wrapped up most of their action for calendar 2025.

The session will continue with a little bit of work in early 2026, not much.

based on past performance, it's pretty clear that Republican leadership will once again send legislators home, perhaps as early as late February, to take essentially a 10 month paid vacation while they all campaign for a reelection.

That's despite there being a lot of stuff to get done.

And so we're going to talk to Joseph Pecky about that right now, what got done, what didn't get done.

Joe, good morning.

How are you?

I'm okay.

All right.

Well, you know the big story, of course, and that is that you've got a bill that would expand a coverage, Medicaid expansion coverage for postpartum women instead of 60 days.

It would be 12 months.

It has the support of about three fourths of the assembly members, including nearly 30 Republicans.

But one guy, once again, this year, like last year, Assembly Speaker Robin Voss is standing in the way and

I'm not going to put a question to you, Joe.

I'm just going to say from a hypothetical standpoint, because I've been there, I know, if you had a caucus leader

who was blocking something that three-fourths of your members were a co-sponsor of, there would absolutely be a revolt.

I know because I was in the room when it happened when we replaced a majority leader right after a floor session because we felt that person had gotten out of touch with what the rest of the caucus wants.

And yet Robin Voss says, nope, I don't want this bill.

And all those Republicans yesterday, you know, from Patrick Snyder of Weston,

to Jesse Rodriguez of Oak Creek and others.

They're all co-sponsors and they just fell in line.

That would not have happened if this were happening on the Democratic side.

No, I think there's two things at play here.

The first of which is it's not whether a politician or an elected official is for something.

It's how much they care about it.

Yeah.

And how much they are actually for it as opposed to playing politics.

and doing the easy part, which is saying there for something, which would prevent largely black women from dying between three and 12 months after giving birth.

It is one thing to say, it is very easy to say, I'm for that.

And then you don't have to face really difficult questions and you get to parade around pretending that you're pro-life because that's what you say you are.

But that's different from actually supporting it and you know that Robin Voss is not that popular, not that well-liked, so you just get to hide behind his decisions.

That's one thing that could be going on here.

The other thing that could be going on here is Robin Voss is just out of craps, shall we

say.

to give because the rumors are that Mr. Voss will be retiring and going back to his business life.

And so he may not care if his caucus actually cares about stuff.

He's going to go out the way he is always operated, which is standing in the way of common sense things, public policy that even Arkansas has done.

There's like 48 states that have done this.

And, you know, so

Either way, it's a it's a terrible outcome for moms and new babies who are doing their best, usually in very, very difficult circumstances to try to take care of a new life.

And, you know, Robin Boston Republicans are happy to live with headlines and the reality that they could do a little something to make life a little bit better at almost no cost.

And they're like, we'd rather go home.

Yeah.

Yep, just put ideology ahead of women's health.

Cindy's on the line from Appleton.

Cindy, a lot of people on social media have comments about Robin Voss.

I can't put those on the radio, but Cindy, I can put you on the radio.

What's your thought on this?

Well, first of all, I just want to say I am behind a vehicle that has a bumper sticker that says freedom and next to it a bumper sticker that says I am pro life.

These people just can't connect the dots.

I don't get it.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if I don't know.

I can't imagine Robert Voss giving up his power and his ego manly stuff.

But if he's not going to be, I mean, if he is coming back, does anybody know if he's got competition running against him on the Democrat side with this election?

In his district?

Yes.

That would be...

Well, he's he's certainly been opposed.

And thank you, Cindy, opposed in Republican primaries as well as by Democrats.

I don't know the district well enough to know what it looks like for 2026, Joe.

I don't either.

But to the point about Robin Voss giving up power, he's not going to be in a position to give it up.

The voters of Wisconsin are going to take it away because when you look at the reality of new maps, there is a very straightforward path to the majority in the state Senate for Democrats.

And in the assembly, it's a narrower path, but it's eminently plausible.

And it was eminently plausible before we saw the election results in Virginia and New Jersey and Georgia and Pennsylvania.

And then over the last week,

a bunch of other data that suggests that 2026 is shaping up to be a nightmare for Republicans.

They have thrown all in with Donald Trump who lied to the American people, said he would lower their costs, and he isn't doing it, but he can find money to the tune of billions of dollars for Argentina, hundreds of millions of dollars to build a fancier ballroom.

The voters of this country and this state see what is happening,

and they are voting like it.

And so I don't think Robin Voss wants to stick around to be minority leader or a backbencher.

I think he is going to take the fact that he is one of the longest serving speakers in American history in any state legislature and pack it in.

And good riddance is what I say.

And good luck voters in trying to express the rage that families are feeling because they were lied to.

if they supported Donald Trump.

And if they didn't, they are not seeing anything out of Washington DC that is making their lives better.

Yeah, nor out of Madison.

We're talking to Joseph Pecky.

And for example, State Senator Jesse James will be facing off.

He's a Republican against State Senator Jeff Smith, a Democrat in a newly redrawn district.

And it was Jesse James who, you know, promised to help with the $15 million that had been budgeted for the Chippewa Valley for their, you know, for the hospitals that closed and addressing the health care crisis there.

Then he got nothing done there.

And another example back in the Assembly would be Representative Scott Krug.

who was talking big at the bar about getting Monday processing of absentee ballots.

And yet yesterday, when it came time to support an amendment on a bill by Representative Lee Snodgrass that would have allowed the processing of absentee ballots, the Republicans all shot it down and got crude excuse was, well, I'm smart enough to know I've been married twice and I have six kids.

I don't always get everything that I want.

Well, there's a real fighter for absentee ballot processing or anything else.

What does that even mean?

It

doesn't mean

anything.

What is

being married twice and having six kids have to do it?

These people.

I know.

All right.

Well, let's let's.

Let's carry on to other matters here.

There was a bill that would lead to an expansion of online sports gambling if done through Wisconsin Tribal Nations.

And that bill was put on pause with Majority Leader Tyler August saying that he still expects the votes to be there, but that it won't happen until at least January.

But a lot of people thought that that thing was rushing right on through.

And I would say, pardon the pun, but don't bet on this bill just yet.

I'm okay with that.

That may surprise you, Pat, but I think we need to have a real conversation in this state and in this country about the removal of friction between people and the ability to gamble.

For all of the talk in years past about crises in sports,

the conversation has been totally upside down.

There are like 12 transgender athletes playing college sports in the entire country.

Meanwhile, you know, kids as young as 16 are figuring out ways to, with their parents' phone or with lying about their age, just go online and spend all day betting on things that are ridiculous, right?

Is Russell Westbrook gonna have over under six and a half rebounds?

This is a

real cultural challenge that we have.

And we need to take our time to make sure we get this right.

There have to be safeguards in place.

I think with things like gambling, you need to have a little bit of friction.

And by friction, what I mean is you used to have to go to a casino.

It's

a place of bet, right?

You had to decide you wanted to do it and then get in the car and go and that creates lots of opportunities for people to think, but do

I

really need to gamble away my paycheck on something that I have no control over?

And the erasure of that friction I think is part of the economic anxiety that people are feeling right now.

So I have no problem with putting a pause on that one.

We cannot just keep saying yes to all this stuff before we have an actual conversation about it.

Yeah, Joseph Peckie with us now at 845 on this Thursday morning.

Another bill that didn't pass, we heard a lot from from Sheila Everhart of the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association.

This is about so-called wedding barns.

There was a long overdue overhaul of liquor laws in Wisconsin, how, you know, distributing alcohol, you know, beer, wine and spirits through from the brewers and distillers to the distributors to the retailers.

And that all got done, except that the folks who

these wedding venues and special events venues felt like they got the short end of the stick and they were really hoping for a follow-up bill that would have allowed them to continue holding events without needing to jump through all kinds of hoops for new liquor licenses.

But that was not taken up and Sheila sent us a note saying it's a sad day for Wisconsin agricultural event venues and then of course there was a Trampolo County judge yesterday.

who ruled against these wedding barns because of what the current law says.

And I'm just here to say that this is...

This is a real education, Joe, in the legislative process when it does not necessarily cut along partisan lines.

I think this is very much, you know, people who are in rural districts versus urban districts that are feeling pressure one way or the other from all of their bars and liquor stores versus all of their their wedding venues.

I mean, this one is a true example of grassroots democracy.

And we're going to hear more about this in 2026, I'm sure.

We should and you know the three tier system that you just described in terms of the alcohol industry was due for an update and they got that done.

What I would ask folks to think about is the people who own and operate these barns and these farms at a time when there is no soybean market for US grown soybeans anymore.

um when there are hurdle after hurdle to things like using some of your land to put up solar panels or wind turbines to try and generate revenue that way we are in a farm a family farm especially crisis in this state and in this country we need to

ensure that folks have the opportunity to have additional revenue streams and opening up the barn for a wedding venue or for parties or reunions is a common sense way to help local economies, especially in smaller communities.

and the inability to get this done for years now.

I mean, this is not a six months long debate.

This

has

been going on for years.

And the inability of politicians to get it done is part of why people are so dang frustrated with the state of our politics.

This should not be this difficult, period.

No, it shouldn't.

These venues, wedding bars and things, say, hey, look, we're not open 365 days a year, but we'll do about 18 to 24 weddings a year or events because there's only so much nice weather in the state.

But under the current law, they can only operate once a month, a maximum of six times a year.

And that's not going to cut it.

So some of these places are saying without a change in the law, they're facing going out of business.

And I don't think we're looking to push, we shouldn't be looking to push world businesses out of business here in the state of Wisconsin.

We're talking to Joseph Pecky.

We'll continue the conversation and have some final news and notes from Lake Wissota coming up in just a bit.

First, a reminder, again, you can sign up for our newsletters, UpNorthNewsWI.com.

And in terms of sports, well, there's a couple of things going on Friday.

There's Badger Men's Basketball at BYU coverage begins at

And then there's Badger Men's Hockey on a couple of stations.

Coverage begins 7 p.m.

Badger Men's Hockey at Michigan State.

I'm Pat

Critello.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Matt Nair on air is coming up next and they might have a little bit more to say Jane Matt Nair and Greg Bach about a little bit of breaking business news out of Madison where Exact Sciences a Madison company focusing on early cancer detection and personalized treatments is being acquired by Abbott in a 23 billion dollar deal

A press release says it will enhance Abbott's presence in the cancer diagnostics segment.

Shareholders of Exact Sciences will receive $105 a share.

total equity value of $21 billion under the agreement.

The acquisition will generate more than $3 billion in revenue this year.

Exact Sciences chair and CEO Kevin Conroy said it makes a statement about how Exact Sciences can accelerate our mission of eradicating cancer.

He thanked their 7,000 team members noting, quote, their journey has just begun.

I don't mean to sound cynical, but when two big companies come together, for some of those folks, that journey might not include future employment.

That's just the, when you're spending billions of dollars, you're looking for duplication wherever you can.

Back to our conversation now with Joseph Pecky, who knows a thing or two about how these business things work, but mostly the business of what's happening in Madison and in Washington DC.

Joe, we're in Washington this week.

We saw just some amazing flip-flops.

first by the president of the United States saying, sure, go ahead and pass a bill about the Epstein files.

And then every Wisconsin Republican, basically every Republican flipping because Donald Trump said it was okay.

And, you know, Joe.

I know I talk about the double standard a lot, but I've never actually heard the word flip-flop this week out of anybody, but I'll tell you what, if it was a Democrat in the White House and Democrats in Congress, boy, we'd be hearing about this nonstop, but it's just another day in whatever the Donald says they're gonna do.

I don't actually think it's a flip-flop.

I think it is.

Weakness manifest is the crumbling of an American presidency is the introduction of the steamiest lame duck soup you've ever imagined because Trump folded and like that that is not what he likes to do.

And I will just say that one of the things that has always been most offensive to me about Donald Trump.

is how stupid he thinks we are.

And I don't mean you and I, right?

Like, fine, he thinks we're stupid.

The lack of respect, the lack of belief in the intelligence of people who vote for him and have done so like three times is just nauseating.

That he can go from enlisting the attorney general of the United States, the FBI director, other senior administration officials to haul, you know,

Republican members of Congress who had signed the discharge petition into the situation room to try to stop this vote from happening.

And then when he can't do that, he can't intimidate somebody out of being for transparency and for exposing what may be a whole ring of pedophiles.

And then, you know, in the next breath go, yeah, I've always been for transparency on the Epstein files.

He thinks the people that voted for him are stupid.

And I don't.

And you don't.

And Democrats don't.

We may disagree with some choices you've made.

We may have different ideas about how to make this country even better.

But we never think as little of the intelligence of Trump voters as Donald Trump does.

And I think that's my takeaway.

I'm sorry, folks.

I don't know how else to put it other than he thinks you're stupid and that you can't use your brain to put two thoughts together.

And the thing is, when there are Republicans that point this out and say, look, we should not be beholden to this guy.

We should treat him like any other Republican president.

Sometimes we're going to have disagreements with him.

And now, I mean, anybody dares say that.

It's right away.

Well, we got to primary this person.

We've got, I mean, because they haven't fallen in line.

for simply speaking their truth.

And that's just not allowed in today's Republican Party.

Well, the Republican Party may be changing before our very eyes.

I really mean, I mean, the floor is dropping out of Trump's support.

He can't, you know, bend Congress to his will anymore.

And what Republicans just saw is like, you can take this guy on and win.

And that could actually be scarier.

in terms of what Trump will do from here on out.

But it is a good thing for the health of the Republican Party if they can figure out how to push back on the worst excesses.

And so here's my my friendly suggestion for Republican members of Congress from Wisconsin.

You just saw Tom Massey and other Republicans fight this president and win on something like the Epstein files.

How about the six Republican members of Congress from Wisconsin fight this president on the tariffs that are hammering Wisconsin's agricultural economy, hammering family farms?

Take him on, you can beat him.

I'm not gonna hold my breath, but if Republicans stood up and said, put an end to this madness with the tariffs, that would be good for Wisconsin farmers.

I don't think they'll do it, but they should

try.

They won't, but it is such a...

Jimmy Joe that I know that Derek Van Orden not necessarily Tom Tiffany.

He's in the tank.

There is there is no way he's putting any daylight between himself and Trump.

But a guy who talks big like Derek Van Orden would have been the

perfect person a congressperson relatively new from western wisconsin to say no sir this is what my farmers need in in this very large agricultural district and instead he was on tv again this week making excuses for the the tariffs that is the last thing that that district needs

yeah if you're tough enough to be a navy seal if you are tough enough to even in your older age

ride a motorcycle from lacrosse to washington dc you are tough enough to stand up to a president of your own party and say no this is wrong but apparently derrick van orden isn't that tough anymore that's my takeaway on it

yeah uh well he likes to talk tough if it's about you know democrats but that doesn't get anything done for him for him to get something done he's got to stand up to a a fellow republican that's going the wrong way on a very important issue jose pecky thank you happy thanksgiving we'll talk to you in a couple of weeks

Sounds good.

Enjoy.

All right.

And thanks to all of you for joining us on this Thursday morning.

Of course, we'll have a regular weekend review panel coming up tomorrow.

Dr. Kristen Lyrely as well as we get set to head into this opening weekend of gun deer season.

Hope all you hunters out there travel safe and have a successful hunt as well.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

Enjoy the rest of your Thursday.

We'll see you bright and early six a.m.

Back here tomorrow morning up north.

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