Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this March 1st, 2024.
Have your host, James Jamail, off here at 3.30.
We're going to welcome in some friends from the Grace Lutheran Church and talk about the hotel
pickle. Looking forward to getting into that.
Right now, our good friend representative, Scott Krueg, with us in studio, Wisconsin state assembly
district 72 representative. Get this title right, Scott. There you go.
Good to have you with us. How are you doing, man? Good. Did I hear hotel pickle?
Yes, yeah. I got to listen. You got to stick around with that. That's a nice thing about the time
delay. I'll be on the other list. That's right. That's perfect.
All right, here's the other thing is I swear I was just here.
Yeah, that's the weird thing about February, right?
We can't do everything twice in one month.
I was just here last week.
It's funny. You said that. I was looking over my notes of our last interview and I was going
through some of your e-newsletters and some of those things.
Did we cover this? Did we? I know, right? That's what I said.
The office is right, too. I'm like, I think we talked about it.
Well, I'll figure it out today.
And we got a lot to discuss today. I want to get into first off.
Was there anything you wanted to touch on right away? Anything on your docket that you want to get?
I think we talked a little bit about it last time, but we did pass legislative maps.
They've been signing a law. Now everybody's kind of sorting out where we go, where we don't go.
So I wanted to kind of lay out where my district is going to be.
I mean, it still is what it is.
But when I run again, it'll be something else.
So I literally have like two districts right now, one that I'm already representing,
but one that I'm still having to get to know before the next election.
So the new district, I keep the Northern Adams County stuff.
You know, I go a little further south than the Adams now.
So I'll pick up this city of Adams and the village of Friendship.
And then I'll jut across Kassarok Lake for the first time and I pick up Junal County.
So the cool thing about that is I used to, you know,
my law enforcement career started in Junal County.
I used to be a deputy there, all my old haunts, all my old places, the dirty turtle,
all the stuff on, it'll be cool to get back over there and see it.
But I haven't represented areas.
So Southern Junal County stays out.
So I get the Northern 2 thirds of Junal County.
And I come up into the rapids area again.
I keep all my wood county stuff I had, which is great because I love Wisconsin rapids.
I love Fort Edwards, Saratoga, Grand Rapids.
Now I pick up Nakusa.
Never had Nakusa before.
I've always had Nakusa address when I live in Rome.
Right.
I've never represented Nakusa.
So now I will be the state representative for the city of Nakusa.
The folks around the town of Port Edwards, around the village in the city of Nakusa.
And then I go even a little further north now.
So I go out into Babcock, Remington,
Hiles, you know, all the way up to Pitzville basically.
So it's a really interesting different district.
So, you know, being my fourth map since I've been in the legislature,
you tend to learn how to pick up new areas and how to, you know,
let go of some other areas.
The hardest part that's going to be, that's going to be to let go of,
is I lose all of Washera County.
All of it.
Just one fall swipe.
So I lose Kaloma, Hancock, Wautoma, Plainfield.
So I mean, you know me, I'm my family lives in Washera County.
So we're in Hancock all the time.
Camping or in Plainfield for the winter carnival stuff.
So it'll be tough to go with Washera County.
But it is what it is, right?
I mean, just to move forward and get it done.
So what county is a whole?
We're going to have two state representatives.
It'll be myself and whoever ends up in the 86th assembly district.
So that's John Spiros and Donna Rosar, both end up living in that district.
They're both incumbent Republicans.
They've got paired.
They're going to have to run against each other.
Both good friends of mine.
So I'm not saying anything about anything about it.
Whichever one of those wins, it'll just be they and I represent Wood County.
Which is a little change because right now we've got four state reps in the counties.
So there'll just be two of us.
But Adams County, it's just the way that the governor's map cut it all up.
There'll actually be five state representatives that represent Adams County and four state senators.
So Adams County will be plenty represented in the legislature next session because you've got
like half the legislature's got a piece of it.
It'll be interesting.
So there's some new spots to learn.
You've touched on this a little bit, Scott.
What are to you the positives, the negatives of the way this is going to be going forward?
You know, I think like I said, the negative for me is I have built so many great relationships
with so many people in with Sheriff County and Portage County.
I lose the rest of Portage County have lost a piece of it every map.
So I finally lose all of it.
But just knowing all those people that I've worked with in those towns and villages and their
county boards and their school districts and you know, I buy Girl Scout cookies from kids
in Wautoma.
I donate to their basketball team and I, you know, those are the worst parts of it.
It's like just going over and saying, hey, I'm still around, but I'm not your guy, right?
I mean, I'm going to be here and you can bounce stuff off me.
But I got to send you to this other person that you don't know
to do the same things that you would have done otherwise just because
somebody wanted to change a line for no good reason, honestly.
Well, that's debatable, but we'll continue.
No, I don't know if it is debatable.
So it took my district from a 54% district and made me a 63% safe seat.
Completely.
Like, I mean, I was competitive as I could possibly be.
But they didn't know.
Now I'm not competitive.
But they didn't do it for no reason.
The statement that they did it for no good reason.
They wouldn't have done it if it was for no good.
I mean, you're not going to get anything done at all for no reason.
There was a reason behind it, whether you agree with it or not, it's different.
Yeah.
All right, we'll get to that.
Yeah.
But the good part is, like I said, now my district encompasses all of both sides of Lake
Piedenwell and all the both sides of Castorock Lake.
So now I turn completely into this mega tourism district.
Which is cool.
This is the lane that I've worked in an operator to try and protect our lakes.
Yes.
You know, so all that stuff is cool to pick up on.
I mean, I lose all of my potato growers and vegetable growers in my
share of county.
But now I have a big cranberry district picking a Babcock and ramming to it.
Hiles and all of the cranberry growers in Cranmore and all those areas that,
I mean, that is more ancestral to my family roots.
My family's been in Cranberries, you know, back into the 1870s when they first came over
into Babcock areas.
Wow.
I mean, I, there's good.
And then there's bad.
I mean, being an old dog, I got to learn some new tricks.
That's okay.
I like challenging myself.
And that's negotiation 101, right?
Both parties come out a little happy, little unhappy.
I mean, that's kind of politics.
And I was shading.
I advocated for the governor's map straight up in the legislature.
Told everybody, hey, let's just get one done and just get it over with.
If we've got to do this thing, let's just do it and get it done with.
So, you know, and I've said it, since I've got elected, the map doesn't matter.
It really doesn't.
I mean, whether it was for a reason or not, we'll keep disagreeing.
But in the end, it does not matter one bit.
Because when I first ran, I ran on a court drawn map.
There was a 42% Republican district.
And I won it.
The hardest district that anybody could win, taking out the longest
service state rep ever.
If I can win on that map, anybody can win in any map.
It's the matter of the candidate and the quality of the candidate and the message that they have
and the work that they put in.
So, maps are maps.
We completely agree on that part.
Maps are maps.
They are what they are.
People complain about it, but we'll get through it.
I don't know if your ears are burning Wednesday or not.
But we had Lance Plymalon and we were talking.
We spent our time talking water quality in this area.
And I believe our first conversation was about water quality when the first time.
This has been about five or six years we've been doing this, which I did not know.
I know, that's crazy.
But in that time, I would say that's probably maybe our most consistent theme
that we've had in our conversations is coming back to water quality.
And the focus in the time, in that relatively short amount of time,
we've seen a real shift I feel like on that.
seismic changes.
Yeah.
And that was the nice thing about being in that space for 10 to 12 years.
And the legislature is being able to hold that carrot in front of both sides saying,
hey, you're not going to like it if I have to deal with it.
Why don't you go figure it out?
So, we gave them some tools.
They started to work together, put together partnerships.
You know, Farmer led initiatives to clean up water sheds.
You know, and I've not let go of that area, but I did take a different focus this year
because something bigger and bolder came up for campaigns and elections.
But it's still nice to be able to go back to my roots.
So, literally, the first day when we finally found what those maps are going to be,
and we voted for those maps, literally right after that, I went to the speaker and I said,
okay, there's a bill that's going to benefit my new district.
We've got about a week to get it done.
Right.
Can we do this?
He's like, can you just let the ink dry a little bit like that?
No, I can't.
No, I mean, literally you have to hit the ground running.
That was one of the things that I did pick up,
and it'll come up, I'm sure, during the campaign time,
is that I picked up the Wasaki Dairy Farm in General County.
And we had this similar thought, because when I saw that,
I thought immediately, oh, this is, you know, this is my district.
Now, our media is my district.
Now, it's ground zero.
Now, there's a lot more attention to it
that I get to pay because it is, for me, the issue of deal with,
as opposed to Tony Kurtz's district at the time,
that he could have dealt with or advocated for.
So it's on me.
So the issues that are ongoing in Armenia
and the town of Port Edward is on their ground water
and drinking water and all those issues.
That's my job.
So that's what I got to start taking, you know,
to heart and take into the top of the chain and saying,
hey, we gotta get some stuff done.
Wisconsin State Legislator, past a build,
created RV-specific franchise law.
I want to touch on that.
I know this is another one of your passion projects, if you will.
Yeah, you know, sometimes you get so busy
in your, you know, committee stuff.
Like I said, with campaigns and elections,
it took up every second of almost every day.
But you still have to remember to do bills for your district.
And Mick has been, Mick Furkey has been working on this for six, seven, eight years.
Created created an entire lobby and group.
Just out of nothing.
It's credible.
That's Crest Roots.
To just be able to transfer his business
into his family's name without his manufacturer's
polling, you know, product line and everything else.
And just saying, hey, there's gotta be some rights here
that I can just step away and, you know, have some certainty.
So Mick has been at this for a long time.
And I, you know, I appreciate all those phone calls
and emails that kept us on it.
And, you know, we finally did get this down through the assembly,
through the Senate.
It is literally today sitting on the governor's desk
and I'm hopeful by the time this interview is aired and over,
we sign into law.
That's the cool thing about doing district-specific bills
is that we, and we've even asked the governor,
like, hey, come on up to rap, it's a sign of him.
You know, we got a great spot for you.
Mick would be happy to have you right there
and sign this hometown bill right in front.
I don't know if we'll get there,
but we're gonna get something done that just,
I mean, it's not just for local RV dealers here,
obviously, it was Scott's and Rampers,
but there are, there are a few.
In case you haven't noticed, you're right.
Up and down A Street and down 73 and everywhere else,
I really fuel the economy that I participate in regularly.
I'm a camper, I'm an RVer.
I mean, there's so many people in this area
that recreate that way.
And so many people that come here to buy those vehicles
who stay here and spend money here,
so you might as well create some certainty for the industry.
Doesn't a bill like this become even more important
when we deal with a winner,
like we're going through right now
where so many of our wreck areas and wreck businesses
are not getting the funding that they usually do?
Having at least something like this
where the RV industry is still thriving,
still doing fairly well,
it seems even more important to have something
like a bill like this in place.
If you ever want to find an industry
that has been recession proof or COVID proof
or anything else, it has been this.
When COVID hit,
you would be hard pressed to find any unit
on anybody's grounds right now,
because that's what everybody bought was a unit
to get away from everybody else.
Yeah, I feel like it was.
You could not find one anywhere.
Oh my God.
You forgot about that.
They're in grain, they got this down, so.
We're speaking with Wisconsin State Representative
Scott Krug and Scott earlier this month,
you had another public hearing meeting
and campaigns and elections.
You touched on this a little bit.
I personally, I want to thank you in your team
and everybody on both sides of the aisle working together
trying to get something done here, trying to get
and being so clear and upfront about these things.
Transparent, that's the word I was looking for, transparent.
Despite our differences in how we view solutions
to current flaws in the election system,
and these are your words,
you're trying to address them in a committee
and hearing both sides as crucial to this process.
You and I talk about this a lot.
We, and you and I have even talked about this
in our own personalize, I bet.
We overstate a lot of things these days.
We love to have the debate of who's the goat
or what the next great app is gonna be or something,
or what the next greatest thing is gonna be.
But in your opinion, is it overstating
in that, is overstating to say that cooperation
compromised by particism, by particism,
is the only way that we will get a working democracy
going forward.
Literally is, and that is the whole point
of what we've done this whole session
on campaigns and elections.
We're working with my ranking member,
Democrat Least Niagara from Appleton.
We decided that there are just some of things
that are a heck of a lot more important than press releases
and who's gonna win and who's gonna lose.
I mean, this is literally the cornerstone
of our democracy.
So we really sat down and focused, I don't care.
I get there's a lot of people making a lot of noise
about this, I get there's a lot of people
making a lot of noise about this.
Where are the 70% of people who are not making noise
about things?
And what are the real problems that we have to face?
So we did reach out to the extremes on the right
and the left saying, hey, every public hearing
we want you here.
You're not gonna be the first ones to testify anymore.
That's the way this committee used to work.
He used to give you all the noise and all the energy
and you're not first.
You can come, yeah.
But our clerks are testifying first.
Municipal clerks, county clerks, the people who are doing
the darn job every day.
They were the first ones to testifying every bill
that came in front of our committee
because they're the ones that are gonna have to implement it.
So we, and Lee and I talked about this all the time
is that we should not be getting national press
for what we're doing.
We are getting national press, statewide press,
for doing what we're supposed to be doing.
It's like almost like getting a participation trophy.
It is, yeah.
But I think the bar was set so low from this committee
from last year is that we probably really couldn't
have failed actually this year.
And just taking it to the stratosphere
by just cooperation and conversation
and telling each other ahead of time what we're gonna do.
I'm like, okay, Lee, this is what I'm gonna bring up next week.
You're not gonna like it.
And for him, then she would tell me, hey, that's fine.
But you're not gonna like our response to it.
I'm like, that's okay.
That's what a public hearing is for.
The other thing that we did that was different this session
is we let people register online or through email
instead of actually having to come to Madison
to register for against a bill.
So we literally had a bill this session
that got us 1500 people registering in favor or against.
You're not gonna get a better flavor
of how somebody wants a bill done
or doesn't want a bill done
unless you let them actually register or testify.
So we've really labeled this thing called the new way forward.
It's just the way we're operating.
And we may not get as many election bills
as we wanted done this session,
but we're changing the dynamic in the capital
because other committees are seeing how things
are plain and shaking out
and how things are supposed to work.
So we're having a bigger reaction that way
than we are actually getting policy done sometimes.
It's actually really refreshing to hear.
I was gonna ask if you're seeing others
and take note of this.
I mean, there's always a healthy jealousy in the capital
of who's getting press or who's getting hurt.
I mean, so other committee chairs look at this
and other ranking members on their committees look at them.
And they're like, hey, maybe that could be us.
Maybe we should talk to each other
and not complain about each other all the time.
Like, at least not grass and I
are gonna disagree on 90% of the things
that come up in Madison.
But you know what?
We don't talk to each other about those things.
Yeah.
We'll talk to each other about the things
that we can agree on.
And honestly, being the two that are driving this effort,
we've learned that we can bounce things off each other
and even take that relationship deeper
and just vent frustration to on the outside of it.
Like, okay, you're the only one
that's gonna understand how I feel about this leave.
So I just got to tell you about this too.
So it's that friendship and partnership
has been really cool.
I just want to make sure I'm getting this correct Scott.
So you and this, you two are handling these like adults?
Like, you call me Bidsip, but yeah, I mean.
I had to, all right.
Yeah, it's a good take on the mic.
Yeah, but it is.
It's just being the adults in the room.
And I've said this a thousand times on this show
and even, even before you and I talked
and Carl and I talked about it is just doing things
the right way, understanding people or people.
I mean, you learn these lessons from guys like Tommy Thompson.
I mean, I'm gonna say it till I die.
My wife thinks I fanboy over him a little bit too much.
That's just the way you're supposed to do things
and that's what Wisconsin is.
So I know.
I want to get to, we got a couple of things
when I get to before we let you go
and I know how busy you are.
I do want to encourage people to check out your e-letter.
It's a great kind of cliff notes, if you will,
version of a lot of the bills
and a lot of the work that you're doing.
What Scott is one of the busiest politicians in Madison.
So, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Public servant in Madison, I like that, I like that.
As far as that goes, so I encourage you to look those up
and see all the work that him and his team are putting in.
In your recent e-letter, you talked about the solar update
or gave a solar update about Nikusa.
We can touch on that if you don't mind.
Yeah, I absolutely hate this project.
There's your spending.
I kind of thought so.
You got to be in this time, nicely done, nicely done.
I just think, you know, one of the things that came up
back when San Valley was put in,
taking up 5,000 some acres of Rome,
people in Rome were a little upset that were, you know,
changing the town for too much, too fast.
Well, you know, they've, they've weathered the storm
and the growth of that, the impact of it's been fantastic
and you know, there's some that still don't like it,
but it is what it is.
Now, when this new solar project comes up and says,
well, we want to take the other 5,000 acres to the north.
Well, you can imagine where that went really quickly
and people are like, hey, hold on,
this is just, we went this far,
we're not going to go this far.
So this is nothing to do with solar.
I don't hate solar.
I did a, I did a community solar bill this year
that let everybody participate in the same way.
Like if we're going to let the big guys do it,
let everybody do it.
I don't, I don't have any skin in the game on solar.
It's the fact that you want to take these remaining
5,000 acres of recreational area in Rome,
which basically carves out the last of the recreational
areas that are undeveloped and not give the town a say,
that's where my problem comes in.
Like if the town board was able
to take a vote on it and there's a majority vote on it,
they had a chance for public to come weigh in on it,
participation, all those things and the vote went down
and it said, yeah, okay, I think that's the best thing
for us.
We're going to see gobs of money, which they are.
The county and the town are going to both see gobs of money.
That's not a money thing though.
It's just a process thing for me.
So until the PSC changes the rules and says,
hey, we're going to let you have public input
and town zoning can stay in place unless you want to change it.
And I'm going to be against projects like this right now.
Do you think that there still is some work to be done
on that front as far as the community having a say in this?
Yeah, I mean, that's exactly what the community solar bill
was that I put forward, say, okay, let's make the rules equal.
Little guy can do the same thing as the big guy.
But in my bill, it changes the rules, say,
hey, the town board has to take a positive vote.
Majority rules, right?
That way people can go to public hearing,
have a say in it, just like you do if you're changing zoning
for a campground, saying big flats,
like that comes up once in a while now too.
But I mean, yeah, so we do that for everything else.
We just don't do it for solar and wind
and other projects like that because PSC is able
to overrule local zoning.
There are so many bills that I want to talk about with you.
The unifers and Wisconsin rapids with their manufacturer,
but you had the certain laundering textile business.
Yeah, that one didn't make it through.
No, no, but I wanted to make sure we'll bring awareness
because that's not dead, is it?
Is that one that you're not going to let go?
I'm going to try to keep working on it.
It basically expands the manufacturing
and a tax credit for companies like Unifers
who actually create something and manufacture something
out of old product.
I mean, they should be able to take advantage of that tax credit
like other small businesses in the industrial park here
in Wisconsin rapids are able to,
but they're just not right now.
So we've got the bill through committee
and the assembly and the Senate.
We did not get a bipartisan vote on it.
So that basically means that it's not going to sign the law
if it gets passed through the legislature.
So we'll stay on it.
I mean, that's the same with the same with Mixed Bill.
Yeah, six years.
A lot of them take eight years.
I mean, that's why when people talk about term limits
for four years or whatever,
it has just not a realistic thing
because it takes a lot of work to get a bill done.
You also wrapping up, you had Ag Day
at the Capitol the other day,
our own meet-up, the Mentry showed up over at the Capitol
the other day, how would that all go with that?
Oh, so yesterday was a great example.
I were out of session, we're ready to be home for a while
and just slow down and take a breath.
And somebody on Jack Soccer team, one of the moms
that said, hey, one of the kids is coming down
for a visit on Thursday next week.
And I'm like, okay, well, I wasn't planning
to get in down there three times this week,
but literally yesterday I went to the Capitol
just to see this kids from heat school
because my fourth grade field trip was the whole reason
that I wanted to take this journey.
I don't know if I ever told this story,
but it'd be a great episode.
But when I went into the assembly chamber
when I was a fourth grader,
there was a legislator from Milwaukee,
last name crew, up on the electronic voting board.
I saw my name in those lights and I knew at some point
it had to be me.
So I try not to miss any fourth grade trips.
Goosebumps, man, it is, yes.
That's why I tell the kids every trip and I, hey,
I was staying where you were, thinking the same thing,
like, why am I here?
But that is exactly why we're there.
Is it encouraged to try to bring people up
and not knock people down?
We talk about this all the time.
It just usually is with our teachers
and our superintendent and everything,
but you just don't know what could be sparked
in a young mind, giving them more options,
giving them opportunities to experience,
didn't see different things.
And if anything, creating an understanding
and an empathy and a connection to our politics
and two, because this world works that way.
That's helpful.
I didn't know anything about that building
when I was there as a fourth grader.
I just said it was a cool building.
But that started me down the path
of following social studies and current events
and reading newspapers.
Yes, there used to be newspapers kids.
Yes, yes.
And just following all that stuff
and getting into social service work.
So it started a path.
It just really did.
So I mean, just hearing even stories of parents
since that tour yesterday saying,
hey, thanks for coming down.
That's what the job is.
We appreciate the time and the transparency
and conversation has always got,
keep up the great work.
And if people have followed questions,
want to know more about some of the things
we've talked about today, how can they reach it?
Yeah, I mean, the EF days, it's a really easy one.
A really good one to get a hold of,
but my cell phone is just as easy.
It's 715-323-3293.
We'll talk brewers the next time we get together.
Yeah, we'll see.
We've got to make time for it.
We've got to make time.
Pictures of catchers reported.
We've got to make time for it.
Again, big thank you to Wisconsin State Representative
Scott Krueff for joining us.
We'll take a quick commercial break to catch up
with our partners and be back on our midday magazine
right here on WFHR.
