BREAKING: Rep. Jacobson Challenges Sen. Marklein (Hour 2)

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

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across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

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Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Tyler Ball, author, outstanding producer and engineer, Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

It is six minutes past the hour of three o'clock on this Monday, July 7th, 2025.

Welcome everybody to hour number two of the big program.

It's a great day to be Wisconsinite here at the World Headquarters on State Street in downtown Madison.

Overcast skies right now.

It's seasonal summers.

Before the show, I walked over to our friends at Wunder State because here's, I came in earlier than, I usually work from home in the morning and I came in, I don't know what it was, nine o'clock or so, 9.15.

And Luke Mathers said, holy cow, you're early.

I said, here's the deal.

I stopped last night on the way I was in Richland Center of the Week and I stopped in, I got to Wonder State Coffee over at our friends at Metcalf's and I went to make it this morning and I was fresh out of poor of her filters.

And so the fact of the matter is I came in to work early because I had no coffee at home.

You

know

what?

That was the reason I came in early.

I'm just pleased you didn't use a t-shirt in lieu of a filter.

Well

done.

Thank you, thank you.

I appreciate that.

That is the voice of State Senator Kelmer Royce from the 26th District.

here in Dane County.

She has been so gracious as to agree to give us a little more of her time.

She is a member of the Joint Finance Committee.

And Senator, just before we get to Denise here in Green Bay on hold, again, just your overall, I know you were a no vote on this budget, even though Democrats helped improve this bill.

Dr. Evers signed it into law.

The result is we're going to get around a billion dollars extra here, or at least in due money from the from the feds because they beat

the Trump deadline, the Trump, the Trump, that's good.

But I want to, well, maybe we just go to the phone lines.

I think school funding is next year.

And

I want to expand on this because I think this is the real story here of the, in my opinion, you were in the room, but from a lay person's reporter's perspective, I think there's a lack of funding for our schools is a huge story here.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Denise has been patient.

in Green Bay, home of WGBW, our great station up there in Green Bay.

Denise, thanks for holding.

What do you have for a question for the senator?

Well, first, I want to thank her for standing so strong for public education.

She's been a strong advocate for us for a very, very long time and continued to do so in this budget.

So, Kelda, thank you very, very much.

Thank you, Denise.

And thank

you for

talking to other people about voting no.

Um, you know, we can't go on Not funding public schools.

I mean We have 800,000 kids in public schools and so few in private and I guess I'd like to ask you about that is it's a zero percent increase for for public schools and Yet private schools are getting an increase is my understanding.

That's right.

Could you elaborate on that?

Yeah, there there's kind of a

a trigger mechanism in state law that allows private voucher schools, of course, that don't have to obey the same rules that public schools do.

They don't have the same accountability or transparency that lets them just continuing getting more money and getting increases, even in this situation where the public schools are not getting a general school aid increase.

And it's increasing the disparity that we have between students who are in private schools, most of whom

We're in private schools before the vouchers started paying for it.

These are wealthy families or people who have already made the decision, I'm going to pay for my kid to go to private school.

And now all of a sudden, taxpayers are footing the bill as part of an overall effort by the right wing in this country to undermine public education as a good that all of us can enjoy.

And it's one of the things that makes me really, really upset as someone who believes

that education should not be rationed based on who your parents are or what you look like, where you're from, right?

All of us deserve that chance to thrive and become our best selves, which we do through education.

I want to and if you'd be so gracious as

I

mean I mean I know we've kind of come to the end of this budget process But I would love to have you back on at least monthly because you're still gonna explain these things anytime.

I'm here like the best part of my Monday Well,

I really I really really enjoy it.

I want to use the time that we have left here to to suss out

Because one of the things you're really good at, yes, obviously you're a Democrat, you have partisan interests like any other politician, but you're really good at helping explain things.

And so I want to, not just the education, let's start with education, let's go on to childcare and if we have time, one or two more things.

First of all, education, to Denise's point, I saw numbers last week and you may have as well from the Department of Public Instruction that said districts like Eau Claire, we're gonna end up with $2 million less

under

this current business.

There are smaller districts.

they're going to take a proportionally heavier hit.

What are districts like that to do?

Is this just more school referendums to local people?

That is the answer, right?

We're going to continue on this absolutely failed path of forcing school districts to beg their own local property taxpayers to raise their taxes, and it short changes our kids.

And whether or not these referendums pass or not, you have still...

put that community in an impossible situation.

It is not fair.

It's not fair to the kids, the teachers, or the property taxpayers.

Let's talk about health care, pardon me, child care.

This

is a

huge issue when people on our program, on Jane McNair's program and others, as I understand it, this funding that went through in the state budget last week and the governor signed into law, it

It addresses the health care concern very quickly because of these COVID pandemic dollars that basically put a band-aid on child care issue Wisconsin.

Those monies are no longer available without a new budget.

There would have been zero dollars allocated

to this.

There are, you probably know the number I don't off the top of my head, the number that was put into child care, but that number is for one

year.

Right.

It's about a hundred million.

So it's way less than we need, less than half of what we need, in fact, for even for that.

one year.

And it's only good for one year.

So all we've done is basically push off this cliff for another year.

And

that means

programs are not, because it's not built into the state budget.

People still have to make these decisions about, do I raise tuition that parents already can't afford?

Do I just close down because I can't afford to keep doing this after a year?

And it doesn't give anybody the certainty they need to be able to hire more people, give their workers a much needed raise.

The average childcare worker in the state makes $13 an hour.

$13 an hour to take care of our kids.

It's it's gonna be really really tough Finally we some of these things are gonna kind of suss themselves out But but for your average, Wisconsinite who is is looking at either the mom or dad or the grand program is in a nursing home or eldercare things like that

between what passed out in Washington and what happened in Madison.

I mean, where are these folks, you know, do our elderly folks to our senior citizens, should they be afraid or concerned?

And how could they get answers to these questions?

Yeah, unfortunately, I think they have every reason to be scared and concerned because the estimates are about 17 million Americans are going to lose their healthcare.

And, you know, for Wisconsinite, over a million of us are on badger care or some form of Medicaid.

But even for those of us who aren't, when those funds go down and people lose their health care, that means that all of us, our insurance rates go up because there's more uncompensated care.

It means that hospitals and clinics that serve us close because they can't afford to stay in business.

It means that nursing homes close down and that means that we're going to have to take on sometimes very difficult or impossible caregiving situations.

So this has impacts on all of us, whether or not you or a loved one is actively on Medicaid, Badger Care or not.

it will affect all of us, it will make us sicker, it will make more of us dying earlier, and it will make us all poorer.

Anything else before we move on on on the state budget that you want to make sure that Wisconsinites know about right now?

Obviously, we'll have you back.

But is there anything that I haven't asked you yet on the state budget you think is really critical for people to know?

Well, I think the most critical thing is to think about what Republicans have done in Washington and here in Wisconsin, that it was reckless.

It was totally financially irresponsible.

And you know, we're seeing major, major cuts that are going to hurt working people, the middle class, and of course, the poor.

I've been given the okay to keep you a couple more minutes here.

We appreciate that.

Always appreciate your time.

And before we end this, I truly want to say...

as someone who's been around that building a block away at the State Capitol a long time.

I'm really, truly, I'm really impressed.

You're one of the most forthright legislators I've ever talked to in private, but also on the program.

You're never shy away from a question.

You always are straightforward.

And that really means a lot to me.

And I wish we had more legislators like you in the building.

Thank you, Todd.

I really think my most important responsibility is

to be honest with people, honest about what I think is happening and where I stand on issues.

And if we disagree, like that's okay, that is part of democracy and we can do that, but I owe that.

as the bare minimum of having the privilege of serving.

So let's get into a little politics here, the time we have left coming up about 10 minutes from now here on the program or 15 or so.

State Representative Jenna Jacobson of the 50th Assembly District here represents kind of a little corner of Southwestern Dane County in the newly drawn 50th Assembly District in Green County, Monroe.

She announced this morning that she is going to be the Democratic challenger, at least one of, to State Senator Howard Markline.

the incumbent of the 17th, the newly-drawn 17th Senate District, a Republican, and the co-chair of the joint finance committee, your thoughts?

Well, I'm thrilled.

I think Representative Jacobson has been an outstanding voice for rural Wisconsin and particularly southwestern Wisconsin, whereas Howard Markline has spent all his time in power basically...

underfunding schools and that's forced school shutdowns in his own district.

In fact, his district has seen more referentums than I think any other district in the state.

And when you're the co-chair of joint finance and you're

hurting your own district like that?

I mean, it's it's crazy.

Like, what do you even hear for?

So I think it's long past time for folks who live in southwestern Wisconsin to actually have a strong voice advocating for them at the Capitol.

And that's why I'm really proud to support Jenna Jacobson.

She's going to be an incredible state senator.

Well, I've said this before, you were one of the few legislators from particularly an urban area like Madison, when the the UB system, the two years started getting cut, you came out to southwest Wisconsin into Senator Mark Lyon.

district.

I was there that night in the big metropolis of Muscatie.

I said that tongue-in-cheek about a thousand people just below where I was born at.

You know this part of the state because you've traveled around it.

Tell us just in a minute here why you think Representative Jacobson is just not just politically but just culturally and be able to relate to people a good fit for the 17 Senate district.

Well, you know, she, she lives in a rural community.

She represents a rural community.

Uh, she is a mom.

She, she is a professional.

And I think that, you know, when you, when you meet with her, you can see that she actually is really listening, right?

She's not just, um, trying to shove talking points down your throat, right?

She actually cares.

And she has put in the time to go hear people's concerns and she has taken them over her years of service in the legislature to the Capitol.

She works across the aisle.

when it's necessary and when it's possible, but she's also not afraid to just say, Hey, this, this isn't going to work for my constituents.

And, um, you know, as someone who I'm a girl from Taylor County and, you know, it means a lot to me to see someone who is able to really be authentically herself and bring these voices into the Capitol that even, you know, Republicans claim to represent rural Wisconsin, but more often than not, they're screwing over their own constituents out of healthcare or public education.

Again, my opinion, big winners in this budget, State Senate Democrats, do you all at your caucus have a chance to take back the majority?

We will take back the

majority.

Look at that, look at that.

All right, one minute left, Summers.

Let's get the senator involved here.

Time once again for what's worse.

Let's go.

Time once again for what's worse, no prize, nobody involved, nothing given away, but it is your chance to have your voice heard across the entire state of Wisconsin on all 11 news talk sports stations of the Civic Media Ready Network.

All right, Senator Royce, we always appreciate this when you play along.

Big topic today, controversial for some, category today, what's worse, Swiss or cheddar?

Swiss or cheddar?

First of all, object to the question, how dare you, sir?

How dare you?

I mean, I can say, obviously, it's Swiss.

It's worse.

Yes, because cheddar is incredible.

I mean, there just isn't even a bad cheddar, like the sharper the better.

But Swiss is worse because there's less of it because there's holes in

it.

She does it all.

She can legislate.

She knows what she's doing and she has an opinion on Swiss cheese.

Melt it up.

Senator Royce, thank you so very much.

We appreciate you.

Thanks, Todd.

Always a pleasure.

She'll be back here soon.

We'll make sure of that.

Always appreciate her time.

Come on back.

We'll play more.

What's worse than the other side?

On the Civic Media Radio Network.

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Too short.

That's right.

Too short.

You had to know that was coming.

Too short.

How many programs on this network play you too short?

At least one.

At least one.

This one.

Probably just

one.

Welcome back, everybody.

Zomber is along with all.

Glad to have you along.

23 past the hour of three o'clock for those watching on the stream.

I put my shades on during that intro there.

Just felt like the right thing to do.

I'll put my glasses on.

We're right in the middle of today is what's worse, which is Swiss or cheddar.

What's worse 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 or you can text us on the civic media app download it today your Apple or Android device type in civic on the search bar CIVIC media it'll pop up it takes less than a minute to download it is free.

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What's worse, Swiss or Cheddar, 855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.

Tony, watching on YouTube, says, Swiss.

Way worse Wow, Tony some very some very strong opinions on Swiss Heather watching on Facebook up there beautiful old Claire says cheddar is far better quote-unquote Get a nice aged cheddar with the crunchy crystals in it.

Yum.

Not a fan of Swiss.

Oh, I'll agree with her on I love a good aged cheddar a 10 12

even that occasional 15, when you get like a 15-aged cheddar, you can only, well, I can only afford just a slice, so that's like 20 bucks or whatever.

But you only do it, you know, a couple of times a year.

Every once in a while.

Yeah, for a special occasion.

But she's right, when you get those little crystals in it, that with a nice Cabernet or something like that.

Yeah, absolutely.

You can't go wrong.

I know I sound a little way 20 right now.

But I like hooks.

I like hooks aged cheddar I like car Valley our friends did cook up there at car Valley all kinds of great aged Cheddar's all across Wisconsin right now What's worse is the question Swiss or cheddar 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 or on the civic media app of which Matt in Middleton is Matt says Swiss is worse as less taste and where the missing cheese from the whole

Also, cheddar can be eaten on pie of all things.

Yeah, a mild cheddar, right?

The old, what is it?

What's the old saying?

Cheddar with pie, or pie without cheddar is like a hug without a squeeze.

I don't know.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Mom's yelling at the radio right now.

She knows that saying.

Anyway, what else we have?

Well, yeah, I mean, Swiss, I think it depends.

Now, being that I have family and friends in Monroe,

I spent a lot of time, some of the cheese makers in Monroe, they really know the Swiss cheese I've had in Monroe, it's very different than like your, you know, I don't want to say generic, but store brand off the shelf.

So if you have good cheddar or good Swiss, it has a really great flavor.

I know some people are commenting like, where's the extra cheese for the holes?

The reason Swiss has holes, it's the type of bacteria they use to create it, creates extra carbon dioxide, so they get just bubbles.

Right.

That's a cool little thing.

Steve in Milwaukee, listening to WAUK says they both have their purpose.

Swiss is better with some things like ham or burgers.

Cheddar is good almost always.

Nicely done.

Thank you very much here.

What else here?

Carrie in Tosa, listening on WMDX says Cheddar is way better.

All right.

Another listener on WMDX says, both Swiss and cheddar are delicious from Praise, Wisconsin cheese.

All right, very good.

Is that Praise, Wisconsin cheese?

Yeah, I think they're just saying Praise, Wisconsin

cheese is very good.

Oh, I thought that was like a brand or something.

All right, very good.

Yes, Praise, Wisconsin cheese indeed.

Our old friend Whistler out in the RC in the drift list listening to WRCE, Whistler says, Swiss.

Hole Swiss with holes

is worse.

I think is what he said.

Oh Swiss with holes.

I got it.

Yeah, it's the W slash.

I got it Swiss with holes is worse.

Is there a Swiss without holes?

I don't think you could have Swiss unless you have holes Parker Olson, one of our great producers here of mornings with pack quite low

I'm gonna be on Pat's show on on Thursday houses.

I'm gonna be should I just go up to Pat's backyard on Thursday because I'm gonna be just knock on his

door Maybe

I

will just open it first trying to open it

Parker he says Tony has never led me astray Swiss is worse.

Oh, so he's a he's team Tony saying Swiss is worse.

All right Parker trying to suck up to Tony there

No, I think that's great.

I should figure out what I'm going to do on Thursday because I appear on Patrick's show on Thursday morning and then Pat's going to be on our show helping guest host at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair on both Thursday and Friday.

I'm looking forward to it in nervous anticipation.

I definitely think you should just show up at his house.

And if he's not

listening now, he won't know.

He probably has security, you understand?

And then I'm gonna get shot or something.

I don't

know.

It's just, you'll see, you gotta put your face in one of the cameras so that he goes to check and he's like,

geez.

Oh, Tony says, I can't, Todd, I can't help it.

I'm right.

Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way.

What's worse, cheddar or Swiss?

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

All right, Parker, we'll try.

I'll try to make an appearance on the morning program on Thursday.

As always,

what's worse, Swiss or cheddar?

I think Swiss is worse just because cheddar is more versatile.

If I

was going to

eat one on its own, just by itself, I would prefer to eat cheddar, especially if it's sharp.

I don't know that I can add anything to that.

You pretty much nailed it.

I think that's really well said.

I agree.

I like both of them.

and particularly

Swiss

cheese from Monroe, Wisconsin.

But if I had to make a choice, and that's what this segment's about, I'll say Swiss is worse for the many reasons that you talked about.

All right, we're going to come on back after doing a little get that cheese dance.

State Representative Jenna Jacobson announced that she's taken on Howie, State Representative, State Senator Howard Markline.

She'll be with us next to talk about our new campaign.

It's the All Ball Show across Wisconsin on the Civic Media.

Ready Network.

Pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the Tata Ball Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

Glad to have you along.

It is 335 on Monday, July 7th, 2025.

Yes, we're live.

We had a caller a little while ago.

There's a new feature.

You can leave us a voice message.

We're going to get to that after this segment.

But yes, wondering if we were live today.

Yes, we are absolutely live and love to be here with you on a Monday, July 7th.

All right.

Joining us via phone now, and this is very exciting.

I'm very glad to have her here.

The first time she's appearing on this program, State Representative Jenna Jacobson from the newly drawn 50th Assembly District, which encompasses a portion of Southwest Dane County and then down through the greater Green County area, including the beloved city of my own Monroe, Wisconsin.

She is joining us via phone from her home after announcing this morning that she intends to challenge State Senator Howard Markline, the incumbent

of the 17th Senate District Representative Jacobson.

Thank you so much for taking time and joining us today.

Well, thank you so much for having me.

I'm really excited to be here to talk about this candidacy and get started on this

race.

We're thrilled to have you on and learn a little bit more about you.

First of all, before we get into the race and what this is about,

As I do with everybody who appears in this program for the first time, tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up and your background, and what led you to the state legislature.

Sure.

So I graduated from Frederick High School in Northwestern, Wisconsin.

It's about an hour and a half south of Superior.

And after graduation, I started out at UW River Falls and really loved.

Wisconsin and then my husband married him and we moved out of the state to go to finish school, I guess is the best way to put it.

And kept thinking, man, we just can't wait to get back to Wisconsin.

And so when we moved back, started our family and kind of just wanted to see what I could do to serve my community.

I started doing some back to my church.

And in 2017, I decided, well, late 2016, I guess technically, I decided to run for the Village Board because there was a lot of folks in my church who were on the Village Board and I thought, oh, I can do more for my community.

And I had been hearing so much about how people really felt like their government wasn't listening to them.

They weren't feeling represented.

And so I ran for the village board and I got on the village board in Oregon where my husband and I had settled and it turns out I just really truly enjoyed the work.

I enjoyed not only the individual working through an individual issue with different constituents, but the greater issue of policy.

He started working on housing affordability in the village and what we could do to bring not just lower cost housing, but a variety of houses, right?

Because not everybody wants to live in a

big house on a giant lot.

Everybody has different needs and desires, so what we could be doing in the village to make that possible.

And

in 2022, when the masks were redrawn, all my incumbent assembly representatives were drawn out of the district.

And so I realized that I could have this opportunity to work on affordable housing at the state level.

I could take this opportunity to work on municipal funding at the state level because my time on the village board really opened up my eyes to not only how we fund our communities or don't fund our communities, frankly.

but also how we restrict and remove local control from those communities.

And I also, I have three kiddos in the school district down here and realized that what we were doing for our public schools was not working.

And I have a traditional track learner, a special education learner and an advanced learner.

And I'm always continually impressed with what each teacher can do to support those kiddos and also knowing they're doing that with chronically underfunding our schools.

and having to buy their own supplies and so many other things that we hear about from our public education system that as a state we could be doing better on.

So I decided to take that leap and run for the assembly and have been again really enjoying that work.

I get to serve on the agriculture committee and I'm currently the ranking member on the agriculture and sporting heritage committees which I just truly love because they

reflect so much of Wisconsin and what my husband and I wanted to return to when we were done with school.

And I

also get to be on the Financial Institutions and Ways and Means Committee because I do have a background in financial planning.

I like to do budgeting and credit counseling with people for fun and to help them out as a volunteer capacity.

So, yeah, so under these new maps, we have Senator Howard Markline as our current Senator.

And I wanted to see what with this current budget that was just passed, what we were going to be changing to really support our schools and really support our communities.

And it turns out that under this budget, a lot of our schools will be losing funding from the state.

And I just knew that that didn't reflect the needs and the values of our district.

So.

Well, I and again, we're speaking right now via phone with a state representative Jenna Jacobson and Democrat of Oregon who currently represents the 50th assembly district of the state of Wisconsin representative.

I'm first of all, I'm just enormously impressed.

So you're, you're, you're a mom, you're a wife, you're on the village board.

So you understand local government and their needs.

You're in the state legislature, you're a ranking member on the ag committee, you have a financial background at first blood.

This just seems like a perfect fit as someone who was born and raised in Richland Center and spent the majority of my time in politics working for former state senator Dale Schultz who are represented in the 17th district for a number of years and as someone who lost 20 years ago in a Republican primary in the old 96 assembly race which took up all of great Crawford County I know this district that you're running in very very well and and so

So, you seem like a great fit here.

Talk to us a little bit about constituent services, because this is something as a former legislative staffer that I think does not get talked about enough.

And you're on your second term, correct me if I'm wrong, in the state legislature as a assembly person.

What are your thoughts on constituent services?

Because this is something that I've heard from folks in the 17th district that are lacking right now under Senator Marklein.

I think constituent services are key because that is what, you know, that is your biggest way to connect with the people in your district and help them on an individual issue that they might be having, or if they're interacting with like a state level situation, DNR, for example, or the Department of Trade and Consumer Protection, how you can help them navigate these really complex systems is critical, but also how you respond to people when they have

you know something that's very real that needs addressing.

I'll use child care funding for an example.

Child care is a huge issue not just in my assembly district but in the senate district.

We know that it is increasingly harder to find child care because it's just a really challenging issue for our early child care providers to make a living wage off of.

And yet in this budget we only funded child care for the first

Year after I think they're calling it the bridge program now after what we had which was a wildly successful child care accounts program and so I think the more you can listen to folks the more you can respond to their needs and and really like get out there and talk to people the better because You can even if you disagree with somebody if you're willing to sit down and have a conversation if you're willing to talk to them on the phone I Think that goes a long way to helping understand them understanding you and you understanding them.

Yeah

I think that's great because, you know, my former boss used to say, look, I'm elected to serve all the people in the 17th Senate District, not just the ones that voted for me.

And I think that's so key.

What are the big drivers as far as economy in the 17th Senate District?

The old one and even under the new one is the University of Wisconsin Platteville in Grant County.

It's critical.

And right now, the University of Wisconsin system is having a lot of problems with this new budget.

There was some more money.

A lot of that was for one-time new building.

What are your thoughts specifically on UW System, but UW Platteville in particular?

Yeah, I mean, I think UW Platteville is one of those anchor points in the district where it's not only critical to the economy in the district, but just the culture.

I mean, so many people live and work in that area because of UW Platteville.

And I think when you're talking about funding for our UW System,

Yes, there was money put into the budget for the UW system, but there was also items that were put in there that the state legislature is now making mandates of our professors.

And when you think about who knows best how to manage workload, how to run a university, it's probably the people in that university.

I mean, the legislature needs to have oversight over these things, for sure.

We provide a significant amount of funding.

when the legislature is now focusing more on how to manage the professors and less on what they're doing to support that university as far as attracting more folks, as far as being continuing to be in our whole UW system as a premier system.

And so continuing to be that premier system, I think that's where you're kind of missing the mark on what the UW system, UW Platteville specifically needs.

And we need to reevaluate.

what we're doing.

I want to talk to and we'll give we're talking with Jenna Jacobson, state representative in the 50th assembly assembly district to announce she's going to take on incumbent Republican Senator Howard Markline in next year's election.

The 17th Senate District before the new maps, new lines, but even still, it's one of the geographically largest Senate districts in the state of Wisconsin, and I would argue one of the most diverse.

As someone who grew up in Southwest Wisconsin, when you go along some of those river towns on the Mississippi River and Crawford County, and what they're struggling with, and then you look at the more Tony suburbs of like Oregon, and then down to Monroe, Wisconsin, which is a very vibrant community, yes, there's a lot of, and you go to

Dickieville and in Grant County and in places in between.

A lot of things bind us together, representative, but also they're unique communities.

How do you intend to work with and bring this large Senate district?

How do you relate to everybody as their representative?

think the biggest thing is getting out and talking to people and I've already started that before I announced I wanted to reach out to folks around the district and talk to them find out what their needs are what they would like their next state senator to be prioritizing and and really getting in touch with the folks that are that are doing the work to support their communities every day and so that is the main focus of my campaign is to

really get out and talk to folks because you're right there.

There's it is an incredibly diverse district.

There is a lot of different things going on.

You have part of the driftless area.

You have, you know, suburbs of Madison all over the district.

You have very different needs.

But I think when we look at some of the unifying needs of the district, it's also making sure you have a state legislature that is responding to their needs, making sure that their state senator is hearing what their concerns are and responding to that.

that is engaging with them in a way that isn't just comfortable for the state senator, but is actually engaging with people in the district, whether that's, so not just the parades, but actually, you know, having a conversation folks, getting out there and talking to people.

And again, it might be an uncomfortable conversation, but you need to have those conversations.

You need to be able to listen to what the people are wanting you to do and be able to respond appropriately, no matter

where they are in the district, and I think that's a big unifier of the 17th.

I couldn't agree with you more.

As someone who I helped run a lot of races in the 17th district and grew up there, I think you nailed it, Representative, with that answer, is that this is a district where you have got to show up.

and you've got to listen to the good and the bad because you'll earn people's respect.

And I've said on this program before, one of the greatest regrets in my political life was helping campaign for Howard Markline when he ran for the state legislature and the assembly because he bamboozled a lot of people, including me.

And he said he was gonna do one thing and I stood there a couple of years ago at my hometown Richland Center when UW Richland was facing closure and he looked people in the eye as the co-chair of the joint finance committee and said, well,

There's not that I can do.

I really don't have that much power.

And I think that's deplorable, quite frankly.

Can you stick around through the break and want to ask a couple more questions?

Sure.

All right.

State Representative Jenna Jacobson is with us here.

She is running against Howard Marklein.

I'm going to wrap up with her.

We'll wrap up the show after this.

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Right now we are joined on the phone by representative, state representative, Jenna Jacobson, Democrat of Oregon, who represents the 50th Assembly District announced this morning she is taking on a Republican incumbent Senator Howard Marklein in the 17th Senate District, the newly redrawn line.

Representative, thank you for sticking through the break there.

I just got done saying, look, I'm a guy who doesn't pull any punches.

I'm a former Republicans, but 30 years of the party.

I left in 2011.

I'm a person who went out and did doors for Howard Markline.

When he first ran for state assembly, I drove through a snowstorm to get to Sauk City to his inauguration and then watched the guy just turn into something that I did.

didn't vote for, and I did campaign for, and I think you nailed it before the break representative, when you said one of the keys to this campaign is getting, and being a great representative, a great legislator, is getting out and meeting with folks, regardless of whether you agree with them or not, because that earns their trust.

I'm here to tell you, as someone who grew up in this district, well, the old district, but knows this district very well, you nailed it, because if people don't know how much you care, they're not gonna care.

how much you know.

Yeah, I agree.

I agree.

And I think that's interesting.

You probably knocked on my door back when you were doing that stuff because I lived in Barnabelle at the time.

Oh, I'm sure I did then.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think that's the biggest unifier in this district is people want to make sure that they're heard.

And I think everybody understands that you can't have everything.

You can't have the world.

But to understand that you have somebody who's fighting for you and who's

cares about your values and what you're trying to do, I think is critical to not just this district, but being a good representative.

I love to have you back on the show and get more into this because I understand some of the playbook, they're gonna run against you.

I think from everything I've heard today, you're perfectly prepared and ready to take this on.

I wanna hear just a couple of minutes here about, I love this experience you have in local government.

as a member of the village board in Oregon, because I think one of the undertold stories that I've, what they do, what Howard does, I'm sorry, I should be more respectful, Senator Marklein is, he comes to Madison and he votes against the interests of his district, local municipalities, and then he goes back to his district, and Richard and Senator, we call it, he good old boys, yeah.

In other words, he comes back and he has that aw-shuck smile and wears blue jeans, and he says, well, you know, I'm down there in the cesspool of Madison, there's just nothing I can do.

Talk about what in this budget and in a leading up to it as a local elected official, how the state budget, how state Republicans have left you folks in local government short.

Yeah.

Well, not on the village board anymore, but I'm still very connected not only to the ordinance.

But your experience, yeah.

Yeah, other village boards and city councils.

And I think time and again, the thing that I'm hearing is.

If they're going to give you more money, then it comes with strings.

And while certainly, again, the legislature has oversight over the money they're spending and we need to be responsible with taxpayer dollars, I don't think anybody disagrees with that.

I use the shared revenue bill that came through last session as an example of we got much needed.

additional funding for communities, but yet they also took away the ability for you to have a non-binding referendum.

And so many communities, ATV-UTV usage is something that's huge in my district, and so many communities were using those non-binding referendums to get feedback from their voters about how you felt about using ATV-UTVs on your roads, and now you can't do that.

And so taking away people's voice in exchange for additional funding to fund your community is an unfair position to put anybody into.

And yet that was the reality of that, that shared revenue for a lot of a lot of the communities in my district.

And, you know, I always go back to perhaps we should just be funding our communities like we're supposed to rather than playing these kind of political games and saying, well, you can have some money as long as we don't need, don't have to hear about.

your non-binding referendum on marijuana legalization or fair maps or whatever it happens to be.

And I think that a lot of those trade-offs are some of the frustrations of folks in local government.

Absolutely.

And when I was coming up, you know, my former party talked about, you know, it's all about local control and nobody usurped local control more than former Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans at the time.

But a minute left, what have I not asked you, Representative Jacobson, that you want people to know?

I think what I really would like people to take away from not only this conversation, but my candidacy is that I do want to hear from folks when you see me out and about, feel free to come say hello, share with me your thoughts, email me.

I still, in the assembly, I am the person that writes back to all of my constituents.

It takes me a little while sometimes to get back to folks, but I'm the one writing those emails.

That's important to me.

It's important that I have good communication with the folks in my district.

So I think that for me, the biggest takeaway is we have a, you know, there's a long time between now and November of 2026, but I hope to have vigorous conversations with people around the district about what you want to see in your next state senator and how we can be supporting your community, your schools and your local hospitals.

the things that you need to stay to be working on.

And how quickly, how can people get to contact with your campaign?

Best way is jenniforwisconsin.com.

Jenna for Wisconsin's, F-O-R.

Yeah,

Jennifer, Wisconsin dot com representative.

I can't thank you enough I think you're great and we've never met before but just this conversation I think this is exactly kind of candidate that Democrats need in the 17 Senate district you're welcome back here and just for the record I have invited our senator Howard Markline in this program numerous times and every time Howie says quote I just don't have time unquote so representative.

Thank you for having time for us.

I appreciate you

Thank you for having me.

I look forward to coming back.

Absolutely.

Anytime.

State Representative Jenna Jacobson, great candidate in the 17th Senate District.

Many thanks to Senator Keller-Royce as well.

And Zomera State too, Matt Ross trials next.

Keep banging your drum.

We'll see you tomorrow.

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