Hello folks.
This is attorney Mark Thompson.
This is your Paul Revere show.
This is W.A.U.K.
540 a.m.
101.1 FM.
Folks, today's show is a real treat.
I have as a guest Evan Goikey.
He is the young 41 year old millennial who is
just won the city of Milwaukee city attorney office by 63% of the vote.
And I thought it would be very unique and timely to talk to Evan about the city of Milwaukee.
It is after all the biggest city in the state of Wisconsin.
And if the state is going to go forward,
And you folks know I always like talking about keeping Wisconsin going forward.
We have a millennial firmly in charge of the city attorney's office of the largest city in the state.
And I thought it would be just timely to get into it.
So Evan, welcome.
Thanks for being on.
Thanks for having me, Mark.
Thank you for repeatedly referring to me as both young and or a millennial.
I will take both of those all night long.
Well, I think you are, right?
Yeah.
I mean, it's factual, but just barely, man.
We are, we're right at the cusp of both of those words being wrong, but that's okay.
From my vantage point, you know, I'm really excited and encouraged.
You know, before we jump into sort of your vision of what the office is and where it's going to go, you just got elected to a four year term and.
I've got to be thinking that, you know, this is not something that you're going to.
Jump out of really quickly and or it's going to take you somewhere else, but it's definitely going to be part of the leadership of the state.
And as we look forward to the future, it's really, really important to get there.
So how did you end up getting here?
Let's go.
What's your background?
Where'd you grow up?
Where'd you go to
school?
I was born in Nina in the Fox Valley.
First year or two of my life was in Oshkosh.
And three weeks before I was born, back in November of 1982, since you did already out me as a 41 year old proud millennial.
So a couple of weeks before I was born, my father, Gary, lost his final election in the state Senate and became a lobbyist.
He represented Oshkosh and that's where he was from my mom's from a dairy farm outside of Green Bay and moved to Madison so most of my upbringing, you know elementary middle high school was in Madison Went away to Minnesota for college Realized the error of my ways came home to go to Marquette Law School from 2006 to 2009 and my first, you know, I've hung the shingle for a little while graduating in the middle of the recession but
Then landed in the state public defender's office in Milwaukee County.
I represented adults charged with all levels of criminal infractions that could not afford their own lawyer and then a few years later ran for the state legislature and represented about 55,000 people on the north side west side of the city of Milwaukee in Madison and the state assembly and then you mentioned the most this current job just got elected and sworn in on April 16 to be Milwaukee's
city attorney, that is a law firm of about 40 lawyers and 20 support staff, largest municipality in the state, so largest municipal law firm in the state.
And we handle a whole wide range of legal issues for the city.
And I like to think of that role much as you introed it, Mark.
We have some core responsibilities, but we really are part of the leadership.
of the city, both guiding the mayor, the city council and the departments as they affect public policy changes and work for the residents of the city.
You know, full disclosure, folks, I'm a Marquette law alum too, so I put a lot of weight on that diploma and we do compete with lawyers from all over the country, but we fly the Marquette law flag.
proudly.
So just letting you know my bias there, folks.
But let's get into what made you think about running for the office?
What were the issues that moved you to run?
And how did you go about putting together the campaign where you end up getting 63% of the vote against an incumbent, which is
Quite remarkable frankly.
Well, thank you.
So let me zoom out for a minute and then I'll zoom back into Milwaukee and just so that you know We have listeners from all over the state love the statewide reach of civic media Every municipality has legal representation some are for the smaller municipalities higher counsel some of
have a mayoral appointment, some, like Milwaukee, elect their city attorneys.
So we've been doing it since 1846.
That's how we wrote it in our city charter, and that's how we're still doing it today.
So our city attorneys elected in April in a nonpartisan four-year term alongside with the city council mayor and some of the other citywide positions.
My introduction to the office, like when I was in law school, so you talked, Mark, about
how special a Marquette Law School education is.
And part of the reason we are the best law school in the state of Wisconsin is that they push the law students out into the community and into law firms, into court, into real world experience.
So I was aware of the city attorney's office as a law student.
And that was like the pinnacle of public service.
That was decent salary, good quality of life, good...
you know, wide diversity of cases that you got to work on.
So I had some friends that worked there and kind of paid vague attention to it.
But where it started to hit me and where I started to pay direct attention to it is a couple of the assistant city attorneys were really active in my neighborhood.
I live on the near west side and near north side of the city of Milwaukee.
We had a business that was creating an opportunity for criminal action.
So the police were called repeatedly became kind of a magnet.
for criminal activity.
It was a store that only sold tobacco products and vape products.
And, you know, I went as a local resident and a state representative to a bunch of meetings and I met these lawyers trying to listen to what we were doing and effectuate change by holding this business accountable.
And they had some speed bumps in state law, which is where I kind of raised my hand to say, hey, I'm a state representative.
Let's work on this.
We did.
We forged some relationships there.
But
That introduction mark was so cool because you had people using their legal skills and training trying to creatively problem solve to address the quality of life issue for residents.
And I thought, man, that is like I want to be a part of that in some way.
And so I worked with them in my legislative capacity.
I always kind of kept an eye on the office.
I knew the lawyers there.
I knew some of their leader, the higher ranking officials there.
And then an opportunity came in this past year in 2024, 2023 to begin running.
So how do you win 63% of the vote, 47,000 votes?
You talk about those issues that I just addressed, which are quality of life issues for real people.
The first half of running for city attorney is explaining what the city attorney does, why they should be paying attention, and why it matters.
So that was kind of quality of life.
public safety, real world issues.
And then the second part is you build a wide and diverse coalition of supporters.
That's through raising money, endorsements, getting the word out.
In Milwaukee, you've got to win on the south side, the north side, the east side, the west side.
You put the map up and you can't lose too bad anywhere.
And that's what we did to win a majority.
I'm proud of the almost 64% that we
received.
When you went around the city and you talked about what does the city attorney do?
Did you talk about what your predecessors did or did you talk about what you wanted to
do?
It was more of column B than column A. However, the recent history with our city attorneys, the two most recent, you had a narrative where that type of proactive community work
was done, you know, in 2015, 16, 17, 18, 19, and then it fell off the wayside and really was not done.
And actually here I am, I'm a Montin and we haven't stood back up that community facing work.
We've got some other issues to attend to that are more urgent, but for a couple of years that really went away.
And there were staffing issues or, you know, ideological decisions about why that was the case.
So what I did is I did
share my vision and I use this narrative of how it had worked and what that value ad proposition was when community facing city attorneys were out there and then, you know, what happened when it went away?
So, folks, I'm here with the new city attorney Milwaukee, the largest city in the state.
The decisions made in that office will impact our lives all over the state and
We're right here at the beginning of the Goike era.
And so we're talking a little bit about how we got into it.
We've got, you know, three segments to talk.
How do you want to frame our conversation?
Because I have a bunch of questions, but you know, this is your first shot.
How would you
yeah, I mean I figured that you would be prepared for a cross-examination mark you are Trained and good at those so I'll leave it to you as a host, but I think I think what what I hope the listeners take away is you know We're gonna talk about some Milwaukee specifics and there are issues that are at maybe a volume or or at a degree that are unique to Milwaukee in Wisconsin, but
One of the things that I have loved in my first month on the job is there is a network of municipal lawyers doing this same type of work all across the state, some public, some private, some mix.
And so to every listener, hang in there with us as we talk about Milwaukee and Mark Cross examines me for the next little while.
But remember, if you're in a small town in central Wisconsin, some of these same issues are playing out in your local government.
they may be a little different, but a lot of it is the same.
So I mean, I think that's great too, right?
I mean, I love shedding light on the behind the scenes people that make local government and local communities happen.
Folks, this is Mark Thompson, attorney.
This is your Paul Revere show.
I'm proud to have Evan Goeike, the new city attorney of Milwaukee.
We're going to come back and talk more in detail about what is it that needs to be done in the city and the state.
Hello, folks.
This is Attorney Mark Thompson.
This is your Paul Revere show.
We are here today with the new city of attorney of Milwaukee, Evan Goyke.
Welcome, Evan.
Thank you for having me, Mark.
You bet.
You know, we were talking about the issues that you face as a new city attorney.
And I think you use the word the breadth of the issues.
Give us a feeling.
What does that mean the breadth of the issues?
Yeah, so we we handle You know something as small as a municipal citation for speeding You know relatively straightforward, you know some money on the line some points on your driver's license But you know relatively simple people can kind of understand that and you know we
We go all the way up.
We advise the mayor and the city council.
We advise and staff boards that make decisions on issues like zoning or licensing.
So you have developers or tavern owners or store owners.
And then we have an entire arm that deals with incidents when
the city is sued and an injured party is seeking recovery from largely something that happened with a city worker or somebody working in the city capacity.
That could be a car accident involving a snow plow or cases involving our police department.
And there's a lot in between those layers, but anything from a multi-million dollar federal lawsuit to a
$125 speeding ticket.
And so there's this huge breadth of issues that come up.
And given Milwaukee's size, the power of our office, or I shouldn't say the power, the responsibility of our law firm, we really handle this huge diversity and breadth of issues.
And it makes it really exciting.
I think it's an incredible place to practice law because
No two days are the same.
I mean, the issues are always coming up in novel and, you know, cutting edge of municipal law in the state.
So let's just jump in a couple of those.
You know, as an economic force, you mentioned that you have zoning licenses.
And I know as you are active as a rep and you're still serving out your term in the assembly, jobs, future jobs, the economy is central for the success of us going forward,
right?
Yeah, I mean, to zoom out and some of those macro level issues that you're talking about, Mark, I think I still serve in the legislature, as you mentioned, and I used to serve on the budget committee.
And during this last budget about a year ago, I would say every single meeting when we started debating issues, I would say, and this is true, that we experienced the slowest growth decade in the history of the state of Wisconsin.
From 2010 to 2020, we had about three and a half percent population growth.
And that's the slowest growth decade ever.
And it signals real...
challenges when we slow down.
And it's not equal among every area of the state.
You have some fast growing clusters like Madison and Dane County, the I-94 corridor, east of Minneapolis, St.
Paul, parts of the Fox Valley.
And then you have slower growth or shrinking places like the Wisconsin River Valley, parts of northern Wisconsin, and parts of the city of Milwaukee.
And that presents, like if you want my view of what are some of the issues for our state to contend with in the next decade, it's how do we grow?
And how do we grow internally?
How do we attract new people to come here to stay here?
And part of the issues like zoning and licensed businesses and public safety, that this is a serious issue for the city.
The city's got to grow.
The mayor talks about that.
the city attorney's office will be in Direct you know directly working on this and it's not just downtown downtown can't be the only Solution that's true for Madison as it is from Milwaukee So we're really talking about solutions to add affordable housing in downtown But also in neighborhoods throughout the city and that is a key.
That's a real key statewide issue
And if Milwaukee can grow, that does have, I mean, proportionately as you're talking about the biggest city in the state, we grow by 10%.
That pushes the entire state up and everybody benefits.
So specifically, how do you see your, for your term immediately, play in a role in moving the economy and growing the city, the state?
And I add one of, let me throw one other thing in there.
You have to have a well-educated group of people, right?
I mean, NVIDIA just had their earnings report, right?
They're the makers of the chips for artificial intelligence.
I mean, they're like booming.
So how do we grasp that and how does the city attorney play in that arena?
Yeah, I mean it's it's I am not a policymaker directly.
I don't you know say tomorrow I I want to make affordable housing the number one issue But I don't have to because the mayor has already said that's a big issue the city council is already Saying that that's a big issue.
So when they agree on something like that They then turn to members of the cabinet into different department heads including me to say make it happen and so our job and how I see my role is
making sure that the city of Milwaukee is on the forefront of increasing the availability of affordable housing.
So that's one, increase supply, make it more accessible and make more units available and affordable.
The second part of the housing equation for me directly is we are the enforcement arm of quality.
of habitability.
So when the city of Milwaukee is inspecting rental properties and they are not up to code, and that could be issues of a porch, a roof, siding, all the way to electrical heat, water, et cetera, that we hold those people accountable.
So it's access to affordable housing, but I don't want listeners to think that if we have a bunch of ribbon cuttings for new buildings that that solves
all of the problem because there's also an issue with our existing and often aging housing stock being properly invested in so that people that are living and renting in those units have quality, that they're getting quality for their money.
And we're directly involved.
We are the enforcement arm of those actions.
So I see us being, especially in this population growth discussion that we're having, we're intimately
involved.
I've read in the paper, the Milwaukee Housing Authority has issues.
What role does the city attorney have with that entity?
Yeah, we are their lawyer.
We are one of their lawyers, I should say.
The
Housing Authority,
yeah.
You see, I think that's a great point, right?
You're the lawyer for all the citizens.
And if you have a housing authority that's just part of the citizens.
and that's botching it, right?
How do you play in?
So I want you to think about
it.
We can cover it.
I want you to think about that because we're going to be back with Evan Goyke for more on what city attorneys can do to make our lives better and help Wisconsin move forward.
Hello folks, this is attorney Mark Thompson.
This is your Paul Revere show.
This is WAUK 540 AM 101.1 FM Civic Media statewide.
We are here with the new city of Milwaukee city attorney Evan Goyke.
And we're getting the view of the future from the millennials, the future of our state.
So Evan, we were talking about a city attorney in terms of who they represent and who they're the lawyers for.
And we were talking about it in the context of the housing authority and that the Milwaukee Housing Authority is one of your, in quotes, clients.
And a lot of the residents that live there are also potentially, they're clearly voters.
and the city attorney represents all the voters.
So how do you play that out?
Okay, you know, how does the city attorney do what's best for citizens when maybe one of its one of its actors are not living up to their expectations?
Well, it gets even more complicated because we're also the lawyers to the city council or to the enforcement department that may want to.
do something against others.
So we have some elaborate screening in our office to make sure one lawyer is is is cordoned off and not communicating with another because they represent two sides of the of the same coin.
No,
but that's that's a simple.
Yeah,
yeah.
To your point, Mark, let me start by saying and I think you may agree with me.
I would it's it's it's frequent that lawyers are called in when things are not going right.
So I wish that it was more good news, but sometimes the lawyer's job is to provide the truth, even if it's a difficult truth.
So our job in that capacity is to ensure our client isn't compliant with the law.
And that they are not violating the law, that they are not exposing the city or themselves to liability.
In the case of the Housing Authority, I'm meeting with some advocates coming up, of course, meeting with them, the Housing Authority as well.
And a lot of what governs their operation is federal law, some estate, much less local.
You know, I think our role is to make sure that our client is aware of what's going on, that they don't miss the force for the trees, and that they do not only what's legal, but what's right.
And there's conflict sometimes in that, right?
I mean, lawyers can't be afraid to wade into difficult meetings just because they don't want to make someone happy.
That's kind of the job.
Sometimes we're called in to do that.
As I think you have
experienced in
your
career.
that comes with the turf.
So we've talked about how the city attorney can have an impact on housing, housing decisions and growth.
I know that the city attorney is called in often in terms of the schools.
And how do you see the city attorney's role in four years?
education, public education broadly.
In other words, what opportunities do you see there more than just representing an individual or an individual school or an individual principal with an individual complaint?
We do provide legal counsel to the school board and to NPS in some capacities.
It is really in that, more often than not, it's in that individual employee kind of mode.
I do obviously have a view of public education that's more than just informed by my role as city attorney, because as we've talked about, I'm also in the state legislature, and I think what you see coming to a head, and if I wanna, I'll pinpoint one issue that this state has to address.
that affects every single school district, but disproportionately impacts the Milwaukee Public School, which is how much money does the state of Wisconsin give back for services provided to children receiving special education?
And the way this is structured is that the federal government requires school districts to spend no less in 2024 educating students with special needs than they did in 2023.
That's a good law to protect those students to ensure school districts are not, you know, othering those students and are providing them with world class education that they deserve.
The state gives what a 32, 33 cents on the dollar in reimbursement.
So every school district in the state is moving money from their general aid to cover that gap.
Why it disproportionately impacts the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee public schools is the percent of students within MPS that have that individual education plan that qualify for this is nearly one in every four.
So the size of that gap is bigger than anywhere else in the state.
And that has been a.
A failure of the legislature to properly act and you're seeing referenda record referendum We had one on the ballot back in April for Milwaukee You're gonna see a record number in November and one of the structural problems that impacts everyone statewide is this special education reimbursement But Milwaukee disproportionately so because we have become a district with you know, this really high percentage
Does that
make sense, Mark?
I mean, that's my number one thing.
If you ask me once, that's me as a legislator, not a city attorney.
Yeah, but let me just follow up on that.
You said you work with network of municipal lawyers.
Are there discussions going on throughout the state about whether or not municipalities could actually sue the state and raise constitutional challenges?
Yeah.
That's the next extension of this.
That's where we're going.
Yeah, and there have been in the past.
There is a history that our state constitution, Constitution of the State of Wisconsin, requires the legislature.
It doesn't empower them.
It mandates that the state fund education.
I don't have the magic words in front of me, but there's a
it's as equal or that there's some magic constitutional language that's been with us since our founding that has been challenged before and I think that we're reaching that breaking point and I think the breaking point is on the special education issue that I talked about.
The last major
you know kind of statewide funding formula challenges really involved the adoption and prolification of the parental choice program or voucher schools and how that second other system impacted the public school systems those challenges were not successful narrowly not successful but not successful and so it's been uh what 20 some years since the Vincent v Voight case which is really kind of this landmark case about
education funding in Wisconsin and the voucher system.
I need my client to go tell me to do it, but I am excited for the prospect of being a part of that challenge because there are deep, deep inequities in what school districts are funded.
And a lot of that root is what we were talking about earlier with special education.
And I do appreciate the relationship.
And in terms of that, the city attorney isn't the primary policymaker.
But the city attorney in Milwaukee has a much, much bigger impact than many city attorneys or municipal lawyers around the state, just by his charter and the complexity of the issues.
But we have a new Supreme Court majority.
And so the reason I throw it out there, because it, you know, my wife was a public school teacher, vice principal, principal, MPS, her whole working life.
My kids, you know, graduated from Rufus King.
I have seen how the public education system has been attacked and money diverted.
And it really has become.
profoundly unfair for public schools and kids in Milwaukee.
I mean, if you compare it to Arrowhead, I mean, just, I mean, there are huge, very successful public schools outside the city where the funding, you can just see the disparity.
So I guess I throw it out there as a host.
I would love, I'd love to have you back and where you can outline.
We
could do a deep dive on that.
I would say I would
I wouldn't envision a statewide challenge going forward without our help, but I also don't envision a statewide challenge going forward alone.
Because this is, the coalition of potential plaintiffs in that lawsuit that would be compiled would be really compelling to any court that gives a damn about them.
Probably the majority of
public school children and we're talking about hundreds of thousands of kids that are impacted by this.
So let me just throw out another issue that I think has statewide impact but as well as Milwaukee and we have these PFAS that are messing with the water quality statewide and also in Milwaukee.
You're now in the driver's seat looking at some of those legal challenges.
You left the legislature where we've got money sitting there that just joined finance hasn't released to the communities What can the city attorney and Milwaukee do in that arena if anything?
It's a great question mark.
I don't know at the at the point that we're having this conversation I don't think we're locked and loaded with a challenge that I can identify off the top
of my
head and one of the
you know, part of what we're talking about and what you're getting at is that the law can be an avenue when the political structures fail, right?
Which is, this is what we're talking about is the failure of the legislature to act in the best interest of the people and what happens, what recourse do we have when that's the case?
And the courts are a recourse.
So I don't have anything locked and loaded.
I know other municipalities like La Crosse and Wausau have been further down that pipeline.
I certainly, I shouldn't say pipeline maybe, but they've been further down the investigation of that litigation.
And certainly we have, and I'm open to it.
I think it's a right that you'd be able to turn on that tap and have safe drinking water.
We've been consumed with the issue of lead, which is a different.
you know, but also critically important issue.
So yeah, I mean, boy, I hope in November we solve the political problem and we don't have to stand up in the Supreme Court because we have a legislature that's willing to actually do the right thing.
But you know, something we're certainly open to.
So
on that, in quotes, political problem, we'll come back to that because I do want to wind up the show on sort of.
Yeah, let's look
forward to November.
Yeah, we're going short term, but I
I think it's important for people to get a feel of using your words, the breadth of the issues the city attorney faces and the opportunities created.
One issue that is going to be right on your plate relates to the Republicans, their attack on DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion.
and the last budget rounds.
How do you see that playing out in Milwaukee and where on your list of to-dos is that?
Yeah, I would say even further than just, you know, the UW system and kind of some stable rattling about that and state government, the city of Milwaukee was directly impacted through a law passed about a year ago.
that what we call Act 12, often called the shared revenue bill, which did change how the state's fund local government and gave the city of Milwaukee the power for local option sales tax to address some of our long-term liabilities.
And in that bill, it specifically says now in state law that we cannot use our own funds for those positions, for TEI positions.
And you can imagine
as the only, if maybe one of a handful, if not the only majority minority city with the most diverse city council in history are exploring and we are actively exploring that.
I would say on this show, it's too early for me to tell exactly when you're going to hear from us, but I bet you that you do in the near future.
Thank you, Evan Goyke.
Folks, this is attorney Mark Thompson.
This is your Paul Revere show.
We'll be back with our new city attorney in Milwaukee, Evan Goyke.
This is attorney Mark Thompson.
This is your Paul Revere show.
I am honored and privileged to have Milwaukee's new city attorney Evan Goyke with us.
And we're really talking about how the city attorney can be play a role in growing the economy, creating opportunities for everybody.
We're just touch base in terms of the last round of
attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion statewide and in Milwaukee.
But I want to get to, we got major elections in November that statewide and nationally.
You're in the assembly, you're going to be giving up your seat and the assembly.
But let's just start there.
How do you see this?
the redistricting the new maps and How is that gonna play out in terms of changes in Madison that are gonna help Milwaukee?
Yeah, it's a great question Let me zoom back out a little bit because I've served through Walker and Evers and you really started to see a big change in 18 You know 19 after Evers wins his first election and and to be honest in 19 and 20 the Republicans were really
United we're going to really stick it to Evers and you've seen that kind of wane like just I'll just I'm pulling back the curtain like what it's like to be in the halls of the state capitol as a legislative democrat has changed each year that Evers has been there and what the last couple of months have been is this very sad but totally enjoyable
resign of the Republicans that a new day is coming.
So what is going to happen?
Fundamentally alters the makeup of the state legislature because we no longer have some of the most partisan gerrymandered districts in the state of Wisconsin.
It isn't just the we replace ours with these, it's also about how districts are drawn.
So your question about Milwaukee, how does Milwaukee and its treatment differ from new maps?
Well,
There was, under the partisan gerrymander, an effort to pack as many democratic districts as tightly as possible in the city of Milwaukee.
That diminished the number of seats that the city had a direct touch to, that reduced the number of representatives that talked to the mayor, the city council, the public school district, public transit, et cetera.
And what we've seen...
is now the Metro Milwaukee into the suburban communities of Milwaukee County and into the edges of Ozaki, Washington, Washington County specifically, a little less about Racine, but close, is this kind of spread and districts that touch a little bit of more communities.
And what it does mark fundamentally changes how those representatives look at the communities they represent.
Yes, that means likely more Democrats in Metro Milwaukee, which hopefully means more listening to the Democratic-leaning local officials in Milwaukee like me.
But it also just pulls back this iron-red curtain that existed for a long time at the city border.
that other, that separation, that otherness that has existed between Milwaukee and its suburbs.
And a unification of communities like Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, Brown Deer, Wauwatosa, Oak Creek, West Dallas.
Well, now all of a sudden we're talking about 800,000 people working on an issue instead of 600,000.
And that might seem like a trivial difference to some, but I can tell you as somebody that's been in the halls,
for 12 years, it's a big damn difference when you have these other jurisdictions kind of sharing and rowing the boat in the same direction, not attacking Milwaukee, because those local leaders are talking to their reps and understanding how our fates are shared.
So are you optimistic that with these new maps, we're going to have actual changes in Madison?
cautiously optimistic, yes.
I will say a narrow majority.
So let's say right now the Republicans are up 12 or 13 in the assembly, something like that.
A number high enough that it's really hard to get to to work across the aisle.
Let's say that number goes down to three or four or two.
You have a lot more working across the aisle, right?
There's a much easier chance to get to 50.
There's a lot more pressure on the majority party to work across the aisle.
So that's a cultural change for the better, even if the current majority stays in the majority.
Now, I have some concern because sometimes that tight number results in discipline from that majority, right?
Okay, we can't lose two people, so we're all in the same team.
But I think on the day-to-day operation and culture of the legislature, it is fundamentally improved for the better.
in November.
And then the last thing I'll say on that is also up is the leadership, the current leadership of those Republican caucuses.
And Mr. Voss, the long-term speaker for the Assembly Republicans, runs his caucus with a very tight authoritarian grip and really prevents a lot of bipartisanship.
So let's say the new cast of characters results in him going away.
through losing an election to speaker, an indictment, a recall, whatever, I don't care, then the entire culture of the legislature shifts, and it really is a new day.
So it's kind of incremental in a bit, but I'm optimistic.
So we got a couple of minutes here left.
What can the city attorney do, or what role do you see your office in terms of voter registration?
voter participation voter activity in Milwaukee is there is there a role for you
know we we have historically not participated on the front end like that in terms of you know engaging in efforts to draw turnout we are and provide legal counsel to our local elections commission and we are assembling
We have a team we're increasing the size of that team to prepare for November.
And really our focus is to make sure that everything goes correctly again and that we are prepared for the repeat of 2020 where, you know, outside interests want to dispel, you know, cause chaos and file frivolous lawsuits.
You saw a political fact in today's online journal Sentinel about.
a false claim about printing ballots, we will be ready to fight tooth and nail all of those false claims that may come and make sure that November is run smoothly again.
I just throw this out.
I'm on the Elections Commission statewide.
A lot of local folks have been attacked in 10 seconds.
What are you doing to protect the folks that run elections?
Yeah, we will have their back to make sure we're ready to go to court should they ever get, you know, those attacks move forward.
Folks, the new city attorney of Milwaukee, Evan Goyke, you heard him.
He's got your back.
