Welcome to this special live coverage of Wisconsin's fall primary election on your local Civic Media radio station.
You cast your ballot.
Now news director Terry Bell, along with local reporters around the state, are tracking the results.
You'll also get insight into those numbers you won't find anywhere else.
Special fall primary election coverage live on your local Civic Media radio station and streaming on the Civic Media app.
Now, here's news director Terry Bell.
Welcome back to Civic Media primary election night coverage.
I'm Terry Bell with Todd Abba and Maurice Shepherd Analyzing and giving you the latest numbers one thing we can say with great confidence is that the No votes on the constitutional amendment are well ahead with many precincts reporting and Todd Abba and James Kelly joins us now to talk about some of the latest numbers from the third district Democratic primary James
Yeah, right now we have about 53% of the votes counted here Rebecca Cook right now with 53.4% of the support so far Katrina Shanklin at 37.5 and Eric Wilson just under 10 That's a lot of votes coming in right now Shanklin only leads in Wood County still
but we still have about half the votes in Eau Claire County to pick up as we go along for the rest of the way, and Chippewa County as well, two fairly populated areas in the district.
I want to give a couple of quick updates here.
We're working a lot of sources.
We always appreciate everyone who helps us out here and working the phones, and so many people do.
Dan Schaefer, who is on this network frequently, a great friend of Pacific Media, has a recapobulation area and a recapobulation report.
He's saying tonight the sources are telling him
that they feel very good.
Not gonna call it, not gonna call it officially, but feeling very good that the no votes on these constitutional members will win.
So I think that's noteworthy to point here early on, still early on here, relatively speaking, in the evening, just after nine o'clock.
On the third district, this is very interesting again, Terry and James.
This is not, and for our listeners, repeat not an official call, but Dave Wasserman.
the senior editor of elections, an analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
A lot of people in politics know, very trusted source, Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report tweeted this about eight minutes ago, said, quote, I've seen enough Republican, or rather, Rebecca Cook Democrat, wins the third district Democratic primary and will face Derek Van Orton in the fall.
And now the Cook Political Report rates that race.
between if it ends up being Cook versus Van Orton, lean R. So again, this is not an official call, but these people who watch these things, and here's maybe why.
And James, help us help us walk through this.
You mentioned this earlier.
Eau Claire County, the largest county population wise in the third district, where Rebecca Cook is from.
And you pointed out she's been working this now for two years.
She came in second to Brad path two years ago in the Democratic primary and Eau Claire County, 78% of the vote in Cook leading Shankland 56.5 to 33%.
I mean, that's that's just astounding the way she's running up the vote there second most populated county lacrosse 95% of the vote there things are almost done.
It's cook 49% shanklin 41% the only place cook is one so far is in a wood County in part of our old assembly district 45% of the vote in their shanklin 63 Rebecca cook 33% there in wood County, but James this one Adams County just below and maybe the northern part of Adams County
is in Shanklin's assembly district, Cook leading 61.7% to Shanklin's 31.9%, even in places James Kelly that are outside of maybe Rebecca Cook's comfort zone, she's still any big.
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely an impressive showing and you know Rebecca Cook did significantly out raise the other two candidates in this race On the other side Derek van Orden has very much outraised all three of the Democratic primary candidates So we'll see how that plays out in the general election, but Rebecca Cook is having a very strong showing
pretty much across the western Wisconsin area.
Again, just that one county, Wood County, going to Katrina-Shanklin so far as the votes still get counted.
Before we go to Maurice, let's go quickly, real quick.
This is very important to me as somebody else on the ground, James, because this primary has been bitter.
You bring up that Cook has brought in a lot of money from centrist Democrats and a lot of people on the Shanklin side, particularly Mark Pocke and Congressman of Madison, are pretty heard about this.
Can Democrats in the Third District unify after?
this if it's Cook coming out to go up against to have a strong race against Van Orden.
I think they can.
In that last forum for the Democratic primary candidates here in Eau Claire, all three of them reaffirmed that they're willing to support whoever wins this primary.
They're willing, the main goal is to get Derek Van Orden out of office for them.
So if it happens to be Cook, if it happens to be Shankland, if something turns around here in the back half of the vote counting, whoever it is, they're going to support that candidate.
Maurice Shepard does the results, the apparent results what we're seeing so far.
Do they track what you have observed or are you surprised?
Not necessarily, not necessarily surprised.
I'll just go real quick back to once again the third district in that election.
I think for Derek Van Orden, people don't like him.
He's not a nice guy.
He's a bully.
Someone who picks on congressional pages and yells at them.
People don't like him.
So there are two things going on here.
One,
probably a high level of dislike for that individual.
But then also, I think for Rebecca Cook and my wife's originally from the Eau Claire area, she's probably going to a lot of Friday, once again, fish fries or something like that again, to get out and talk to the people.
So I give her once again, lots of credit for getting out there, pounding the pavement and at least again, what it looks like the forecast right now sort of possibly being successful this evening.
And I think that
Again, if that is the general election.
I think, as already pointed out, I think she would have, the Democrats have a good chance of winning that district back.
In particular, again, there are a number of colleges, universities, once again, in that area.
And if the youth vote, it could be the youth vote might turn out a much larger number, particularly with once again, the presidential election.
So, yeah, I think Democrats have a good chance of flipping this district.
Maurice,
you brought, go on,
Terry.
Go, go on.
You brought these things.
near and dear to my heart, universities, public education.
Third District has a lot of them.
They closed down my former alma mater in Richland Center, the two-year college year last year.
And Katrina Shanklin was one of maybe a handful of state legislators on either side of the aisle who came out to that part of the state, had a public forum with state Senator Kelda Royce out there, but only did one.
I don't know of any others that she did.
I think that's an issue that could have been really exploited more for Shanklin.
She never really grasped that.
But here's the thing I want to ask you.
She's been a big deal on her campaign.
I passed 250 some odd bills.
I passed all these bills.
In my opinion, having Cook have the person that potentially we don't have the official call, but potentially gets through as kind of this look.
I never had experience in legislature.
I'm a waitress.
I'm a farm person that actually may be not having a record.
A stronger person to go against Van Orton.
What's a you?
Nothing is better than new, right?
And that and that's what you're at.
Well, I'm going to steal a line from was at the TV show Mad Men, right?
That's what he said.
Nothing, you know, Don Draper, right?
This is Don Draper politics, right?
Everyone loves the smell of a new car, you know, and that's and you don't and you don't have a record to defend, right?
That's the other part of it.
So I think that could be part of the part of the calculus here.
Gentlemen, if I may interrupt, we have some breaking news now.
One of the ballot items, the one statewide ballot item now has been officially called and Melissa K joins the broadcast.
Now, Melissa, what's going on?
Uh, yes.
APS called the raise at 11, uh, 9 11 PM today for both of the ballot measures.
Uh, the first one passes as a no with 58.1%.
We're at 56% of the counts voted and, uh, ballot measure two also is a no.
at 58.2 percent.
So both of those ballot measures failed to pass.
Very good.
Thank you much, Melissa Kay in Wisconsin Rapids and Maurice Shepard.
You know, what do Republicans do now?
You know, they've they've tried this with this constitutional amendment.
You know, how do they circle back and recover from this?
Well, I think they
I think they were, this is just my sort of opinion here.
I think they were trying to be, as was stated earlier, too cute.
They put out once again, these amendments that were too vague.
And key to this is I think for both of the amendments individually and collectively, they never really clarified or made clear what the problem that they were supposed to solve.
I heard it called that a
solution in search of a problem.
Yeah, exactly.
It seemed nothing more than a political power grab.
Nothing more, nothing less, but simply that.
Again, this is just my opinion.
I think for the Republican legislators, they underestimated the sophistication of Wisconsin voters.
really quickly and Maurice as well.
Finally now it's been a slow time coming so far, but at quarter past the hour of 9 o'clock here, Wisconsin.
Finally, some early returns thus far for the 8th Congressional District up in Northeast Wisconsin or the Green Bay Fox Valley area.
This is remember as we talked about earlier, Lisa reminding us there are two.
races happen simultaneously.
One ballot to fill the expired term so that person who gets elected would get to seat, seated immediately in Congress in November and the other election is for the new term starting in January.
Roger Roth leads 39.5% to Tony Leeds, 37%.
Let's bring Lisa Hale onto the broadcast.
She's covering this race in northeast Wisconsin.
Yeah, Lisa, get us caught up.
As as Todd said that they are very early results that are coming in and the thing is is that both of them are mirroring each other But they're at different points of the results for example the one that fills the complete term not the one that's that's the partial term there are 37 of the precincts reporting out of 397 so just a few of them Roger Roth is in the lead followed by Tony weed and then Andre job the same order
of votes in the other one.
However, there's 33% of those votes have come in.
Again, Roger Roth, Tony Weed, Andre Jacques.
So it's going to be interesting that they're at 39, 41% for the top votes.
And we're still very close for the second vote.
So that could go either way, either Tony Weed or...
Roger Roth at this
point Lisa's surprise you at all somebody up at that part of the state I mean Roger Roth of course was a state senator there in that part of the state for a term his I believe was uncle Toby Roth years ago was a longtime popular United States congressman in that area and still this guy Tony Weed I guess the gas station guy with the Trump endorsement He's within strike a distance here
He is and he's been leaning heavily on the fact that he's Trump endorsed and
These two specifically, weed and Roth are the ones that are kind of battling against each other.
Roth had some television commercials that were very anti-weed and things of that nature.
The person or the drug.
I didn't even notice that I said that, so thank you.
It's the person.
A little election night humor.
But it's going to be interesting to see how I'm waiting for that to come out.
Very good election night coverage continues on Civic Media.
Don't go away.
media coverage of the fall primary election in Wisconsin.
Thanks so much for spending your Tuesday night with you.
A few things that we can say for sure is that the attempt to amend the Wisconsin Constitution has failed both
questions the no vote has prevailed in western wisconsin uh rebecca cook seems to be in the driver's seat for the democratic nomination for the third district congress the returns for the eighth district republican primary are now slowly starting to trickle in uh perhaps there are just more rural areas i don't know if i could speculate as to why that might be but now um we have uh some other information to pass
long
time.
Again, Dan Shea for the Reconpopulation Area.
A smart political guy, Terry.
I mean, here's a guy who knows politics like nobody else.
Dan Shea for the Reconpopulation Area.
The great insight here from Dan.
He says margin on the no votes are wild in some of the bigger western Wisconsin counties.
We were talking about the third district in western Wisconsin.
You know, Claire, Terry, the no vote is winning
over the yes vote, 67% to 33%.
And in La Crosse, 69% no, 31% yes.
The Democratic primary appears to be driving some significant turnout there, according to Dan Javer.
Of course, we speculated that.
Exactly.
At the top of the show that these primaries may read big.
Also, very quickly, over at WizPolitik's JR Ross, numbers in the 24th Assembly District breaking towards Dan Canodle, he
leads, Michelle Brandigin right now, 62% to 37% with 72% of the vote in.
Yeah, those that that's an especially interesting number and not necessarily surprising Dan Conell.
You know, he's he served in the Senate It's very interesting for someone to go from the assembly to the Senate back to the assembly and
you don't see that happen a
lot No,
no, it was kind of one of those redraw map things because I think otherwise you would have had to go up against a good old Dewey Strobel over there And so they kind of worked out this deal a lot of people realize this Senators and assembly people make the same money
It's just that they get paid $57,000.
It's just three times the work if you're in the Senate.
Yeah, so.
Yeah, Maurice Shepherd, what's your take on these latest numbers?
I guess it seems to have borne out that partisan races have affected this nonpartisan referendum question or the two questions, I should say.
Yes, I think that particularly on the democratic side, I think there and you see this again.
I'm not saying anything sort of you know groundbreaking here, but I think there is an energy now on the left
that you simply don't have on the right and some of that is coming from again sort of from the national level but um yeah I think it would be and you've already mentioned this I think it would be interesting to see sort of what the turnout numbers will be once all is said and done and it sounds like at least in terms of democrats that they're turning out in pretty strong numbers particularly in
Again areas that have colleges and universities and that's or in also metropolitan areas
Stuart J waddles is following some of these very closely watched assembly races Stuart what numbers do you have at this point Todd?
I want to break it really quickly Stuart not to cut you off But this is real this is big news right now guys in in the eighth congressional district now with 40 percent 40 percent of the vote in
Tony Weed, the Trump candidate, endorsed candidate, now leading Roger Roth, 39.6 to 36.6.
This one could come down to the wire.
Wow, that's awfully close.
Stuart, you're keeping an eye on some other races as well.
Yeah, we're looking at four assembly races that were kind of like the targeted ones that we're looking at We've got two calls in those so the 24th assembly district.
That's a Germantown Menominee Falls area Janelle branch and loses to Dan Kanotl So Dan Kanotl branch and they're going back and forth branch and had problems with district attorneys in the area So that's I guess Maybe factored into things and then the 78th.
This is fresh just getting called by the AP Stubbs wins
She hangs onto that seat.
She was being challenged by a Madison School Board Vice President, Pearson.
So again, 89% of the vote in there in Madison, Stubbs takes 66% of that vote.
The other two that we're keeping an eye on, these numbers are kind of in different places and they're not going anywhere.
The sixth assembly, we've got 2% of the vote in.
Benke with a 50 to 49 lead over Schmidt so that two Republicans going against each other, not a lot of the vote in.
The Milwaukee number has been hanging out there at 95 for a while.
Not sure what's taking them to get to where they need to be, but Clancy right now, 57% to Anderson's 43.
Again, Clancy the incumbent facing a Democratic primary challenge.
So that's a couple of the big ones we're keeping our eye on.
And I was trying to keep track of this fourth state Senate district seat.
That's where Lena Taylor resigned to take a seat on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court.
Dora Drake, LaKeisha Myers gave up their assembly seats.
So now...
They've already had a special election to fill the hole.
Now they're kind of filling out the rest of the term, the real term.
So 54% of the vote in there, in their Drake 57 Myers 43.
So some of the some numbers coming in and those Milwaukee numbers kind of hanging out a little bit.
We could get those moving a little quicker.
All right, very good.
I want to bring Savannah Tome Olsen on the broadcast because it looks like we've got some movement in the legislative races happening in the Madison area, Fitchburg in particular, Savannah.
When we look at what's going on in these races, especially if we, sorry, I'm just updating my notes, the refresh button really gets
a
workout on election night here.
I'm having a really good time watching this 47th assembly district, which covers at least part of Fitchburg.
We have...
96% of precincts reporting, I'm seeing different numbers between AP and the New York Times.
And we are at Randy Udall, 51% and Joe Maldonado at 49%.
So we're just gonna have to wait.
We're gonna have to wait until everything's in because nobody can call a race when it looks like this.
That's...
Just so interesting
to watch.
Yeah, we may not have to wait for Mosa Ratcliffe to be declared the winner in the 16th Senate District.
She jumped out to a big lead and looks to hold it last count.
Ratcliffe at 54.3%.
The next closest is it would be Jimmy Anderson.
Yeah, she's got a big stronghold there.
Just anecdotally, I was getting far more texts about Melissa Ratcliffe than I was anybody else in this race because that seems to be how politicians bother us now and
the most communication
we get from campaigns.
So it's just interesting when you see those two things line up, you
know.
One of the quick note here, just coming in courtesy of A.J.
Biaport, CBS 58 in Milwaukee.
He's now saying to Stuart Waddle's earlier point, I think was Stuart was saying last, with 100% of the vote in now, according to A.J.
Biaport, Clancy is of 57 to 43%.
Biaport said that does not include absentee ballots, but it'll be tough for Anderson to make up 1200 vote gap.
Things are looking up for Clancy, one of two socialists in the legislature and down for Mayor John-
an exact Crowley who backed Anderson.
So to put a phrase on it, it appears that Clancy lowered the boom.
Nicely done.
Nicely done.
Very good.
You're listening to civic media coverage of the fall primary.
So let's take a look at some of the results we have so far.
AP has called the constitutional amendment questions for no.
So those attempts go down and that may be due to large democratic turnout in many parts of Wisconsin where democratic officials and democratic supporters really went aggressive.
in advertising and other sorts of campaigns urging no votes.
We also know that...
Rebecca Cook is off to a pretty substantial lead in the third district Democratic primary.
I would think there's gonna be a call fairly soon.
61% of the vote in Cook now up 53.5 to 37.9% for Shanklin.
Very good.
You're listening to civic media coverage of the fall primary election in Wisconsin.
We'll do some business and be right back.
Civic media coverage of the Wisconsin fall primary continues its 934 and a lot of the races are being called or getting close to that point and We'll stay with you until 10 o'clock or so tonight And then of course we invite you to join us all day tomorrow for the up-to-date numbers and of course a lot of analysis from our talk show hosts like Todd Alba and our guests like Maurice Shepherd political scientist at Madison College and also
Savannah Tome Olsen is with us and we're taking a look now at the Dane County Executive of four people running for two spots.
Savannah, what's the latest?
Right now, we still have Melissa Agard with, of course, a huge lead.
We have 87% of the votes have been counted at this point.
And Melissa Agard is winning by, let's see, if I'm fast at math, we're all in this job because we're not fast
at math.
But when you take a look, it's.
almost by 40,000 votes, maybe 38,000 votes.
But right now, Dana Pelibon is the one in second place.
And after that, it's Regina Vitover.
So there's still some room for Vitover to make that up.
But it looks like, at least for right now, it's Pelibon that could win that spot to run against Agard in November.
And one interesting thing that this is, of course, just important to the voters of Dane County is a woman's right to choose an abortion rights.
And so both of these candidates have really run on a campaign to highlight that, especially with Pelibon running the rape crisis center.
So that seems to have really resonated with Dane County voters if she's taking the lead of the other three under Melissa Agard.
So Murray Shepard, in these situations where we have runoff primaries, what does a candidate that came in maybe a distant second do to make up that ground in the general election?
Well, first, they're thankful that they made it to the second round.
But then after that, well, it's in general.
And before a lot of candidates, what they'll do is they'll look at sort of.
what worked in terms of once again fundraising they'll review that also they'll just have to go back and review again the campaign strategy um are you presenting once again a positive message do you go with something negative something fearful and that sort that just a quick point on again sort of the the dame county uh executive race um i think this is for the county executives across the state of wisconsin they've always been important but increasingly they're important because
They're so vital to, and I think we touched on this before, county government and county executives can shape sort of the economic development within an entire region.
So in Dane County and in other counties, more of the planning in terms of infrastructure development, transportation, housing is taking place at the county level.
And I think for many voters, when they look at, once again, the county executive, there may be some political ideology once again sort of mixed in there, but I think it's much more of a practical, pragmatic view in terms of, can this person get the job done?
Some breaking news, gentlemen.
This is an astounding development.
Let's go quickly back to the third congressional district primary on the Democratic side, where Rebecca Cook has been maintaining a sizable lead all evening long.
Looking at this, you'd think, well, Shanklin would have to win with 80% plus in her own assembly district in the Stevens Point area home of University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Well, the results are in.
in Portage County, home of Stevens Point, 99% of the vote in Portage County.
And Shanklin won Portage County 84% to 12% for Cook.
Eric Wilson, the third candidate, had 3.2%.
And gentlemen, now with 76% of the overall race, so still about a quarter of the votes out there to be counted,
Cook's lead is down to 46.8% to 45.6% for Shankland, a difference of about 400 votes.
We've got a race, gentlemen.
We've
got a barn
burner in the third congressional district.
Yeah, Marisa.
Are you surprised?
I mean it should not be surprising Katrina Shanklin is some of the deep roots in the Stevens Point area I think her family goes back there generations.
She's been a high-profile citizen So it probably shouldn't be any surprise that she performs so strongly in your own backyard.
I Think you're muted Maurice
What is surprising though is some of the numbers that Todd just read in terms of some of the once again some of the results that are coming in that is Overperforming to say
the least and also Joe, but I think the question is gonna be now with with her home with Shanklin's home County at 99% counted
where does she get because you're looking at these other counties?
My home county, Richland County, it was Cook 69% Shanklin 26% in Sock County.
There's a part of Sock that's in the third there, a very, very small part.
In fact, it's, let's dive in worth reading that one.
That's not a good indicator.
Let's go to Crawford County, home of Derek Van Orton along the Mississippi River.
It was Cook 65% Shanklin 28% in Vernon County, Viroqua, the county seat there.
It was Cook 58%
Shanklin 35% my point is what we have out is Juno County a very very Republican County home of former Governor Tommy Thompson and then maybe
Shaklin's last stand politically in this race tonight could be Grant County, home of the University of Wisconsin, Plattville.
Plattville is about a city of about 10,000 people, a land caster, about 6,000, 7,000 people.
Could Shaklin clean up there?
She's been really hitting the doors hard this last week there with Congressman Mark Prokhan.
But if trends continue and Cook runs up these big totals,
Could Shanklin come up short?
This is going to go right down to the wire.
Yeah, this is going to be very interesting.
And I would be also interested to know, well, you know, where the path to victory for Shanklin may be, if that exists in any of those precincts yet to come in.
Boris.
I would, I think we'll have to wait until the votes come in to actually see sort of once again what that path is again, but she's overperforming in a number of these areas.
So, you know.
kudos to her.
So we have a race all of a sudden in the third district primary is Melissa, excuse me, I'm sorry, Lisa, Lisa Hale in Oshkosh covering the eighth district Republicans.
Let's get a check in on what's happening with them.
It's tight.
Tony Weed and Roger Roth are flip-flopping here.
Let's look at the one that's for the full term, GOP 2025 to 2027.
um, running that race.
Tony weed has 39% of the vote with 22% reporting.
Roger Roth just underneath with 37%.
Now, when we look at the completing of Gallagher's term, same thing, very close margins.
Tony weed at 40% and Roger Roth at 36%.
And that's with 41% of the of the precincts voting.
So this one is going to be close.
It's flip flopped a couple of times that I've been watching in the past hour and a half.
So
Yeah, and the votes coming in slowly I'm guessing that speaks to maybe the rural nature of much of the district.
I'm not really sure
I'm seeing the same thing in some of the state assembly races.
They're coming in slowly too like I want to say Assembly it was an assembly six.
It was assembly four.
They're coming in slowly.
It's just things are slowly getting in
I think we'll be interested after this is all over as a postmortem.
Some of these counties, large municipalities have electronic voting machines.
Some of them are still using hand counting and some a combination thereof.
We've seen across Wisconsin a shortage of poll workers.
So some of these places may not just have the physical ability to count as fast as other places.
So I think that's maybe part of it as well.
That's the take.
It sounds as logical as any to me.
Maurice Shepherd, do we have a
Polling a poll worker shortage in Wisconsin.
We have a shortage of a lot of other workers in Wisconsin.
How does that go with volunteer poll workers?
Yeah, no, we do have a shortage of once again people working at the at the polling centers and that sort so and that's been ongoing and that goes across the state even in once again larger municipalities and that sort so
and there have been discussions about, not just in Wisconsin, but again across the country, you know, how do we resolve that?
I think part of this also may be sort of a backlash to, you know, sort of anger at possible elections that have been stolen and that sort, that maybe for the election workers, they are just taking their time.
They may have decided in certain, once again, appalling places and districts that
you know it's better to go slow make sure we get it right and therefore again we we have an accurate count and that all of the administrative and bureaucratic standards and measures are met so it may be sort of a human element here that's slowing down again some of the reporting.
An update quickly gentlemen on the third congressional district once again on now with
80% just over almost 81% of the vote in the third congressional district.
Rebecca Cook has widened her lead just a little bit now.
47.4% due to Shanklin's 44.7, 29,336 for Cook and 27,630 for Shanklin.
longtime friend of mine knows these areas very well reminded me so many of these congressional primaries come down to regional results.
So Shanklin has has really run up her home area in Stevens Point at again 84% to Cook's 12, Cook's home base in Eau Claire County, Cook got 56% in Shanklin 33 in La Crosse County tonight with almost all the votes cast in La Crosse County.
It was Cook 49% Shanklin 41 and then it's going to kind of be a
grab bag for the other places.
Wanted
to pass, go ahead Maurice.
just a quick follow-up in terms of again sort of the issue in terms of the the slow returns that are coming in and that sort and and focusing on once again sort of the election workers they've faced a lot of over the last few years election cycles death threats and threats to
their
physical well-being for Mike Gallagher that was one of the reasons that he gave in terms of why he again sort of left congress that you know the threats that he and his family were facing so
It's unfortunate, but I think that is a reality of the situation now in terms of trying to serve the public good
We've been it's been a while since we've taken a look at the Democrats running in the primary in northern, Wisconsin's 7th district with 64 percent of the votes in
Kyle Kilburn leading Elsa Doranso, about 57% to 43%.
So it would look like Kyle Kilburn is in the driver's seat to claim the Democratic nomination for Northern Wisconsin's seventh congressional district seat.
and we're looking to at the eighth district where results are coming in slowly and in the third district which has become quite a horse race and we're taking a look at quite a number of local
assembly and senate district races.
Those that we don't mention a lot tonight, you can definitely listen to your Civic Media radio station tomorrow morning and also online at civicmedia.us for updates on on those races closer to home.
So we will bring you all of that information as it comes to us.
Todd Abba,
what do you have?
I'm looking at, I'm wondering at some point is Stuart Waddles or somebody was keeping track of this again in the sixth this
assembly district uh... which encompasses part of the eight congressional district incumbent peter schmidt republican a bond a while uh... taking on uh... uh... republican will come to a lot of banking is some
bitter race up there between Republicans and the Assembly.
Again, Schmidt is the incumbent, but the Republican Party is Sean O'County, the largest county in that district, withdrew their support from Schmidt after he had a 2019 criminal conviction that is, in which he was charged with disorderly conduct for choking a worker on his farm that he was alleged to have a relationship with.
I mean, he got very personal, very bitter up there, and we're interested to see how that one goes, as well as in the Eighth Congressional District.
it again guys I go back to our republicans going to nominate the most extreme
a Maga Republican up there in the eighth and this Tony weed guy.
And if that's the case, that is going to be advantageous for the Democrat, Dr. Kristin Lierly, who look, she's a great OBGYN.
Her partner is a law enforcement officer.
Her sons are hunters.
She has positioned herself as a person who wears literally her campaign colors are green and gold.
And that's going to play well up in the Fox Valley.
We'll again definitely want to talk more about what the how that race is shaping up and you know how the candidates would
Square off against each other how they match up against each other as we get into November because it's time to start looking ahead to that because the winners tonight then go on it'll also be interesting to see now with these newly redrawn maps what What kind of gains Democrats are expected to make?
Now that the the the gerrymandered maps are a thing of the past that's all going to be The things that will be keeping an eye on up between now in November.
So what we can tell you is that the
No vote on the constitutional amendment has prevailed We have a very close race in Wisconsin's third district and Tony weed for the moment would seem to be in the lead in the eighth congressional district We will have one last word wrap things up for our election night coverage right here on civic media.
Stay with us
You're listening to Civic Media coverage of the fall primary in Wisconsin.
I'm Terry Bell with Maurice Shepard and Todd Albaugh.
And we can tell you now that Melissa Ratcliffe has been declared the winner in her state senate race.
That was one of the more crowded primaries in Wisconsin.
I believe that was in the Madison area.
Cottage Grove and points there
for.
Chuck Kuala for those of us who've been around a while, that's his old Senate seat, the 16th.
Okay, all right.
So I want to talk with the two of you, Todd and Maurice, about the look ahead.
And we started just a minute ago talking about, you know, if Tony Weed were to prevail, that would be perhaps the matchup Kristen Lierly wants.
I mean, I, as a former Republican,
If I were advising the campaign, I'm not, but I mean, I think that's a great contrast.
Someone who is, they brought this kid that was, I say kid, he's in his 20s, but I guess was born and ripping and has literally been down waiting hand and foot on Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida and brought this guy up to run Tony Weed's campaign.
This is a direct line in the political vein to Donald Trump versus somebody like Dr. Lierly, who has established OBG.
who likes hunting and, you know, Wisconsin beer the Packers.
I mean, it's a great
contrast.
How deep can the gains Democrats potentially make in the assembly, especially coming up this fall?
Conventional wisdom says they can make some grain gains, but not really win the majority this early.
But some Democrats are saying that they can, that the majority is within reach.
What's your reading?
I would go along with sort of the majority opinion that it will take some time to again sort of reach a majority.
It may happen once again quicker than I expect, but I think it will take some time to sort of build that back.
And also, I think for the Democrats also, same thing for the Republicans.
We have this election cycle, but then with the next election cycle, they have to, as I like to call it, sort of restock the bench.
They have to continue to identify talented people who would like to run for these public offices and be successful.
But I think it will take the Democrats time to, again, possibly once again, get that majority back.
Another figure looting in this election, Donald Trump.
It would seem that the candidates most aligned with him had a mixed night tonight.
Tony Weed seems to be doing the best, but Janelle Branshin, she goes down in defeat in her primary tonight, is it too early to say what tonight may mean for Donald Trump in Wisconsin?
I mean, I think maybe it's a little too early.
We'll see.
I mean, we've already seen Kamala Harris and Tim Walls get off to a great start.
putting emphasis on Eau Claire.
They're going to be in we've heard now that Harrison and walls are going to be in Milwaukee next Tuesday before going to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention.
This is not 2016 in Hillary Clinton.
There will be no flyover of Wisconsin with the Harris people.
And I still maintain the Tammy Baldwin is not only the best campaigner in the state of Wisconsin of anybody, but one of the top five campaigners in the entire state of Wisconsin are the
entire the entire country, rather.
So I think if Baldwin and Harris Walls keep campaigning in the state the way they are, that's going to help Democrats.
And one other thing, gentlemen, we had Ben Wickler, the Democratic Party chair tonight, who here is a Democrat who's talking about narrative.
Talking about differentiation talking about the future and the narrative of freedom whether it's a freedom to own a 12-gauge shotgun to hunt turkey or the freedom of a woman to maintain control over her own body That's something that connects with people and kudos to the Democratic Party They were up against millions of dollars on these referendums tonight.
There were techs going out the last 48 hours making it look like That the a yes vote would be against Scott Walker
That's the kind of shenanigans that we're going on, and Ben Wickler and the Democrats rose up and beat down these referendums tonight.
I think they have a good night moving forward.
Maurice Shepard, do you see anything that he leaves tonight that may tell us what might happen in November?
I think there's a general mood in terms of exhaustion with, once again, sort of this Trump ultra macho type.
politics it only takes you it can only take you so far and at some point in time you have to put policies on the table that can actually be implemented and that actually work again I think as Trump being sort of the leader of the Republican Party and that sort they quite frankly they simply haven't shown that they can do that and and I think people
for many voters, they see that they may not have liked Joe Biden, they may not have feared him, but they didn't hate him.
And I think for many voters, they understood that he produced policies that actually produced for the American people.
And I think for many Democrats, particularly here in Wisconsin, and moderate
conservatives, they may see that also in once again, the Democratic candidates.
Go ahead.
I was going to say, in contact with a lot of people, somebody who knows, again, a Republican operative who knows this area very well, a political operative saying, the biggest thing tonight that would be the best for Harris is Katrina Shanklin winning the third, followed by the Trump guy, weed, winning in the eighth.
Just an observation for someone who knows these things.
A quick update, gentlemen, right now, 85% of the vote in, in the third, it is Cook leading Shanklin,
47.2 to 43.8, a difference of about 3,000 votes.
Again, the city of Platteville is not in, in Grant County, in far Southwest Wisconsin.
That is probably going to tell the story tonight in the third.
So for the whole district, what are we at with district reporting?
Let me just make sure I'm refreshing this to give you the absolute latest numbers.
85% of the vote in Rebecca Cook, 47.2, Katrina Shanklin, 43.8, a difference of about 3,000 to 4,000.
3500 votes.
I'd be interested to see.
I know it is still summertime, but I'd be interested in what the turnout is in college town to see in college towns throughout Wisconsin to see just how young voters are being motivated or not by recent developments.
And speaking of not to interrupt Terry, but our old Luke Mathers election desk report.
He's seen reports now that 99% of the vote is in and Cook is up by 7000 votes according to numbers that he has seen so far.
It seems to her path to victory seems.
pretty clear at this
point.
Unless they go 80% in Grant County like they did in Portage County, I would agree.
And we should probably take one last look at the eighth congressional district or the Republicans are running.
Lisa Hale, if you are standing by, let's have you in one last time to talk about that race.
I am here and for the completing of Gallagher's term, Tony Weed is still up at 40% of the vote and for the
Complete term Tony weed is up at 39% of the vote followed by Roger Roth on both of those But still we don't even have half the precincts reporting
in so roughly 50% of the precincts reporting
We have 48% of the precincts reporting in one
of the elections and only 27% in the other.
Okay.
All right.
Very good.
This is really interesting guys.
Very quickly over Minnesota tonight, Dan Schaefer for the Reconpopulation area, the Republican candidate, this guy, Royce White, who railed against, quote, Jewish elite and Jewish lobby and called
