Upholding The Law In Wisconsin (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 Syracuse Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albault along with the fantastic Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

It is six past the hour of 12 noon on this Monday, March 31st, 2025, back to work, back to school.

Glad to have you along from our world headquarters here in downtown Madison, Wisconsin.

Mr. Zommers, happy Monday to you.

How the heck was your weekend?

Happy Monday.

I had a good weekend.

I stayed home.

Yeah, I think I just stayed home.

But it was

good.

I needed some time to just relax.

Good for you.

Good for you.

I got out, took a little walk, my friend Kristen, my former colleague at LL Bean, both outdoors people.

And we walked from downtown all the way out to picnic point.

It was a lovely Saturday morning, had some coffee, chilled out.

And then I worked on the show a little bit, watched some basketball.

Many of us, our brackets are busted.

Uh, the Michigan State was my team to win it all.

They're gone.

And for the first time, I think in like 15 years, all four number one seeds in the tournament are in the final four next weekend.

So congratulations to all of them who won.

Let's see if I can do it off the top of my head.

Auburn and Florida, Duke and Houston are all in the final four next weekend.

So looking forward to that.

Also Daniel Freitag, big recruit for Greg Guard, the Wisconsin Badgers a year ago from Minnesota, forced to recruit announced this morning he is in the transfer portal, in the portal.

Not a surprise to me, nor is it unexpected, he just did not get a lot of time this year.

The guard position or the point guard position was going to open up for him this year, but

apparently is assigned to go elsewhere.

Badgers appear to be building now around John Blackwell and Nolan Winter, who are kind of the key people have already said for the Badgers, they'll come back.

So we'll see this basketball news this morning.

We'll talk Milwaukee Brewers for those watching on the stream on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.

I have my Milwaukee Brewers, Bob Uker Jersey on today, my Milwaukee Brewers mug in my hot little hands.

And the Brewers kick off the home opener this afternoon.

right here on the Civic Media Radio Network 105 the tip-off tip-off same used to basketball 105 the first pitch you can hear the game over the air terrestrial radio as it's called on Richland Center Amory now in Hayward as well and Racine and Kenosha

I get them all.

Oh, and Oshkosh as well.

Yes, I believe so.

So that's everything.

So those stations will cut away here very shortly to to go to that pregame show.

Our show will remain on the stream on the Civic Media app and also well over the air over the non brewer stations as well and stick around.

Big, big show for you today coming up here a little bit in this hour at 20 after.

Judge Susan Crawford, candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Of course, the election is tomorrow.

Early voting is over, so if you missed that, I have my I voted sticker on.

Zommer's got, we voted together just like we told you we would after a Friday show right down the street here at the Madison Central Library for early voting in Madison.

Early voting over, so if you have not voted yet, you're gonna have to do so starting at 7 a.m.

tomorrow.

And it goes until eight o'clock tomorrow night.

Remember in Wisconsin, you can register at the polls on election day.

Lots of important things, not the least amongst them, the Supreme Court race, the superintendent for department of public instruction, statewide referenda, and local races as well.

So be a voter.

If you have not voted, vote tomorrow.

Of course, Civic Media will have complete coverage starting at eight o'clock tomorrow night.

Our friend and colleague political editor Dan Schaefer will be here on the anchor desk with me and Zomers in the booth as always in our great fleet of Civic Media news folks around the state bringing you a reaction from across the state at the many watch parties by the candidates as well.

So Susan Crawford will be here today at 12.20.

And then also at 106.

Big zombers.

Rarely do we get this kind of a guess all in one day.

Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez on the show at 106 today.

She will be in as well talking about the spring election and what's going on in terms of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor's office as they approach the new biennial budget with the state legislature.

And then at 130 if you're feeling out of sorts for a Monday.

Discombobulated if you will.

Have we got a cure for you?

The founder of the Reconpopulation area, our chief political editor here at Civic Media, our very own Dan Schaefer, will be sitting here right next to me in the studio today to talk about this referenda coming up, which has gotten not a lot of play.

We'll explain why, why it's probably going to pass, why I at least believe it shouldn't, and we're gonna do a crossover today.

That means there's no dressing involved, by the way, in a crossover show.

But there is.

What you do is you start the show, you start a block on one person's show, and you end it on the next.

So Dan Schaefer is going to be here for our show, the last half hour at 1.30.

And then Dan, the next hour at 2 o'clock, he's filling in for John and Gordy in the afternoon, who's filling in for Maggie Dawn, who's on vacation.

but she'll be back tomorrow.

Oh, will she?

All right, very good.

So anyway, Schaefer is filling in for John Gordy, who's filling in for Maggie, and I'll be on that show.

And let me tell you, Dan Schaefer has a star-studded group of people coming up at the 2 o'clock show, with Ari Berman, is amongst Angela Lange, Ben Wickler, and then you got me.

So I'm just there to make cocktails for people.

You've

got a stocked four hours of radio

today.

It's a stocked four hours of radio, you understand.

And also, in amongst that, if that wasn't enough, you say, Todd, one, two, three, we want more.

Just like a UW hockey game, we've got more for you.

In this show today, we are going to wedge in and sneak in a couple of giveaways.

And in the one o'clock hour, our break into spring text-to-win contest giveaway, today, we're giving away

a vacation, an overnight stay, as they say, at the beautiful Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin-Dells.

So we'll give that away in the one o'clock hour.

And also, in this hour, we are going to give away two tickets for this Friday night for the new movie...

Well, not so new anymore, but still a great movie, the documentary called Just A Bit Outside.

The story of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers.

Of course, it debuted in Waukesha last year.

It has gotten a 100% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It is now out on DVD and on Friday.

Very excited about this.

On Friday sitting here in this studio at this desk Kelly Call and Sean Hannish the producers and director respectively of the movie just a bit outside The show is sold out as far as I saw last time the theaters sold out for Friday But and this is very important because people get salty.

Well, why did Todd get tickets for his show?

I bought the tickets myself

There is no civic media money involved.

This is right out of Todd's bank account because I love you, the viewing and listening audience.

It's my little gift to you.

So stay tuned this hour.

And Zomers, have we got that clip of Yooker singing?

Now listen to this because listen to what I'm gonna play right now.

Here we go.

Here's Yooker from a few years back singing, Take Me Out to the Ballpark during the seventh inning stretch down at Wrigley Field at the Cubs game.

All

right.

So not now, not now, but be listening this hour.

And the next time you hear this being played, the next time we play it, all right, turn it off, Savers.

Next time we play it, we're going to take caller number eight, not now, not now, we'll tell you when.

But when you hear that music or that cut of Euker singing, take me out to the ball game again, caller number eight will win two tickets to just a bit outside the story of the Milwaukee Brewers movie in Madison is being shown at the UW Madison campus as part of the Wisconsin Film Festival.

So make sure you could go Friday Evening Zomers.

If you could look it up, please.

I believe it's 7 p.m.

on Friday night.

Make sure you could go if you call in and win.

And we will, as Zomers and I are going, we'll see you there.

Why number eight?

Well, I'll turn it around.

Here you go for those watching on the, on the old stream.

It is Bob

Euker's original number.

There it is.

That's a Bob Euker's number when he was a player.

So that'll be the eight.

So when you hear Euker singing again, be caller number eight.

Not now, but when you hear the music played, Zomers.

And it looks like it is 530.

530 okay.

I'm good.

See all right good.

Good.

We mentioned that I forgot so five make sure it's early So make sure you can get off work because we don't want to give these tickets away and then not have you show up I'll be and we'll have your name and email and phone numbers.

I'll be very upset So make sure you can be there 530 on Friday when you hear us play that later this hour You curse saying take me out to the ballgame be caller number eight.

I'll give you the number But don't call now the number to call later

is 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

Don't call now for those tickets, but only the next time you hear the Milwaukee Brewers or take me off to the ballgame being sung by Bob Euker.

All right, let's get to this quickly.

Gonna have Judge Susan Crawford on next.

Big race coming up tomorrow, April 1st for the Supreme Court race.

In Green Bay last night, pseudo-essential president in the United States, Elon Musk was in Green Bay giving away $2 million plus to people who paid $100 to sign this petition for allegedly being against what he calls activist judges, unquote.

And if you don't think there is an agenda,

Listen to Elon Musk in his own words when some yahoo last night in Green Bay at this thing talks about ending the Federal Reserve.

Here it is last night

America for the idiots you have to deal with for what you're doing for us to improve our country Second of all my question is what is your opinion on the Federal Reserve?

And do you have any intentions of doing anything with them and the

fit?

Yeah

I don't know I always wanted to say that you know But but I mean I think there's like 20,000 people at work at the Fed seems pretty high It's like there's a lot of people who work the Fed honest things like why do we have so many people at this at the Fed and what do they do and You know sometimes I wonder which one would win I'm you know the federal for interest rates the Federal the board of the Federal Reserve or a magic eight ball And I'm like I think the magic eight ball my win, you know

So then I'm like, well, Magic April is a lot cheaper.

So, you know, it's like you shake it, it says, check back again later.

I'm like, OK.

Same thing.

All right, let's get off there, Zabers, for now.

But there are his own words, Elon Musk last night in Green Bay campaigning for Brad Shibble, saying that he wants to end the Federal Reserve.

If you don't know what that is,

It's the central banking system for the United States.

Since he, why not just use a magic eight, eight ball to make those decisions?

You don't think there's a lot of the line for tomorrow?

Come on back.

We'll be talking to Judge Susan Crawford, one of the two candidates on the ballot tomorrow.

It's the title ball show for Monday on the Civic Media Ready

Network.

truth or ever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the town of all show on the civic media.

We're glad to have you along.

21 now past the hour of 12 noon on this Monday, March 31st, 2025.

Big election tomorrow, no joking, no fooling, even though it is April 1st tomorrow.

Big election tomorrow, lots of things on the ballot.

I would argue probably the most important consequential is that for Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Joining us now via phone, we appreciate our taking the time to do so, is one of the two candidates for Wisconsin State Supreme Court.

Judge Susan Crawford joins us via the phone.

Judge, good afternoon, and thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule.

Yeah, hey Todd, happy to be here.

Right up front because we don't pull punches on this show.

I want to be clear that I'm a former Republican I no longer belong to any particular party, but I have talked on this show and you can't see it because you're on phone and I'm on stream yard here and I Zomers and I both have our I voted stickers who went and voted early on Friday want to be clear with everybody I did vote for you on Friday We have also extended on this network and on this show the opportunity for Judge Shibble Brad Shibble to be on this

program as well.

Oddly enough, he has not taken this up on that, but I want to be clearly the groundwork up front, but we're glad to have you along.

Yesterday in Green Bay, Elon Musk was there giving away two million dollar checks and campaigning for your opponent, Brad Shimmel.

We played the cut right before he came on, Judge, of Elon Musk telling somebody from the audience a question that he was in favor of ending the Federal Reserve.

and seemingly only half jokingly saying he thought a magic eight ball could do the same thing.

For those that don't know, the Federal Reserve is the central banking system of the United States.

To my knowledge, there's nobody campaigning on your behalf that's suggesting that we end the banking system of the United States.

Is that correct?

I believe that's true.

What a weird thing for him to say at that event, but he's I guess he's had a lot of weird things.

I heard he also talked about the matrix for a while and Using monkeys to cure blindness or something.

Yeah, it's beyond bizarre but unfortunately there are very serious consequences to the election tomorrow and I bring this up because and again, I'm not a member of any political party and as a former

You know, political operative, I'll say, ran a lot of campaigns.

I'm pretty tough on people on both sides.

And I have to tell you that watching the debate with Brad Schimmel, I thought you did a stellar job.

I thought you were the alpha candidate.

You answered you answer the question directly.

And I want you to talk about this right now on this show because I think this is one of the things that people should vote on tomorrow is who is going to interpret the law as it's written and call balls and strikes because my former party used to be in favor of that.

A question was asked by the moderators at your debate of give us an example of when you made a decision from the bench.

that some of your supporters might not have liked.

If you can give us an encapsulated version of that, I think this is instructive.

Yeah,

yeah.

So I talked about a case in which there was a legal challenge to some legislation that was enacted after Brad Schimel and Scott Walker both lost reelection in 2018 in that lame duck period.

So the legislature, you know, very

strong majority Republican legislature stripped the Attorney General's office of most of its powers, or much of its powers.

And there were legal challenges brought.

One of the cases involved was in my court, and it had to do with the Attorney General's ability to settle cases.

And the legislature said, nope, we now have the authority to settle cases.

You've got to bring it to us.

So, you know, just from a policy perspective, I thought that was a pretty raw deal that this authority that the Attorney General had had for literally decades suddenly was too much since the office was switching hands and there was a Democrat coming into the Attorney General's office.

But I upheld most of that law when it was in my courtroom.

There was a piece of it that I said in certain categories of cases.

This is a separation of powers problem.

But for the rest of it, I said the legislature has the authority to do this,

even though

I don't like it.

So that's what I do as it's written.

I thought that was a great example of the kind of judge you've been, and one of my former bosses used to say, Todd, if you want an indication of someone's future performance, look at their past performance.

And when it came down to it, you basically, I'll put it in layman's terms, you supported Robin Vossen and the Republicans in the legislature over Tony Evers in a lot of that decision.

Even though you might not have liked it, you interpreted the law the way you thought it should be.

Now I'm having my hot little hands here, a door knocker that was left on my dad and stepmom's door in Shawna, Wisconsin, has Donald Trump's

picture on it says President Trump is winning for our country and it says liberal judges across the country are trying to stop him vote April 1st for your it says your opponent my point is here's a guy who is campaigning to uphold Donald Trump's agenda again compare that to you I don't know the I don't I haven't seen anywhere where you're trying to support Joe Biden Kamel Harris or anyone else's agenda

Right, that is absolutely true.

It's not the role of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court should not be promoting anyone's partisan agenda.

And unfortunately, Brad Stimmel has been saying that he wants to be part of Trump's support network on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

He misunderstands the role of the courts.

Another indication that people want to know voting tomorrow for a Supreme Court justice.

Over the weekend, we don't have time, we get into it, but essentially,

Elon Musk gave away two million dollars.

Josh Call, Democratic Attorney General of Wisconsin, went to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to try to stop it.

That case originally went to your court, random assignment.

You could have ruled on it, but you recused yourself.

That's right.

That's right.

It's you know the case was just too close to home I'm very you know I'm a candidate in the race Elon Musk clearly was coming to the state to campaign for Brad Schimel even though Brad Schimel won't admit that and he was giving away those millions of dollars in an effort to try to buy votes for Brad Schimel I felt that was not a case that I could be fair and impartial

is sitting on.

So I did immediately recuse myself.

One minute left, Judge Crawford.

I'll give it to you.

Give us your one minute pitch to voters in Wisconsin for tomorrow.

All right, thank you.

So I'm running to interpret our laws and Constitution to protect the rights of Wisconsinites.

That is what they're for.

I'm not going to be pushing any kind of a partisan agenda.

That's the other guy.

That's what he wants to do.

So if you want to make sure we still have a Supreme Court in Wisconsin on Tuesday nights and not an arm of the Trump administration, I ask people to vote for me.

I really appreciate it.

About 30 or 20 seconds left.

Just really quickly.

How's your family doing?

I thought too fast.

No, it's fine.

I mean, how's your family doing?

These things are never fun for family people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Everybody is holding up.

This has been a tough race.

And I will say that my mother in particular is really ready for those ugly abs to be done.

That's been tough on her.

I can only imagine.

Thank you so much for taking the time.

Be safe on the campaign trail.

Good luck tomorrow.

And thank you for spending time with us, Judge Susan Crawford.

Yeah.

truth wherever if they lead and having fun doing it welcome back the title ball show on the civic media ready network 34 now past the hour of 12 noon on Monday March 31st 2025 Zomers on the board glad to have you along with us here to kick off your week big day for those watching on the stream Facebook Twitter YouTube wherever you find us have my Milwaukee Brewers Jersey on today the Milwaukee Brewers mug in my hot hands

Watch you on the screen here next to us.

Locally, Channel 3 is showing the brewers today, so they're doing a big pregame show down there.

You can hear the pregame right now on select civic media stations over the air.

We cannot stream the brewers because of major league baseball, but you can hear it over the air as they call it terrestrial radio, i.e.

on your car, your truck, your van, your kitchen radio, your bathroom radio.

Wherever you might have a radio, you can hear the Brewers right now in the pregame show in Richland Center, in Amory, now in Hayward as well.

Homo musky what are there musky?

What's that now?

I forget musky?

What I want to think is the FM station up there.

I think so that we now own but it's not it's not a musky It's on the buzz of the north WBZ H. That's where you can find the Brewers over the air up there also on racing Kenosha and Ash gosh by gosh WISS over the air on all those stations where the Brewers will air this year and We'll be giving away tickets throughout the year to the some of those games as well and this hour

At some point this hour, when you hear Bob Euker, the late great Bob Euker singing, take me out to the ball game from a time down in Chicago and you hear that next this hour, be caller number eight.

Don't call now, but I'll give you the number 855-752.

4842-855-752-4842.

Don't call now, but when you hear Bob Euker singing, take me out to the ballpark, be caller number eight then.

And if you are, you will join Zomeras and I and a cast of thousands or at least hundreds this Friday at 5.30 for a screening.

of just a bit outside the story that 1982 Milwaukee Brewers at the University of Wisconsin Madison campus as part of the Wisconsin Film Festival.

So make sure that you can attend Friday night at 5.30 in Madison, giving two tickets away next time you hear Eukersing take me out to the ballgame.

Many thanks to Judge Susan Crawford for taking time on the campaign trail to come on the show.

I think she's done a great job, really.

I mean, the campaign, you know, it's first time statewide race campaign, maybe got off to a little bit of a slow start, but I think she's done gangbusters since then and really been the most honest candidate in my opinion.

And I forgot to mention last segment, when I was asking her about that one debate she had with Brad Schimmel, she answered all the questions.

When they asked her, you don't give an example of a decision from the bench where your supporters might not have agreed with you.

And she gave that answer that, hey, when Evers got elected and beat Scott Walker, the Republicans in the legislature changed a bunch of the rules basically of how the governor could conduct his business.

And she didn't agree with those rules, but it came before her court and she ruled in accordance to the law against what her personal beliefs were of whether she liked it or not.

But she found by and large for the Republicans,

because as much as it was sneaky and underhanded, it wasn't, in her opinion, illegal.

I think that's the sign of exactly the type of person that we want on the bench is someone who will rule the way the law reads and not for a political agenda.

And also, she recused herself this weekend.

She could have ruled on that case against Elon Musk from her own Dane County bench.

And she said, no, no, no.

this ain't fair because it affects

me possibly.

So I'm gonna recuse myself.

I think that's another big thing.

That tells me a lot.

I mean, so does the other ruling, but that especially when it comes to her race, it shows that yes, she thinks she's the right candidate, but she's not gonna try and cheat her way in.

Yeah, absolutely.

And the important point of that first of her story during the debate, giving it an example of where she ruled.

in a way that many of our supporters would have disagreed.

They asked Brad Schimmel to do the same thing, and he took a powder, pass.

Nope, can't, geez, nothing comes to mind.

I can't think of anything.

Now, if you can't think of a time as a judge when you ruled against your political partisan base,

You might be a puppet of your political partisan base And the irony as someone who used to be a Republican that that party used to say oh we want judges who Basically are not Legislating from the bench.

They're gonna rule the way that the law is written the legislature writes the laws the governor the executive signs them or vetoes them and the Judicial branch interprets those laws

That's the kind of judge Susan Crawford has been on the bench in the circuit court.

And that to me is the best indicator of how she will be a judge on the Supreme Court.

So if you're a rule of law candidate, and by the way we didn't even get into again the fact that Brad Schimmel, he's the guy that said he thought the January 6 protestors insurrectionists

who attacked law enforcement and Capitol Police, some of whom are right here from Wisconsin, who used pepper spray on cops.

Brad Shimmel thinks that those people, in his words, not mine, quote, got a raw deal, unquote.

And is perfectly supportive of the January 6th pardons given out by Donald Trump.

Susan Crawford?

Not so much.

She thinks that the district the DC courts did their job and supports the rulings that put those people who attacked law enforcement in jail This is gonna be really close folks Everybody that I talked to you from Trigvielson to others who know the numbers who see modeling numbers who understand this stuff much better than I do Tell me that

This is within the margin of error.

It is all going to come down to turnout.

Some polls show that Brad Schimmel might be up a point going into tomorrow, but it's within the margin of error.

So it comes down to you.

And look, the weather is supposed to be getting nastier tomorrow afternoon and much of much of Wisconsin.

If you have not voted early already, like Zomers and I.

Have a plan to vote in the morning if you can Some parts of Wisconsin the weather could start getting rainy and then even icy and snowy by the time the polls closed tomorrow at 8 so get your vote in early and look I Don't I was gonna say I don't care.

I do care but regardless for this way regardless of who you vote for tomorrow vote I'm not someone telling if you don't agree with me guess what

I still want you to vote because that's your right as an American citizen.

People have fought and died for that.

Don't let them down.

Go exercise your right, regardless of who you're voting for tomorrow.

On April 1st, you can register at the polls.

Make sure you have a legal form of ID.

It cannot be expired.

That is key.

Well, I got a state ID or a driver's license or a passport.

It's expired, but that should do.

No, no, no, it won't.

You can use a US passport.

You can use a Wisconsin issued ID, a Wisconsin issued driver's license, and a military ID.

Register at the polls if you need to.

For more information, you can go to myvote.wi.gov.

Myvote.wi.gov.

to find out the polling place close to you.

Polls open at 7 a.m.

and go until 8 p.m.

If you're still in line when the polls close, stay there.

It is your legal right as long as you're in line by 8 o'clock tomorrow, you still get to vote.

But don't put it off.

Weather's gonna be dicey.

Vote in the morning, if at all possible.

855-752-4842.

Los Angeles, California.

LA Tom.

LA, thanks for calling.

What's up?

Yeah, first, um, I believe in my heart that Wisconsinites don't like cheaters and that they don't like BS.

And, um, oh, it just so happens that Brad Schimel's initials are BS, um, just like Brian Styles.

Um, so when you're going to the polls and you see that name,

It's telling you exactly who they are.

Also, which is very, very important, I think, for the country, this election is really going to show us this big money and dark money work.

And it's also going to scare if it does work and Wisconsinites don't show up, it's going to show why Republicans actually are a little bit fearful of losing their position because of

campaign contributions.

Also, it's going to show that Democrats to be afraid of the big money,

and they

may start making deals with the corporations and people like this.

So if you're a person that really and truly is against money and politics, like I said before, this is the Republicans sandbox, and we just have to play in it, unfortunately.

But we have really got to decide about money and politics.

And if one person can basically buy an election, I think that's really, really important.

So if you're a person that's against money and politics, then vote for Susan Crawford.

Thanks.

Because even though she's had to play in the sandbox, she really doesn't believe in getting money out of politics.

Thanks, Ellie.

Appreciate it.

Be safe out there today.

And very impressive, by the way, Susan Crawford.

Very impressive candidate.

But the way she's campaigned

done grassroots, can talk normally like normal person, and has stayed traditional in not aligning herself directly with, you know, any Democratic president.

I don't see any of her literature like I've got right here next to me, shimmel literature, that's aligned directly and saying he will defend Donald Trump.

That's not who Susan Crawford is.

L.A.

is right.

Vote for the rule of law vote for someone who's going to interpret the Constitution the law as it is written Susan Crawford 46 minutes now past the hour of 12 noon making headlines of the weekend yesterday and I get it Much of what's out there.

It's like is this real is this not I Want to start something we're gonna finish it.

We come back here in a couple of minutes headline Trump won't rule out

seeking a third term in the White House tells NBC News, quote, there are methods, unquote, for doing so.

President Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of seeking a third term in the White House, which is prohibited by the Constitution under the 22nd Amendment.

Saying in an exclusive interview with NBC News that there are methods for doing so and clarifying that he was, quote,

Not joking, unquote.

Trump said, quote, a lot of people want me to do it.

But I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go.

You know, it's very early in the administration, unquote.

A little bit later, he said to Kristen Welker of NBC, quote, I'm focused on the current, unquote.

Trump added in some of his most extensive comments to date about serving in the third term.

When asked whether he wanted another term, the president responded, quote, I like working, unquote.

When asked to clarify, Trump said, quote, I'm not joking.

But I'm not, you know, it's far too early to think about it, unquote.

I'm not joking.

Now look, I get distractions, but here's the thing that Trig V. Olsen has taught us.

on this show.

As he put together his seven rules for dealing with authoritarians, who has dealt with the authoritarians and gone up against them in Eastern Europe.

Authoritarians always telegraph what they're going to do.

They don't hide it.

They tell you.

And when we come back, I'm going to explain why there's already a game plan for this to happen.

It has already happened.

There is a pathway.

an example of how Trump does this.

And not to scare the bejesus out of you, but it's already underway.

This is not a red herring.

He is actually considering, and there are plans in the works for Trump to attempt an end run around to get a third term.

Come back take your phone calls as well.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the Todd all balls show right here for a Monday on the civic media Radio network

All right, let me hear you folks.

A one, a two, a three.

Take me out to the ball game.

Take me out with the crowd.

That's right.

Be

caller number eight right now to win tickets this Friday to see

just a bit outside.

I'll root.

for the Cubs.

So it's one, two, three strikes.

You're out at the old ball game.

Thank you very much.

The incomparable, the immortal Bob Uker, saying, take me out to the ball game at Wrigley Field.

Did you like how he, you know, when he got to the party, he goes, I'll root, root, root for the brewers.

You do the same for the cubs.

I mean, it was, and he got a lot of heat when he did that.

A lot of Chicago media said, oh, that was disrespectful to Harry Carey.

First, for saying brewers when you should have said cubs.

And you could have said, look, I knew Harry Carey.

Harry would have thought it was funny.

And I think he's right.

I think he's absolutely right.

All right.

Well, we said earlier when you heard that song being sung by the late great Bob Euker who died earlier this year.

It'll be weird today.

Home opener, first time in 50 plus years not having Euker the microphone, but I'm sure Jeff Levering and Lane Grindel will do a great job at many of our Brewer stations.

But we said when you heard that,

be caller number eight because Uker's number when he played was eight that's on the back of my jersey right now and We were going to give away two tickets for this Friday night for the movie just a bit outside the story of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers on Friday at 5 30 be caller number eight Zomers has screened the calls and it looks like we have a winner caller number eight

Chris in Sun Prairie, listening on WMDX.

Chris, congratulations.

Thank you, thank you.

I really appreciate your listenership.

Now let's make sure can you go this Friday night and be there and join Zomerance and I at 5.30.

Absolutely can't, absolutely.

All right, that's fine.

Any particular memories of, are you old enough to remember the 82 brewers or was that before your time?

No, I was old enough to remember, but quite young.

I was only seven.

Yes, but the Euker is like the classic voice of baseball.

I'm just excited to see it.

Well, have you seen it yet?

No,

no great.

Great.

Well, I've seen it and I was there for the opening of walkie-chase.

I'll be there.

We'll look forward to meeting you stay on the line Don't hang up because we're gonna need your personal info to get these tickets to you So we'll take that off the air.

So stay with us.

Don't go anywhere.

Chris is hanging right there.

Congratulations again.

We'll see you on Friday.

All right

Excellent.

Thanks

very much.

All right.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate you, Elissa.

There you go.

Chris in Sun Prairie, our big winner this hour for those two tickets for just a bit outside the story of the Milwaukee Brewers.

It's a great film.

Available right now on DVD.

You can order it on Amazon and on Friday.

Gonna have some very exciting news for you if you're a streamer.

When it's coming to streaming and where Kelly Call and Sean Hannish, the two producers and director respectively of the movie are gonna be sitting right beside me talking about this movie.

It's part of the Wisconsin Film Festival.

Again, last I checked, just a bit outside was sold out, but keep checking.

Who knows?

And maybe they can open up some other avenues of tickets for you, but it's a really great film.

And it's particularly great on this day, the home opener of the Milwaukee Brewers.

So not a lot of time left and and I'm gonna say this quickly because we have guests coming on next hour Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez Maybe we'll get into a little bit with Dan Schaefer at 130 But here's the deal quickly on Trump in a third term.

This is real in terms of it's not just all smoke and mirrors There's already legislation going on by members of Congress, but if you want the roadmap Look at El Salvador.

I never thought that all my knowledge of El Salvador would be this pertinent

But this guy naive bukele the populist dictator quote-unquote president down there in El Salvador It was in their constitution.

You could only run for one five-year term consecutively He went in using the military essentially as not direct force, but as a quote-unquote deterrent He got rid of some of the people on the Salvadoran Supreme Court put his own people in he attacked the press suppressed the press in opposition

And they changed because because we had this guy was doing so well We had to let Bukele have another consecutive term and he did it and it worked and Many of the same tactics attacking the press so pressing the White House Correspondents Press Association their big dinner every year when they have a comedian come in make fun of the president Guess what they dropped the comedian this year.

I forget her name.

I didn't know her because Trump didn't like her They are they are cowtowing to Trump

We're already seen attacks of the court.

We've talked about it on this show.

We're gonna continue to The grout if you think that Trump is making this up if you think this is a joke about him trying to get a third term you are mistaken my friend this is real and Trump's people are in close contact with Bukele's people in El Salvador and let me tell you folks they're jealous that that Bukele did it so eat the book Bukele didn't El Salvador is

He was smarter than Trump because he actually did a lot of good things for them.

He put people in jail.

He suspended habeas corpus and declared martial law to do it.

But guess what?

Lot less crime.

He fixed roads, infrastructure.

He took Chinese money to build a new library.

He's taking Chinese money to build a new stadium.

He truly is more of a populace.

Trump doesn't get that part of it.

But the groundwork is there, my friends.

And we have to talk about this, and we have to take it seriously.

And Trigvielson has put it down there and told us that authoritarians always tell us what they're going to do.

Have we got time quickly?

I've got a phone call.

No, we're out of time.

Up against the clock, as they say.

Big show today.

Stay tuned.

We're going to give away an overnight stay to Chula Vista next hour.

And Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin, Sarah Rodriguez, joins us.

Looking forward to that conversation.

And Dan Schaefer will recapobulate with us at the 130 hours.

The All Balls show right here on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

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 Syndicate app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albault, along with fantastic Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

It is six past the hour of 1 o'clock.

Welcome into hour number two of the big broadcast on Monday.

March 31st, 2025.

Glad to have you along here for the World Headquarters of Pacific Media in downtown Madison on this home opener day at Amfam Field in Milwaukee.

For those watching on the stream, I have my Uker number eight jersey on today.

Our Brewer's Cup.

Things are getting just underway down in Milwaukee right now.

If you're looking for the game, you can hear it on Terrestrial Radio.

Has nothing to do with E.T.?

?

But you know those old, those things that would sit in the kitchen counter as armors, and you're too young to remember this.

You'd have a bathroom radio on my day, you'd have a kitchen radio, have a car radio, listening to baseball.

Do you ever listen to baseball, the radio as armors?

I have some, not a lot.

Mostly, well...

Ice fishing up north the things like that.

All right Well, I guess not ice fishing that doesn't line up with baseball season.

Well, no, but just be doing things Yes, there

is still ice and sometimes I don't

remember

but you can hear the game right now on WRCE and Richland Center WISS and ash gosh WRJN and Racine Kenosha and WCQM and Park Falls and now

and WBZH in beautiful Hayward, Wisconsin.

Just getting underway right now.

We'll keep you up to date.

We got it on the old TV, so we'll give you updates on here as well.

But stick around.

We have a very special guest coming up talking about the spring election.

Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez is standing by in the wings.

But first of all,

the attorney, the lawyers, the lawyers who sit right outside this window with the mute button.

If Todd says the wrong thing at any time, the lawyers tell us we have to get this out of the way.

Zobbers, let's go.

I

can see clearly

now the rain is gone.

I can see all

That's right.

It's time for a civic media's break into spring text-to-win contest.

The clouds are parting.

The sun is coming out in Wisconsin.

It's a beautiful day.

It's gonna be a beautiful day at least in the morning to vote tomorrow.

But first of all, do this.

If you haven't got it, download the Civic Media app.

Go to the first 11 stations on the app.

That's where you'll find us.

Go to the one closest to you or one of the first 11.

Click on it in the lower right hand corner and it'll say text.

Click on that.

I'm going to give you now a magical, secret word to text in.

What you're texting in the chance to win this hour is a beautiful overnight stay at Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin-Dale.

Zomerside have been there for our Christmas party, our holiday party.

Beautiful place, indoor water park, outdoor water for the kids as well.

Golf course, a zip line.

They got it all.

Spa up there at Chula Vista Resort.

This hour.

Somebody's gonna win an overnight stated chula vista resort and then everybody gets entered in to for our grand prize of a Virlo mattress set along with a bamboo steamer No, I'm sorry.

It's rather rather actually bamboo sheets.

They

are they are

bamboo sheets not the bamboo steamer So bamboo sheets so all of that up for grabs.

Here is the secret word this hour the secret word is nap I'm going to take a nap

After the show and AP nap text the word nap right now and AP and as Nancy a is an apple P as in Paul the word is nap Text it right now on the civic media app and you'll be eligible to win a overnight stay at Chula Vista resort and Entered in for the grand prize of a verlo mattress set at the end of this week zoppers only only till the end of this week So all kinds of good things happening look

Nobody's taken a nap.

Let me tell you one thing.

We're only a block away from the Capitol.

And oftentimes, I'll walk by the Capitol and you look up there and you look at the legislature, the lights.

I know where all the offices are at in the Capitol because I used to walk by there.

I used to work up there.

So I look up, you know, some of the Voss's office, the leader's office, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark.

You go by the Lieutenant Governor's office.

The lights are always burning bright, always working, always working hard.

Today, she's on the road, not in her official capacity as Lieutenant Governor.

She's always Lieutenant Governor, but she's out there free to roam a little bit and talk freely.

We find her on the road in Green Bay, Wisconsin, joining us via StreamYard.

The one, the only Lieutenant Governor in Wisconsin, Sara Rodriguez, Lieutenant Governor.

How the heck are you?

I'm doing fantastic.

Thanks for having me, Todd.

It is always a pleasure.

Now you're on the road today.

Tell us Lieutenant Governor, what's up?

What are you doing on the road today?

So I just recently visited Bellin College and looked at some of their health care programs that they are being able to show for high school students.

So they're trying to get more high school students interested in health care.

So they had

all of these different types of, um, simulation labs that the high school students could try, like surgery.

They had a, they had a, uh, a cadaver, like a, um, not, not a real cadaver, but one that, you know, that you could just do was simulated.

And then, um, how to do CPR and how to do all these other things was really neat for it.

See the students who were interested in doing that.

So just to clarify, you were not in green beta win a million dollars last night.

I was not.

I

just wanted to make sure.

I

wanted to make sure.

Well, this is fantastic because, and you're always so gracious with your time and to come on this show.

And one of the things that we know about you is that you're a registered nurse.

So you know the healthcare industry.

This is near and dear to you.

And so when you go to these places, you're not just some yuck like me that doesn't know what's going on.

You actually understand what these folks are training for and the value of what they add to our communities in Wisconsin.

Yeah, I mean, we know that we've got shortages within the state of Wisconsin, particularly in nursing, but also surgical technology, like what they were teaching about there.

And so that's part of the work that I do as Lieutenant Governor.

I was chair of the healthcare workforce task force and trying to make sure that we put dollars into the budget coming up this next cycle so that we can recruit clinicians and we can retain them here in Wisconsin.

So speaking of healthcare and the budget coming up here,

We're right in the middle of this thing.

Joint Finance Committee, better known as JFC, are starting to hold hearings, get things together.

Bob Lang, everybody loves our great budget director there.

Nobody does a better job than Bob Lang, respected by both sides of the aisle.

And of course, you and Governor Evers, Governor Evers has already put his budget on the table, but talk to us a little bit about healthcare in the state budget.

And if you would, because

This gets lost in the conversation.

We hear a lot in national news.

Oh, Medicare, Medicaid, Medicare.

Explain the difference between Medicare and Medicaid and why Medicaid is on the table right now.

And unfortunately, and unfortunate reason, the spotlight's being shown on it in Wisconsin.

Yeah, so Medicare is the one that for for the vast majority of people you get it when you turn 65 So it's something that you know folks rely on for their health care as they get older and they get out of the workforce Medicaid has many different Applications and that is for individuals who?

Meet a certain income threshold and so they don't they're working perhaps But they don't make as much money and then they qualify to be able to get health care through Medicaid

And that's about 20% of people in the state of Wisconsin are on Medicaid for their health insurance.

That includes kids.

That includes a lot of kids.

And it includes a lot of elderly people as well.

So a lot of folks who are in nursing homes today are on Medicare and on Medicaid to be able to pay for that care.

It is a safety net for so many people in Wisconsin.

And the reason why we're talking about it is because we are one of 10 states

that has not expanded Medicaid here in Wisconsin.

And we are missing out on about two billion dollars over the biennium that's coming out of your taxpayer dollars to be able to invest in healthcare here, to be able to make sure that we can reimburse providers what they're worth, to make sure that we can invest in mental health for our kids.

And as they're talking about

you know, cuts in Medicaid across the board, you know, within nationally, we have to look at what we're doing here in Wisconsin, and we have to make sure that we are making the right decisions for Wisconsinites, and we don't want to get caught flat-footed if they make some changes at the federal level, and we haven't expanded yet.

So explain to us, or I guess update me.

I haven't worked in the building, as they say, in the capital since January of 2015.

And this argument from my former party, which I left in 2011 by, and look, Robin Voss was there, then he's still there now.

These guys are just reticent to take money.

And this is money, by the way, folks, that red states, very red states, Trumps are taking.

This is federal money.

And what's the latest reason, Lieutenant Governor, that Republicans and legislature are telling you and Governor Evers why they're so reticent to.

make Wisconsin taxpayers pay this money that is otherwise sitting there for free in DC.

Yeah, so just like you said, Wyoming had its sun setting, their expansion sun setting, and the governor just signed it, so that was indefinitely having expansion.

Wyoming, pretty red state.

Kentucky, Kentucky has expanded Medicaid.

And we know that when states expand Medicaid, they have better results.

Their rural hospitals actually get more reimbursement.

And they're able to have way better health outcomes, and not even just health outcomes.

There's other things that are helpful when people are able to take care of themselves.

We, in states that expanded Medicaid, we saw less evictions from apartments because people can work and be able to make money because they're taking care of their health.

That is what's going on.

What we hear from the Republican legislature is that they don't want to take these dollars because maybe the federal government cuts it in the future and then it's on the state to be able to take care of these people.

But the reality is that there's going to be a whole lot of pushback within all of these different red, purple, blue states.

if they try to cut Medicaid.

So we don't want to get caught flat footed.

We want to make sure whatever they're doing on the federal level that we are in the best position to be able to take these dollars and help Wisconsinites.

And that's why I think we should be expanding.

Secondly, if I can mention this, we are only one of two states that has not expanded postpartum for 12 months.

Wow.

Two states, us and Arkansas and Arkansas.

Right.

Arkansas has just had it passed through their committee.

So they are on target to be able to sign 12 months postpartum.

We will be the last lonely state to not take care of our moms when they're having babies in Wisconsin.

And that's like national.

It's like 50% of babies are born on Medicaid.

That's a lot of baby.

It's a lot of babies.

It's a lot of babies.

And so we want to make sure we take care of that mom as well for 12 months after she has that baby.

And we should be doing this.

Almost every other state has done it.

It makes no sense why we're not.

It passed through the Senate.

Again, Robin Voss is holding it up in the assembly.

So it's just very, very frustrating when they have these arguments that just don't hold water.

As I've said on this show before, last time I checked both Republicans and Democrats.

Women have babies last time I checked.

Maybe they do.

They do.

I've I've been open about talking about this before because a lot of the argument for my former party is, well, you know, it's just lazy people that don't want to work who are on these services.

Here is my card.

I'll cover the number up.

Here is my card, my old card of forward health.

When I was a small business owner, a job creator and own my own business, this is the only health care I had.

We'll come back and talk about that and talk about why Governor Evers and Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez are fighting for this.

When we come back, stay with us.

This is the All Balls Show in Civic Media.

Thank you.

wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the Tunnelball Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

21 now, past the hour of 1 o'clock on Monday, March 31st, summers on the board.

Glad to have you along.

Glad to have our very special guest this half hour with us, Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez of Wisconsin.

Lieutenant Governor, you're always so gracious with your time.

You're joining us via your car.

I was just outside of Green Bay and folks, she's pulled over.

She's not, not talking while she's driving.

She's very safe.

Yeah, we appreciate that.

One of the reason, look, I'm just going to say this because I've dealt with a lot of politicians over the years, my 30 years plus career in politics on both sides of the aisle.

The reason that I'm a fan of yours is because, and Trivi Olson, our friend from the Lincoln Project says this, former governor Tommy Thompson used to say, there are people who want to be

and people who want to do.

Scott Walker was someone who just wanted to be someone.

Here's a person in Sarah Rodriguez, a registered nurse, a wife, a mom, just minding your own business, but you saw a problem and you wanted to get involved.

You're just like everybody else.

You're a Wisconsinite.

You love the Brewers.

You travel around the state, but you really care.

And you talk plainly like Democratic U.S.

Senator Brian Shatz of Hawaii says, like a normal person.

And I appreciate that so much about you and I appreciate you coming on the air.

Before we went to the break, I held up my old, no longer on it because I have health insurance through civic media, but my forward health card.

When I owned a small coffee shop here in Madison, I was a quote unquote as Republicans like to say job creator.

But I could not afford my own health insurance.

And the only way that I had, kind of, it was slightly better than catastrophic, was through Forward Health, which is Obamacare.

And explain to people what your and Governor Evers are doing in Wisconsin to try to work on health care in this budget would mean not, and there's nothing wrong with people who are

are having a hard time in life, but this isn't just quote unquote poor folks are down in their luck people.

This affects people who are working 90 hours a week.

Yeah, these are these are working people.

These are people who are working.

They just don't make enough money to be able to afford health insurance.

That's what we're trying to expand here in Wisconsin.

That's why we are one of only 10 states.

And if you think about it, and in Wisconsin, Medicaid is called Badger Care.

I always want to make that clear because some people get a little confused on that.

And who else gets covered under Badger Care or Medicaid?

kids with disabilities, right?

They often get covered under Medicaid.

We have foster children get covered under Medicaid.

These are all things that we want to make sure that we're taking care of.

And you've got folks who are working full-time, trying to make ends meet, and they just are not able to afford healthcare.

That's 90,000 folks in Wisconsin today.

And then 30,000 of those are completely uninsured.

60,000 of those I would argue are under insured.

They might have a really high deductible plan.

And it's really, if anything happens, it'd be really hard to be able to manage their finances.

I will tell you, my father was on Medicaid at the end of his life.

He was a veteran, Navy veteran, served during Vietnam, worked every day of his life, but he ended up getting diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

And that just takes their funding away from you.

I mean, that's a huge drag on your finances for families.

And to have him covered on Medicaid or Badger Care at the end of his life was such a blessing for my family.

And that is something that we want to make sure we can extend to as many people as possible in Wisconsin so that they can get the type of health care that they need.

I have three questions for you.

We'll try to go again about what's on our four minutes left here, so something like that.

Number one, quickly Thursday, I'm going to be in Milwaukee, and you'll be in Milwaukee.

They have a budget request in for their campus for a renovation, a healthcare facility.

Talk for about a minute on the importance of that budget request in front of Joint Finance Committee.

It's huge.

So we need to make sure we have the most up-to-date facilities to be training our clinicians.

If we do not, they will leave for other states to go get trained.

And so we want to make sure that we have all of the equipment there.

I was just in a simulation lab earlier today.

Really neat stuff.

We're able to excite students about being in healthcare, which is what we need because we have shortages.

And so having an up-to-date facility is going to be able to accomplish that.

Tomorrow's election day in Wisconsin polls open at 7 a.m.

You can register at the polls.

What do you want?

Lieutenant Governor Rodriguez voters in Wisconsin to know going into tomorrow

Look for me.

I have been really disgusted with Elon Musk and his dollar giveaways I'm a nurse not a lawyer So I'm not gonna say anything about the legality of it But to me it feels like buying votes and I you know, Wisconsin is not for sale

That's what we need to give that message back to Elon Musk and make sure that he knows that Wisconsin is not for sale.

He cannot buy this election.

Like he has been trying to buy all of these other elections.

Do we want Wisconsin's Supreme Court to just be a rubber stamp for Trump and Elon Musk?

Is that what we want?

You know what they've done is they've talked still about healthcare.

they were going to lose almost more than $210 million in federal funds in the state of wisconsin $210 million in federal funds outside of this badger care expansion and that was going to be used for mental health substance abuse prevention being able to prepare for our next pandemic and they just cut it even though that funding was supposed to sunset anyway in six months it is just it is just chaos at the federal level and it is so difficult for states to be able to plan

in terms of what their budget needs to be and how we are supposed to be able to take care of people when we can't even get, you know, a straight answer from the federal government about what they're going to be supporting and what they're going to be cutting.

And that's what he's doing.

He's taking a chainsaw to everything.

Is that what we want?

Do we want a Supreme Court that's going to rubber stamp that?

Yeah, it's a very important election and the polls open tomorrow morning at 7 AM.

Minute and a half are still left, Lieutenant Governor, if you don't mind.

One of the things that I've talked about, what we share, we have people in our life that are of Latino ethnicity.

My godson's are half Latino and they're in their 20s.

We have pretty hard conversations right now.

How is your family doing?

And what do you tell people that you love in your life who are of Latino ethnicity?

What should they be thinking right now in America?

You know, it has been really hard.

My kids go to dual language school and that means that often it's a minority majority school.

So a lot of the kids in that school, you know, have different, love their parents, might have different levels of documented status.

And there's a lot of fear that's going around.

And so making sure people know their rights.

in terms of what immigration can and cannot do, making sure that they have a plan to be able to contact family members if they have any issues.

We know that the Trump Musk presidency is really not following a lot of the rules.

So there could be people and there have been people who are legally present in the United States that could be scooped up.

Make sure you've got your documents.

Make sure that you're taking care of yourself.

You're remarkable.

Lieutenant Governor Rodriguez, thank you so much for your time.

Thanks for being out on the road, talking to Wisconsinites, and just being a cheerleader for our state.

You're welcome here every time.

Safe travels.

We'll talk to you soon.

Thank you so much.

Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, stay tuned.

Dan Schaffer is next, right here on The Tuttleball Show.

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man.

Milwaukee's best.

It's a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.

What about Milwaukee, man?

It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.

I think God would want us to go to Milwaukee.

And it lies between the pit of a man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.

What do you think about

Milwaukee?

This is the dimension of imagination.

You are now entering the Recombobulation Area.

Welcome back everybody.

34 minutes now, past the hour of one o'clock.

There is no better introduction in all of Wisconsin Radio than that right there.

You know it means only one person can be on the other side of a break.

That is the political editor of Civic Media and the founder of the said, foresaid Recombobulation Area, Mr. Dan Schaffer.

Dan, how the heck are you?

We're in discombobulating times, Todd.

But I am here to re-combobulate

with

you and all of the fine listeners here at the Todd Alba show.

Well, I appreciate that.

We're very discombobulated indeed in these odd times.

Before we get into the talking about voter ID and the election tomorrow, want to remind listeners, now, Dan, if you've been, you're ineligible because you're an employee, but have you heard about the big break into spring text-to-win contest?

I have.

It was promoted on Matt and Aaron Erwin.

when I was there on Friday.

And they get very saucy over there.

Well, Jane's competitive.

She is competitive.

Yeah.

And so she wants people to text during her show.

Now I'm guessing you're going to want people to text during your show.

Well, yeah.

I mean, I just try to do what the company tells me and play a happy game.

And Jane and Greg get all saucy and throw down gauntlets.

It's all in good fun.

It's all in good fun.

This time I don't think they have though.

Oh, there's no gauntlet being thrown down Zombers.

Not this time.

No, but they still, I heard, I heard when you were on and yeah.

Yeah, they want people to text her in their show.

So

now

I've got my allegiances divided for being

a guest on both shows.

I just want people to win and have fun.

That's all I'm in for.

Here's the deal.

The word of the day, by the way.

The word to text right now, download the Civic Media app.

It's free, takes less than a minute.

It's what CBS's Gail King calls a deal.

On the Civic Media app, you download it, open it up.

First 11 stations, all the ones we're on.

Go down, open one of those up, lower right hand corner, it says text, a little bubble, like an old cartoon bubble.

Click on that.

Now text the word NAP, N-A-P.

When Dan Schaefer gets done recombobulating,

Taking care of his children and watching a bucks game.

The next thing he does is take a nap NAP Text the word nap right now on the civic media app Also speaking of Milwaukee the Brewers right now top of the second Already down to the Kansas City Royals by a score of three to nothing

They're giving up some runs to start the

season.

It's

okay And Brian Kelly up there at James Kelly up there at our station WCF WR news director up in Northwest, Wisconsin He's from New York and so we're on a meeting this morning.

He's wearing his Yankees and all salty about the you know I'm the Yankees are clearly juicing their bats and well, you know we should have done it sooner

Of course, the Yankees are getting away with things.

Anyway, you can listen to the Brewers on Terrestrial Radio on our select stations across civic media as Letterman likes to say, I hope one of yours has been selected.

But otherwise, stay around because Dan Schaefer, this half hour, we are, oh, by the way, on the text to win contest, the prize upright now, the Chula Vista Resort.

Ever taken the kids there?

Have not.

I would like to.

It's a beautiful place.

Maybe I'll win the text to win.

You can't win.

But if those that are playing, the prize up right now is for the Chula Vista Overnight Getaway Resort thing.

He will also be entered in to win a grand prize of a brand new mattress set from Virlo, a Virlo mattress, which includes a bamboo steamer.

No, I'm sorry.

Bamboo sheets.

Sorry.

It has bamboo

sheets.

That's the real kicker there.

I was on the

fence before, but

now

it comes with sheets.

Exactly.

Now I'm

interested.

Oh, Dan, look, we're doing a crossover show today.

And as I told people up front, that does not include putting different clothes on.

It's a crossover show.

And because you're in today, filling in for the John and Gordy in the afternoon show, which is filling in for the Maggie Dawn show.

That's right.

And today it's the Dan Shaffer show.

That's right.

And so I'm going to be on the Dan Shaffer show next half hour.

And you're on this show.

And just like on Saturday Night Live, when they used to have those shorts where, you know, they would take over the show.

Lord Michael's carried.

Come back with my show.

Dan Schaffer is taking over the show and I love it.

I

guess so.

I guess so.

What do you got for us?

Well, so I wanted to talk to you about the voter ID amendment and just kind of the history of this issue in Wisconsin.

So for listeners who may have been all consumed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, the state superintendent, whatever referendum might be happening in your in your community, we also have a statewide referendum that is going to be on the ballot that would change that would amend the state constitution.

Essentially, you know,

making this law on voter ID that is already the law part of the state constitution instead of just being a law.

And

already people are like, you've lost me.

Yes, we're

already discombobulated and I apologize

for that.

But it is a very confusing thing, right?

And I think voters might be confused when they come up to this.

You hear a lot of the ads about the Supreme Court race, they get to the bottom of the ballot and what in the world is going on

here.

Have there been ads though for

this?

I'm

saying just generally for the spring election.

But just like, you know, these typically pass.

So

these Republicans have done this more and more over the years have pushed issues that they cannot pass and get signed into law by Governor Tony Evers.

They push it to being this, you know, these constitutional amendment questions that go to the voters.

Now, most of them have passed.

There was one last summer that Wisconsin Democrats really organized around in August and were able to block.

But this one.

you know, I expect it to pass pretty by pretty wide margin.

But I think it also warrants a kind of larger exploration into the history of voter ID in Wisconsin.

And that's something that you have some pretty unique knowledge of.

So maybe

you could

tell and let our listeners know what, you know, you were a Republican staffer

at the time

in 2011 when.

Scott Walker, when Robin Voss, when the Republican-controlled legislature was pushing this change to the state's voter ID law.

So what did you witness?

first hand when that was coming down the pipeline.

I'm not, I'm not being a bad guest on my own show and avoiding the question.

I'll get to that, but I think just really quickly.

So people are clear.

So tomorrow, the referendum is going to ask us as voters.

Well, I've already voted early, but if you're going tomorrow, we'll basically say, do you feel that that Wisconsin should require a photo ID to vote?

And to your point, Charles Franklin, Marquette Law School poll, others, it's what?

About a 77%er that Wisconsin's believe in voting idea, voter ID right now, Wisconsin.

Yeah, according to the latest Marquette University Law School poll, I do have the numbers here.

77% of Wisconsin registered voters favor having a government issued photo ID, favor requiring a government issued photo ID to vote.

And 73% of those registered voters polled are in favor of making it a part of the Wisconsin Constitution.

So

again, it's gonna pass to your point.

It's gonna, it's gonna pass.

So people say, well, Todd, why, why would I not want to vote for that?

And it's very tricky because on the face of it to your point, it's already the law in Wisconsin.

that you have to have a photo ID when you go vote.

So people will say, oh, why are they making, putting this into the Constitution?

What they don't tell you, and keep me honest, Dan Schaefer, and we've seen this in Trump over like last week, although I lose track, he signed an executive order which would require proof of citizenship now if it were to be enacted, which means, here's an example, women who marry another person.

more often than not a man and choose to take his name.

Now their birth certificate doesn't match their photo ID.

And under this, if they codify it, that's a big word, if they make sure that it's in the Constitution, then Republicans in Wisconsin could use that federal law and theoretically

if proven or if enacted prevent women who are married from voting or makes it very difficult.

Yeah, there are some real concerns about that.

Absolutely.

So there there are connections and there are connections to some of what the Trump administration is doing on an immigration front

as it

applies to this as well.

So I think there are concerns and like, you know, I am just generally opposed to this.

course of action that Republicans have taken, but if they can't pass something, we're going to put it on for a state constitutional ballot with this really confusing language and all of that.

I think I am opposed to this amendment on those grounds as much as anything, but as far as just like the actual voter ID question that's on there.

And again, for the record, I personally, Todd, I'm okay with a

Showing a voter ID.

I don't have a problem with that what I have a problem with is making it very hard to get a voter ID and Suppress using it to suppress the vote.

Well, why do you feel that way Todd?

Thank you so very much for asking today's question finally because I actually saw this firsthand back and I'll give you the more shortened version to a degree this time so my last

term, I guess you'd say, as a legislative staffer was from late 2010 through January of 2015.

My former boss, state Senator Dale Schultz, a Republican, I left the party in 2011 over what I'm about to tell you.

Even though I stayed and worked for him, you know, he basically, maybe he endorsed Tony Evers in that race against Scott Walker when he was still a member of the state Senate.

So.

We heard a lot about this from committee member Mary Eliza from the walkie area was the chair of the Senate Committee on Elections and she told everybody well We've looked into this and there's all kinds of people voting that shouldn't be voting well My former boss came from the school that a chair of a committee was at least honest with other people on your committee from the same party at the very least and so he kind of thought well, okay, I mean

I don't see it, but she's telling me that.

And so he voted for, I think the first one or two or four of them.

And he voted for the first one or two of these.

And then finally, he said, this isn't an up.

And what really turned it was, one of these bills that was being proposed in 2011 was to, on voter ID, and they're so-called voter ID bills.

But what it did was it made it more difficult for people in Milwaukee and retired people

and kids on campuses to get a, quote unquote, legal ID.

And these are called closed session caucuses.

Both Democrats and Republicans do it where only the members and their staffs, sometimes they even kick out the staff, but in this one it was members and staff only, no outside people are allowed in, there's a whole other kettle of fish, how Wisconsin gets around that, but they do.

And so,

They're talking about this bill to close Senate Republican caucus and it wasn't going it wasn't catching fire and Mary Lossick the chair of the committee of Republicans she gets up She's a demure woman and she gets up and she hits the table or bony finger and she says hey We ought to start thinking about what this would mean to places like Milwaukee and the college campuses ie Suppressing the vote for people

And my boss, State Senator Dale Schultz, was the only person in that room.

He put up his hand on the elbow on the desk and he goes, hey, maybe we ought to think about what you just said there.

And Glenn Grossman, now US Congressman, then State Senator was sitting next to him and he says, well, Dale, we ought to do it while we can because you and I both know the Democrats would do it to us if they were in charge.

And Dale turned around and I was sitting behind him and he goes, you stay here.

And he got up and he walked out in protest.

And for the next hour and a hour and a half or so, I sat there and I want to make clear, not every person in that caucus felt this way.

There were a couple of people, Rob Coles is one whose face kind of turned ashen, but there were other people in there that were giddy about the chance to suppress people's vote.

And I thought, boy, howdy, I didn't sign up for this.

I didn't go door knocking to help elect Republicans to take away constitutional rights to vote from other people, regardless of whether I agree with them or not.

And that's why I left the Republican Party.

It's a remarkable story.

I really do think that this is a really important part of Wisconsin's recent history.

Because I think you and your boss at the time kind of drawing this line in the stand and saying, we're not standing for this and just however many people did not kind of follow you out the door with this.

And I think it is instructive to think about this voter ID push and going back to that moment.

So I think it's a more widely accepted thing now.

But at the time, their motivation for doing it was not really

to clean up any sort of election integrity type of practices.

Their motivation for it was partisan, was purely partisan.

And we'll go ahead and do a little business here, but we come back, I'll tell you, after I actually left the building, the Capitol, I got a call, I'm in private business now, and I get a call at my coffee shop from a guy who is now running for hire, Glenn Grossman, called me on his personal, and the thing about Glenn, I'll at least give him this, he's not afraid to talk to you.

I mean, he, he, he at least will go and talk to people.

And what he said to me about that meeting, that closed caucus meeting that Dan and I were talking about may surprise you, maybe it won't.

We'll talk about this.

It's the title of all show.

That is the Dan Strafer show.