Wisconsin State Representative Scott Krug

Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Friday, December 6th, 2024.

Have your host James J. Mailoff with you.

In part two, today we're going to speak with Phil Brown and Liz Stern

from the Southville County Historical Museum

and talk about their famous Christmas tree walk

looking forward to that always fun talking with Phil.

Always a good conversation with our Wisconsin State Representative Scott Krug.

Scott is with us on the phone right now. How are you doing, sir?

I'm doing good. How are you today?

Doing good. I appreciate you being here with us, Scott.

I'm just being able to make the time, I know that we've talked about this over the years,

whether it's you pulling over at Pritzel so that you could get the call in the bus

or whatever it takes you always seem to make it work.

We really appreciate that and our listeners really do.

And especially now we haven't gotten to talk to you since the election.

I want to congratulate you on being re-elected. How did that feel?

Yeah, it's great. I mean, you know, you always put in as much work as you can.

You know, when it pays off, it's good.

And I'm excited to get back to work here in Madison.

And we've been grinding the gears already, you know, got back, you know,

the week after election, actually day after the election was already down to the Capitol

and getting going and getting ready again for the next iteration here.

Scott, we'll talk more about that in a moment.

But I also wanted to tag that with the fact that you were also elected to leadership.

You will be the assistant majority leader in the 2526 session.

What does that mean for you both personally and workwise?

Yeah, you know, I think just kind of seeing where we were on, you know,

the numbers in the chamber and seeing how close the majorities are

and knowing that there's going to need to be some more, you know,

level-headed leadership and cooperation and coordination between the parties

that decided to run for leadership and, you know, taking on this role is going to be

going to be a change.

I'm not going to chair committee anymore.

I'm not going to do the normal type of day to day type stuff.

So the more behind the scenes working with both parties that create an agenda

and, you know, get bills across the chambers over to the Senate and help them

understand why we need to do things.

So it's a new challenge.

It's exciting.

It's, you know, it's something I've thought about doing for quite a long time

and I'll finally pull the trigger and got it done.

And congratulations on that.

And I have to tell you, though, one of the more unsurprising things to happen

in this political cycle to me, having gotten to work with you for years

and having these conversations with you.

I see you and I don't, I hope this isn't a bad thing.

I see you as a very purple person, a very purple candidate.

And I understand that I would say the majority of things have not all of them.

You tend to lean towards a Republican side, but I do think that you worry.

A style of Republican that we around in this area, certainly in central Wisconsin

and in your districts, they're more familiar with than maybe some.

And I certainly think that you are able to, do you like how I worded that one, man?

I walked, I danced around that one.

You sound like a politician.

They might have a future.

No, I don't, no, I don't.

One of the things that I appreciate about you is that.

And with that, so, you know, there's ever once in a while there's crossovers

with you and Senator Teston with questions that I have.

And one of the things I asked him, I don't really feel I need to ask you

because, and not to say that Senator Teston hasn't done this himself,

but you've done this over overwhelmingly of reaching across the aisle,

of representing people even that didn't vote for you.

That's important to you, isn't it?

It is.

I mean, it chose and, you know, just even the election results.

From when I started it with the 47% win in a three-way race,

and now being a 64% seat, I mean, it's not just because

of the math lines.

It's because of the job that I do and the way that I do it.

I think just the way we ran the campaign elections committee last session

is going to start showing more widespread across the Capitol

if people are going to start acting that way, understanding that they have to work together

to get something actually done.

So I think it's, it was a good start.

And I think being a leadership, I can foster that a little bit more.

It speaks to also why you've been reelected.

The times that you have and everything, I think it's an important note.

And I take that piggybacking off of that into your plans for this next term,

especially with the new leadership role and everything.

Does that change your plans or are still full steam ahead?

Yeah, you know, when you chair a committee, we have a rule in the assembly

that if you're a chair, you can't author a bill in your area.

You're just more of the referee in a bill.

So I think for me and my agenda on elections issues,

I get to be more of a bill author, a little bit more in depth.

I'm putting together the policy instead of being the referee

and somebody bringing it to me and my committee.

And I think that's going to also help me find other legislators who are newer to the process.

Maybe it's some of the freshmen.

Maybe some of the Democrats who I can help coach in that area and help them understand

they need to build a knowledge on this so we can either a fixed problems that exist

or be fixed perceptions that there were problems that needed to be fixed.

And I just got back in DC yesterday and did a couple of panel discussions

where different groups and just still talking about election stuff at every stop

and being a respected leader nationwide on election integrity is something I really take the heart.

When it comes to that, Scott, and I saw that you were doing that yesterday a bit.

It's part of the reason I wanted to ask this next question.

And I don't do curveball questions.

I don't do gotchas stuff or anything like that.

So I don't mean anything like that with this.

But I am curious because I love asking that political brain of yours questions like this.

A couple of days ago, Democrats won their final U.S. House race.

That is going to keep it from Republican control.

But coming out of the election, whether it's the presidency or Senate,

Republicans took over quite a bit. It was quite a red sweep.

When one party has so much control, what happens then?

And I say this in the sense of when, because both parties do this,

when they are not in control, hey, that's wrong.

Hey, this is wrong. You know, calling things out and that.

And now with this being the case, what happens then when you see that happening?

Do you see this as a positive for the country?

And I don't mean this as a Republican or Democrat thing.

I mean, more so.

One party having so much control over another.

I mean, if you look at the numbers in the U.S. House,

where Republicans are going to have maybe a two, maybe a three-seat majority,

you compare it to what we have going on now in the state assembly,

where we still have a decent majority of like nine seats.

But even then, for us, you can lose maybe four, maybe five,

before a bill doesn't get done,

if you don't bring a Democrat vote over.

And Congress, they're going to be able to lose two, maybe three,

without being able to get a bill done without Democrats.

So if somebody's got a really big priority,

and there's people in their party that don't like it,

they're going to have to make it work for a Democrat or two to vote for a bill.

And it's just a different style of politics than a lot of Republicans or Democrats

who are currently in office are understanding of or able to procure those.

So I think it brings a different skill set to the forefront.

And I think it's more of the...

And I always like to compare it to being like more of a Tommy Thompson type person

and understanding that, yes, you have your principles,

you know the way things have to end up,

but you also have to figure out a way to get them done.

And that means you add something here and there to help bring a Democrat or two aboard,

you're going to have to do it.

So it gives the minority party more of a say.

I mean, I'd always still get their way,

but they'll have much more of a say both here in the assembly and over in the U.S. Capitol.

So it's just a different skill set that matters more now.

Yeah, you know, going back to even Lincoln and before that,

you had reaching across the aisle,

you had Lincoln filling his cabinet with people that ran against him in these kind of things.

And we've always seen it as important,

but I don't know if you could say that it's ever been more important,

or it hasn't been as important since then to have that in this country.

I don't see in the numbers show this that we are not as divisive as people might think,

but the election results kind of, I think, fed that monster, if you will,

of this divisiveness and everything.

And I think that's all the more important for our leaders,

like yourself and other, your teammates over there, if you will,

to really approach this that way.

And regardless of how you might feel even personally about some things,

to show goodwill and to show the reaching across the aisle and how things are done.

And as I've mentioned many times,

whether it's fair or not the responsibility on Wisconsin politicians,

especially when it comes to this, because we are that purple state.

There's no getting around it now.

Every political cycle pretty much going forward,

at least for the time being,

it does seem like they are going to have all eyes on Wisconsin.

They are going to be focusing on this state,

and where it lands.

Yeah, and I think one of the things you'll see,

especially in Congress,

and the reason I bring that up is just haven't been there the last couple of days

hearing the buzz and feeling what it feels,

and like in DC this week,

I think it would be really smart for the Democrats,

and they want to bring forward a bill that they talked about during the campaign cycle

that President Trump was behind,

like saying, you know, no more taxes on tips.

I was the minority leader in the U.S. House.

I would have a Democrat in my team right that bill,

and bring it to the floor and say, hey,

this is what you guys talked about.

We agree with it.

Let's pass the bill.

It's a small enough thing,

but it's really set the tone for the whole session that they say, hey,

you know, there were things that we agreed upon the last six months,

when we were yelling and screaming at each other about these campaigns,

but these are the things that we can actually get done that will support.

Let us write the bill, and you guys pass our bill,

and let's just figure out how to actually work together.

I don't know if that's going to happen, obviously,

but I just think there's some things that could set that tone

and try to get some actual things back home done,

because in a two-year cycle,

we literally get maybe 12, 13 months out of those two years,

actually get, you know, policy drafted and done,

and budgets created and passed and done,

and then that campaign season starts creeping in already.

So it's a shorter thing than two years,

because we're not always, you know, sitting at the capitals for those two-year cycles.

So especially for us and for Congress who all have two-year turns,

pressure to get stuff done starts now,

and the only way to get stuff done is working together to get it done.

You, your colleagues, you're on the clock,

and you're so right about that.

And I think, and not only do I agree with,

whether people agree with the bill or not,

the idea of getting a bill across the aisle,

or across the finish line,

that it has both, you know,

has bipartisan support and everything.

You're right, that is a very good idea right now, I think.

And something that can show connection with our, you know,

the more unified we come across,

the more unified we are,

the more unified we come across to the rest of the world,

and whether people realize that or not,

that's important, that matters.

And especially, more importantly, of course,

to our fellow Americans to show this,

but just as much to the rest of the world to show,

hey, we're the ones that made democracy, you know, what it is.

I mean, this is how democracies work,

and especially in the day of the way the world is right now.

We're speaking with Representative Scott Kruggen,

and Scott, I mentioned the Representative part and part

because of the new district boundaries that are going on.

You have lost so many who have gained some,

can you go through that for us?

Yeah, I mean, because that's officially kicks in

with inauguration on January 6th.

The new 72nd Assembly District is no more in Washera County,

no more in Portage County.

So I've got, you know, the Southwood County, I've added

a little bit of areas here in Wood County,

such as Babcock, and that way up towards Pitzville,

then it goes south from there into Juneau County,

all the way down to Camp Douglas,

and the Germantown area,

if you're familiar with the southern part of Casarock Lake,

over there in the Dirty Turtle and Portofinos,

and all those cool little bars on the southern tip of Casarock,

now in my area, and you cross back over 21,

and picked up a little bit more in Adams County.

So just south of, you know, I basically tell people,

this is the entirety of Casarock Lake,

all peed and well, when you're looking at Adams

and funeral county for the district,

whatever's touching that lake on either side,

now mine, so it adds Adams and Friendship also.

I do lose some eastern Adams County,

so as I get out of Rome,

heading towards Koloma, I don't even have the edge of Adams County

over there anymore,

so we saw Adams County get sliced up,

and now Adams has got five, you know,

state reps that are represented,

instead of just one or two now.

So it's a little chopped up,

but I think in the end it fits really well with,

you know, the ideas that I've had,

I've gone a lot from vegetable production area,

and we're sharing a county

to picking up a lot more cranberries and a lot more cows,

so the type of agriculture changes,

but it's still a pretty agricultural and tourism district.

What for you, and again,

just your perspective,

what for you are the positives and negatives of this?

Well, I think for me it's, you know,

I had to learn a lot about where Shera County,

when I first inherited that in the 2012 map,

but for me and Juno County,

it's such a natural fit,

I spent so much time in Juno at the end of the 90s

and 2000s in law enforcement and corrections,

and knew a lot of the people over there already

and kept those relationships up for a while,

so it's a pretty natural fit for me.

It also includes my ancestral homeland up there

in the little area of Altor,

if you're near Vesper,

that my great-great-grandparents came to in the 1920s,

so it's a lot more of the ancestral area

that I grew up in and old families that I recognize and know.

So I think it couldn't be any better

of a district for me the way it ends up, actually.

It's interesting, too.

And with this change, of course,

others are the way that this is going,

it looks like this is going to be set for now,

or how long is this going to be set to us, Scott?

Man, you asked some good questions.

So the way that we've seen maps change so often

because of court decisions or courts flipping,

there is an outside possibility

that the Supreme Court race in April

could put that back on the docket.

But there are plenty of us, though,

that feel like now that we actually took a bill,

and we're not forced by a court to do it.

We wrote the governor's office wrote the bill,

we passed their maps, he signed it into law.

So there's plenty of legal theory that says,

once you pass a redistricting bill,

you can only do it once every 10 years.

So I'm under the impression that,

even if the Supreme Court flows back in early 2025,

that these maps are in place until 2030.

Okay. Scott, the last kind of question I have for you,

before we get into some winter meeting talk,

we always like to wrap up with some baseball.

I want to discuss a tough one, the unknown.

We don't know who will chair which committees

in the Assembly or Senate.

We're not certain who will be members

of which committees right now.

So how are you and your colleagues handling that?

How is the atmosphere there when it comes to that one, Madison?

Well, it's a weird little anecdote

because the first role that the Assistant Majority Leader gets

is to conduct all the office moves.

And the way the office moves work at the Capitol is based on

who's in leadership, who's got seniority,

and we go from there.

So one of the things that we had to do last two weeks

in all these office moves is,

besides listening to people complaining that we lost a lot of seats

because the Democrats won a lot of seats,

was trying to figure out where we're going to be putting people

who might end up on the joint finance committee,

or people who might need an extra space for more staff

in their offices.

So we had to go through all the office moves

without knowing who these people are going to be yet,

because there's some question when you have a 54 to 45 majority

to do the current leaders that get elected in their practices,

have enough votes to get elected on the floor.

So I think we're kind of waiting to make sure that all of that

settled before we started signing to many chairs

and picking people for the joint finance committee.

So all the office moves that we did, we may have to move again,

depending on how actual elections for the speaker

and for the speaker pro-tempo on inauguration days.

So it might be a while before we know who chairs committees yet.

With that, I feel that we have another almost standstill going.

I'm not standstill, but we're kind of stuck a little bit

and things can't get going, getting motion,

and going back to what we were talking about getting work done

and getting bills passed.

Is there some, I don't want to say pressure,

but is there some kind of like, hey, we should get this done,

get this figured out so we can get to work?

Yeah, I think it's fair to say that anybody who is returning

as a sophomore or a senior member is going to have a committee,

most of them who have had their committees already

are going to keep their committees.

So I think most of that figured out.

You know, when I vacated the campaign elections,

that's an open spot.

We lost somebody who had the joint finance committee

to retirements, so that's an open spot.

So there are really a lot of open spots

just getting technically assigned to those positions for people

because incoming freshmen don't get committee chairs yet

because they're just getting there to learn.

Basically, anybody who's coming back knows

that they will have an area of something

that they work in and understand.

So I think we're pretty well set,

just the final announcement of those things.

So it's not much of a standstill on anything actually.

Scott, do you guys do white Christmas gifts?

Do you guys around the office or around the, you know,

the Capitol or anything?

Do you guys do that?

I just, I love the idea of, do you?

Yeah, so we, I mean, everybody's in their offices.

We don't, I mean, that would be a kind of a crazy cool idea,

actually, do like a white elephant party,

an entire cocket.

Yeah.

We don't quite go that far,

but just in our offices,

so we just make sure we take their understanding

and go through that process for people in our own staff

and our offices.

That's cool.

That's good to hear.

And, and as we like to always wrap up talking

a little brewers or baseball, certainly no,

no, brewers necessarily to talk right now

about the winter meetings going on.

And, and one of the bigger free agents out there,

Willie Adamis, it does look like he has probably

going to sign somewhere else,

but there are a handful of names out there

that the brewers are being attached to.

One of them, Johann Makata, former White Sack,

who's seen better years,

but wouldn't be a bad addition in their part time, even if,

but there's the young talent that the brewers have

that they're bringing up that is really impressive

and really exciting, I imagine.

Yeah, I think it's all going to depend on where Juan Soto goes

and how much money he's going to make over the next

quarter century from his massive contract

and then everybody else starts falling

in the place after that.

But, yeah, I think the brewers have some decent options.

They don't really have to spend a ton of money

on their position because they've got guys,

like Joey Ortiz could slide over,

and they could pick up a third base

and if they can't find out, you know,

top tier, short-stop guy,

but I don't know.

I think there's going to focus too much on the infield

instead of, you know,

I'll always, I always say that they don't focus

enough on starting pitching and making sure

that they can fill that enough that it stays solid

through the year,

but you just know how the brewers usually go.

Yeah, you know, you hope with that new influx

of a little bit of new ownership that maybe

they show a little bit more.

We'll see what happens.

I think one of the biggest things,

it's almost not so much just who they sign,

but seeing them do some things.

Open the checkbook a little bit.

We just saw the A's spent 67 mil.

I didn't see that coming.

You kind of have to,

it's not just keeping up with the Joneses,

it's keeping up with your own market.

You've got the bucks that are doing well.

You've got the Packers doing their thing.

Badger sports is just been good.

Sports is just been celebrated,

especially with the way the women's amends basketball

and hockey teams are doing.

You've got to kind of almost keep up

with your own state with this stuff, I would think.

Plus funny because we used to,

when I was a kid,

or even just in my young adult years,

we always knew that the Wisconsin teams

just couldn't compete.

They couldn't win.

We'd still watch them.

We'd still love them.

But now they've all gotten to the point

where they either want to championship like the bucks

or in the playoffs every year,

like the Packers and the brewers

and now are expectations of changes.

They're okay.

We better win a championship every year now.

So I always try to keep that perspective like,

hey, when I was younger,

we didn't even make the playoffs.

Let's just get there first and see what happens.

So.

My nephew, Mason,

I was just talking to him about it over Thanksgiving.

On his wall,

he's got a picture of Christian Yellich,

Yannis and Tadacupo,

and Jordan Love.

And I'm just thinking about it.

Like, man, this kid,

what he's growing up with,

the stars and some of the biggest names

of not biggest names in the sports.

It's pretty cool.

It is a pretty cool time.

And the perspective has always appreciated

whether it's about politics or sports or anything else.

Always enjoy talking with you.

Scott, have a great weekend and safe travels out there.

Yeah, you two have a good talk to you again.

You guys all take care.

And we'll see you in person soon.

Scott, if people have follow up questions,

I would like to reach you and get in touch

with you.

How can they do that?

Yes, all phones always on.

715-323-3293.

Have a great weekend.

Scott will talk soon.

You bet.

Take care.

Always appreciate the time

with Wisconsin State Representative Scott Krug.

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