Good evening, folks.
Welcome to the Paul Revere Show.
This is Attorney Mark Thompson.
We are here every Monday night from 7 to 8 on Civic Media's WAUK 540 AM 101.1 FM.
As you all know,
The theme is keeping Wisconsin moving forward and we try to stay right on top of the focus of, you know, what's the battle for democracy looking like in this great state of Wisconsin.
And I thought it was a perfect time to have our fearless leader, minority leader in the assembly, Greta Neubauer back to give us the update as we
launch off into 2024 in campaigns and elections and elections coming up very quickly and huge elections in November.
Welcome back, Greta.
Thank you so much.
Always very happy to join you, Mark.
Well, thanks.
You know, I think since we last talked that, you know, we have a legislation.
I'm not legislation, a legal case pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court clerk on new maps.
And there were submissions from the legislature and the maps.
So why don't you just sort of give us a backdrop to that and then we'll talk about what happened today.
So what's happened on the maps?
Oh my gosh, there's new news every day.
So right now the state supreme court here in Wisconsin is considering a case on our maps.
They have thrown out the old maps put in place by Republicans just about a year ago.
These maps are very gerrymandered.
I'm sure your listeners know that.
With the state that is about a 50-50 voting state, Democratic and Republican, we have just about two-thirds in the state assembly and the state senate because these maps are so rigged and they do not provide the opportunity for everyone's voice to be heard equally in Wisconsin.
So the court threw out those maps just about a month ago.
And we are now in the remedy phase.
A number of parties, I believe there are six of them, have submitted maps to the court that they are going to consider and hopefully make a decision in about the next two months as to what the legislative maps will look like for the upcoming election cycle.
The Republicans submitted maps that
look very similar to the ones that we have right now.
They really ignored the guidance of the court, and they fixed just little pieces of the maps, but kept maps that are extremely unfair, that are extremely gerrymandered and favor Republicans.
And so it'll be very interesting to see what comes out of the court in the coming months.
But meanwhile, there's some action in the legislature too, so I'm sure we'll get into that.
Before we jump into the most recent events in the legislature, you know, I always like to remind the listeners that the current maps were actually declared unconstitutional by a federal court with Republican appointees that had looked at it and just said, you can't have elections fairly conducted.
If you have a split, almost 50-50 as you said, a purple state where your maps are rigged, where you have 66 virtual, you know, absolute majorities on that.
So, you know, in the assembly, last session, Speaker Voss, you can help.
Get me up there, but I believe there was a bill AB 415 that it was drafted in secret no input no public hearings and just popped it on the legislature and passed it and Sent it over to the Senate.
So what was it about AB 415?
He called it the Iowa model boss claim that this is the
the bill that Democrats have been asking for for years.
And so what's the the farce in that?
Or can you help me unpeel that onion?
Yes, of course.
So it will I'm sure not be surprising to your listeners that Republicans are going to do everything they can to try to hold on to these gerrymandered maps because they know.
that these maps almost guarantee them legislative majorities in both houses and that they're not ready to compete on fair maps.
They don't want to compete on fair maps.
They know that the people of Wisconsin are not happy with the direction they've taken the state of Wisconsin.
So last fall, as you said, Mark, in the Assembly, they brought forward Assembly Bill 415.
And they claim that this is going to result in a good redistricting process, but there are a number of big issues with this bill that allow Republicans to just keep right on gerrymandering.
A few of those are that they say this bill needs bipartisan support to pass.
But that could be, we don't know, one member on the Republican side saying, actually, you know what, I'm a libertarian.
I'm a member of the Green Party now, so I'm giving this bill a bipartisan vote.
After January 31st, there is a lack of procedure for what happens if no bill is passed.
There are a number of other issues, including that the court can't actually require the legislature to follow this procedure.
And so Republicans could just ignore it if they chose to and go ahead and continue gerrymandering like they have for over a decade.
there is a scenario in which we would sit down and talk to Republicans and work with them and try to get a fair map.
But we have not seen Republicans engage in a serious or good faith way to try to draw a fair map.
They just keep putting forward disingenuous proposal after disingenuous proposal and saying that they want to engage with us and really just digging in on that during
Mander.
The rumor is, at least at my level, that Speaker Voss is having a press conference tomorrow morning to talk about AB-415, and I heard that the Senate is taking up AB-415 in some form tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m.
So what do you think they're up to?
You know, we're all going to find out together tomorrow.
So right now the Senate does have a floor session scheduled for 3 p.m.
This bill is on the calendar.
It's the only thing on their calendar.
We don't know if they're going to take this up if they're going to try to slide something else in or make last minute changes on the floor.
They didn't tell us, right?
They won't tell us what's going on there.
So, of course, our Democratic colleagues in the Senate and then all of us in the Assembly as well are just going to be prepared for anything tomorrow.
And we, of course, are skeptical of our Republican colleagues and their efforts to pass things
very quickly, right, with little opportunity for public engagement.
But as I've said, we will look at what they bring forward and we will engage with it in good faith.
And we will see if we think there's a path for us to have fair maps through the legislature.
So, I mean, realistically, AB 415 that passed through the assembly with, you know, with Republicans.
Voting and opposed by Democrats just because it wasn't fair Up and I believe the governor said that AB 415 as it is And it won't be signed right so the What technically could they do tomorrow?
To try to create this illusion that there is an alleges there is in fact a legislative attempt at maps because they're gonna blame you
Right?
I mean, we know that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, you know, they could do a couple of different things.
And one thing that, of course, I think often surprises the public is that they're bringing forward a bill.
AB 415, as you said, this passed in the assembly that we had no hearings in the assembly.
It did have a public hearing in the Senate.
But they could entirely substitute a new bill if they wanted to on the floor tomorrow.
And then, of course, there's no public hearings.
We may or may not have seen the bill at all before we're being asked to take a vote on it within a couple of minutes.
And so it's just incredibly anti-democratic.
We were tipped off that things are going to be a little suspicious because the Senate only gave 24 hours notice for their members to be on the floor.
That's unusual in the state Senate.
So there's a lot that they could try to do.
They could truly bring up anything they wanted and try to substitute it on the floor and then say, oh, look, this is what Democrats have been asking for or we're being fair or we're being reasonable.
We'll just have to see what they do and take a close
look.
And the reason I throw this out there, you know, so often, those of us not privy to being in the Capitol, not getting the emails, you know, the bills, all the communications, we're sitting out here and, you know, then we just read headlines.
And it seems to me that if we're talking about
a legitimate discussion at the legislative level about fair maps, that to do it fairly, you really have to give people adequate time to look at things and have a full discussion.
How do they pull off this stunt by, you know, in 24 hours re-roading something and still have people, you know, still claim that it's, you know.
We did it.
Nobody listened to us.
I
mean, yeah.
Yeah.
It's a really good question.
I mean, I think the truth of the situation is that Republicans have been doing everything they can for years to try to consolidate their power and really insulate themselves from the will of the people.
And as long as they have these gerrymandered maps, right, they think they won't lose the majority.
And so they can get away with things like this.
So it's up to all of us to make clear that that is not the case.
And it's a lot easier to pay attention to the headlines about the big issues, right?
Getting in the weeds on when a bill was scheduled and did it have a public hearing and what's the process?
It's not the headline, right?
It's not the front page story.
And so I really appreciate you, Mark, talking about it here because it is about the functioning of our democracy and whether or not these elections are fair.
But it's not.
necessarily muse you stumble across if you don't go looking for it.
Folks, this is attorney Mark Thompson.
This is your Paul Revere show.
We are here with Democratic Minority Leader Greta Neubauer talking about democracy, the state of democracy and our great state of Wisconsin.
More to come and more discussions.
This is attorney Mark Thompson.
This is your Paul Revere show.
We are here on Civic Media's WAUK 540 AM 101.1 FM every Monday night from seven to eight.
We focus on the state of democracy and our great state of Wisconsin.
I'm delighted and honored to have minority, Democratic minority leader.
Representative Greta Neubauer here with us to talk about sort of the state of democracy.
We've already heard about tomorrow's going to be a big day on maps.
So folks, watch your emails, watch your texts, whatever is going to be happening tomorrow.
Pay attention.
But let's go back in terms of Greta 2024.
What do you see being able to get passed if anything in the legislature in terms of?
Bills that really help people
So we are already coming up on the end of our legislative session We have a couple of months left in which we could come in but Republicans have told us that they anticipate gaveling out at the end of February So it's really just about a month
That means that the committees are fast and furious right now.
There's a lot going on in the state capital and it can be hard to stay attuned to that.
We also sometimes call it silly season because this is when those bills do move really quickly.
They maybe don't have the same level of vetting as they would in a different type of time of the session and things can get a little off kilter.
So my hope is that we are passing good bills that reflect the will of the people of Wisconsin and actually improve people's lives in the day to day.
Your listeners will be familiar with the fact that we still have a big surplus in the state of Wisconsin thanks to good fiscal management by Governor Evers and through our budgets.
And that means that we have money sitting in the coffers that we should be using in a way that benefits those in Wisconsin who are struggling.
There's been a lot of back and forth about tax cuts this session, Republicans proposing a number of tax cuts that are really framed and helping the wealthiest people in our state.
We hope that we can have a real conversation about how to provide a little relief for those people who are sitting at the kitchen table and they are looking at the budget and they are worried about being able to make it to the end of the month.
So we will see what happens on that.
We are hearing that there might be something coming tomorrow from the Republicans on taxes.
We hope that it is, again, a serious effort that's designed to help those working families in Wisconsin who will really feel the impact of some tax relief.
We also know that there are a number of pressing issues that just have not been addressed this year in the legislature, things like our child care crisis.
Governor Evers was able to tide us over for a bit with some federal dollars to prevent that industry from collapsing, but we still need to take action.
And we know that there are young folks, seniors, right, who are struggling with the cost of health care and prescription drugs.
We know that there are people who want to see more investment in their public schools and make sure that every kid has great opportunities across the state.
So there's a lot that we could still do in the remaining days and weeks and months of session.
And we hope that rather than those silly bills that might be just partisan efforts to
Key up Republicans for the election.
We'll see some good legislating that focuses on those deeper issues.
So I appreciate your hopeful attitude.
Let me bring a little skeptical radio talk thinking here.
If we're looking at the whole issue of fair maps and 24 hour notice.
on something that impacts every person.
What's the realistic probability that the Republicans will come with a bill that really is focused on most people and not just the wealthy if we only have 30 days left?
I mean, is there an issue where there's actually some bipartisan support?
just given that, you know, they know they're gonna have new maps, right?
So they know that they have to start acting like they're actually governing again.
Is
there a bill that on any issue that has a chance of bipartisan support?
Yes, there are a few, right?
There are always some noncontroversial bills that move through that are sort of smaller fixes.
There are some things that I know they're ongoing conversations and sort of hold out hope we might be able to address.
Again we'll see tomorrow what they have to say about a tax cut.
Governor Evers has made it really clear what he wants to see and hopefully they will actually put forward a real proposal that could feasibly be signed by the governor.
There's been a lot of conversations about PFAS contamination.
This is something that, you know, some communities in the state have been more impacted by than others, but it is a forever chemical that has real significant health impacts.
And we're hopeful that we'll be able to pass some legislation that will allow dollars to go out to really help address our PFAS issue in Wisconsin.
There's some bipartisan bills our colleagues brought forward on Supporting DACA recipients to be in the workforce right to ensure that they can get licensing that will allow them to To be professionals and to support the critical industries in Wisconsin where we really need new professionals to be
to be adding to the workforce.
So
there are some good things.
It's just a question of how much do our colleagues on the other side of the aisle really want to get those done?
You know, you mentioned the DACA thing.
I did see an article about a young woman who's finishing her nursing degree out of Carroll University right here in Waukesha County.
We're short on nurses, right?
It's hard to get healthcare.
I mean, clinics, hospitals are like, where are the nurses?
It seems to me that that bill, and we know where there are students that are ready to go out and serve, why would they object to that?
Well, right now it actually does have a good number of Republican co-authors.
I think the only reason one would object is sort of anti-immigrant politics, right?
And just trying to punish people who have come to this country, even if they are DACA recipients or people who are brought here as a child.
So I'm hopeful that that one will move.
Again, there's some good energy behind that rep.
Ortiz Velez has worked very hard on that alongside some Republicans.
And so hopefully this is a moment in which we can recognize, as you said, that getting more nursing professionals into the field is really important and should be more important than someone's efforts to punish new immigrants to this country.
You got 30 seconds.
Vice President Kamala Harris was in the state to talk about abortion and women's reproductive rights.
What do you see happening?
20 seconds.
Wisconsinites really care about having access to abortion and
even
though our rights have been restored, they are at risk.
We need them to be enshrined in state law so that we can count on them for years to come.
This is no question one of the issues that Wisconsinites bring up to me the most often.
They are concerned about it.
They're concerned for their families and we need to make sure that abortion rights are protected now and into the future.
Thank you very much, Greta Neubauer.
Thank you.
Good luck tomorrow.
This is attorney Mark Thompson.
This is your Paul Revere show.
Welcome, folks.
Welcome to your Paul Revere show.
This is attorney Mark Thompson.
We are here every Monday night at seven on Civic Media's WAUK 540 AM 101.1 FM.
And folks, you know that we're always focused on democracy, the state of democracy in Wisconsin.
And I am privileged and honored to have a new first time guest.
Nick Ramos of the executive director of the Wisconsin democracy campaign.
Thank you so much for joining us, Nick.
First time caller, long time listener.
I'm a night owl.
And so when I catch the news, I get the opportunity to listen to your silky smooth voice.
And so it's a privilege to be on the show with you tonight.
Well, that's a smooth response.
What can I say?
But let me, you know,
Often I have partisan folks.
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is a nonpartisan organization, correct?
So what is the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and how did you get involved with it?
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign was created in 1995, so we'll be celebrating a 30th birthday next year.
So we're a nonprofit, independent coalition of individuals and groups.
We were created to address the growing dominance of special interest money and our campaigns here in Wisconsin.
And so, for us, the focus has been tracking the money in politics, but it's grown since then.
I mean, we have a database on our website where one can look up.
any state legislator and see what donors, what lobbies, what big interests are donating to that candidate and can see what might be influencing that particular elected official and their public policy decision making.
And so we want the electorate to be really informed and we want government to be as open and as transparent as possible.
And so that fight as far as open and transparency, you know, it's evolved.
I mean, we want pro-democracy reform, and that takes us into a lot of different avenues, whether it's fair maps, whether it's campaign finance reform, whether it's judicial integrity, media democracy, I mean, the list goes on and on.
But, you know, my...
Foyer into this particular position, you know, I was a market law school graduate, but I was born and raised in Cleveland,
Ohio Oh
Wow, thank you.
You're too kind Well, you know after law school I've been involved with you know, just the political world and and been working in campaigns and working on you know initiatives to try and
and make our democracy, make our state better than what it's been previously.
I'm really big into trying to leave a legacy here whenever I leave this earth that this place is in a better place than it was before my time here.
And so I was with a really cool organization called VoteRiders.
They help get people IDs so that they can vote at the end of the day and my predecessor.
He was leaving.
The organization was retiring, and now he's bird watching somewhere.
And, you know, they picked me to run a 32-year-old black Puerto Rican guy from Cleveland, Ohio, who loves democracy and wants to see his state, the Dairyland, do the best it can.
And so we're working every day to try and give Wisconsinites the best democracy in the entire country.
So if I read the resume correctly, you...
You became executive director about five months ago.
That's correct.
I celebrated a one month anniversary yesterday.
So the
five month anniversary
yesterday.
The, maybe against, get a little closer to that mic.
Nick.
Yeah.
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me right
now?
Yeah.
Right.
It's much better.
Thank you.
In the five months that you've been at the helm, what have you been focused on?
There we go.
Getting rid of earbuds.
There we go.
Nope.
Can't hear you, Nick.
We are here on the Paul Revere show.
talking to Nick Ramos, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which is a nonpartisan organization really focused historically on tracking money and politics.
And Nick is gonna tell us what he's been focused on for the last five months.
What do you got, Nick?
How do I sound
right now?
There you go.
You're live and this is radio.
So tell us what you've been doing.
We got to make up for that time.
No, I appreciate that.
And sorry, these AirPods, they they do their own thing.
Unfortunately, my producer is going to fire me.
So let's
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, it's my fault.
So, you know, right after I took the job, a lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of Wisconsin to challenge our voting maps here.
and the state of Wisconsin and so there was a challenge to the state legislator map so our assembly and our state senate and recently after months of you know the litigation we threw you know pressure on
the democracy side.
I mean, we were doing rallies.
We were reaching voters and educating people to put pressure on their electeds to try and slow down the process because there was a lot of, you know, lawmakers that were trying to railroad a redistricting bill through the legislature to avoid this lawsuit that was starting to make its way
through the Supreme Court.
And so we were doing a public pressure campaign.
And the result of that campaign, I mean, we got to see the assembly, they voted on the redistricting bill, and nobody got an opportunity to say anything to them.
There was no public hearings.
So we held our own public telling, and we had hundreds of people in the Capitol for that.
Shortly after that, a lot of media coverage came from that.
The Senate,
then announced like 24 hours later that they were going to host their first public hearing in 13 years on a redistricting bill.
And so we filled the room with tons of people.
I mean, maybe not tons, but like over 100 people.
We had five hours worth of testimony.
And we let the senators know that you can't just leave the people out of the democratic process.
And so the bill has been dead for quite some time.
And recently, the Supreme Court
looked at our current maps and said that they're unconstitutional.
And they have asked the parties involved with the case to submit remedial maps that can be applied in the fall elections here.
So in the fall, we're looking at there's going to be state legislatures that are going to be on the ballot.
There might be new districts drawn.
We're waiting to see what the Supreme Court decides.
And there's gonna be a huge education campaign that comes behind that.
But right now, I mean, it's kind of a weird time because right now the state Senate made kind of a really bombshell announcement earlier today about reviving that really flawed redistricting bill that they called, you know, the Iowa model, you know, that bill that they rammed through the assembly and got no hearings on it.
They called the Iowa model and now they're reviving it all of a sudden.
And so there's some really nefarious things going on right now, Mark.
So from Wisconsin democracy campaigns point of view, what do you think might be happening tomorrow?
Well, if I were looking into a magic ball right now, I would say that the.
Republican majority is probably trying to get in front of this lawsuit once again.
I mean, they have shown time and time again that they cannot act in good faith when it comes to drawing maps here.
They've enjoyed, you know, this unparalleled power because of how they've drawn these maps.
They have rigged it in such a way that they will enjoy
majorities until the end of time until these maps change.
So my guess is that they are going to, they're using the original bill that they railroaded through earlier, I mean late last year as kind of like, they're gonna put that out there, but then they're gonna probably end up subbing it.
And then they're gonna probably take one of the maps that was submitted to the Supreme Court in this current redistricting case.
and maybe tweak it to be advantageous to them and then be like, okay, well, governor, this map is perfect.
Why don't you sign it and try and put this pressure and make the individuals that have been fighting for fair maps for so long look foolish instead of bringing us to the table and wanting to just have good faith negotiations and talk to us.
They want to just have it their way or the highway.
And that's no way.
That's how dictators act, and that's not how our democracy acts.
And you are not more important than the judiciary, and you're not more important than the government.
They're equal branches of government, and they're acting like they see the writing on the wall and they're afraid.
So I'm ready to tune in for the circus tomorrow, and we're going to be ready to activate.
Whenever they decide to do, we're going to be ready to mobilize our supporters.
So you had mentioned that the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
had been watching this lawsuit at the Supreme Court level.
I think you told me off the air that you guys actually filed an amicus brief, which is a friend of the court brief on Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's position on the maps that have been submitted.
So can you summarize what that argument was?
You know at a lay person's point of view in terms of you're out there on the street talking to people organizing people What did you guys tell the court?
I'll give the elevator pitch because yeah, I mean attorney to attorney we could really get into the weeds here So just to just take one quick step back the democracy campaign
is a part of a bigger co together for almost 10 y the Wisconsin Fair Maps co working tirelessly to g and it's, you know, there with that, like the li common cause Wisconsin.
So the demox campaign lead organizations in this co have submitted a couple of
in the beginning and now today in this lawsuit.
And it's really simple.
The court looked at contiguity, contiguity meaning, you know, it's either touching or it's not touching.
So districts either touching or not touching.
And that's
important
because- But the court got rid of islands, right?
Exactly, on detached territories.
That's right.
So the Republicans had rigged it in large part by creating these islands of
Fiction and the court said it's unconstitutional and we're gonna get on with it with the new maps.
So go ahead
No, yeah, no, you're absolutely on the money mark.
And so Our argument is is very similar and that there's several maps that were submitted and There's a handful of them that don't split wards and wards are extremely relevant
to, you know, keeping community interests together to, you know, ensuring that, you know, there's this contiguity amongst, you know, the entire state.
And so we have asked the court, you know, there's definitely opinions of, oh, well, wards aren't really that important.
So we can split them any kind of way.
It doesn't really matter.
But there was a couple of map draws that actually were very thoughtful and kept, you know, there's one map, the right petitioner's map, that has zero ward splits.
the Clark petitioners, they have one ward split and it's a phantom ward.
So you could make an argument that there's zero ward splits.
So at the end of the day, like we want the court to know that you should be considering maps that really made a good faith effort to actually listen to the list and criteria that you set out instead of trying to warp it into, you know, partisan gamesmanship.
Folks.
I'm talking to Nick Ramos, Executive Director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
We're talking about the gerrymandered maps, the Supreme Court review of those maps, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's involvement and participation in that.
And Nick on that, we'll be talking more in detail about how you can get involved with Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
and what you can do and what you need to watch for tomorrow.
Station here in the middle of Waukesha and the middle of the state and middle of purple, Wisconsin.
I am honored and privileged to have with us Nick Ramos, the executive director of Wisconsin democracy campaign.
It is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to preserving democracy and open and fair government.
Nick, before the break, you were talking about.
the campaign's involvement in the Supreme Court case and arguing for fair maps.
You also mentioned that tomorrow is a hot day, right?
We got an announcement earlier today that there is going to be action on maps in Madison.
So from your vantage point there, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign,
What's going to happen tomorrow and what are we looking for?
Well, I think at the end of the day, I mean, I think it's going to be a political circus once again, because we have a legislature that unfortunately does not know how to play nice amongst each other.
And they don't want to just
do the right thing at the end of the day.
I mean, it's really simple.
You either are a good person or you're a bad person.
You either want to choose to just be evil and make decisions in the dead of night and drop special announcements less than 24 hours from when we're going to have a hearing and give no one any time to prepare for it.
and then try and railroad this bill that has been flawed, and they might not even use the same bill that they were originally trying to jam through, and they don't want to even have just a good conversation.
We can't even sit down.
Republicans, Democrats, independents, things have become so toxic in this state.
that you can't even be able to sit in the same room with somebody that has a different political ideology than you and have a conversation with them.
Everybody's trying to one up each other and I'm fed up with it.
Nothing good gets done when everyone's trying to put the stranglehold on the other person.
Don't you think that the people that
put you in office, want you to lead by example, that they want you to do your best part to deliver for everyone instead of just for yourself.
But no, I mean, we've gotten so far away from it.
So now we're getting to a place now where we have the majority that's going to try and get in front of a lawsuit that's already been decided and try and get in front of the governor and try and override his veto and try and like, you know,
who put a quash on this so they can stay in power forever.
So we're going to make sure that every Wisconsinite across the state of Wisconsin knows what's going on and they get an opportunity to speak to these individuals because I don't think they understand what's taking place in Madison tomorrow and they deserve to know.
Well that's one of the reasons why I asked you to be on and I'm really thankful that you're here.
What steps is the campaign taking to
get the news out and get people watching tomorrow.
So I know that the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, which we're a part of, we met tonight because I mean, we had to, I mean, everybody wanted to be able to go relax, have dinner, spend time with family, and no one could do that because of course, you know, again, we have a majority that
as different plans for everybody.
They want to ruin everybody's day.
So I'm saying that if you want to be involved, the Fair Maps Coalition is going to be releasing a statement tomorrow.
We're going to be posting it on social media.
You can find us by literally searching on Google Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition or going to our website, which is literally fairmapswi.com.
And also, you know, if you want just the latest updates as far as just whether it's maps, whether it's other legislation like rank choice voting.
So
I mean,
that's been a really hot button issue or other like big things that are happening that affect our democracy here.
You know, I encourage any listener, you know, to just come to our page.
It's wisdc.org slash subscribe.
And you can literally get
e-alerts from us every week.
We give you the latest and greatest and its commentary from me.
And you can also engage with me and tell me if you think the articles are great.
Things that you want us to explore and investigate, want us to track.
We are an organization that we survive because the people guide us and the people support us and donate to us.
I never lose sight of that.
We are only as strong as the people that are with us in this fight.
And so definitely stay tuned because we are going to be bringing this.
We're going to be bringing events.
We're going to bring all types of ruckus if they decide they want to try and trample our democracy tomorrow by forcing a bill that had no public input when this court has been decided.
This court has made this decision.
They have no right to overrule and override this court.
So it sounds like the Fair Maps Coalition has got a plan to attend tomorrow.
Are folks going to be there in the Senate?
You know, Mark, an ideal world, like we would love to be able to scale it up.
I think a special session
it's not open to the public in the same way that a public hearing is.
So I've heard that the weather is going to be awful tomorrow too.
It's really unfortunate that they've made this choice.
Literally the day that the governor is giving his state of the state, they're choosing to now cloud that because they want to take the moment.
Instead of being able to just have a moment of just harmony in this state.
like we can never get along here and I'm tired of it and I know that the people of Wisconsin are sick of it like it gets to a point where everybody no one can trust the political process because they think this is what it is every single day it's everyone trying to avoid getting stabbed in the back by somebody else so uh we're not gonna I don't think we're mobilizing anybody tomorrow but I can tell you right now that we will continue if there's more opportunities to be able to get people out
We are going to text, we're going to direct mail, we're going to email, we're going to call, we're going to get as many people out and show this legislature this is not acceptable.
Thank you, Nick Ramos, Executive Director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
Folks, go check them out.
Nick, what's your website again?
WISDC.org.
Folks, this is
Attorney Mark Thompson, this is your Paul Revere show.
Forward Wisconsin, always forward.
Do not let these people take us back.
Thank you all.
Good night.
