Celebrating Public Schools Week with Mike Johnson (Hour 1)

Live from the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albaugh, along with an outstanding producer and engineer, Mr. Aaron Zommers, on the board.

It is six past the hour of 12 noon on this Wednesday, February 26, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite, and it is.

Pump day.

There you go.

The camel has made it.

Zommers, we have made it halfway through another week.

How about that?

Last week of February.

All right.

Last week.

Last week, March is right around the corner.

So spring not too far was feeling very spring like here in downtown Madison, cloudy skies right now, temperatures around the state of Wisconsin, though, could be pertner near 50 degrees, maybe over it still.

T-shirt weather, right?

I am my Packers polo shirt on today.

Might get a little talk in, by the way, with our main guest this hour, as he always does, every Wednesday afternoon comes on.

Talks politics, but always likes to talk little packers.

You know, because he's a packer owner and there are rumors now Here is the deal the packers are hosting the draft big hoopla as well There should be and rumors now as the bright lights are on Green Bay That they may be traded what trading away their number one draft pick

Really?

I mean talk about I mean shouldn't the owners have a say on this shouldn't the owners have some kind of we'll ask one of the owners here in just a minute

So

I

imagine you can show up to the meeting they just probably won't listen to you if you have

Wait a minute, who are they thinking about trading for?

We'll ask the owner in just a second also later on in this in this half hour He is the superintendent of Eau Claire public schools Mike Johnson is gonna be on the program talking about our great public schools as it is

public school week, looking forward to that.

Also in hour number two of what's worse edition today and at the bottom of hour number two, very happy to be having as our guest, brand new state Senator Sarah Kayeski of South Central and Southwest Wisconsin.

Senator Kayeski is going to be in talking about the right to repair bill of which she is a co-author.

Shouldn't it just make sense that.

If you own something that you should be allowed to work on it, she'll be in to explain why that is not always the case and her legislation would give Wisconsinites the ability to do so.

Pat Crightlow is on kind of a work, he says, work vacation.

I feel like he's back down in the Bahamas, but we'll find out next week.

But who is here?

Our old friend, ongoing contributor, former Republican like myself, River Falls Boy, and now a senior advisor at the Lincoln Project joining us from our nation's capital, Trig V. Olsen, and a Green Bay Packer owner.

How you doing, Trig?

Todd,

there's so much going on on this show today

I

can't keep up.

First of all, who are the Packers thinking about trading for?

in the room.

I

do

not.

I do not.

We have to ask our great reporter, Max

Crosby, Miles

Garrett.

No, I don't think so.

I'm all for it.

I don't know.

We'll have to ask Mike Clemens at some point.

I don't know that.

I don't think they're telling who they're potentially doing it, but things are leaking at Lambeau Field.

It's

Miles Garrett.

It might be Miles Garrett or Max Crosby.

That

would be awesome.

I trade the pick.

Who cares?

But it takes all

the fun out of it, Trigme.

Here we are in Green Bay.

No, it doesn't.

They get to announce it and then they say,

And the Green Bay Packers, with their number one overall pick, trade it to blank.

No.

Nobody's going

to cheer for

that.

On September 8th, on opening day, if they have to choose between some schlep that was playing in college last year and Miles Garrett, they're going to take Miles Garrett.

No one's going to remember no one stood up there.

All right.

We'll talk more

about,

by the way, Tony and Zimmerman.

If

Miles Garrett gets up there and says, and the Packers have traded the 25th pick for Miles Garrett, people will go bananas.

All right, we'll see.

Tony has never been watching on Facebook says Miles Garrett would be huge huge

Garrett was the defensive player of the year last year, Tony says.

So there you go.

All right, we'll see.

We'll talk a little bit about Packers later on this hour, but right now, Trigvie, let's turn, by the way, I know it was late, I know it was late, but it's public education week, and Mike Johnson's been on the program before, and so I texted Trigvie yesterday, I said, could you reach out to your buddy, Mike Johnson, as he'd come on the show, and Trigvie was kind enough to take

10 seconds to text me and says, I'm a very important person, but here's- No, no, no.

Why don't you reach out?

I wasn't playing

that game.

I just, I had so much going on and I still do.

I'm in like data hell.

I know.

You're looking at the fears of

Americans in relation to-

I won't say who, but you're having dinner with very important people.

I've said this before, you're two lovely daughters.

You're two lovely daughters.

You know, first and foremost, it's like that old Steve Martin.

If I only had one wish at Christmas, it'd be for world peace.

If I only had one wish for your daughters, Trigby would be for the fatherly love that you show them.

If I had two wishes, if I had two wishes, it would be that they inherit your roll the decks because when Trigby's roll the decks, those girls could get a lot done.

Anyway, Mike Johnson was so kind.

So we're going to have him on at the bottom of the hour talking about public education and what they're doing.

They're in the Eau Claire public school system, which is is fantastic, by the way.

But it is

always good to see Mike.

He

used to get to see Mike every Tuesday and Thursday, my sophomore year of college when I would come traipsing at the back of Tim Hirsch's class.

I miss those days.

Don't we all those those my mom told me like

any money, man.

I want to go back.

My mom told me that would

be a good one to play us an intro summers.

My mom.

OK,

your mom.

Sorry.

Are you are you are you like going to the gym before these appearances now and hyping up on protein drinks or way or

what's going

on?

I don't go to the gym on Wednesdays because I'm on your show.

Let's play ice hockey then on Wednesday night.

Yes, you do.

All right.

Let's get into the news of the day Things ain't good trig me and master if you noticed out there the belt way things things are not good and a couple of things that in all seriousness that I think is a troubling turning point as one of the CNN people put yesterday in the White House now and for those people that don't know

When you see on the evening news, you read the paper or whatever about what the president doesn't matter who they are, what the president did that day, there are what tricky?

I mean, well over a hundred different news organizations that have a White House correspondent.

Well, you can't fit all those people into the Oval Office.

They can't always fly on Air Force One to every appearance.

And so it was called a press pool.

And since 1913, 1914, the Nonpartisan White House Correspondence Association has organized that pool.

And they divide it up and they rotate it.

And the deal is that whoever is with the president at whatever event, then they share that video, that audio, that reporting with all of the White House correspondents.

They're free to put their take on it, but they all have access to the same basic information.

That changed yesterday when the White House announced that they were going to start controlling the press pool now, not the White House Correspondents Association, but the Trump administration, the Trump White House, and that they were going to not just exclude people like on the Associated Press, but also now Reuters is being thrown out, and that they're going to only allow places like Newsmax, The Blaze,

Um, you know these these right wing places to cover the president and In this article and in CNN says perhaps most telling the Huffington Post Was taken out of its planned Wednesday spot as the print pooler and replaced by Axios Huffington Post reporter SV is it daddy or I'm not sure how to pronounce last name has been a thorn in Trump's side for years and Trump bristled

at his questions the last time he was in the pool.

Trigvie, as you so often ask us, I think this is a good time for our listeners to ask themselves, regardless of who they voted for, if someone else, if Kamala Harris had won and she banned Fox News, how would you feel?

Yeah.

I mean, that's the question we all have to be asking ourselves.

And it's a dangerous, it's a dangerous thing.

I mean, part of living in a free society is the notion that politicians, particularly the president of the United States, have people who are asking hard questions and holding them accountable.

And what they're trying to do here is basically let Pravda cover the administration.

And to your point, Todd, which is what I make often, if

Kamala Harris Kamala Harris had won and said we're only going to allow MSNBC to cover us That would be wrong and all the media organizations should stand up and there is precedent there have been other administrations that have tried this both Republican and Democrat and in fact the last time Trump tried to do this Fox News was one of the organizations that protested they all protested by not coming to cover

Um, that isn't happening this time.

And I think it tells you it it begs the question and I would ask this if Harris were doing the same thing.

What are they trying to hide?

Yeah.

Why

are they?

Why?

No,

I, I, I totally agree with that.

And, and in fact, in fact, uh, I don't, I'm looking for the name right now.

I don't have in front of me.

Whoever the, uh, White House correspondent is for Fox right now.

I think it was a woman.

And I believe she actually did say this was not good for the long term because you're opening up the door for the other side, quote unquote, to do the same thing should a Democrat get back in the White House.

So even the Fox News reporters are saying this is this is not what you want

here, folks.

Right.

And there will be people on the right who will be doing what about what about what about.

just as there are people on the left who do, what about, what about, what about?

If your side is doing it and it's wrong, you think it would be wrong if the other side is doing it, you need to call out and say, it's a real simple test that you can use for if what the other side is doing is

wrong.

We're

either a country that have people that have faith in one another or we're a country that lives in fear of each other.

And people in Wisconsin and most people don't live that way with the people they encounter on a daily basis in places like River Falls or Richland Center or Beaver Dam or wherever.

You're not afraid of your neighbors.

You have to understand, but it's easy to vilify people who you don't know.

And we've got to get a lot better at having empathy and understanding.

Also,

I spend

my life studying.

I want to get back to that, by the way.

Also overnight, Jeff Bezos, who now owns the Washington Post, made a major change.

Bezos sending an email to staffers at the Washington Post saying quote we are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars personal liberties and free markets That's it That's all and he offered David Shipley the longtime editorial director at the Washington Post the opportunity to stay on but he told Shipley you either have to say hell yes Or else no Shipley today

walked away from Washington Post.

If this isn't state-run media, I'm not sure what is, but we will ask Trigley Olson on the other side about that as someone who has fought against state-run media and who is banned from Russia by Putin himself.

Stay with us.

It's The All Ball Show on the Civic Media Ready

Network.

When Trigby Olsen just you know put on a pair of skates and hit people on the ice up there at River Falls And you know we went home and watched Dan rather Walter Cronkite on TV and and the big controversy right low And the big controversy was you know did Reagan and Tip O'Neill You know put a jab at each other, but then they sat down had a drink and everything was fine Those were the 1980s Trigby, but that is not what we're living

in today.

I

miss the 19.

I miss the 1980

to

21 out minutes now past the hour of 12 noon on February 26.

Trigby Olson, senior advisor at the Lincoln Project is with us now coming up at the bottom of the hour.

Mike Johnson will be along with us talking about public education.

We cannot wait for that.

But Trigby, before we do that, I want to finish up here a couple of things that I find particularly disturbing that you've had experience with all over the world.

The first of which

and the Washington Post last night and into this morning.

Now owner, multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos, announcing, giving longtime political editor at the post, an ultimatum saying that the post is going to now only focus their opinion page will only focus on two things, personal liberties and free markets.

And giving chip lead ultimatum saying you either have to say hell yes and stay.

or else it has to be a no.

And Shipley said, no, I'm not going to be told as editorial opinion editor that I could only write about it.

My editors could only write about two things.

So he is leaving.

And finally, before I let you speak in the CNN story today saying that New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker

did not take the actions yesterday of having Trump now decide the press pool lightly.

This is what Peter Baker said, quote, having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin's reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure the only compliant journalists were given access.

Unquote travi you've been banned by russia by putin himself you have fought for democracy and against autocracies in eastern europe am i over inflating this am i over making too big of a deal Out of bezos comments what's happening in the white house saying that we are pairlessly pairlessly close To having state-run media in this country

Well, I would say and I know peter from back in the day when I was doing stuff in that part of the world I would

you know, Peter's words are spot on.

It is not dissimilar to what's happened in a lot of places, Hungary and where other places.

And what happens here is allies, rich allies of oligarchs in some cases buy up the media and then they make the media compliant.

It's one of the dangers of having media owned by

you know, non-independent sources.

And I think, you know, Jeff Bezos and these guys, you know, I was talking to somebody who comes from that world recently, who's super smart about it, was in that category of people, and they said, listen, what you have to understand is Bezos, Elon, all these guys, what it's really about is the future of AI and who's gonna control it.

Jeff Bezos wants to control it.

Elon Musk wants to control it.

Mark Zuckerberg wants to control it.

They all have competing systems.

Obviously, Sam Altman and Chad GPT are out in the front.

You've got all these players, and it's the danger of having somebody who's as transactional as Donald Trump, where it's all for sale.

And so Jeff Bezos is trying to protect his own interests because he doesn't want somebody to come along.

and take what he has.

And that's what I mean by fear.

Even if you're Jeff Bezos, the world's second richest man, you live in fear of the world's richest man being able to come and take your stuff.

And does anybody think that Elon Musk wouldn't come and take other people's stuff?

He'd take your house.

It had value to him.

Brendan ran in most people's houses in Wisconsin wouldn't be something he'd be interested in but

but I want to get back to that in second trick me but Brendan watching on YouTube asks The Associated Press is being kicked out.

Yes, Brendan The in fact the Supreme Court has now upheld that to date although that case is still pending that Donald Trump Is is not allowing the Associated Press to cover him the reporters not allowed to

The Supreme Court thus far has upheld that and and also yesterday from the Pentagon, one of the Pentagon spokespeople tweeted out against the reporter saying, well, that may be this is paraphrasing now, but basically that may teach them a lesson.

This is the Trump administration saying the only people we are going to allow to cover us are things, people that and organizations that say good things about us and don't ask the president tough questions.

And to your point, Trigvie, I want to come back to this.

Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk might not want any of our houses, most houses in Wisconsin.

What they do want is our political power.

And that's why Elon Musk now is approaching a million dollars in dark money spending on our state Supreme Court race.

Yep.

And, you know, I mean.

I'm a pretty conservative guy, but the reality is you have a class of people.

And I think, you know, most people, I guess, most listeners have probably never met anybody in that net worth category.

You know, through what I do, gotten to know a fair amount of them and interact with some of them.

And in fact, some of them I consider my friends.

I'm not in that net worth category.

But you have to understand, they have a very different

understanding and perspective on the world.

In fact, people should read Kara Swisher's book called The Burn Book about the Silicon Valley guys.

It's fantastic.

And Kara is amazing, much like Peter Baker.

Yeah.

I'm getting ready to call it, Trig V.

I do this in sports with my friends all the time would be texted back and forth a packer game or a badger game It might be in the the second half with eight minutes to go in a badger game You like last Tuesday by the way the badgers got a nice win over the University of Wisconsin or over Washington last night The real UW beat the fake UW but over the weekend when the badgers got beat Text back and forth.

I'm calling it over game over.

I'm kind of getting ready to call it on traditional American democracy We have now Trump

Taking over the press we have the United States voting with our sworn enemies North Korea and Russia not even China by the way voted in favor of the result or voted against the resolution Identifying that that it was Russia who attacked Ukraine.

I'm waiting kind of for one more major shoe to drop We don't they'll still call it democracy right Trig V But are we I really feel we're getting close to no longer having true traditional American democracy

Uh, yeah, we can talk about that on the other side, but I mean the bottom line is people equate democracy with elections, but democracy is a lot more than elections.

Alright.

In fact, elections are just a mean to an end.

We'll save that part till 10 till, but right now we're going to talk public schools with Mike Johnson and Trig V. Olsen.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the Civic Media Ready Network.

Welcome back everybody.

It is now 34 minutes past the hour here.

Glad to have you along with us on this beautiful day here in Wisconsin all across Wisconsin.

Joining us the Senior Advisor of the Lincoln Project.

former River Falls boy.

You can take the boy out of River Falls, but you can't take River Falls out of the boy.

Trigvie Olson, now a Senior Advisor to the Lincoln Project, and our special guest in this segment, Mike Johnson, who is the Superintendent of Public Schools and the one, the only, the beautiful Eau Claire School District there in Northwest Wisconsin as well.

Mike, thanks so much for coming on today.

And on Mother's Short notice, but we, you know, Trigvie said his minion, me, to book you his friend, and I appreciate you saying yes.

Hey, I'm so glad for the invitation.

And as always, Trivian Todd, you know, whenever you call, I'm always interested if I'm available.

So yeah, more than happy to really excited to talk, you know, public schools week, and it's a great week for us.

It really is.

And my whole family are educators.

I'm fond of this, but for you folks, and not just Eau Claire, but for public educators across the state of Wisconsin, what does this mean to you as administrators, to your teachers, to your students, and how are you celebrating that?

It's really, it's a thankful time.

In Eau Claire, just one example, we've got a very active retiree group.

but also some community members with the Wisconsin Public Education Network.

And we've got signs at all our schools celebrating, promoting Public Schools Week.

We love our public schools here in Wisconsin.

And Monday morning in the snow banks, now they're no longer in the snow banks, but Monday morning in the snow banks, I got a few pictures from some of those.

We had a board meeting last week and we were able to talk about how much our public schools mean to us in celebration and recognition.

And at every school, there's maybe a little bit something different.

But yeah, it's certainly a special week here in Wisconsin for our public schools.

One of the things I just wanted to ask a little bit about is we're in the middle right now, not in the middle, but getting towards the end of the school year.

This is an exciting time where we're in the middle and get ready for state wrestling.

We've got basketball coming up.

I know you folks have hockey.

I know that school is academics, but for so many of our communities across Wisconsin, there are also our communities.

Talk a little bit, Mike, in the Eau Claire School District about some of the successes outside of academia that just makes it part of the community.

It is those those activities and events are really important for our for our kids and their families You know just a couple weeks ago, you know a show choir competition at Memorial High You know fast forward to now we've got the tournament series for athletics and Whether it's wrestling whether it's hockey whether it's swimming whether it's basketball girls basketball just kicked off this week

You know, there's always something to do on a Tuesday or a Thursday or a Friday or a Saturday.

And if we're working here, like last night, I was watching Memorial.

I had them on the broadcast and then, you know, with streaming and I was able to watch River Falls for a little bit and able to watch North Husky's basketball.

Yeah, it's just, it's an interesting time.

An exciting time for kids and families and, you know, making memories.

Yeah, I mean, I think you get to the heart of it, Mike, and we've had this conversation a lot of times.

Um, you know, it's the cornerstone of the communities, right?

Like people, people, it's what they're talking about on Wednesday morning or Sunday and when they go to church and people lose sight of the fact that in our small towns, like where you and I are from, um, that is the hub, but not only is it the hub of.

socially, it's the driver of the economic engine, right?

Like, you know, people go from the public schools to our public universities, and then there are the lawyers and the teachers and the nurses.

And so it's easy for people to demonize public education if they don't pause and think.

Just what a hub.

It is truly what makes the state of Wisconsin an amazing place.

No, I couldn't agree more and you know many school leaders I'll just talk about my own field You know, I'm unapologetic about my athletic background and coaching and teaching and You know at times, you know people would people mention that all about athletics or this or that it's very important

It was important to my family.

It was important to me.

And it's that element of competition.

And when you fail in athletics or in the activity you're in, whether it's show choir, whether it's forensics, it doesn't matter.

It teaches you that stick-to-it-iveness in your, whether it's the college or university you attend, and then into your life, we compete.

I still compete.

Do I look at the statistics on the state report cards in November when they're unembarrassed and the embargo is listed?

And do we look at, do I look at our regional schools?

Do I look at schools that are our size and how we're achieving and our growth?

Absolutely.

And I think part of that is that competition, whether it's in an activity or whether it's in athletics.

We're talking with Mike Johnson.

He is the superintendent of public schools in the Eau Claire school district in northwest Wisconsin along with Trig V Olsen senior advisor at the Lincoln Project.

Mike, if you could just talk a little bit about because Trig V and I talk a lot about what happens in Washington.

Of course, he has a lot, you know, all this experience as you well know, but we try to put it through a Wisconsin lens.

And I think when we hear all these stories about immigration and changing policies,

A lot of folks don't stop and think how that affects families in Wisconsin and in particular our schools.

And I know you've been very adamant about keeping our public schools as safe places for students to learn.

If you could talk a little bit about what these changes in Washington immigration, the effects it has had for you locally in Eau Claire and how you've dealt with that.

I think we dealt with it very well according to our families in the community.

about a month ago, we were in Milwaukee for the state education convention with our board members and a few administrators.

And that's when things really started to pick up a little bit with that executive order on immigration.

You know, we talked about it in the large district caucus where 20 to 25 of the largest school districts talk about these matters when we were down in Milwaukee.

And you know what, consult with legal.

consult with DPI, examine your own policies, and we put something out to our staff and our families.

And yes, it got circulated around the media, and that's fine.

But we follow our policy, and here's the steps we take.

We have control in our schools.

We have control of our educational environment.

And if an ICE agent were to come in, here's how we would handle it.

They don't have carte blanche.

You know, they're a visitor like anyone else, but we have certain things that we need to examine.

And we shared that with our principals.

We shared that with our families after and our staff so that everybody felt comfortable.

But it really is quite a bit of trauma to some families in our district.

And, you know, when we made that announcement on a Monday evening, you know, I'd have to say 15 or 20 to one, you know, the positives that we heard from families across the district.

Just about this is how the schools will handle in that type of a case.

And unfortunately, you know, social media the next day, well, we, you know, somebody posts something about seeing somebody at an ICE agent at two of our schools.

Well, then that just, that sets us back.

And the nice thing was here in Eau Claire, the law enforcement agencies said, you know, that's very disturbing.

And it really goes against.

all that we believe in and the partnerships that we have with the schools and the community is, you know, it just causes unnecessary trauma and to our entire community.

I was just so

amazed, I was

impressed with, just real quick, I was just amazingly impressed, like with your leadership, with your district, you didn't make it partisan, you put the students first,

You included the community and you included law enforcement.

And I was particularly impressed with the way law enforcement worked with the school district.

And I think it's a great example of how people in Washington don't think about how these things are going to affect the local communities.

And then it's on your shoulders and the police chief and everybody else in the community.

And I just thought what you all did at Eau Claire was just an example of how it should be handled.

Yeah,

I mean, you know Obviously Mike you and I have been friends for a long time and and that that's a testament to the public education system, too Right like I was saying before you got on walked into Tim Hirsch's class and been friends ever since but I mean I'm proud of the way that you've been leading on it and I think I think your leadership really you hit on perhaps the most important point the the

the trauma that's caused and that you have to mitigate is not just for the kids who, I guess we lost, Mike, but the trauma isn't just for the kids who might be deported, who are victims in it, but it's for all of them, all the kids who are sitting in that classroom, because that's their friend.

Right.

Right.

It's relationships.

It's relationship building.

Mike, do we have you back now?

Yeah, sorry about that, guys.

No worries.

I think I did catch enough from what you had shared, but to Trigvie's point.

Yeah, it was just

busy praising you, Mike.

Yeah.

I'm proud of you, buddy.

That's that River Falls and UW Eau Claire.

I'm sure.

No, like you had both mentioned, it was the trauma wasn't necessarily to families directly impacted.

It was, you know, my friends.

you know kindergarten through fifth grade students at an elementary school well my friends um this could happen to my friends and and that was something that you know that we had heard from other families as well um not just uh not just some of our like I said some of our families are directly impacted.

Yeah.

As we look ahead, we're talking with Mike Johnson, who pretended public schools in Eau Claire, celebrating this public schools week.

As you look at what's on the horizon.

in terms of we're in a state budget right now, and I know you don't like to get partisan political, that's absolutely fine, but just help us understand as laypeople who are not in education, because I think a lot of us just don't understand it, because we're not there.

What would you like the general public to be aware of, of the challenges, but also the opportunities for public education in Wisconsin?

Well,

Yeah, that's a that's a heck of a question and probably be a two to three hour conversation and things we discussed the top water to April when you guys Yeah, when you guys when we had this at the University last year, you know, ultimately, Wisconsin schools have been severely underfunded for decades And it's really magnified now with you know with the

with the Esther monies that came in to really help with the results or the impact of the pandemic.

Well, with Wisconsin, not getting in the past biennium to get any increase in our funding.

Well, now we're seeing the results of that, where this is largely on the taxpayer, where we went to referendum in November, and about a third of the schools in the state had gone to a referendum for their operations.

the day-to-day stuff.

It's people.

It's supplies.

It's programming.

And now we've got to wait until June or July to get a budget, a new biennial budget.

Well, I think the statistics are right now.

93 districts or 85 districts, maybe 93 questions, are going in February.

I think there are five or six and the rest are going to go in April.

on April 1st.

Again, and that's what we heard throughout our 65 referendum presentations for the funding of our schools, equitable funding of our schools, is that this is not just an Eau Claire problem, this is a regional, this is a statewide problem, that schools are not funded as they should be, keeping up with inflation and with the programming and positions that people had found necessary.

as a result of COVID to keep those things going, keep those people in those positions, keep those systems moving.

And it'll be very interesting to see how many districts go to referendum in November if there isn't some serious work done, whether it's on special education funding, for example.

30 seconds left, Mike.

Anything we have not asked you, you want people to know about Eau Claire Public Schools during this public schools

week?

You know what you mentioned it before, it's a nonpartisan issue.

And we found that in our referendum.

We had a big ask for the taxpayers, the largest that we've had in Mclare, to my knowledge.

But we had 64, 65% who voted yes.

There are plenty of Republican folks that strongly support our schools here in Eau Claire, and I'm really proud of that, and I'm proud of our community.

Mike Johnson, Superintendent of Public Schools, Eau Claire, Mike, you and all your team are part of what makes Wisconsin great.

Keep doing a great job.

Thanks for being with us.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thanks for all you do.

Daytune back after this.

In the morning, just strap on the skates and go out there and practice on that clean ice as the sun comes up over the St.

Croix River in order to be an NHL star.

And that's

why Trevi Olsen is not an NHL star.

Not a morning person.

That's 100% right.

Not a morning person.

But

how about like

Johnson, who is, what a great guy, always a good friend of yours.

He's an All-American.

He's a Division III All-American basketball player.

Was he really?

That's right.

I guess you did tell me that.

That's phenomenal basketball player.

And his son signed a full right at Iowa to play tight end.

That's amazing.

Good for him.

No, when Mike was on the team, he gave my, uh, Platteville, uh, pioneers fifth, but the only team that Bo Ryan ever really had a problem, Kenny Anderson and the, uh, the blue golds were a thorn in Bo's side all those years because

they had

great teams.

Yeah.

They were loaded.

I mean, Mike Johnson and Mike pleasure.

Yeah,

many things.

If you're listening, shout out.

Probably is since Johnson was.

Many things.

Yeah, he does.

He does stuff in

education, too.

Many things to Mike Johnson, superintendent of public schools as we celebrate this public schools week.

Trivia want to go back quickly because we started this at the bottom of the hour.

I didn't want to drag Mike into our part of our partisan discussions.

But and I'm you know,

every time I say this now all I think of Joe Biden when I say I'm not joking around but I'm not joking around when you when you look at what's happening in Trump icing out media people who don't agree with him now and controlling the White House press pool as you look at the Washington Post and Jeff Bezos taking control of a very narrow

op-ed window as you look at the United States now voting with our sworn enemies in North Korea and Russia against our NATO allies on Ukraine.

You talked about this earlier.

I'm going to be very close to saying, yes, people will call it a democracy.

But the reliable, dependable, traditional American democracy that we've enjoyed for nearly 250 years is on the precipice of disappearing.

You said it's not just all about elections.

Explain.

Yeah, I mean, people tend to, you know, think about elections as democracy just because you vote.

that that is what makes it democracy.

I mean, people vote in Russia, people vote in Iran, people vote in lots of places, and they don't have democracies.

Democracies really are built on a lot of different things, the rule of law, that we're a country where there's a set of rules, and those rules apply to everybody.

That is certainly under assault.

where there is process, where it's slow, it's deliberative, it's freedom of speech, it's freedom of assembly, it's freedom of the press, that politicians can be held accountable.

And it's not just elections.

And we've had this tendency to, you know, those pillars are under assault.

And we have a tendency for people to think, well, democracy is just, I get to go and vote on a Tuesday in November or April.

That really isn't what it's about.

It's about a system that wraps a whole schoolhouse rock of pieces around the fact that holding power is very zero sum.

And if you don't have mechanisms for holding that zero sum in place, those people who want to control everything are going to seek to do that.

And ultimately, everyone loses when that's the case.

And yeah, we're dangerously close to that point.

I don't disagree with you, Todd.

That said, I don't want people to be all pessimistic.

I don't want people to be all pessimistic.

Because I will tell you, listen, I will tell you, I have seen this around the world.

That, you know, de Tocqueville said, democracy is like a rising tide.

It only requires to come back with greater force.

And I think de Tocqueville is right in that.

You know, and we're seeing that in places.

There are people standing up to these assaults.

You're seeing that with the Fox News reporter saying this is really troubling, right?

Like it requires people on the side that is attempting to do it to speak up.

I am still a conservative in a very traditional sense, but I believe in democracy more.

And I'm willing to make alliance for people who I want to have a right to free speech.

I want my kids to have a right to free speech.

I want my kids to have a right to peaceful assembly.

I want my kids to be able to go and have people that are holding those who have power accountable.

That is a far better world than the alternative.

And I've seen the alternatives up close.

And I think that's what Peter Baker is talking about when he's saying, you know,

People should people should and I'm not trying to just float my own horn here But the people that do the best job of covering this as reporters the people who seem to have the greatest understanding of this are the people who have actually had to spend time and live in those places, right?

And we've seen that people standing up this week at Wisconsin showing up at a town halls with Glenn growthman and Scott Fitzgerald Unfortunately Derek Van Orton refuses to hold town halls But the those who have have gotten an earful and you know, they've been you know, fairly respectful No violence or anything like that But I I think that is important that people continue to show up and and voice their their actions as Reed Gaylen said of this program a couple weeks ago We the people get get involved in your communities, you know make

relations listen.

Here's the here's the thing

Derek Van Orton run around we the people we the people we the people Why doesn't he want to is he no longer we the people?

Right, I mean, that's a whole thing.

I you know Well, I mean it's all these guys Mike Mike Lee senator from Utah I remember listening to him speak one time where he talked about carrying the Constitution around in his pocket He's being awfully quiet when pieces of the Constitution are being circumvented

In fact, he's been speaking the other way.

The question is, I mean, it's like my buddy Stuart Stevens, colleague, you know, was it all just a lie?

Did they not believe it?

And the we the people stuff.

Derek Van Orton would have been, I'm all about states rights.

Now that you have states saying we're not doing this, this is our purview.

Well, now they're not for states rights.

Do they not stand for anything other than themselves being in power?

The truth of the matter is that is what they stand for.

Trigby Olson, Senior Advisor at the Lincoln Project.

Oh, it's a pleasure.

15 seconds, 10 seconds.

I love the music, Zomers.

We're like Power Civic Radio today.

All right, thanks, Trigby.

We'll see you next Wednesday, my friend.

Be safe.

Trigby Olson, Senior Advisor at the Lincoln Project.

What's worse is coming up in hour number two, also State Senator Sarah Kayesky.

Come on back.

It's hour two on The All Ball Show on the Civic Media.

Live from the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Tom Albaal.

Along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer, it is six past the hour of one o'clock.

Welcome into hour number two of the big program here.

It is Wednesday, February 26th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite, and it is...

Pump

Day!

Look at that.

The camel has made it with us here to the middle of the week.

Glad to have you along with us.

But thanks to Trig V. Olson, Senior Advisor at the Lincoln Project, as well as Mike Johnson, Superintendent of Public Schools and beautiful Eau Claire for being here in hour number one, coming up in hour number two at the bottom of the hour.

Stick around because I'm going to have some great information for you after the bottom of the hour news at 1.34.

New Freshman State Senator Sarah Kayeski is going to be here in our studio summary.

I understand now, this is the benefit of being downtown Madison.

We have right near the Capitol and the walk on downs.

We have Senator Kayeski is going to be here in person in the studio.

Yeah, I believe she has a meeting shortly after, but because we're a block away.

Boom.

She can just walk right over there.

That's fantastic.

We love that when

that happens.

So look, and Senator Kayeski represents the old hometown now.

in Richland Center, so she is a very diverse district.

We'll talk to her about this.

She is from Lodi, but the district goes from all the way in Richland Center and parts of Sock County and stretches over into right here in parts of Dayton County.

So it's an eclectic group of people that she represents, and she is going to be here talking about her co-sponsorship

The right to work bill or right to repair right repair.

I'm sorry.

Good Lord

very different things

very different things Yeah, I'm doing three things at once.

Yes, right to repair right to repair.

No, this is a good

people nearly fell off their chairs there no right to repair bill and I know I know that Center path

was on, I believe, Jane McNair's program yesterday talking about this.

And so now one of the other co-sponsors, Sarah Kayeski, is going to be here talking about it as well.

And what this boils down to is say, you know, if you're a farmer or somebody and you've got a tractor or a piece of equipment that you should, I mean, it's just common sense.

Most people think, well, yeah, you should be able to work on your own equipment.

No, no, no.

As it turns out,

that's harder than it thinks.

Are you harder than you think?

So Senator Kayski will be here to explain that.

And we'll also talk to her about, she's a lovely person.

We first met her down in beautiful Muscaday last year when she was a candidate.

And she was there to listen to folks from Richland Center on the closing of the two year campus.

One of the few people that actually either Republican or Democratic that took time to come and listen.

And so she was there.

And I think she's someone who really has

communities and focus.

So it'll be great to catch up with her and find out our first few months or first few weeks of being in offices.

So Sarah Kayesky at the bottom of the hour, state senator.

So all of that and much, much more.

We're going to try to fit in before the end of the show.

And I know it means people, late night people were making fun of this last night.

And first, I guess it is kind of funny, but it's also this is actually pretty serious stuff.

Joanne fabric.

Closing every store.

I know there's a lot of people in Wisconsin that use join fabric and it's not just fabric it's baking supplies and it's and it's Decorations and things like that and a craft anybody who crafts This is a this is a big deal because yes There are some stores that might carry some of this but join fabric.

It's been a mainstay and they're going out of business.

Yeah, they If you were looking for a specific craft

You know pieces materials, that's what I was looking for if you're looking for certain materials or certain fabrics or like you said baking supplies and things They were one of the best places to go for sure.

Yeah, so get get there quickly because

Going on a business soon.

We'll talk a little bit more about joy and fabric going on business as well And we're gonna have a what's worse for you But first of all I want to go back to the phone lines 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 and Go out to our friend LA Tom out in beautiful Los Angeles, California now LA I know you don't you have more going on in your life than just us But I was wish you would have been on yesterday because of our what's worse yesterday was what's worse New York

or Los Angeles and we're not talking about the people you understand.

It's just that there's the Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass who fired the fire chief there just doesn't seem to be taking a lot of responsibility.

And then in New York, you got Eric Adams out there who's he's a schmuck and now under Trump's control.

And so we had this debate yesterday on what's worse, LA or New York.

Would you like to weigh in?

I would like to say New York because it's much, much more congested.

And it's much more of a city where LA really is a tapestry of towns.

It is.

It's a lot of small kind of feeling of towns, you know, throughout the whole area of Los Angeles.

And New York is, honestly, it's more like San Francisco.

It's just a city and you have to go over a bridge or you have to go far away in order to get away from the city.

And I'm one of those people, you know, I like my

small town where I grew up and I think that's made my, even though my town, my city, whatever North Hollywood is, you know, probably 300,000 people, it still has, you know, neighborhood type places where you feel like you're in the small town.

That was my point.

Yeah, I've spent a lot more time in LA than I have New York City, but I've been to both.

And I was going to my point that, that if you're just going to say LA like downtown LA,

If I had to judge it on downtown and also the traffic for me in LA, if you're going places, that's what kills me.

But to your point, the tapestry of cities, I mean, I could, if I had the money, I could live in Pasadena.

I mean, I just think that area is spectacular.

I love Pasadena and it's all these, you know, I've been spending some time at Hermosa Beach and Downey, you know, West Hollywood.

I

mean, these are

just great little

Yes, they're not little I know but to your point they're communities and I think that's a beautiful part about LA, but that's not why you called go ahead

Right the reason I called is I was actually helping my mom yesterday to try to learn how to call her congressperson

You

know and give her opinion and I actually and Derek as I should be would say Derek Van Odd one is her

as her representative.

And I actually got him, he was actually in the, in the room when the call came through and he got on the phone with me.

Really?

And I have to tell you, yeah, the man is a very, very rude, rude, rude person.

Um, when I was sober, very interesting to say that because when I, when I talked to him,

First of all, Aaron was great.

Aaron is the person that takes the calls, and Aaron was good.

And then he, like, practically grabbed the phone away from Aaron and started talking to me.

And I said to him, I said, I don't want, or my mom does not want for any of the cuts to come from Medicare, Social Security, or Medicare or Medicaid.

And he was like, oh, we're not going to take anything from there, no matter what.

And I said, OK, I said, I don't want tax cuts going to the U lines.

And I don't want them going to the Bradley Foundation.

I don't want them going to Widow Hendricks.

He was like, why do you call her Widow Hendricks?

They got it all defensive with me.

I said, well, she is a widow and relaxing Hendricks.

That's a lot.

If you were, oh, that is more, the most, the sweetest, respectful thing I've ever heard a person say, I said, sir, I'm your, I am your constituent.

My mother is your constituent.

You need to learn that you actually work for us.

We don't work for you.

And he cursed at me on the, on the phone.

I can't remember what he said, what if a bull asked or what it was.

But he said, if you think we're going to cut something there, then I'll buy you a beer.

And then I said, well, what I understand, you need to slow down on your drinking.

And you need to maybe not be buying people beers or talking about beers when you're working.

I said, and also please be nicer to your staffers.

And I told the staff or Aaron, I said, Aaron, what you ought to do is you ought to run for political office.

And you're probably doing most of his work anyway.

But yeah, I thought that was really, really quite interesting.

I'm very astonished.

I actually got him.

But two, what a rude, rude person and what a, um, unbuttoned.

I asked him, I'm saying, when is the town hall meeting going to be?

And he says he's going to have one, I guess in March.

Um, when he gets back or whatever.

And I said, okay, well, you know, my mom wants to be put on the mail and they're on the list to let her know where it is.

And my sister's also live in that area.

Um, want to all know, you know, when it is, and he was so like I said, it was, it was rude.

I appreciate you sharing this story.

We got to run by really, really appreciate LA calling in.

That's interesting.

I have a firsthand account.

Of course, Derek Van Oorten has been, uh, you know, it does not deny.

that he verbally attacked and assaulted a teenage librarian in prayer machine where he lives.

He has also not denied that he verbally attacked and assaulted teenage pages in the US Capitol after drinking too much out there.

So this guy has a history of being rude to people.

That's unfortunate.

Appreciate the call.

855-752-4842.

Let's go to Gary in Sussex.

Gary, a couple of minutes before the break.

Let's see.

Okay.

Well, first of all, I wanted to call up and I thought that was a little bit.

out of line with matt yesterday our friend our friend

our friend like matt flinn was on this show yeah

yeah matt okay now i i took offense to the fact that when he when he said he thinks that you know republicans or whatever yeah took offense to that but what i do want to i want to say and i want to apologize because normally i'm pretty calm about things you know but i do want to apologize for that well that's nice thank you as far but as far as um you know do you know donnie deutch's

i do not

Okay, well, he's not CNN.

Okay.

He's very popular.

Okay.

He said last night that I'm not quitting the Democratic Party and I'm gonna become an independent because the Democrats have just gone so far now for you and your listeners if you guys like me I listen to all I listen to everybody if I listen to only the view

Like my wife does, I have to deprogram my wife every single night when I come home because she attacks me and oh, what about Donald Trump?

I said, where'd you get it?

Well, it's on the view.

Now,

this is very interesting.

I want to be appropriate.

I don't want to go too far down this road.

But I think it's very interesting.

Couples that your wife is obviously an avid Democrat, your avid Republican.

Does does that affect your relationship?

This is a thing.

My wife is a Republican, but when she watches the view, she gets tainted all the time, and she says, all this other sort of stuff.

So I have to bring her back to the... Wait a minute.

Tainted?

Gary, tainted?

She just hears an opposite view.

That's not tainted.

That's being smart.

Right, but she doesn't watch it.

She doesn't watch Newsmax or she doesn't watch Fox.

She really doesn't watch it, but she listens to the view and she votes

Republican.

I'm telling you, Todd, it's terrible.

All right, I gotta run, Gary, but thanks for the apology to Matt.

I appreciate that.

Back with more on the other side.

Cindy's waiting on the line, and we'll get to it once worse as well.

The outdoor edition is the All Balls Show on Civic

Media.

Ever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the town of all show on the civic media radio network, having some fun unexpected fun.

That's the part.

That's the part about this show.

I love two unexpected calls.

Now, Gary's phone call was very, very interesting because well, they both were LA Tom and talk to Derek Van Orton Ward.

Right.

The only person that I know so far.

Who's actually talked to Congressman van Orden personally on the phone as a as a constituent so that's very interesting And then we add Gary from success calling in and revealing that that his wife, you know to use gets all ginned up by by the women on the view And then he has to come home and have these have these you know marital political spats

One of our one of our textures on the text line says, sounds like Gary's wife might be one of those secret Republican wives voting for Kamala Harris.

I don't know.

I mean, you don't know, right?

I mean, you don't you don't know who people people go on the in the voting booth.

But but also it's very kind of Gary to call and, you know, he and Matt Flynn, you know, got into a little debate on the show on Monday and Gary calling in to apologize.

So see it right there.

We can all get along.

We can all we can all get along because I appreciate that eight five five seven five two four eight four two.

Let's go to Cindy listening in Appleton hometown of Harry Houdini.

Cindy, thanks for calling and listening.

What say you?

Well, I'm just wondering who's going to do the job loss report for the first hundred days because I don't know if we can trust anything that comes out of that administration, but I'll be curious to see how many jobs.

actually were lost in his first great 100 days.

That's a great point that we have not been talking about, Cindy.

I appreciate it, right?

I mean, usually presidents brag over Elizabeth Job creation, my first 100 days.

There is going to be a net job loss like nobody's business, like nobody's business in this first 100 days under Donald Trump.

thousands and thousands of people be laid off by Trump.

Lots of federal workers, by the way.

Or a lot of them aren't getting letters.

It's called like the fork in the road where it's like, you should probably go to the private sector.

If you don't, there's no guarantee you can still work here at the VA hospital or whatever.

And so effectively getting laid off just might be delayed a few months.

Right.

I'm gonna send, I'm gonna send, this is a radio production in real time, Zomers.

I'm sending you a cut, I forgot to do this.

This is good ol' Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Trump, Trump Acolyte, Republican member of Congress, Ultra Maga.

Now think about this.

James Carville was talking about this on CNN with Anderson Cooper last night.

James Carville, longtime Democratic strategist, saying his dad,

was a proud postmaster for years.

Think about how many people in our communities, our friends, our families, our neighbors are post-post people, I guess you have to say, but postal workers, carriers, letter carriers, federal employees.

Think about all the people that worked at our Veterans Affairs Hospitals, Veterans Affairs Nursing Homes at King.

All the people that take care of our veterans, federal employees.

Think about our agriculture workers, USDA.

federal employees.

They are part of what makes Wisconsin great.

Here's what Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump's lieutenant, thinks

of all the people I just mentioned.

You can protest all you want outside of departments of this government.

You can protest all you want, but the American people disagree with you.

You're protecting the bureaucracy.

The bureaucracy is not a business.

Those are not real jobs producing federal revenue.

By the way, they're consuming taxpayer dollars.

Those jobs are paid for by the American tax people who work real jobs, earn real income, pay federal taxes, and then pay these federal employees.

Federal employees do not deserve their jobs.

Federal employees do not deserve their paychecks.

And these are jobs that can be fired at will.

Federal employees do not deserve their jobs.

That's what Donald Trump and MAGA believe if you are a federal worker.

Tom L.A.

Tom on YouTube says, where's her income coming from?

That's a good point.

Great point, L.A.

She is a federal employee, by the way.

Cadillac Healthcare being paid for by you and I, the American taxpayer.

855-752-4842.

Let's go to Mark, give a prayer to Zach.

Mark, if you can make it quick, please.

What's eight?

Yeah, well, maybe Gary's one that needs to be programmed.

I was away from the radio for a bit, but I don't know if you've seen the

little Trump turning gas into this little paradise where

oh yeah

all kinds of old statues to Donald Trump I mean it's just disgusting

well that's but I'm glad you brought that I'm glad you brought this up mark because I want to get this in I don't want to spend a lot of time on it all the people and I saw this firsthand in Madison all the people that had encampments down at the University of Wisconsin Madison

pro-Palestinian, pro-Gaza.

You have people putting anti-Semitic graffiti on the parking garage where I parked my truck in every day.

All these people having to say that I can't vote for the lesser of two evils because Kamala Harris is as bad as Donald Trump.

He won't be that bad.

So we're going to stay home.

All of us in Dearborn, Michigan, we're going to stay home and send Kamala Harris the Democrats a message.

Well, how's that working out for you?

because those folks are as guilty as the mug of voters in making sure that this happened what we have right now.

And Donald Trump put out a sick video to Mark's point talking, literally he's calling it Trump Gaza.

Trump Gaza.

So how did that work out?

All you great folks on the progressive left who wanted to stay home, take a powder, not so hot.

Mark, are you still here?

Do we have time to bring Mark?

But Mark, do you agree or disagree?

I agree.

I mean, it's just ridiculous that they shouldn't own better.

And I'm just sad that it's just disgusting.

I mean, the whole golden calf thing that they've got going with him, it's just sad.

And he put this on his true social.

Trump did.

Yes, he did.

Yes, he did.

I mean, it

was fake when I first saw it, but he actually did it.

No, he actually did it.

It's a real deal.

Appreciate the call, Mark.

Come on back.

More phone calls.

Phones are lit up.

We'll take your phone calls in order that they're received.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

We will get to what's worse, eventually, here.

And we have, actually, you know what?

We have Sarah Kayasky.

State Senator Sarah Kayasky is here.

We got into the phone call.

So stay with us.

Sarah Kayasky is on the other side.

So we have so much fun.

We get distracted a little bit.

But come on back.

More on the other side.

It's the title of our show, the Civic Media Ready Network.

and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the Fatal Ball Show on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Glad to have you along.

34 minutes now past the hour of one o'clock on this Wednesday, February 26th, 2025.

Get a few texts in that may be having audio troubles on some of our platforms, but I believe that we're on that.

And Zommer is that our great engineering team is aware of it.

We're correcting it.

It has not been corrected already.

Very good.

Fantastic, guys.

We always appreciate the great work of Zommer and all of our engineers.

Thanks for the great discussion.

last uh last segment as well we'll try to sneak into what's worse before the end of the of the show here but right now we are joined by new freshman state senator from the

14th district here in the state of Wisconsin, Sarah Kieske, who is from the, we'll call the South Central part of the state, but reaches over into the old neighborhood there in Richland County.

And she was here in person for those watching on stream, YouTube, Facebook, whatnot.

It's great, Senator, to have you here in person and kind of one of the advantages we have only being a block away from the Capitol.

Yeah, it's a really easy little commute I have.

Well, welcome to the show.

We met last, last summer, fall, when you were

campaigning down in Muscadio, Wisconsin for those that don't know that's just south of Richland County.

And there was a listening session there and it was regarding the closure of the two-year campus at Richland Center.

And you were there along with now former Representative Katrina Shanklin and Senator Royce as well.

And I was so impressed that even though you weren't a senator yet, you took time out of your campaign to listen.

and then to give your viewpoint.

And I think regardless of partisan politics, that so many people in Wisconsin are just looking for an elected official who will legit listen and then hear what they're saying.

Is that what you attribute to part of your, you knocked off an incumbent, which is not an easy thing to do.

Do you attribute your listening skills to part of your

victory?

I guess you would have to ask the voters right fully but I think people did experience from me a sense that I really

do care and I do really want to hear from them.

Just who I am as a person that has always worked in the service field of being a counselor, my greatest skill probably is listening and trying to hear the heart of what is going on for somebody.

And so I brought that to the table just because that's who I am.

And so I think it is

As somebody that wants to be in service to people, that skill I think is a little bit underrepresented and much needed.

So I think people appreciated it a lot and then hopefully that was one of the reasons.

Your district, the 14th, I call it an eclectic district.

Maybe that's not the right word, but it stretches from basically the east side of Madison and then north kind of along the interstate.

And then encompasses goes west into, you know, parts of Salk County into my home county of Richland County in southwest Wisconsin.

You're originally from Lodi.

Is that where you grew up

at?

No, I grew up in a small town called Kashton, Wisconsin.

Yeah.

No, exactly where Kashton is.

Oh,

really?

Yeah.

So, you know, when I grew up, it was about 850 or so as the population.

Now, I think it might be a thousand.

So a really small town in Monroe County.

And so, but I've lived in Lodi now since 2017.

Wow.

Yeah.

No, Cashion, for those who don't know, just North Richland County, kind of south of the cross, and Organic Valley Dairy has expanded there, and it's a huge part of their economy out there in Cashion.

So you live in a Lodi.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to run for the state Senate.

Yeah, so my background is, like I said, I grew up on a dairy farm.

And so I was really deeply entrenched in living in small rural Wisconsin.

And all that entails, right?

That means you know the neighbors, you know the business of the neighbors, you also help the neighbors when things are going wrong.

You grow up in a small rural school, which is really the bedrock then of that community.

I went off to study.

I have a master's degree.

in counseling psychology, and I've worked for 25 years doing counseling services for individuals, couples, and families.

And that's just been my passion for all these years.

I've just loved my work.

But with the changes in the political landscape, I became more concerned about the world I was leaving my children and bringing our children into and became increasingly more active.

in just the political realm and wanting to do my part.

And that transitioned into starting a nonprofit when COVID hit our small community, because it really seemed to divide us in a way that was so unfortunate, both because I think...

We all were choosing to live there because we care about that small connected piece that we were seeking in that rural lifestyle.

But with the changes and the pools of political division, there's just so much rancor.

And I was then seeing where I brought my children, where I was raising them, it became kind of a hostile environment.

And I just felt so compelled to just do whatever I could.

As a mental health provider, that meant

Well, how do you help people feel better?

How do you help people care about each other?

So it was really just this idea of then focusing on how do we work together?

How do we uplift our environment?

It was called Lift Load.

I was really coming together in service of one another.

And from that, I...

inadvertently just got on the radar of people that said, hey, Sarah, will you do more?

Because we like what you stand for.

We like what you're trying to do, your mission of service.

And so initially I was asked to run in an unwinnable assembly district.

And I said, well, why would I

ever do that?

Well, good for you then, because you know how hard it is to run.

You know, and so then it's just a passion project, really.

what I was willing to do.

Again, I was so concerned about what was happening on the national level, local level.

And so I said, yeah, I will do that because, again, that's my way to serve.

So I was doing that.

And then the new maps came about.

And then I thought, OK, good.

Now people do want to run in that district because it became more winnable, possibly.

And after a lot of people had conversations that I didn't know anything about, I was asked, would I be willing to instead move to run for the Senate?

And I think that really just came from people.

seeing who I was seeing what I stood for and and getting behind that and I really honestly is really kind of this unbelievable journey that I didn't expect and now like a you know about a year later um here I am and it's amazing and I would have never predicted it but it feels absolutely like the right place to be.

Well, I just appreciate you sharing your story.

Well, we all have a journey.

And from what I've seen, this is a very grassroots thing.

And you're an authentic person, you're genuine, you are who you are.

And I think that really connects with people.

We're talking to State Senator Sarah Kieske, a new freshman here, Democrat from, well, we'll call it Southwest, South Central Wisconsin.

One of your first bills here, your co-sponsoring Senator, is something that...

I didn't even really know it needed until I kind of dug into this is called right to repair.

Tell folks why this is needed and why you're a co-sponsor.

So yeah, so it's something that I did here on the campaign trail and I too was quite fascinated by it because when I was growing up again on the small farm that we had my dad just repaired his own equipment That's what he did, you know every small engine he you know kind of and he Jimmy rigged a lot of things.

He was like the natural MacGyver and so So to me when I learned about this, I didn't even quite know what what do you mean you can't

fix your own equipment and really the tools and some of the products that are needed for fixing are now limited to just these dealerships that have sold you the equipment and so you can't do your own repairs.

Um, and so it's cost prohibitive oftentimes to either go through that dealership only because it's a bit of a monopoly, right?

It limits your choices.

Um, and so, and, and you weren't able, um, initially now it's gotten better to have access to those products.

Let's say it's a computer program oftentimes now because these equipment, this machinery now is this so advanced, but in order to even get access to that, it's

thousands of dollars and you've already paid into a piece of equipment that was hundreds of thousands of dollars right and so it's it's but if you did work on your own equipment or if you had you know a local trusted repair person that could equate with your warranty is no longer good right and so you you're kind of stuck

And so this is just an opportunity to say, okay, people should have the right to have access at a fair cost, a fair cost.

Not saying that they can't make some profit.

I mean, I'm not anti-business, right?

But I am for competition.

And so in order to be able to then be able to get access to this and or have a independent,

mechanic have access to this so that they can work on your equipment.

So you can have somebody that you know and have a relationship with or is closer to you or is more available at a desperate time of need because when do tractors maybe break down?

When you need them the most.

When you need them the most,

right?

And when are they new to the most?

It's during harvesting, right?

Or planting.

Who else is harvesting?

everybody.

And so if it has happening, then it might be a epidemic of time.

And if you have a limited resource of people that can service your equipment, you might be waiting.

and you can't wait when you're a farmer.

You need to be able to have that fixed expeditiously.

So that's kind of the concept behind it and why it's so necessary.

Yeah, my granddad was a farmer in Richland County, dairy farmer for 40 years, and he had a Minneapolis boolean, and then he was one of the first people, a doigt that was called at the time, one of the first German tractors.

He worked on it all the time, and I think he would look at this bill that you are cosponsoring, the right to repair bill, and say, well, this is just common horse sense, as he used to say.

And we're talking to State Senator Sarah Kieske here on her new co-sponsorship of the Bill Right to Repair Bill.

I think this would surprise a lot of people.

I know State Senator Paff was on Jane McNair's show yesterday, the day before, talking about this as well, that there are maybe apps available, because so much of this, like our cars now are computerized, but again, that costs thousands or hundreds of dollars just to download the app.

And really, I would think that Ag...

people, agriculture producers, owners of this equipment would say, look, it doesn't matter what party you're from, we should all be able to work on our own equipment without costing thousands of dollars.

Have you talked to any Republicans so far in the legislature?

Have you gotten a sense that there might be a bipartisan approach to a very common sense bill?

I'm going to remain hopeful.

I like that.

Yes, I'm going to remain hopeful.

let's just wait and see.

I'm gonna cross my fingers because like you're saying, farmers come in red and blue or purple or indifferent, right?

And so I don't think this should be a partisan issue.

I think it's just understanding, this is helping the cornerstone of our economy, right?

We're helping those farmers help them with their costs, which we know we need to do more to make sure that costs aren't just so out.

going out of out of reason and we also want to be able to have maybe small businesses benefit so you know some mechanic maybe could blossom a new business in a small area where he knows he could have

agricultural equipment he could work on, and then it's another opportunity for jobs.

We're coming up about a minute and a half.

The time always goes quickly.

You have other appointments to go to, so we don't want to monopolize your time.

But Senator, is there anything I haven't asked you about your co-sponsorship of the right to repair bill that you believe that listeners should know?

Nothing in particular, I think.

Just understanding, again, it's kind of simple, if you will.

Yeah, common

sense.

Yeah, I don't know that we need to make it that.

that complex, right?

Do people believe that others should have the right to either repair their own equipment at a fair, reasonable cost, have access to the things they need and or be able to have it with an independent repair person?

That just makes good sense.

That seems like it helps with, again, access and keeping something from being too monopolized in a way that I don't think is honoring

competition in the way that we really do need to in the business field.

Yeah, I agree.

Minute left here.

Give us a sense.

You haven't really had a proper floor session yet other than your inauguration, but what's it like just to be in the building?

Oh my gosh, it's like it's it's magnificent and it's it's so hard to explain what it's like as a new person because you know I walk in and you know it's it's magnificent but then like the next day you'll notice something else about you know like maybe it's the doorknob and how how how intricately designed it is right or you look at the the panels on the walls in this new committee room I mean it's just ornate it's

And then you also, you look at, oh, sorry, the pictures of the people that have been there.

It's great.

You're

just like, it is such a historical moment.

It is such a privilege.

It's

a privilege to have you on the show.

We'll have you back soon at State Center, Sarah Kieske.

Thank you so much.

Oh my gosh, it's just my pleasure.

Thank you,

Todd.

Our pleasure.

Come on back.

We'll wrap things up after this on Civic Media.

Welcome back to the Taliban show on the civic media radio network.

It is now nine before the hour of two o'clock on the top of the hour.