State Assembly Candidates, D-Day, RFK and GRADUATION

You

June 8th, 2024, if it's seven o'clock on Saturday morning,

it's time for this week in Waukeshaw.

I am your host, Don Brown.

I am joined re-united by our wonderful producer, Anastasia or Anya for short.

How are you, Anya?

Good.

How are you doing?

Good.

It's all great to see you again.

And we're coming to you live and local from the office of former

Alderman down Paul Brown here in the WAUK studios in downtown.

And it's really been quite a week to remember in so many ways.

It's also graduation day today.

So if you're watching this on stream, you'll see I have a blazer on.

So a couple of reasons is one is my son Evan is graduating.

So I'll be leaving the show early in two.

Jim Santel, who show amicus.

A lot of you follows mine is coming in early.

And this is a tribute to Jim because Jim is always well-coffed when he shows up for his shows.

And so really excited to celebrate with Jim.

And a couple, you know, it was the 80th anniversary of D day.

And I just wanted to comment that it was just really wonderful to see all the great

remembrances, all the great ceremonies going on out there at Normandy.

And like there was some high school students from Lincoln High School in Nebraska

that brought bags of sand.

And they went to all the alumni that were killed in the D day invasion.

And I guess when you're putting sand on those cross-shaped graves over the names,

over the like the fonts, the edge that it cleans.

It's just a real, it was just a really nice touch.

I was really touched and seeing young people, you know, high school age people doing that.

I thought that was, that was just wonderful.

And there was a great scene with the Canadian Prime Minister Justin, or no, excuse me,

it was Justin Churros there, but it's actually the president of the Ukraine was there.

I believe Zelensky is his name.

And he, he had an embrace with one of the veterans, a 95-year-old veteran.

And it was just really, and they showed it on, it was like a screen behind them.

So people there in attendance could see, and it was just a real heartfelt embrace.

And they, they shared a few laughs and just so many great moments.

And I also, you know, on social media, TikTok, Facebook, all those things,

you see all these great little memes.

And one that really impressed me was one from the late Vince Scully on D day.

He was broadcasting a Dodgers game.

And he was reflecting on the number of people that they anticipated would be killed.

Indeed, that there would be 10,000 killed, easily another 30,000 wounded,

and that the army had already prepared like 60,000 blankets and 10,000 stretchers

and that almost 1,000 people were actually killed in the training and preparation for D day.

And so just so many people, again, that gave their lives, gave the ultimate sacrifice

that we should never forget in this key moment.

And I'd also like to take a quick moment in remembering D day,

if I can pull it up here, was in Vince Scully had mentioned this,

that Eisenhower wrote two letters.

There's the famous one of the great crusade I'll read it momentarily.

And then there was a second letter expressing remorse or regret,

you know, that even the great general Dwight David Eisenhower had fears or insecurities

about how this would go.

And, but I just I think it's a great, you know, for this week's watch,

we want to honor this week and D day with this quick,

the letter from Eisenhower to all the soldiers.

Soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force,

you are about to embark on the great crusade, the great crusade,

toward which we have striven these many months,

the eyes of the world are upon you, the hopes and prayers of liberty,

loving people everywhere, march with you.

In company with our brave allies and brothers and arms,

another fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine,

the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe,

and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one, your enemy is well trained,

well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely.

But this is the year in 1944, much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1941.

The United Nations have inflicted upon the German's great defeats

and open battle, man-to-man.

Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air

and their capacity to wage war on the ground.

Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war

and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men.

Tide has turned the free men of the world are marching together in victory.

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill and battle.

We will accept nothing less than full victory.

Good luck and let us all be siege the blessing of Almighty God upon this great

and noble undertaking.

Signed Dwight David Eisenhower.

And you know, reading that always talks at the heartstrings for me.

And so I'm really really great to see so many great reflections around the world,

not just at Normandy.

My guest this morning, I guess I should mention he's been sitting here quietly and patiently

and you can see him on the stream yard.

Samuel Demiko, who will be graduating from Wachershaw South in that today,

but in December.

And he is also a candidate for the state assembly district number 82,

held by incumbent Scott Allen and Scott's my guest in the second hour.

And so this will be a great show.

Plenty to talk about.

But before we begin with Sam.

And do you prefer Sam or Samuel?

Doesn't matter. You can pick.

Just not late for dinner, right?

Sounds great.

So this week that marks another historic mile, you know, not one.

I mean, both obviously had their tragedies and of course with the day

there was led to the ultimate victory over tyranny.

But it's also is during this week that we lost.

How many years ago is it now?

Well, how's my math 56 60s?

It was the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy after winning the Democratic

primary in California and really one of the the sadder moments in history.

And one of the advantages of Facebook in my opinion is that you can connect with people

that you didn't grow up with or knew from college or high school or the old neighborhood.

But people that shared a common affection for a certain cause.

And I've been had the privilege of becoming friends with people that worked on

Robert Kennedy's campaign.

And one gentleman who was there, he was actually in the kitchen pantry where Kennedy

was assassinated and a bullet had missed this guy's head by inches.

He wrote this and I'll read this anonymously out of respect for him.

For us who worked for Bobby Kennedy, June 4th, 5th and 6th are days of personal anguish.

I came a mere foot from potentially dying with Bobby.

The trauma and PTSD have never gone away.

You learn to live with it.

There's no way to forget a bullet striking the pantry door frame of the ambassador hotel

and a spark crossing my face.

You can't forget the screams of horror, the moans of those shot.

But we went on to live and most thrived.

It's interesting to relate the outcome of that moment.

For me, that came to crystallization that July.

For many weeks I lived in a day feeling the earth under my feet had disappeared

and I was free falling to God knows where.

I found myself in July and Watts, the black ghetto of LA.

The revitalization core where mostly college kids led by the charismatic Bert Wilson.

We painted the elderly's homes, took kids to the mountains and beach.

Our clubhouse was near 103 and Graham.

One day I was on the street and I was accosted by a resident in his late 20s.

His gaze was hostile and he barked at me.

What the F are you doing here?

I stood stunned knowing I indeed was a person out of his element.

I heard myself answer him.

I worked for Bobby.

But I never got out Kennedy.

His face turned to ash and tears filled his eyes.

I saw him right over there peening across the street.

What are we going to do now?

They killed all of them.

Of course, I knew what he meant from 63 to 68.

There was Medgar Evers, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King,

and finally, Robert F. Kennedy all gunned down.

All were heroes of change.

What are we going to do now?

He asked me.

But now our mutual anguish had me physically shaken tears streaming down my face.

They can't kill all of us.

I told them we both left shaking the misery.

What it seemed would never end 30 years later.

I was working as a service writer in an automated business automotive business.

A car pulled in in a college aged man stepped out and addressed me.

Mr. Z will call him.

What are you doing here?

He seems stunned that I would be doing such a menial job.

He told me he was a pre-med student.

A coworker heard him and asked.

You know him.

And my former student looked at him.

He was my history teacher in junior high.

I bet you remember a lot from junior high.

Now my former student glared at the coworker.

I could see the anger in his eyes.

I remember everything this guy taught us, especially about the Kennedys.

I was a post that was vindication for being an underpaid educator.

But it as well was a book end to that day in Watts.

I found my purpose and kindled the flame of hope in a new generation.

These days now in 2024 seem like those days in 1968.

We've survived them and we will now hope cannot be ended with a bullet.

And I love that.

That's kind of become my mantra now.

Hope cannot be ended with a bullet.

Real quick.

You know, anyone that remembers the eulogy of Robert Kennedy delivered by his brother Ted.

He had mentioned, you know, he'd referred to what Robert had talked about.

That the answer and our future relies in youth.

Not just a not just a time in life, but a state of mind and appetite for adventure over the love of ease.

And here in front of me is a good example that 17 year old Sam Dominguez.

All right.

Running for state office.

Running for Wisconsin state assembly in the Democratic primary in the 82nd district.

And you know, in that eulogy, Kennedy refers to a young explorer who found the other side of the earth.

A 33 year old Alexander that conquered most of the world.

A 32 year old Thomas Jefferson declared that all men are created equal.

And a 16 year old Joan of Arc that reclaim the territory of France.

And I don't want to make too many comparisons because I don't know much about Sam.

But real quick, we have, we have two minutes.

Tell us why you run and what, what, what, what, what makes you a good candidate?

Why people should take a serious look at Sam Dominguez.

Sure. Well, so I mean, I've lived in Wauksha my whole life.

So, you know, every day I've decided and enjoyed calling Wauksha home.

I went to all public schools here.

I've worked since I was 14 right here in our city.

And you know, I've definitely made a life even at my young age.

Right here in our city.

You know, when I was a young kid, I thought that despite my family's financial situation

that I could grow up and do and be anything, I wanted to be a police officer,

public school teacher, bus driver, your name, and I probably wanted to be it.

And you know, that unwavering sense of optimism that you can do and be anything

despite the financial situation you were born into, you know,

I feel has been slipping away from a lot of kids and their parents the past couple of years.

You know, it's becoming more expensive, more difficult, more indecisive to get ahead and stay ahead.

And, you know, I decided that I needed to do something about that.

So we're going to continue with Samuel Dominguez, candidate for the Democratic primary

of the State Assembly District 82 plus local sports, a lot of great local sports,

other local news and so much more here on this week in Wauksha.

Don't just talk about it, talk about it.

Don't be shy, don't be shy.

Don't get up, huh?

Share it out.

The world is waiting for the sunrise every month.

You're listening this week in Wauksha with your host Don Brown,

coming to you live in local from the office of former Aldman Dampal Brown.

And I am reunited and it feels so good with our wonderful producer, Anya,

who's doing so much for civic media and so many ways.

And I believe, you know, busted pencils.

This is one of the, the great shows that she produces or last pieces,

rotos, I just learned that, let's say it's Spanish.

So, but I'm really glad to have her here this morning.

And my guess again is the Democratic candidate for State Assembly 82nd District,

Sam Dominguez.

Sam being born and raised, you obviously have to say,

Sam Dominguez.

Sam being born and raised, you obviously had heard of Les Paul and that's that song.

It's kind of our ritual.

The world is waiting for the sunrise and every time we've played it,

we've had a lot of luck with the sun coming out.

It hasn't happened quite yet.

It's currently 55 and cloudy and there's been some light sprinkles.

And it's going to be a cool day throughout the day.

I think the highs can be like 64, which it's a great day for outdoor sports.

My, my daughter is an internament at the Hepner Horn VFW Lodge 5716 in New Berlin.

And so long as the rain holds out, it should be a great day.

And before we continue with Sam too, I want to give a big shout out to the Catholic Memorial High School

Girls Varsity Soccer team who had an amazing victory in double over time against New Berlin West

and the WIA semi finals and Claire Weber with the game winner on a corner kick.

It was fantastic.

I've seen the video.

It's just, it's amazing.

And so congratulations to the Crusaders who take on New Berlin Eisenhower today at 530 at Carol University.

I imagine that'll be a Schneider Stadium.

So fill the stands for those Crusaders.

I don't think you have to be a Crusaders fan to get excited about something like this.

We've seen some amazing sectional finals.

Sam, were you at the one with the volleyball final when the fusion beat CMH?

I was last play.

And it was a five set.

Yeah, unbelievable.

It's the stuff movies are made of.

And so it's, I really encourage anyone that's available to check that out.

I know it's a busy day with graduation and graduation parties.

And I know why all the high schools have the project graduation at night,

which I think is a brilliant idea to provide a safe environment for the kids to celebrate this right of passage.

And so, so Sam, you know, looks, Sam's actually, you know,

he's graduating later in the year in December, I believe.

And you'll, after this, you're going to be running downtown to the state democratic convention, helping out there.

So it's interesting to show like where you're obviously very focused on politics and public service.

Yep.

Have been for a long time.

Sure.

What inspired you or what, what was it that ignited you?

You mentioned at a young age at, um, at horning middle school, where my daughter was graduated from that.

You were voted most likely to become president.

Yeah.

So at the end of our eighth grade class, um, doesn't the flight academy.

And we had held this, um, maybe about week long voting where we all voted on behalf of another student of who was most likely this or most that.

And I was voted.

I was told by a wide margin to be the most likely elected president later sometime in life.

Sure.

Well, that's, yeah, it's got to be good feeling.

Well, it makes this years, um, primary interesting in the, in the general election.

Scott Allen is the incumbent.

He's my guest in the next hour.

But with the fair maps and the rezoning, the 82nd district has been reshaped to where I think it's somewhere between 42,

42, 48% of that original district is now gone.

And so some feel that, you know, even though Scott's the incumbent, it's very much like he's running as a first time candidate with a significant, um,

part of the voter segment being new.

Yeah.

Because he's running in a district that, um, a large part of our district had never voted for him before.

So sure.

We're running in a new district.

Well, and certainly you've got a, uh, a hurdle before if you, if you have the chance to compete against Scott in the general election,

is in the primary, you have, uh, Kevin Riley, who has some experience at the county level.

And he serves on some boards and commissions with the city.

Um, he is, uh, Mayor Sean's brother, a Riley named very established here.

And I think Kevin even said, running as a Riley in lockshaws, like running as a Kennedy in Massachusetts.

And, you know, what is your strategy for, um, taking on, shall you say, the, the Riley legacy?

Sure.

Well, you know, my strategy is to basically just talk to as many voters as possible.

You know, I think that a lot of people are more interested in politics at the local level and politics where, you know, I can knock on someone's door and we can have a fruitful conversation.

And, you know, I'm running in this democratic primary because I'm the only candidate that has for the past, um, four or five years has been helping local Democrats.

And so I think that I do have a more upper hand when it comes to Democrats in this primary.

And that's why I decided to get involved.

Terrific.

And so what other, um, what would you say?

What, what, what experiences?

Because I know we kind of started this question.

What experiences have you had work wise, school wise, volunteer wise that you think will serve you well?

Should you become the, um, the next state assemblyman for the 82nd district?

Sure. So for the past five years, I've been working very closely with walk to school board politics.

About three years ago, I was the campaign manager for Sarah Harrison's walk to school board campaign.

We were running an eight way primary first primary that had happened in the school district of walk show in 20 years.

And, you know, Sarah was a pretty much unknown candidate.

We were running against four incumbents and three endorsed candidates from the Wisconsin Republican party.

One incumbent used to have the endorsement of the Republican party and one candidate was too radical to get it.

And, you know, in that primary under my leadership, we unceded a conservative incumbent in that eight way primary.

And Sarah Harrison went to lose the general election by less than 500 votes when the top two vote getters beat us by thousands.

So, you know, we definitely almost won that election because we took it to the neighborhoods.

We knocked on as many doors as we could and we didn't let politics get in the way of us talking to families.

You know, about what was going on under school board.

And so, you know, I have the experience beating Republicans walk shy of the experience working with both sides and the experience, particularly in public schools and education to actually bring people together on an issue that I don't think politics should divide us on.

Sure.

Yeah, I think that's well said, definitely well said.

And with this campaign experience, you've got to meet some neighbors. You've got to hear what they were saying and that's obviously some some good learning lessons as you prepare for your own campaign.

What is your campaign structure like now as you run for the assembly?

Sure. So, you know, our campaign structure is very simple. We're going to be getting out going to events like Friday night live in the farmers market spending as much time as we were there last night for the opening.

I was not there last night.

I had a work.

Okay.

Where do you work now?

So, I work over at Quick Trip.

Fantastic.

And, you know, our strategy is really just to talk to as many people go on the neighborhoods.

Just being in Quick Trip help knowing it's a central location for a lot of young voters and just a lot of families now.

It's like the fridge.

You know, it probably could be I work at a location that's kind of off of the highway.

So, depending on where you're coming from or you're going, you're probably not even in the district.

Oh, okay.

So, it's not, is that 164 there or no?

It's right over on Fleetfoot Drive.

Okay.

Let's pop our way.

Okay.

Yeah.

I think I'm going to talk about the same one.

Yeah.

And that's actually in the village of Waakasha.

It is.

It is though.

Yep.

But, um, I'll tell you this.

Before I forget, we're going to have a couple of call-ins from the farmers market from our booth there given us an update.

And the rain hasn't come down.

And it's nice and cool.

It's a great day to do some shopping.

So, we look forward to hearing about that.

And then also check out big deals on our website for some more great deals on gift cards.

Especially now it's graduation and father's day approaching.

And, uh, so much more to talk about here with Sam Domingo, Canada for State Assembly here on this week in Waakasha.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hey, you're listening to this week in Waakasha with your host Don Brown, Ananya's on the board.

And that's, uh, primitive radio gods with standing outside a phone booth with money in my pocket.

And I bet, uh, Sam Domingo, by not even know what a phone booth is, right?

In this age of cellular.

I've used one before.

There you go.

So, um, I played that song.

A couple of songs are by design here is, um, when my son Evan was a little boy who's graduating today.

That was one of the songs we used to sing together.

I used to play for him.

And, um, anyway, just so many, so many great memories going through ahead on this very special day.

And I, I also know it's a, you know, it's very much a love song.

So it's a note to my wife Melissa Evans mom.

And I would see a very emotional day for her too and very special day.

So, but, um, he's speaking of special too.

I want to shout out one of Evan's classmates, also graduating today.

And I think you know, Sam, uh, Connor Boyle this week earned third place,

a third place finish at state competition.

He's had quite a career in track.

And I believe he's going to go on and compete in track in college.

So congratulate, uh, congratulations to Connor and his family, not only for that feat,

but also for graduating today.

I think that's just wonderful news.

And, um, speaking of school too, a lot of great summer school opportunities and things going on.

So be sure to check out the infinite campus parent portal where I'll watch our school district families.

So now, one of the conversations we had with, um, with Sam.

Sam Domingo was, we started with talking about his strategy for taking on Kevin Riley in the, in the primary.

And taking on that Riley legacy and, and Kevin's vast experiences.

But, um, should you win?

Now you've got, uh, incumbents, Scott Allen, whose name precedes himself in many circles.

And I believe he served three or four terms, uh, in the state was a city councilman.

And, you know, as you know, from going up here, you live in a fairly red city.

They say starting to get a little bluer and, you know, what is your strategy for?

Because just by sheer numbers, you would have to win in a Republican crossover.

You know, what is your strategy or nonpartisan crossover?

Sure selection, I should say.

And, you know what, our strategy is the same, um, same principle I've been leading with for the past four or five years.

We're going to talk to everybody.

We're going to have the conversations that I think should supersede politics.

You know, everything from education to election integrity, even things we can agree with on our economy.

We're going to have those conversations with our neighbors that might not even vote the same way on every candidate, every race.

But, you know, we're going to have those conversations that we can bring people together.

And, you know, I'm going to be open and honest with our community.

And, you know, tell them things, you know, that we can all agree with.

You know, we're running, I'm running against a candidate that was after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election,

uh, wrote the bill to impeach the elections administrator that simply did her job, Megan Wolf.

And then he wrote the bill to dissolve the WEC after leading a campaign in the state assembly for election integrity.

And so we're going to have those conversations with our neighbors.

And I think there are Republicans that can't even get behind some of the bills that he's written.

And there are Democrats that can help us lead that message bottom line.

We're going to talk to everybody.

Terrific.

And so what, uh, in your campaign, and well, should you win?

What are, basically, what's your platform?

What are, say, the two or three hot button issues you look to address as a state assemblyman?

So I'd say first public education and then the economy, you know, the whole reason I got involved in politics was public education.

I think one of the first things we're going to try to do when I get to the state assembly is we're going to repeal act 10.

And we're going to put teachers back in the driver's seat.

We're going to give them the support they need.

We're going to bring parents into the conversation.

And I think it's important to understand that, you know, I recently in public schools still haven't graduated yet.

I think one perspective we're missing from the whole education conversation is the student's perspective.

And I'm the only candidate in this race Republican or Democrat that can provide that student perspective.

When it comes to the economy, I spoke about earlier, you know, when I was a kid, I felt that I could do and be anything despite my family's financial situation.

And that unwavering sense of optimism has been slowly disappearing.

And I think what we need to do is we need to bring that back.

We need to revitalize our middle class and we need to bring power back to our middle class families here in Walker show.

Terrific. No, yeah, thanks for that.

And speaking of, you know, you mentioned the economy and it reminded me that the Maggie Dawn show that's on Monday through Friday, two to four has.

She's doing a segment now called the 100 days of Joe Biden where they're basically going to focus on his work in his, his term as president.

I imagine his previous work as vice president other.

And really the intent is just to shine more light because again in this new cycle, there's obviously a lot of focus on former president Trump.

And he certainly does a lot to excite media attention.

But what Maggie's intention is to kind of just get at the nuts and bolts that what Joe Biden has done and what what's what's been I guess well received by people on the other side of the aisle or especially by the majority of us nonpartisans.

That are feeling some of the positive economic impacts, the infrastructure act, the inflation reduction.

So I encourage everybody with an open mind to take a listen to Maggie show it and you know she's obviously could do a much deeper dive than I'm able to.

But I encourage you to learn about, you know, all the candidates.

So so yeah, thanks for bringing that up about the economy.

So and I think in this kind of he said, she said world of debate now, this poll rising debate.

You know, the only thing you'll you'll hear about all rising prices inflation and somehow that reflects on the Biden white.

They have ultimate control over that.

But you know, how do you address, because I'm sure you're hearing that from people, how do you address that?

Well, you know, one of the biggest things that you always start with is that when you go to the grocery store,

when you go to the gas pump and you see rising prices, they don't ask you your party affiliation before they tell you how much something costs.

You know, these rising prices, you know, they've been affecting all of us and it's not Republican or Democrat.

It's higher and lower end of the economy line.

And so I think the first step is that you explain to people, you know, we're all facing higher prices.

You know, it's also a good thing to inform people that we're doing better than we have been in a long time.

You know, since COVID levels were doing excellent and even pre COVID levels were back on track for economic growth and the unemployment rate.

We're adding hundreds of thousands of jobs per month in Wisconsin is even outperforming some other states in our country.

So I think the first thing you do is you find a common ground with people, you place the facts and you have the conversation.

I appreciate that.

And Ania, if it's okay with you because you're a young voter, I want, do you have a question for Sam that I haven't maybe approached or touched upon?

I know I sprung this on you, so I apologize. Ania.

Yeah, I guess for, I would ask, you know, what is, what is something that, you know, it's kind of inframed as, since you're young, it's kind of a disadvantage.

But what do you think are the advantages of being a, I mean, I have to assume you're the youngest candidate in this race, right?

There's no 16 year olds out there, are there?

No, no, I am the youngest in this race by far.

Yeah, so, so what, what do you think is like an advantage to your age as opposed to maybe some of the disadvantages of like, well, you haven't run before or something like that?

Sure, that's a great question.

Well, so I think an advantage I clearly have is as I stated earlier, you know, a perspective that we're missing from the education conversation is the students perspective.

And I think that when you tell people that I'm the only candidate in this race that can provide that perspective, they really do start to understand that that's an important perspective.

You know, there's a lot of voters, even Republicans and Democrats that agree in the past five, 10 years education.

We need to change something with what's going on in education in Wisconsin.

And when you tell people, you know what, I've, I've been through our public school system. I've only ever gone to blockchain public schools.

One of the biggest advantages I have is I have the experiences of being in, you know, these gun lockdown drills.

I have the experience of going through these classes and textbooks that the school board is implementing.

I have a firsthand, I have firsthand experience of policies that are school board and even state legislature are implementing in our education system.

And so as public education is probably one of my most important issues.

Being able to provide the student perspective is probably one of the biggest advantages I have in this race.

Cool. Well said. Hey, thank you for that. Thank you for the question too, Anya.

In real quick switching gear, because you mentioned nonpartisan issues.

My guest on June 22nd is fourth district alderman Joe Piper, who has always been very well outspoken that at the local level neighbors.

They don't care Republican or Democrat. They want their garbage service to be spot on.

They want good schools, they want safe streets, all those things that unite us.

They're just common issues that we all should be keen on and should be just a loop from the partisan vitriol.

So look forward to having Joe on. Joe also chairs the finance committee.

And he's been a great resource for our city. So I'm glad he's coming on.

And then Joe will also be joined by there's a retired Milwaukee police officer.

It's got a new podcast out. And so I look forward to having him on.

I apologize. His name escapes me, but we're supposed to have a dialogue this week. I owe him a phone call.

And then Ben Steinhoff, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress against Scott Fitzgerald.

We have reached out to Fitzgerald's office and we'd like to invite him on also the hopefully the following week if give him a chance to tell his story.

And so yeah. And then also next week, June 15th, my birthday, it'll be anarchy in the WAUK with the nunshocks.

I don't know if you've seen them Sam with frontman Evan Ben Dixon. So another high school band that's doing punk or act.

So that's exciting to me. So I'm really looking forward to to that show next week.

But here with Sam in the about three to four minutes, we have left.

I know you got to drive downtown for the convention, the Democratic convention.

What is it?

You'd like to say about Samuel Domingo that we have not talked about yet in this interview that you want listeners and potential voters to know.

Sure. You know, I think the most important thing to understand is I'm not a politician, probably not even old enough to have been one.

I'm not even close and I think that's a good thing. I don't think that in this race we're looking for someone who has been a politician who has had the longevity of experience.

We're not looking for someone to just give us more of the same.

We have an incumbent representative who has been there for better part of a decade.

And we're still facing the same challenges if not worse than when he stepped into office.

And I think the one thing that everyone is looking for is a fresh face.

And I would attest that that is me. I'm a fresh face in this race.

A part of the new generation that will one day inherit our state.

And I'm trying to make our state a better place and this campaign is how we do so.

Sure.

And I believe there's been an influx of young voters in the past couple elections that have influence election outcomes.

I know with Tony Evers of victory over Scott Walker a couple of terms ago.

It was a young vote that really helped deliver.

And do you figure too with you being in that age group that you're going to inspire more young voters to come out for Sam Domingo?

Sure.

Especially first time voters.

Yeah.

You know, we do help that as the case.

We are reaching out to as many groups as possible and walk a show being a university town with Carol.

You know, right in our backyards.

There are so many students that go to Carol that live right here in our neighborhoods.

And I do definitely think that the young vote and not even just young voters,

but people who have never voted an election before that may be 20, 30, 40 years old.

The young vote and the new vote will be deciding the selection.

And you know, yes, I do believe that that is where a lot of our support will come from both in the primary and in the general election.

Sure.

And then upon voting too, what would you do to inspire these young people to become more involved like yourself in politics government volunteer service?

Sure.

You know, I think being a young candidate is enough to inspire a lot of people.

And I also think that other avenues we can go is explain to a lot of kids how politics and even these local races, you know, do affect their everyday life.

You know, we spent a lot of time talking about prices, gas prices, prices at the grocery store talking about education.

They go to Carol.

You know, there's a lot of issues that politics intermingles with their everyday life.

And I think when we bring them into the discussion, it's really helpful.

Sounds great.

Samuel Demiko, Democratic candidate for the State Assembly, 82nd District Primary, vote takes place in August.

So check out Sam.

I know he's got a Facebook page and good luck on the rest of your campaign.

And stick around so much more here on this week in Waukesha and WUK 540 AM 101.1 FM in the civic media app.

For a 12 month and a day, and if anyone should ask me the reason why I'm wearing it.

It's all for my true love.

Hey, listening this week in Waukesha and WUK 540 AM 101.1 FM this shot and the civic media app.

And I would like to know anyone listening if they remember that song all around my hat by the Welsh band Steel Ice Band.

Fantastic one hit wonder that survived the test of time.

And another song I would sing to my son Evan to all my kids when they were young at bedtime.

I would have like kind of a list of songs I would sing to help them help them sleep.

And that was one of them all around my hat.

And also a favorite at I know of a youth football team I played on the last song.

The last game of every season, the fans would sing that song.

And it was always kind of a send off to the players, especially the seniors and tugs at the old heartstrings again.

And more fun memories as we approach graduation today for for so many seniors here in Waukesha, South Northwest.

And wishing them very well on this day.

And I Samuel Demiko for those of you just tuning in was my guest here in the first hour.

He is a 17 year old candidate for the state assembly primary democratic primary challenging Kevin Riley.

And if you check my podcast page last week, I had Kevin Riley, the other candidate.

And then I also had Megan Locke, who's running for a state senate against Julian.

I forgot his lab Julian Bradley.

And I've invited his I've reached out to his campaign to invite him to come to the show.

I've not heard back.

So, but if you missed last week's show, you can catch that podcast and get to learn a little bit more about the pot about those candidates as well as.

We should have the other this today's interview with Sam Demiko on our podcast page, probably by one day.

So you can check that out and definitely get to learn.

And of course that will also include Scott Allen, who's the incumbent state rap, who's my guest here in the second hour.

And so Scott's good friend looking forward to catching up with him and hearing more about him.

And I'll be leaving the show early.

So Jim Santel, who's celebrating his 100th show with his show now called Amicus a law review.

And so it's another reason I'm wearing the the blazer and Jim's honor.

Jim always outdoes most of us with the way he he dresses here for the show.

So, oops, hang on.

I got Scott Allen's at the door right now, actually.

So we might even get a bill to bring him on sooner.

So this is great.

So good morning, Scott.

Are you ready?

Come on now.

I think he's ready.

Yeah.

Sure.

We're going to make yourself comfortable.

We'll do a quick test on air.

This is kind of fun.

It's all happening live.

But before Scott gets comfortable, don't forget in the second hour we're going to get two reports from the farmers market from our exhibition there.

And so we're looking forward to that call.

And we are taking your calls on the civic media app.

So if you don't have it already, download it.

And then once you do just look for the little telephone icon and click on that.

That'll get you through to Anya who will patch it through to us.

And so let's see.

Scott, are you ready?

Yeah.

Is it possible to turn the volume down in these headsets?

I think so.

Yeah.

It's actually here.

If you want to play with that a little bit, follow your cord.

Otherwise, you can just kind of take your, your head saw off.

Is that better for you?

It's much better.

Oh, excellent.

All right.

Well, Scott, welcome.

I'm glad you're early so we can give you a little bit more time.

And how you doing this morning?

I'm good.

I was thinking on the way over here.

Did they ever call you downtown Donnie Brown?

Yeah.

And you know, I used to call myself that one.

I still do.

But that all started when I was living in Evanston, Illinois.

And I was with a restaurant group.

We had four restaurants in downtown Evanston.

And that was around the time when MTV had downtown Judy Brown or whatever her name was.

She had the great English accent and really funny and, you know, attractive, all those things.

And I'm very funny.

And so that because she was popular at the time, that's, yeah, so a lot of people would call me that.

Yeah.

Our restaurants were all downtown.

So I was comfortable with it.

Yeah.

And so I was for a radio personality, right?

Oh, yeah.

When I'd come in, you know, occasionally I would say, yeah, I'm, you know, downtown Donnie Brown

or the Insinkable Don Brown or I think of, you know, let's think of some new monitors.

But no, I'm very, we are downtown here here in the W.A.K.

studios in the office of former Alderman downfall Brown.

And another former Alderman and incumbent state representative Scott Allen here to talk about his big campaign.

And it's a new wrinkle for you this campaign season because of the newly aligned district.

Is that fair to say?

I'm looking forward to meeting some new people.

It's, you know, I've represented Wauksha in the state legislature since 2015.

So, you know, the funny thing is a lot of my colleagues have, their districts have been really totally reshaped.

In my case, I mean, even though there's technically new territory,

the new territory is the city that I've been representing since 2015.

So, it's not like people stopped hearing about me or I stopped interacting with people

at the boundary line between the old 97th and the 98th.

You know, many of the events that I went to were in the 98th, which is now part of what they call the 82nd.

So, it's really familiar territory.

I mean, I've been representing, working in Wauksha since the early 1990s.

So, it's not new territory at all.

What I just had a thought, too, is that when you go to Madison,

you're not just fighting for that sliver of Wauksha.

That's your district.

You're fighting for the whole city and the whole area.

Absolutely.

I love our community.

I think Wauksha is a great place to live.

That's why my wife and I chose to live here many years ago.

We moved back from Los Angeles.

We were on Los Angeles.

I was going to grad school.

Nice.

We lived for a short period of time with her parents and the upper flat of their duplex in Milwaukee.

And when we made the choice of saying, well, where do we want to locate?

Where do we want to raise our family?

We chose Wauksha.

It's great community.

We love it.

And so, yeah, when I go to legislature, when I go to Madison, I'm advocating for Wauksha.

Sure.

And you kind of have an advantage, too, because you're obviously running on a pose in your own primary.

You're the incumbent and obviously very popular.

Your opponents are slugging it out on the Democratic side.

That obviously buys you more time to get your own name out in your own brand.

Well, it's the same amount of time.

It's the same message.

The time is the same.

And it's really the message is, I want to continue to provide professional representation.

That's my job.

I mean, the title is representative to the State Assembly.

So I represent the people that make up the district.

Each district is about 60,000 people.

And I tell people all the time in our correspondence, we get a lot of people that write to us, contact our office.

They want to have questions about this issue, that policy, what have you.

And we don't always agree.

You know, a lot of times we come down on a different approach or different angle or different side.

And I always remind people, you know, I appreciate hearing from you.

Your opinion is important.

Your valued member of the community, I represent you.

And we may not always agree, but I'm always here to listen.

Sounds great.

The conversation continues with State Assemblyman Scott Allen seeking re-election in the newly re-aligned 82nd district here in this week and walk a Shah.

And W-A-K 540 AM 101.1 FM, the Shah.

And don't forget to download the Civic Media app if you have not already.

And again, my guests next week are the nun shucks in a special birthday episode of this week's workshop.

June 8, 2024, if it's 8 o'clock, and Saturday morning, it's still time for this week and walk a Shah.

Our two, I'm your host, Don Brown.

I'm joined by Anya on the board.

And we are coming to you live and local from the office of former Alderman, Don Paul Brown, here in the W-A-U-K studios in downtown, walk a Shah.

We're right around the corner from Theodore Yalman's park where we are proud to honor our suffragette heritage here in the Shah.

I forgot to mention that in the first hour.

Speaking of suffrage, our conversation continues with our second guest today, incumbent Scott Allen, state assemblyman for the newly re-aligned 82nd district.

And one thing I wanted to, as the conversation dropped off at the end of the first hour, I want to talk you were in the US Army.

Yes.

And so I wanted to talk about what kind of what your thoughts were.

And there's quite a week of great commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in World War II.

And just wanted to hear what some of your thoughts were, what maybe some things that you caught upon.

It's interesting, even though we've oftentimes referred to that group of young people as the greatest generation.

Yes.

And I think some of the qualities, oh, speak into the mic a little more Scott, sorry about that.

All right.

We refer to them as the greatest generation.

And some of the qualities that I think that jump out to me is number one, their obedience and loyalty and their courage.

Sure.

You know, they were willing to step forth when called to serve their country.

And they didn't ask questions.

They didn't, you know, they didn't protest.

You know, argue they just said, yes, sir, yes, ma'am, tell me where to go.

Tell me one to be there.

And they stepped forward for us.

And I think we call them the greatest generation for that reason.

You know, because of their obedience and their courage, we could learn a lot from them.

Yeah.

You know, and I was, we were talking about Tom Brokaw's book, The Greatest Generation, which I highly recommend everyone read.

Because it's a collection of essentially oral interviews with the different veterans.

So just as you said, Scott, you can pick it up and put it down at any time.

And there's just some great learning lessons.

And the entrepreneurial student too, because from back then, there really wasn't much of middle class before World War II.

And so like one of these veterans, he was living in Kansas or Oklahoma and he wanted to go to school.

Well, the nearest high school is like 13 miles away.

So what does he do?

He goes to a local junkyard and he builds his own makeshift automobile, young teenager.

And drives himself to school.

And there's just a whole, in every story, there's something like that.

And so there was definitely a spirit there.

And of course, you know, with the GI Bill following the war like these, this greatest generation formed the, you know, obviously the largest middle class in the history of the world.

Right. And they did so many other things.

They didn't think that they were entitled to anything.

Whatever they, whatever they needed, whatever they wanted, they went out and got it.

They figured out a way they, they earned it.

They made things happen for themselves.

And that's, again, it's a testament of their character.

Sure.

Well, and I think again, you not only served in the Army, but you also have a bit of a, well, I shouldn't say a bit, you are an entrepreneur.

Yeah.

You won a couple of business.

I'm sort of a serial entrepreneur.

Yeah.

So, and that's, yeah, that's a good thing.

And so that's, it's fair to say that that served you well.

That's influenced you as a, as a legislator, helped you with shaping policy.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, it, it, it does influence policy in the sense of, you know, knowing what, what works, you know.

You know, there's a lot of policy ideas out there.

And some of them are good.

Some of them are not so good.

What we want to unleash is the, you know, American spirit, you know, the, the essence of individualism where, where anybody can succeed.

And, you know, we want to empower people to be able to do that.

And, you know, having done that is, you know, I think I bring some of that to the table in terms of the conversation to say, you know, it's possible to do.

We just have to figure out a way.

Sure, sure.

And so the, the one thing about having a, and coming on is like, and another advantage I have is, what have you done so far?

Let's say in the last term, your previous terms as a state rep that you're proud of stuff or that you, you think will continue to serve you well or why, why people should vote for you for reelection.

Well, this last term, our focus wasn't from my office.

My perspective was about public safety.

You know, we did two things that I think were really significant.

We'll have long term effects. One is bail reform.

Okay.

Giving judges the ability to look at public safety when set setting bail for violent criminals.

That was a really important and significant reform.

The people of Wisconsin got to vote on that.

It was a constitutional amendment referendum.

Sure.

And it passed overwhelmingly.

Okay.

Secondly, we know the scourge of fentanyl in our community.

It's terrible.

And, you know, fentanyl is just the latest version of opioids.

There's going to be more.

And the trouble is we had a, a shortcoming in our, in our statutes that allowed a lower classification of felony for drug dealing.

Such that a judge, if they were so inclined, could sentence somebody to simply affine for dealing drugs that resulted in the overdose death of an individual.

And we changed that classification of felony by a bill that I authored that will now require at least some jail time.

And it's still that the discretion of the judge as far as how long that jail time is.

But the idea that somebody could kill somebody through dealing drugs that's laced with fentanyl.

And suffer no consequences, but just simply affine.

It was just fundamentally wrong.

Sure.

So that was a bipartisan bill.

We got the governor to sign it.

That's not law in the state of Wisconsin.

You know, those are probably my favorite, my favorite word bipartisan.

You know, it's getting harder and harder these days to develop bipartisan policies.

It used to be that Republicans and Democrats had the same goal, just different approaches to accomplish the goals.

Today, we're finding that as the two parties exist, there's different goals altogether.

And so we're even losing common language, for instance.

Sure.

Sure.

He's cutting off for a quick second.

We were supposed to get a call in from the farmer's market.

We haven't heard anything yet, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Maybe they're going to call in at the halfway point, but usually we get two calls in with them.

But my feeling is with this nice, cool weather.

And it's still like under 60 degrees in cloudy.

It's it's optimal shopping conditions, as long as the rain holds out.

And so I imagine that table being very busy there.

I'm not sure who's leading the effort today.

You know, we've had some big big names in radio.

Chris Murrow was doing it two weeks ago.

And then Jane McNair was McNair on air was leading the effort last week.

And so for me, it's an honor for them reporting to me because of their many years of excellence.

Service and experience and radio.

And they still contribute.

You can catch McNair on air from 10 to 12 Monday through Friday.

And that's a terrific show to kind of get the latest what's going on in Wisconsin.

So, but hopefully we'll hear something.

Usually, you know, we're taking calls in the civic media, but the line coming through in the stream yard says that you can dial 608.

9339063.

So hopefully we'll hear from our friends at the farmer's market.

They should be listening to this because they got the radio on.

So anyway, our conversation continues with what's got Alan.

And I like with this conversation because we're talking about some of the challenges we've been trying to achieve by partisan cooperation.

And you mentioned kind of back in the day, it was more about we all had the same objective.

Just maybe different ways of doing it and you would find some happy mediums.

And that's not so much the case today.

Where do you feel your experience can having fought through all this can serve you in an externance as a settlement to try to achieve more of a common ground or to get some good common sense legislation achieved.

You know, with oftentimes people listen with the intent to reply.

You've probably had conversations with folks where they're waiting to jump in there.

You can see that they're eager to jump in.

And sometimes they'll even finish your sentences because you're not getting there fast enough.

And we're not listening to each other with the intent to understand.

I think if we can, you know, and Stephen Covey spoke seven habits of highly effective people.

He talked about seek first to understand then to be understood.

I think we need we as a society need to do more of that.

Empathy and understanding and compassion, all those things follow that.

Those things follow listening.

Right. I think we can all do a better job.

Sure. That's true.

How is the campaign going for you or are you kind of campaigning actively now?

You'll get knowing you're unopposed in your own primary.

Oh, of course I'm campaigning.

Yeah. I mean, you know, that's what we do every two years.

I mean, that's what's great about the assembly or in the federal level.

The House of Representatives is every two years we're up for re-election.

So we frankly never stop campaigning.

You know, maybe that's, you know, some people say that's a bad thing.

Some people have suggested maybe longer terms would be better.

I'm not sure.

I like the idea that we stay connected to the community.

I'm always going to events. I'm always reaching out to people.

I'm always communicating with people.

I make myself available to the community all the time.

I think it's never, it's important to maintain that connection.

So I'm campaigning now.

We've been circulating nomination papers.

Got those turned in.

We're holding fundraising events.

Unfortunately cost money to run campaigns these days.

So there's a lot of work to be done.

Yeah, sure, but it sounds like it's going well.

And you've got a pretty good, you know, I've seen you in the past and

fourth of July, fourth of July parades.

You've got kind of a small army of people marching with you.

So you've got.

It seems there's you've got a lot of supporters either in a volunteer capacity.

I know your staff can't campaign for you, but it's this.

Do you feel you have an advantage that way?

You've got a good again, people that have this body of experience with, you know, working with you or.

As your constituents feel really good about what you're doing.

And they're supporting you in a volunteer way.

You know, I, you know, I want to.

I want to just give credit to the people of walk shaw in this community.

You know, they, I feel like, you know, it's a blessing to be the representative.

It's a blessing.

It's an honor.

And, you know, I just put my head down and do my best.

And so if people support that and they, you know, come alongside me and are willing to help.

I'm just grateful for every bit of help that I can get.

So.

Sure, I think.

Well, we Friday night live opened last night.

I don't know if you were there.

I wasn't, but I saw the signage.

I was like, wow, it's already started.

I'm excited for it.

I think that's one of the, one of the assets that our community has.

I tell people about it all the time.

I'm like, you know, there's some people say, well, why do you choose walk shaw?

Like, oh, walk shaw is great.

You know, a lot of people, I get a little perturbed when they refer to it as a suburb of Milwaukee.

I'm like, no, no, no.

It's a city on to itself.

I mean, we've got everything in walk a show that you would want in any city.

A university city.

We, we got, you know, the oldest four-year institution in the state of western university in the state of Wisconsin.

We've got industry.

We've got commercial.

We've got retail.

We get housing.

Mix of housing.

And we got all these great community events.

We got a wonderful downtown.

Washington is great.

We'll continue with Scott Allen.

And our beloved walk a show here.

And this week in walk a show on this cloudy Saturday morning.

Don't forget the farmer's markets going on.

Bye-bye, my little boy back home.

Give it up, perfect.

Share it out.

Yeah.

Help who you can.

I know that you can.

Talk about it, talk about it.

Oh, give it up, perfect.

Share it out.

Help who you can.

Don't just talk about it.

Talk about it.

It's not time to make a change.

Just relax.

Take it easy.

You're still young.

That's your fault.

There's so much you have.

Hey, listening to this week in walk a show.

And that is Father and Son by the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens.

You said, Islam, I believe, is his name now.

And obviously a very emotional day for me

with my youngest son graduating today, my son Evan.

And so the very timely song there.

And the sun has made its way out.

It usually comes out in the second song in the first hour

when I played the world is waiting for the sunrise

by Watchtower's favorite son, Les Paul.

But it was a little late today.

But we're glad that what do we call that?

That lazy saint in the sky has made its way out.

The sun shining on walk.

You're familiar with this voice, Jim Santel,

who's celebrating his 100th show today.

Formerly known as Morning Canola is now amicus,

a lot of viewers, I call Atticus,

since he embodies the spirit of Atticus Finch.

And we are joined by some women, Scott Allen,

running freely, re-election in the newly re-aligned 82nd district.

Scott, really glad you're here.

And since you're going to cut out the same time as me,

Jim's taken over the show here.

Jim, do you have a question for Scott?

Absolutely, Scott, good to be with you, good to see you again.

And I appreciate spending some time in conversation with this as always.

It is a time in America when we think a lot about education too.

And doing a bit of my research on you,

I know that you are a wonderful product

in an accomplished product, or UW system,

and my notes indicate Ashkash and Wakashan and Milwaki,

in addition to some time at USC as well, right?

Yes, right. Jojans, right?

Exactly. Urban planning, public administration,

talk with us about the extent to which your own education,

your Wisconsin, other places,

animates the work that you do on behalf of our constituents.

Wow, what a broad question. That's one of those softball questions.

It is, that's right.

For an early Saturday morning, but if anybody can handle it,

Scott, you can.

I'm sorry.

Well, I'm an alum of Kettle Marine High School.

Blazers.

After high school, I was convinced in high school

that I was going to be a football player.

And I wanted to go to Ashkash to play football.

But I enlisted in the Army right after graduating from high school.

I went to basic training.

It was Army Reserve, so I split training between the first year and the second summer.

And so I got done with basic training.

And by then, it was time to register for school.

And I never tried out for the football team in Ashkash.

But what was funny is I spent one semester in Ashkash.

I had to plan for that first semester.

And about midway through the semester, I realized I was running out of money.

And I didn't have a way to pay for the second semester.

So coming back to Wauksha was an important step for me

to have a more affordable option and to be able to live at home.

So I went to UW-Wauksha for a few semesters.

Even there in life, it's hard because you're trying to figure it out.

Took a semester off somewhere along the way.

Sold cars for a semester.

Good for you. Nice for you.

And then, you know, rededicated myself.

I'm going to get this degree done.

Transfer to UW-Milwaukee, where I completed the rest of my degree.

Riding mass transit, taking the bus back and forth up and down the east side of Milwaukee

to get the degree at UW-Milwaukee.

I started my undergraduate degree as a business major

and I switched to politics.

And then after I got my degrees from USC, I went into business.

And I've spent most of my career in business

and only late in life did I really endeavor to get into politics.

So life has a funny way of throwing curveballs at you

that you really, you know, you can't plan it out carefully.

And you talk about graduates, I like to tell the graduates.

It's like, you know, just don't worry about what you're going to do with the rest of your life.

Where are you about the next step?

Just figure out what the next step is.

And life will take care of itself.

Absolutely. Those steps along the way, educationally.

And candidly, there are some dramatic connections between government and politics and business, right?

Absolutely.

A lot of people think more business,

acumen inside our political machines

and our government should be a part of our system.

And I know you bring that to the work that you do as well.

We are, you also mentioned, of course,

you are a veteran of the United States Army.

We obviously observing as the entire world,

the 80th anniversary of D-Day, just recently,

thoughts on the extent to which that experience,

that is being in military,

the positive things about serving your country once again,