Transcript
Adams County Attempts To Overturn An Election (Hour 1)
The Todd Allbaugh Show · Wed May 7, 2025
Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.
Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm Todd Albault.
Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer on the board.
It is Wednesday, May 7th, 2025.
It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.
And on this sunny afternoon, it is hot day.
There you go.
Fantastic weather across the state.
A tad cooler than yesterday, but Brittany Merleau, our award-winning meteorologist.
Thank you so very much.
Three not one two, but three first place awards well deserved for Brittany for her weather and news gathering abilities reporting Say it's gonna be a beautiful sky today You were in the Omega zombers the Omega not the alpha But the Omega weather pattern and so that's bringing us all this great weather and then by mom's day this weekend 80 degrees and sunny skies from much of much of the state So how about that?
Yeah?
I know I know you don't like the
else does.
But yes, I I cannot wait.
I'm going to Richland Center should be a Good weekend up there for mom's day and celebrating that last to get to on this Wednesday Coming up a little bit later our number two our what's worse today?
Snakes or skunks will be talking about and no we're not talking about political parties ladies and gentlemen But we'll be talking about that in an hour number two, but first
More serious matters at hand on a Wednesday always glad to talk politics life in general and fun with the host of the new mornings with Pat Crite low every morning from six until nine right here on civic media Joining us via stream yard from beautiful lake with soda mr. Crite low and the band is back together
On a Wednesday, joining us from the Tony Arlington suburbs of our nation's capital, the senior advisor to the Lincoln Project, Mr. Trigvie Olson.
Gentlemen, how are you?
Well, this is a treat.
Somebody
got up from his nap to join us.
Yeah.
Cat,
It's so good to see you too, Grandpa.
This is great.
You know, I remember
It's been a long time.
You used to write to me when I was anchoring the news.
finished my pudding here at the nursing home,
just
wanted to tell you what a great job you're doing, and I appreciate it.
That's true.
For those that might not know what's going on, because of the time changes for Civic and various other assorted and sundry reasons, we used to do this every Wednesday, and it's been a month plus since we've all been together.
here now, thanks to Pat and Trigby being so kind and are rearranging their lives and schedules for us.
Here we are all back together on Wednesdays for, for one week.
I guess
I'm only for a week.
I'm gone next week, but after that, we're good.
We're good.
Theoretically, I mean, we got Memorial Day weekend yet to come up.
Todd might be coming up north.
It could get messy from here on in.
Hey, can I tell you about some news that kind of broke at the state capitol?
Apparently today, I want to vent about.
And this was sent to me by somebody who I think was trying to be helpful.
saying sending some cell phone video of the Republican head of the Judiciary Committee, which would be Representative Tussler, right?
Calling police because somebody was giving testimony on a bill and refused to take off his hat, which had an expletive on there followed by Trump.
And it
does start with an F. Funny that you should say that.
And he said, you have to take off the hat.
The assembly rules say so.
Suddenly from from the crowd I hear all this heckling and jeering like what are you gonna do about it?
He said well, we're gonna have to call the police Oh go ahead go ahead call the police and on and on the jeering went that Chair Tussler had to adjourn the hearing and wait for you know some kind of order to be restored and I'm sure somebody thought that the story here was that the head of the Judiciary Committee had to call police because
I mean we saw what in Idaho a woman got tased you know at at one function and we've we've certainly seen a lot of examples where you know the the MAGA crowd has gone overboard in its treatment.
This was not one of those times and and the the person who sent it to me was very unhappy when I responded uh saying uh the the following well I haven't had a proper reason to call out
I have to clean this up.
Bad conduct on the liberal side of things.
So I guess now these clowns have made sure that I can no longer claim that it's only magas who can't be respectful in a legislative hearing.
This is not helpful at all.
And this person fired back saying, well, they haven't earned any respect.
This is a terrible bill.
And like, well, the bill is no longer the focus of attention, is it?
So let me do them a favor.
and bring attention back to the bill for just a moment, because it's a bill that says this involves officer-involved deaths, okay?
Current law says that if a DA, if a district attorney, refuses to issue a complaint against a person, a judge may still conduct a hearing to determine if there is probable cause to believe that a person committed a crime, and if so issue a complaint.
This bill, this terrible bill,
says that if there's an officer related death and the DA decides not to charge, no judge may follow up and issue a complaint against the officer unless there's new evidence presented.
Now again, this isn't the end of the world, but it's still a dumb idea.
Okay, it again, it ruins our checks and balances.
But there, that's where the focus should have been.
And instead, you had people throughout this hearing, jeering, heckling, cat calling, you know, bringing stuff to a halt.
for no good reason, and I'm just going to say that, you know, not only as a former legislator in that position, not only as somebody who's covered these things, but as somebody who was taught some manners, don't do that.
I mean, there is a time and a place, all right?
I would take you back to the Act 10 vote, you know, and when everybody packed the galleries and hollered shame, shame, shame on the legislators, there's a time and a place for these things, but this one was so unnecessary.
And I just thought it was important that if I'm going to call out bad conduct on one side of things, I got to call out bad conduct on the other side.
And I hope you guys don't mind my little event session about it.
Pat, I applaud you and commend you.
I couldn't
out.
Well, that's just it.
And look, you can blame, if you want, you can blame the fact that in some ways, the mega mentality has made it almost socially acceptable
to
engage in heckling and taunting, the keyword being almost.
And some of us are going to stand up and go, no.
No, it is not socially acceptable.
Speak out against this bill.
It's a terrible bill.
But guess what?
I don't think the governor's going to sign it.
So I think you testify against it.
Maybe lose the hat because otherwise you lose the credibility in your testimony and stop trying to make trouble where you don't need to.
There's plenty of other things to use your energy on.
Not to have one of your allies who has a talk show call you out for being
doing something dumb.
I think you nailed it, Pat.
It takes the emphasis away from the reason they were there to testify against a seemingly bad bill.
But I couldn't agree more.
As a guy who still respects our institutions, A, I just think it's bad form, bad manners to wear a hat like that or a t-shirt that spells out.
The f-word I mean there are kids watching a Wisconsin I or whatever and to your point Pat the rules of the assembly Whether you agree with them or not those are the rules the chair has the ability and should enforce them regardless of who it is and and for this person and others to be saying well, you know We don't like the manga hat or whatever
It doesn't give you an excuse to disregard the rules and go after the chairperson because they're enforcing the rules of the institution
Yeah, I mean I tried to put myself in their place thinking well what if you know I were the chair and this person comes up with an f Obama hat you know and what I would I react in the same way and I have to say yeah, I first I'd probably say something like I'm sure you think you're being really clever here, but I'm not gonna listen to anything you say
I'm not even going to let you say it because we got rules here, you know, and I'm sure there'd be heckling and catcalling from the anti-Obama crowd in that moment as well.
But again, still doesn't make it right.
So there you have it, folks.
Welcome to three old men get back together and say, there ought to be rules.
There ought to be civility.
And I shake my fist at the cloud on behalf of all of you.
Tony Wanshee on YouTube says, plenty of chances for good trouble, no need for dumb trouble.
But, Trigby, I go back to when one of my former bosses, Dale Schultz, was Senate Majority Leader.
And, you know, the Defense of Marriage Act came up at the time, which is, you know, a whole other, you know, the word for that.
You know, as a guy who was still in the closet at the time, who was not comfortable for me to do that.
And yes, it passed, unfortunately, but I'll tell you this.
Dale, as the Republican leader, sat down with Judy Robson, the Democratic leader, and he said, we're going to give your side as much time as you want on the floor to say whatever you want against this bill, and we're not going to interrupt you.
And he went to his caucus, enclosed caucus, and he said, the only person who's going to speak is the author of this bill, and no one's getting up and going after the other side on the floor.
Or you're going to have to answer to me.
And that's how it went down.
And there was decorum, people disagreed, but the Democrats got to say whatever and as much as they wanted because there are rules of institutions.
that.
I don't know.
And I just know that I want to get back to, and we've I've said this with you guys before, I want to get back to these honest arguments and debates.
There are things, I mean, Todd and I have mixed it up in the past.
Six months or so more than ever before and it's been it's been so healthy
we don't necessarily see eye-to-eye on because that's how you find what's in the middle Trigvia hasn't picked a fight with me in like a year that
involve you know personal attacks, but
I'm sure there are issues we still disagree
Speaking
Look at this.
Not only.
that.
Gosh.
We ended up putting on the same civic media t-shirt.
I got dressed this morning.
Yeah.
Wow.
This is as
kumbaya as it gets, folks.
And if you would like one of these great civic media radio and community teachers, go to civicmedia.us and click on shop.
Store.
Store.
That's
the store.
It's the only way Todd gets
buy the shirts.
that
yesterday.
I'm like, this can't be real.
But here we are.
They're very comfortable shirts.
These are
Yes, he said,
By all means.
Absolutely.
So Trigvie, you can
Now Trigvie, what do you want?
Two weeks from Friday, Trigvie.
Can you get back to?
to Wisconsin on the 23rd.
Friday the 23rd.
Memorial Day weekend.
Yep.
Memorial Day weekend.
We're tentatively aiming towards a look.
We're tentatively aiming towards a pontoon show on Lake Wissota.
Yeah.
Oh, well then I'm
baby.
This is fantastic.
All right.
Come on back.
Talk about, uh, let's see.
Ron Johnson, Trump meme coins after this on the all ball show.
You're listening to us across Wisconsin on the civic media.
Ready to work.
on Lake Wissota, or things are warming up.
And here now, don't say you can't learn international news from Lake Wissota, checking out the chimney above the quite low estate on Lake Wissota.
Right now, the smoke is billowing.
And apparently now, we have no pope because
we have no pope.
And Trigvie already has the best take on it.
I know that's bad video.
But what does the black smoke indicate, Trigvie?
That's right, baby.
Donald Trump.
Still not the pope.
Still not the pope.
Day one, the votes have been cast.
Black smoke, according to reports from the Vatican, there is no new pope.
to pay right right there.
By
know,
Welcome back.
Pat Krightlow, a host of Mornings of Pat Krightlow Every Morning.
Now, six until nine.
An extra hour of Pat.
That'll make you happy every morning with your cup of coffee.
from beautiful Washington, D.C.
or the suburbs thereof.
Senior advisor at the Lincoln Project.
Talk a little bit before we went to break about this.
If
now, now we're till nine.
We're a more humane hour for you.
We'll definitely have you on in the eight AM hour.
He can get
up by nine.
He's ready to go by nine o'clock.
Pat
brought this great, not well, important story.
I think about what happened to the Capitol today in one of the assembly hearings.
Apparently somebody came to testify against a bill and they wore an FU with the.
F spelled out on a hat and the the chairs that wait the assembly rules of Trump or F.
Oh, yeah.
I'm sorry.
Trump.
F. Trump.
If you that's a seal of green song and we don't have time for that right now.
If Trump
is what the
hat said
and.
So the chairs said, wait, the assembly rules don't allow this.
And the guy refused to take off the hat.
He said, if you don't take it off, we're to call Capitol Police.
That's what happened.
They had to close down the hearing for a while.
And so Pat brought this up as a Democrat, a former state senator, that he feels that was appropriate for the Republican chair to do this because you have to have some amount of decorum.
Here now, one of our listeners, Wes in Middleton, listening on to be MDX says, and Trigby and I agreed with Pat, by the way.
Wes says, quote, so one team is disappearing legal residents to Libya and El Salvador.
The other is wearing a hat.
Decorum is dead, fellas.
The left needs to step it up in capital letters, not played by the rules that only apply to them in 50 years.
Who's going to be on the right side of history?
Unquote.
Pat, very easy response.
Choose your battles.
Decorum is not dead, and you've been told over and over again, do not fall for Trump's dumb side shows.
But at the same time, don't create dumb side shows of your own.
It's that simple.
put the focus where it belongs and again time and a place to demonstrate the protest and the that person is right and that democrats need to step up like never before speak up like never before but you you can do it in a way that actually appeals to voters and doesn't just turn them off if you're only going to appeal to your base bingo if you're only going to appeal to your base i mean you're no you're no different than the magus
information silo yeah
You know, I mean, I came up with these seven rules for dealing with autocrats when I worked around the world.
Rule number four, don't hand the other side battering rams with which to beat you.
And that's exactly what this guy did.
It plays into Donald Trump's hands.
And you know what, dude?
If you want to get down and do that, we're not going to have no decorum and we're going to fight Donald Trump the way Donald Trump is fighting us, you're going to lose.
You just lost and you're not going to out pig Donald Trump.
No, you're not in the mud.
It reminds me there was a story this morning that Derek Van Orden said that he had to cancel a town hall and checking on his family after getting some kind of a credible threat.
And I put online, look, if in fact is a credible threat, then yes, take it seriously.
And I hope they find this person.
However, this is also the same Derek Van Orden who said that a domestic terrorist basically assaulted him at the RNC.
And it was a woman from Code Pink who essentially brushed against him going, excuse me.
And I mean, Derek Van Orden just made it sound like, you know, World War Three.
So again, let's let's try to bring the temperature down for everybody in this.
Yeah, that was breaking news.
I know Dan Schaeffer, the Reconpopulation Area, our political editor put that in our chat that Van Orden tweeted this out.
He canceled his town hall today and said that both he, his wife, and I think his kids and grandkids allegedly received threatening or credible threats is what he's called it.
Look, I agree with you, Pat.
I'm also willing to at least take about his word.
We all three of us have said,
at different times.
There is no place for violence period.
There's no place for political violence.
So, you know, we'll take about his word for today.
I don't think it negates certainly coming back to these issues at
a later date.
But he'll he'll again use this in future remarks as well.
You know, a tossler here, the assembly rep who's chairing the committee will now talk about the hostile, you know, setting that the liberals have put him in.
So again, it doesn't help.
That's
Then I
I'm going to go gas up the pontoon here, guys.
It's time to get that thing launched.
I hear I'm excited
that.
Are you
to
Join us in
a
couple of Fridays.
We're going to try to make this happen.
Quite low.
Trigby and me.
Pat, every morning, six until nine on Civic Media.
Thank you, Patrick.
We appreciate you.
Have a great day.
See you
Come on back.
Trigby and I talk about more news of the day and how the Packers did in the draft and more.
It's a great day to be Wisconsinite on the Civic Media radio network.
She certainly can,
can, can.
pond too in a Lake was so to Trigby Olson, who, uh, not just a hockey player, he's a great skier as well.
Or so we hear.
Welcome back to the top of all show of the civic media, ready to work.
35 minutes past the hour of two o'clock on a Wednesday, May 7th, 2025.
Many things to pack right low for taking time out and joining us today on Trigby Republican.
Like myself, a river falls native.
Joins us every Wednesday for the nation's capital.
Now with the senior advisor at the Lincoln Project.
You are not you are not a big water skier back in the day.
Trick me.
Oh, yeah, I used to water ski.
See, I knew I knew he did.
When's the last time you
ridiculous
Nice
ridiculous stuff.
Right, exactly.
Speaking of the ridiculous, and many things, speaking of Pat Critello, he, you know, with the fire hose of information that comes out these days, it's tough to keep track of everything.
So Pat put me onto this story right before we came on.
It broke mid-morning today, and this from Wisconsin Public Radio.
Speaking of great news organization, I mean, here you know, Trump trying to cut public broadcasting.
This, maybe because they get stories like this, right?
Here is a headline that at first I'm like, no, this couldn't be.
Here's the headline from Wisconsin Public Radio.
Adams County Board votes to replace treasurer
elected by voters with candidates she beat in November.
Story by Joe Schultz at Wisconsin Public Radio.
This is real.
Adams County, just to the east and north of Wisconsin Dells, to give you some reference there, says the treasurer of rural Adams County in Central Wisconsin says she has no plans to leave office despite the county board's vote to replace her.
with the person she defeated in the most recent election.
At a special meeting last week, the Adams County Board voted 14 to six to approve a resolution saying county treasurer Cara Dozel's post with the county had been quote unquote vacated and that her former opponent, Kim Minehart, was being appointed for the remainder of Dozel's term.
Before the vote, Republican state representative Scott Krug argued that the board was following, quote, a fundamentally illegal, unquote, process in attempting to remove an elected official.
But attorneys for the county said the resolution was legal at the April 29th board meeting.
Dozel.
was still performing her duties as county treasurer as of yesterday afternoon.
She said she's been told she could continue to act as treasurer until there is a court order saying that she cannot.
She said the board's actions had come as a surprise.
Quote, I was not warned that the county was even discussing this.
Dozel told Wisconsin Public Radio the day before the meeting I was sent an email asking if I wanted to step down before they had this scheduled meeting the following day.
Dozel, a Republican,
defeated Mineheart, an independent, in November 2024's election, by 980 votes.
When Dozel took office, she was also serving as treasurer for the town of Lincoln and Adams County.
She won reelection to her position with the town in April.
According to Krug, it's been common in Wisconsin history for county treasurers to also serve in multiple roles.
But the
County board resolution states that the two roles were, quote unquote, legally incompatible.
In an April 28th memo from the law firm hired by the county said there were conflicts of interest, quote, that may arise in the performance of both duties for office or both, both duties of both offices, unquote.
Trigby, you and I both have known people over the years, county elected officials who have been also at the same time in the state assembly.
And what's most concerning to me is you have a county board in Adams County, and when we hear about overturning elections, this is happening right here in Wisconsin.
I'm doing some research because I wanted to find out the name of the county board chairman.
They don't even list on the Adams County website the members of the county board.
Okay, but here's what's even better.
The county board apparently at some point passed a
values and mission statement for Adams County.
Now get this, mission statement, to provide high quality services in an economical, fair, professional and courteous manner, enhancing and protecting the health, welfare and safety of those who visit, live and work in Adams County.
Okay.
First of all, you're not doing very good on that because you're not looking very fair or professional.
You're looking like.
a bunch of idiots.
Second, their value statement.
Adams County government conducts its affairs in a professional, professional, accountable manner, acting with the highest integrity.
Yes, late night meetings where you take out the lady who is the treasurer and replace her with her opponent from your party is not so great.
We are knowledgeable, resourceful, incredible and adhered to these values at all times.
Apparently the other night.
Vision statement, we strive to be Wisconsin's county of choice by providing sustainable opportunities that will enhance the quality of life to preserve and protect our natural resources and to create a positive environment for business.
I mean, I think the PR hit that your county is going to take, not just in Wisconsin, wait till this gets traction.
Right.
Ain't going to be what you're looking for.
I just do not get this.
Like I say, we talk about overturning elections, you know, all the time, other places.
And here now, Adams County doing that.
And by the way, let's give a shout out to a state representative, Krug, a Republican in this story in the Wisconsin Public Radio.
It says Krug said he's working with his colleagues in the legislature from the Adams County area, both Democrats and Republicans.
to address this issue.
He says, quote, we are drafting a piece of legislation to say, hey, we don't find that there is some inconsistency or incompatibility with these offices.
He said, we're not sure how the draft will look in the end because the legislative process always changes from start to finish.
But I just think we can definitely clear up this in.
cleared it that up even more in statute.
Let's try and get that guy on.
Somebody needs to call crew and ask him if he'll come on because he deserves a ton of props for this.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
For ton of them.
Speaking out against overturning an election.
Ton of them.
Ton of them.
And honestly, Democrats across the state, everybody should be speaking up on this guy's behalf.
Absolutely.
If I were a Democrat in the state legislature and he's putting that legislation forward, you should sign on immediately.
100%.
This should be a 99 to nothing the 33 33 nothing vote Okay, I finally found these guys on the county board of supervisors.
You have
Honestly, if we could figure out who the chair was, we could call that guy and see if he'd come on to talk to us too.
I bet he wouldn't.
I bet he wouldn't.
No, I bet he wouldn't either.
I bet he wouldn't.
But you know, actually, how far is it from Eau Claire to Adams County?
Oh,
it's a ways.
Why, you want to do the show from Adams County?
But I mean, how ridiculous is this trivia for a Wisconsin County board to overturn an election because she's doing something that has been done multiple times in the state that they hold two elective offices.
They're not, they're not incongruent or there's no conflict of interest here.
You're a
that?
Yeah, I I I definitely think so It's just another we have elections in this country.
They need to be respected and just because you don't like the person who won just because you don't Have feelings on this that doesn't mean we overturn elections in this country and it doesn't mean that we certainly we don't overturn elections in this
No, and what I would say, you know, we had that text last hour from the guy from Middleton who was taking offense to what Pat was saying, right?
Like this is how you do it.
Todd and I are trying to say this is wrong.
All Democrats, everybody should stand up and say this is wrong.
Everybody should say they're not giving due process to anyone in the United States that's here legally, legally, not a citizen, legally is wrong.
That's how you do
I don't know.
I just, I read that story twice because I'm like, really?
This
I mean, you know, when you drive to, when you drive to Adams County, you can, you can roll down your windows and you can listen to the music in Adams County.
You could hear it in the hills sometime.
Have you ever done that?
Have you been to Adams County before?
through,
windows.
You said,
I went ice fishing into a Friday night.
A Friday night fish fry when everything was closed down for most of the county.
They liked me.
Really?
Yeah.
Dude, I'm pretty quintessential Wisconsin.
That's how my kids are like.
They're like, you know everybody in Wisconsin, I'm like, I actually don't.
but pretty Wisconsin.
All
you can hear the banjo's up there in Adams County.
All right, very good.
We'll
top
We'll stay on top of this story.
We'll
Pat.
doing the
100%.
Regardless of party.
Regardless of party.
100%.
Speaking of what
not.
Before the break, let's get your quick thoughts on this two minute speed round.
Mike Pence, former vice president, Mike Pence was honored with the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Award for Profile and Courage for standing up to Trump on January 6th and certifying the election.
Did a lot of interviews, one of which was with JFK's grandson, Jack Schlesinger or whatever his name is, was on CNN, other places.
Some people are salty because they said, well, he just did his job.
Do you think it was warranted?
Did Pence deserve it?
Yeah, for sure.
I think so.
I agree.
And again, I don't agree with a lot of things that Mike Pence says or
He's not my cup of coffee.
Wasn't my part of the conservative when I was a Republican.
But, you know, Mike Pence, I think if Mike Pence were your neighbor, you'd be pretty happy to have Mike Pence as your neighbor.
Yeah.
And mother as well.
Yeah, mother too.
No, I think
the fact that the fact that Pence rejected Ron Johnson's altered slate of fake electors from Wisconsin and said, we're not going there, that deserves at least, especially as Robert said, in today's world.
So, we'll come back, talk more about today's world, find out what Trigby thought of the draft, a la the Green Bay Packers and much more.
You're listening to the Todd Albaul show on the Civic Media.
