“Wisconsin Is Not For Sale” with LG Sara Rodriguez (Hour 2)

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.

It's a crossover show, but everybody's got pants on.

Come on back.

It's the Civic Media Ready Network.

Oh, yeah.

Welcome back to the title ball show on the Civic media radio network glad to have you along with us nine before the hour of two o'clock at the top of the hour ABC or CBS News depending upon which of our great stations you're listening to a weather update our sports reporter Mike Clemens the great Mike Clemens with the sports update by the way I'll give you one right now Kansas City for brewers nothing top of the second opening day at am fam field

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can't beat it with a stick, not even a bamboo stick.

Right now we're doing a little crossover show this half hour and into the next with our friend, our ongoing contributor, the political editor of Civic Media and the founder of the Reconpopulation area, Mr. Dan Schaefer.

Dan, we appreciate you being here.

Always always a joy to be here on the Alba show and in person today as well in Madison.

It's great I love in person not a big zoomer as they say So it's great to have you here and we're gonna continue our discussion here And then I'm gonna be on the Dan Schaefer show which is filling in for the John and Gordy show in the afternoon Which is filling in for the Maggie Dawn show next hour

All

we need to know is you get more Todd today, coming into the next year.

But here's the

deal.

I look at his post last night, who's gonna be on his show next hour, and it's like, you know, you got Eric Holder from the Obama administration, you got Ari Berman, great author, you've got Angela Lange, who else you got on the show?

And Ben Wickler.

And Ben Wickler, the chairman of the, and then there's Todd.

And it's like, I'm just here to make, I'm just here to make drinks for people.

Ari Berman likes a good old fashioned.

Like, yeah, he does, he does.

So we're excited for a great roster and excited to continue this conversation here with you on voter ID.

So before the break here, you were sharing a bit on your, what you witnessed when Wisconsin was starting down this path of requiring an ID to vote.

Back in 2011, so

I witnessed this

closed caucus, a public caucus where,

They revealed in private that the real motivation wasn't to actually make sure voting had more integrity, but it was to make sure that people didn't agree with them, had a harder time to vote.

Because back when I was coming up to the Republican Party, the belief was that if our ideas are better and connect with a greater majority of the voters, we'll win.

But Republicans are not stupid.

They understand what's out there and they started to understand even back in 2011, hey, this ain't real popular.

We're not going to win our ideas.

So we have to make it more difficult for them to vote.

In other words, we're going to make it harder.

People forget here in Madison, the Department of Motor Vehicles where you got your driver's license and state ID was right by Hilldale Mall kind of centralized on a bus line during the Walker administration after this went through.

They purposely and I know this because my former bosses on the state building commission They purposely built a new DMV on the same site and didn't a department transportation and did not include a motor vehicles office to renew things there They moved it out to the far west side in almost the country off of a main bus line in Milton To make it even harder for people in quote-unquote liberal areas to get these requirements

Yeah, it was rife with shenanigans all the way around.

So, you know, the goal here from a partisan standpoint, they wanted fewer, you know, fewer people in Milwaukee who might not.

might not drive, right?

A lot of people in Milwaukee who don't have a car, who don't drive, use public transportation, use other means to get around, and college students, right?

So I think those were kind of the main constituencies that were targeted in that initial voter ID bill.

And, you know, I think turnout was down in 2016.

And I think this is one of those things that has improved over time.

Like, you know, I think even Susan Crawford mentioned this during the debate a couple of weeks ago.

She was talking about one of the things that she had brought forth or been

part of was increasing access for IDs, for people with disabilities, for other people who this law may not have recognized when that people might fall through the cracks.

And so I think that is part of it too.

And then there was this one real interesting moment that stood out in the history of the implementation of this, which was Glenn growthman.

in 2016, the night of the Wisconsin presidential primary, basically goes on, he goes on TV with Charles Benson on TMJ4 and says, you know, he was asked about Trump's chance of winning Wisconsin in the general election.

And growthman said, I quote, and I quote, I think Hillary Clinton is about the weakest candidates Democrats have ever put up.

And now we have photo ID.

And I think photo ID is going to make a little bit of a difference as well.

So clearly.

at the time.

It was kind of this moment of saying the quiet part out loud for Mr. Grossman, who was saying similar things behind the scenes as you were able to witness.

And Glenn doesn't

drink very much, so it wasn't that he had too many.

I can tell you that.

That same election, I had a young, I was outside of politics, now I had a small coffee shop, and I had a young barista named Miguel, who it was, I believe, 22 at the time, had never voted, originally from Los Angeles, California, was born there, for those that want to know, he was a born

American citizen and He was very excited big Bernie guy.

I gave him time to go off to go vote and he went to vote in that primary and he came back demoralized he had a valid California driver's license and it used to be you could just take a valid driver's license from one state and go to another and come to Wisconsin with that and switch it out but because of that bill that became law under Walker that I saw

being debated in that closed session of Congress, or of State Senate.

Because that passed and Walker signed it into law, fast forward to 11 to 16, and Miguel Vega was not allowed to vote because he couldn't get his birth certificate back from California quick enough.

I saw the actual result of what they wanted to prevent a young brown person from voting.

And that pissed me off.

And I took to Facebook,

and forgot that statewide media still followed me.

I wish there were time to tell the rest of the story.

Oh, wait.

Stay tuned.

The Dan Schaefer show is next.

I'm going to be on it.

I'll finish the story there.

But first, text NAPNAP right now to your Civic Media app.

We'll see you in a couple of minutes.