Transcript
Jay Rothman Isn’t Done Demolishing The Wisconsin Idea (Hour 1)
The Todd Allbaugh Show · Thu Nov 6, 2025
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Good afternoon, everybody.
Tyler Maw, along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer on the board.
It is Thursday, November 6th, 2025.
It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.
Welcome in, everybody, at the intersection of state and fair child downtown Madison at the Old Civic Media World Headquarter.
Glad to have you along with us on a Thursday, an overcast fall day.
Mr. Zommers, I would call it a typical fall afternoon.
Is that fair?
I would agree.
I would agree.
Think we have certainly arrived in
Yes, it is absolutely jacket weather as we take a look at the old Sam Davidson Street cam down there on State Street a little fuzzy I'm not sure if it's the camera lens or the window maybe a pigeon we had last year you remember a bird We had a malted feathers all over the window.
I hope that wasn't the case.
I hope we have not sacrificed a bird here But you know the windmills it's all the way
It's the windmills.
The windmills and the sharks.
Exactly right.
So anyway, but no, it's a nice day.
Went over to Wunderstake a little coffee.
It's a little jacket weather, as we're fond of saying, but whatever you're doing today in Wisconsin, enjoy it.
Get out there again.
Snow coming.
I don't think anything super major.
We're not talking a half a foot or anything, but maybe a dusting.
We'll see, as we used to say, enough to track a cat.
You ever use that phrase, summers?
I
I have.
pretty sure I already know it.
It was just a tantism for Mitchell and Center.
All right.
Yeah, that's what we used to say growing up.
Is there enough to track the cat?
Is there enough, like, on the sidewalk where if a cat walked through, you can see the footprints?
So we may get a little bit of that, but the main thing, going to get cold.
cold this weekend.
So be prepared for that temperatures.
I think we're going to bounce back a little bit next week, but maybe not to the degree of which we've been seeing.
It's been a very nice fall across the, uh, the state of Wisconsin.
Big show.
Hope you stay with us coming up at the bottom of the hour after the farm news report with Pam Yankee Midwest farm report.
We have, uh, Mr. Dan Schaefer, the political editor of civic media and the founder of the recombobulation area.
And boy, howdy is there a.
to re-cobobulate about Dan's gonna be in to give his thoughts on the elections and other places this past Tuesday.
What it means in terms of folks running in the state of Wisconsin in 2026 also going to take a little peek at the old Marquette Law School poll and I want to look at issues that Dan because he highlighted this and not everybody was looking at the the sexy head-to-head numbers for candidates which turned out to be not that politically sexy at all.
But there was more information that Marquette law school poll on issues and Dan pointed this out I want to go through this with him and again what it means in terms of Wisconsin politics Also, perhaps talk a little bit about whether Mandela Barnes former Democratic lieutenant governor is gonna get in this race for Wisconsin governor this time and also nobody knows Milwaukee better
that our own Dan Schaefer.
He is Milwaukee through and through.
So we'll check in with Dan on how the city is doing after baseball season.
Are they are they've settled into Bucks basketball now?
Are they are they no longer fearful that Yannis is going to bolt?
And what else is happening in Dan Schaefer's life?
So it's always fun.
It's like sitting down for for a cup of coffee or a glass of bourbon with your favorite friend who knows everything and could just explain it easily.
it.
What is it?
Recombobulating.
Yeah,
We'll recompobulate with Dan Sheafer at the bottom of the hour.
Our two Wisconsin fun fact, a little egg edition of what's worse in our number two.
Also going to tell you which airports that Donald Trump and Sean Duffy star of the real world.
who is now the secretary of transportation.
True story.
They're reducing capacity at some airports.
But there is one group of travelers that will not be affected.
We'll tell you who it is and we'll find out whether you are one.
We'll also give you news you can use, recommendations for if you do have to travel over the next few days as the federal government continues the longest shutdown in governmental history.
Republicans just remember.
My former party, which I left in 2011, controls the Congress, both houses, the House and the Senate.
They control the presidency.
And for all intent and purposes, they control the Supreme Court.
But yet the government remains shut down.
Folks are not getting paid.
Food stamps have been cut off.
People are going hungry.
But here's the good news.
We in Wisconsin are not buying into all the crap.
going in DC like we always do.
We're taking the bull by the horns and so proud and so thankful for all the great Wisconsinites who are stepping up to the food pantries, who are donating, who are donating money, who are donating resources, who are donating to the humane shelters because a lot of people can't afford to either keep or feed their pets in these times.
So Wisconsinites are doing what we always do.
We say the heck with what's going on, those goofballs in DC, we're gonna take care of our own and encourage each and every one of you to continue to do that.
Also shout out before I forget to WFHR, who's celebrating their 85th anniversary this weekend.
Great folks up there, we did the show up there again a month or so ago, maybe two months.
It's just a great group of people, WFHR, Wisconsin Rapids, their local folks who are committed to their community.
And I'm so proud of them.
I'm so thankful to call them colleagues.
So congratulations to all of them.
And tomorrow we're going to be speaking of another great war rural station in our network.
Going to be at WRCE WRCO talking about the driftless economy.
So hope you will join us then.
Here is where I want to start today.
And look, I just back when I used to be in politics.
And I guess summers, maybe to a degree, I still get myself in a little trouble.
I tend to get myself, I guess you would call it good trouble, as John Lewis used to say, because I ask questions.
I say, well, I just, I'm just asking questions.
You understand?
That's all I want.
I've just got questions.
any means.
by ask questions.
And for those of you who have been in this program, since it came on the air, it'll be three years next week.
After about a month, we were on the air, so not even, not even.
We got word from the then new president of the UW system, Jay Rothman, that they were going to close my alma mater, UW Richland in Southwest Wisconsin.
and we ended up doing a three hour or three hours at that time.
We did a three hour on location show out there.
And thus began, look, I didn't plan this, I didn't ask for it, but because something I know something about, and I care, I know a lot of people within UW System, know a lot of people still at the Capitol, I started asking questions.
So we've been doing a ongoing three year investigation of the University of Wisconsin system.
Now they go by the University of Wisconsin.
I just refused to call it by that name.
It is still UW system Since that time, what are we up to down as our six or seven of the 13 two-year campuses have closed?
We saw the attempt by Republicans in the legislature to take away 87 million dollars from UW system During the budget process we helped shine a little light on that and the cuts thankfully were not
as much.
And I've said this before, I want to make it clear up front.
I am not here to say that there are no efficiencies to be found in UW System.
There are, like almost any part of state government.
But what bothers me about this issue is like so many things in our state when it comes to government, the lack of transparency.
Things happening behind closed doors without explanation The University of Wisconsin system is a public University.
It's a you to be a Madison is a land grant University goes all the way back to President Abraham Lincoln Signing signing the land grant act giving monies to states for schools particularly in agriculture and affordability and raising people's educational levels as a land grant University that people are meant to be involved
And yet under this president, Jay Rothman, this Board of Regents, now the majority of whom have been nominated and confirmed, nominated by Democratic Governor Tony Evers and confirmed by the Senate, lack of transparency.
And I've said before in this program that some of our best reporting in the state is coming from student newspapers.
And these, I don't think they should be called student journalists, they're just journalists who happen to be in a student newspaper.
And so I wanna refer to a couple of stories, I'm gonna give you before the half hour is out an action item, because there is something being covered up that's coming up this month that you, the public of the state of Wisconsin should know about, and you can participate.
And all I am left with is the assumption, because nobody else can be answers on this, is the assumption that the Board of Regents,
and Jay Rothman do not want you to know this because they have buried it in a memo online.
There is a special meeting of the Board of Regents coming up this month that could determine the future of the remainder of the two-year campuses in the state and lead to the legislature controlling the curriculum for every university, two and four.
year across the state So I'll break this down for you a little bit here This comes to us from the spectator news Spectator news if you're not familiar it is the student newspaper at the University of Eau Claire
Headline Board of Regents proposes general education requirements across universities of Wisconsin.
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin system has proposed a new policy as a result of provisions in the 2025-27 biennial budget.
According to a UW Press release, this policy will establish, quote, listen to this, quote, a student-friendly approach.
to transfer that will guarantee that core general educational credits earned at one UW University will transfer and apply towards graduation requirements at another UW University."
Doesn't that sound nice?
How nice is that?
Oh, this is very nice.
Your credits will transfer.
Back to the story core general education requirements better known as C G E R stay with me Are the courses outside of students major and minor requirements needed for graduation?
the region policy has proposed proposed the general entry educational requirements as six
broad categories with a requirement of at least 10 to 12 courses and 30 to 36 credit hours.
Let me break this down in real terms for you.
I mean, the reporters doing a great job.
But I understand you're going to tune out real quick because you're going to be like, Todd, I don't know what the hell this means.
And I don't blame you.
What the border regions, i.e.
and Jay Rothman are proposing on the 17th floor of an I, as I refer to that because that's where the president's office is, the 17th floor.
that they're going to change it now so that all four years have to offer essentially the same general ad requirements and they're gonna break these up into six buckets, we'll call them.
And you think, well, what's wrong with that Todd?
On its face, nothing.
But when you look into this, what they're doing is they are setting it up to put the final nail in the coffin
of every remaining two-year campus in this state.
Three years ago, I sat in Richland Center, and I said, this is the canary in the coal mine.
If we don't do something about this, every two-year university will be gone, and it is my belief, based on my reporting, that it is about to happen.
I will tell you why, and the connection, and put the dots together on the other side, as the title will show in the Civic Media Random.
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truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.
Welcome back to the title of the show on the Civic Media Ready Network 22 now past the hour of two o'clock on Thursday, November 6th, 2025, after the bottom of the hour farm news update with Pam Yankee will recapobulate our friend, contributor and colleague, Dan Schaefer, political editor of Civic Media, founder of the Recombobulation area will be along to talk politics and anything else that Dan wants to talk about right now.
Talking about the hot news story.
Off the presses not gonna find this a lot of places.
I Just like to ask a lot of questions People get annoyed by me and I understand that believe me because why does why does all ball ask so many questions?
This is just the first chapter by the way of our
of this next chapter, first part of the next chapter, we've been looking into this for over three years.
Ever since UW Richland, the two-year campus there was announced by Jay Rothman, president of the system, he was closing it down.
By the way, Rothman never set foot in Richland County, never talked to anybody on campus, never talked to a county elected official.
He sent his flack, Jeff Burrant, who I used to work with on the other side of the aisle to take Capitol, nice guy, and Burrant was sent out there to a group of about 200 people.
And after the meeting, I said, Jeff, I said, so just level with me.
What's going on here?
I said, first of all, there is a million dollars I heard missing from the foundation allegedly at UW-Platteville.
And he looked at me and he said, how do you know about that?
I said, was it true?
And he started sweating profusely.
He sweats a lot anyway.
But he's funny even more and then I said I said why is why is Rothman doing this?
Why won't he come and he just turned on his heel walked out to the the parking lot and I followed him not to threaten you I said Jeff we've worked together answer the question if you want your boss to come on I'd love to have Jay Rothman on and never heard back
And this is what bothers me about this new reporting that we're talking about from the spectatornews.com at UW Eau Claire entitled border regions proposes general ed requirements across the universities of Wisconsin.
At first it sounds like a great idea, but you have to know history as our friend Matt Flynn is fond of saying, you're not woke.
If you don't know history, you're not woke until and unless you know history.
The history on the UW system.
My grandmother was the first woman to be a dean to your system.
So they started off basically like they are today satellites of the four-year colleges Then they broke away the 13 two years into their own college with their own chancellor and the idea was they would have Their own degree the associate degree a two-year degree and if you got that that would be recognized as meeting all general ed requirements Throughout UW system including Madison
And then, as long as you have the grade point, you could transfer to a four year and finish up.
So it was more affordable to stay at home for your first two years and then transfer.
It's one of the main points of the two year colleges.
And now six or seven are gone.
And what I believe in my reporting, asking questions with, look, I got people, people like to do this.
People don't like to go on the record, but they say, well, Todd, you should really look into this.
I'm like, all right, I'll look into it.
I know a lot of people look at it all over the state.
And I'm not bragging about it, by the way, I'm just letting you know that this is just not Todd waking up one day.
Oh, what can I blow my mouth off about today?
No, no, no, this is based on actual conversations.
I believe that was being proposed by the Board of Regions in what is going to be, try to be a secret meeting coming up on November 19th.
They want to pass this so that Jay Rothman then can say, oh, look.
Now you can go to any four-year and and they have all the same general ad requirements So we no longer need the two-year colleges and he will use this as The final nail the coffin to close the remainder of the two-year colleges and hold your hats and hallelujahs as they said in gypsy
Instead of mama's gonna do it to you, Jay Rothman's gonna do it to you because reporting that I am now hearing or in conversations that I have heard that now they are prepared to target initial four year campuses for closure in this state and superior year up first.
So if you didn't think this was real, it's about to get real.
We'll talk more about this on if not tomorrow on Monday this great article and the spectator There's also a great op-ed in the daily Cardinal as well today by a professor of humanities Katie Thompson Say that members of the UW Madison community as a member I am deeply concerned about the proposed changes to the universities of Wisconsin general and requirements outlined
If this isn't minutiae, I don't know what is, in a region, region policy document, RPD for X. I mean, how, how much more can they hide this?
These changes, Professor Thompson writes, if implemented would not only undermine the quality of disaffectiveness of UW Madison education, but also negatively impact students, academic preparation, equality and future opportunities.
And that leads us to the second part.
In this budget that Republicans passed at Evers signed, there is a piece in this to put it in layman's terms that talks about professor workloads.
Oh, we don't we don't want the taxpayer to get cheated because professors aren't working hard enough.
And so we want regulation over that.
Well, what they don't talk about is UW Madison and Milwaukee are two research universities in the state, and they bring in dollars to take a sabbatical to do research for a year or two years at a time.
And so the workloads are different.
But this is the initial cusp, what was passed by the legislature and signed by Evers to start manipulating curriculum.
And the Republicans want to move that curriculum to the right and make it less liberal art studies, not liberal like political, but a liberal like is in, hey, learn a little bit about something, everything.
And here's the kicker.
If you go on the University of Wisconsin site, not Madison, but UW System site, there is nothing on here.
I'm holding it right here about this meeting until you get down to like this 9th, 10th question.
It says, what is the role of the region's process?
And buried in here it says, the board will consider RPD4X at a special meeting November 19th.
It is not public knowledge yet, but we're making it public.
Hold your hats and hallelujahs, Jay Rothman.
Toddy's gonna do it to ya.
We're coming for ya.
We'll let the public know.
Dan Schaefer is next.
Milwaukee's best.
It's a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.
Hey man, 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.
You think about
area.
Everybody needs a recapabulation area.
Welcome back to the title ball show of the Civic Media Ready Network 35.
Now past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, November 6th, 2025.
Glad to have you along.
I've been a little hot this last half hour because it's an issue that I care deeply about.
One might say after the last 30 minutes, I'm a bit discombobulated, but no one better to recapabulate with than the political editor of Civic Media and the founder of the recapabulation area.
find all of his work and the other great people there at TheRecapobulationArea.News, the one, the only, Mr. Milwaukee, Dan Shafer.
Todd Alba, wonderful to join you.
What an introduction.
Thank you so much.
The audio intro, the everything else, always wonderful to join you here on the Todd Alba show.
Well, we appreciate it.
Lots to get to today.
And I just want to wrap up something that we have been talking about this last half hour and get your quick take on it.
And it
is rather discombobulating, I must say.
Thank you.
It's very discombobulating to me.
So just to quickly reset in case you're just joining us, there is new reporting.
And I think Dan, you'll
you'll appreciate this.
I like to say student journalists in the state should just be called journalists who work for a student newspaper because these folks are great.
And there's some great new reporting by Isabella Matzik, the chief copy editor at The Spectator, which is the EW Eau Claire newspaper on this issue on the border regions.
Also at the Daily Cardinal today, there is a op-ed by Katie Thompson, professor of humanities.
And the quick version is that
As a part of the biennial budget that was passed by the Republican legislature and signed by Democratic Governor Tony Evers, they are looking at redoing both curriculum and now President Jay Rothman of UW System along with the border regions wants to redo the general ed requirements saying that the four years essentially to put it really simplistically are going to offer essentially the same general ed requirements so that you can transfer to another
four-year school and just start your major, which on its face, most people are going to say, great.
The issue I have is that the history of the two-year colleges in the state, that was one of their core purposes.
That you could stay closer to home or live at home for two years, cheaper, buy a high quality education, get your associate degree, which also met all general ed requirements and then transferred to any four-year.
Day and I feel this will be the final nail in the coffin for the two years and reporting, I'm now hearing sources across the system that keyword may, the UW Regents and J. Roffen may be now also considering closing four-year colleges, universities of the state, with Superior and Parkside being the most vulnerable.
Have you heard anything about this?
And why have we not heard more about this if you haven't?
Well, I haven't heard that much about this.
The UW system is not something that I spend a lot of reporting on in my day-to-day.
However, I listen to the Todd Alba show.
So I have been very aware of what's been happening with two-year colleges across the state because of it.
And I do think it's a real problem.
And I do think it has been something that has flown under the radar as a major issue in Wisconsin, the closure of these two-year campuses.
I think you've touched on this a lot.
It's just a different way for people from different parts of the state to have pathways to a career, to a college education, whatever it might be.
It's like a national issue to talk about rural parts of Wisconsin or places in the state that have been economically looked over or fallen behind.
two-year colleges can provide a pathway to some economic mobility for people and so I think closing them is yet another challenge that you know some of these parts of the state that have faced some economic instability in recent years are it's not making things better that's for sure and I think the way that you've outlined this too with with how
You know, I was listening before joining here.
You're talking about how this is just kind of like, it's coming up in student media.
It's coming up in, you know, it's not like a highlighted thing or a press conference or anything like that.
You know, I think it warrants more of a conversation.
I think you're absolutely right about this.
I appreciate that.
And really that's what I'm doing right now.
Just asking a lot of questions.
I know I annoy people.
You know that better than anybody else when I ask questions.
And I like to ask questions.
And here's that I'll just two more quick points on this.
From UW System or University of Wisconsin own website, it says, you know, Act 15, core general education requirements and transfer work groups, their purpose, their work group membership updates and way down in the Q part questions.
It says, what is the role of the Regents in this purpose?
And buried Dan in the fourth sentence.
It says, and it is anticipated the board will consider RPD four dash X at a special meeting on November.
19th, which is not public knowledge yet and is flying way under the radar.
And oh, by the way, the period that the border regions and J Rothman set for public comment on this for the general ed transfer policy and workload policy, the general ed comment is open until.
Oh, wait, that closed on November 6th.
The workload policy general comment period is open until the ninth, which is Sunday.
Why let me put this the way Dan You know Powell to expand anybody I know in this state and if there's political hay to be made somebody's gonna make it and yet Tony Evers who has now nominated the majority of Regents who put this guy in place Jay Rothman Here was his response what Zombers a year ago.
This is as much as Tony Evers has said about Jay Rothman
January 30th, 2024.
Here's what Governor Evers said about President Jay Rothman.
Doing the best job possible, Dan Schaefer.
Now, what does that remind you of in political history?
What could pot- Oh, Hurricane Katrina, Zomers?
Again, I want to thank you all for- And Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.
Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job!
I mean, the similarities are crazy, Dan Schaefer.
There's I didn't know that was the George W. Bush quote you're going to pull to the yeah, there is there are some similarities there That's for sure You know criticizing the job being done and then saying the heck the guy is doing the job is doing a heck of a job.
Oh boy Now I'm just gonna populate it all over again
time But your quick take on this Doesn't it strike you as odd?
that the Democrats aren't using this to go after Republicans and say, they're not funding this.
This is why we're closing campuses.
It's all quiet.
And on the other side, Robin Voss is not holding press conferences, you know, standing at the podium and saying, once again, we have decided to close woke dens of indoctrination, and this is our job.
You don't hear that, Dan.
As much as I love to hear your Robin Voss impression, you're right.
You're absolutely right that, like, there is...
you know it's funny some issues don't cut across traditional partisan lines and i think you know typically school funding u w funding has been you know okay republicans want to cut funding for education and democrats want to add funding for education this one is a little bit different right so so i think there is
you know, it's kind of like the data center's issue.
It doesn't cut across traditional political lines.
And I think that sometimes paralyzes these politicians into thinking, oh, wait, we got to figure out what everybody's supposed to be saying about this before I weigh in and have actual principles or convictions and say something about it.
I think there's an opening here.
I would like to hear the candidates running for governor asked about this as well.
100% we're going to transition into that.
Just a second, Zommer's doing Nealman's work said, Todd, you
we're gonna remind listeners for an action item.
Yes, call your state senator, call your state assembly person, call the governor's office, call the 17th floor of Van Nuys, J. Rothman's office, and say, make this information public.
The comments that are here, by the way, are not even public.
You can't even go online and see what the public is saying in the public comments.
And there is something deeply disturbing to me.
I don't care which side of the aisle you're talking about, when it is a public institution run by taxpayer money, and the public can't be involved.
Oh, and they do this.
I mean, I've done a lot of reporting about the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
They do the same thing.
They ask for public comment, and then they make it so that you have to.
put in a public records request to see any of those public comments when they should just be public to begin with.
Get rid of these barriers.
Be open and transparent with these things.
Let's go very quickly.
Jack, we're up against the clock.
I know you wanted to say something quickly about UW System.
Jack and Merrimack and WMDX.
Jack, if you can make it quick, please go ahead.
OK.
When I started going to school, admittedly in the dark ages, tuition was $312.
Wow.
Now, when my son graduated,
It was $10,000 a year.
The second thing is, apparently, this still isn't enough to shut enough people out of a good quality public education, so now they're going to start to close the campuses to shut even more people out.
These Republicans are an outrage to public education and, in fact, to the security of our country because
lot of these smaller schools graduate people that
build our technology base, biotech, they might even be in weapons development.
The point is that we can't keep cutting back university education for the masses of people and only reserving it to the very rich.
Appreciate the call, Jack.
Thank you very much.
Dan, Jack makes a great point.
These are also economic drivers for these communities in which these universities are.
And I think if we transition to the elections from this last Tuesday, voters seem to be talking about economics and what's happening in their
wallets.
That's for sure the economy isn't great right now.
We had some bad economic news this morning about some like one of the worst months for job cuts that we've seen in quite some time and Yeah, I think you know, I know we're gonna talk a little bit about what we can learn from
those results across the country on
can learn here in Wisconsin.
We had a rare day off from elections.
So we got to watch everybody else freak out for once and not be have to be part of it ourselves.
But I think that's, you know, it's certainly a big story to talk about that being one of the top issues to come out of the election.
And I think there's a lot of frustration with the current administration and the economy in particular.
Trump had really strong marks on the economy in his first term.
That is not the case right now.
That is not the case.
People are very much against tariffs.
We saw that in the polling from the Marquette University Law School last week, too.
Wisconsin voters are very much against tariffs.
They recognize that these are raising prices for Wisconsin farmers and other folks in business.
So I think that's going to continue to be a major issue going forward.
We're talking to Dan Schaefer, political editor at Civic Media, founder of the Reconpopulation Area.
Dan, a couple of minutes left here in this segment, but you put out a tweet after that Marquette poll.
you always get the nuance, which is one of the many things I appreciate about you, because the head to head to the candidates, it was like whatever, but there was one of the tweets you put out on the issues and how that ranked.
Talk a couple of minutes about that.
Yeah, so I write a recap of all of the different Marquette University Law School poll results.
And, you know, they rank the issues.
And I think it's instructive here to look at this in just kind of like the one year out from the midterms context.
But, you know, inflation and the cost of living was a major issue throughout Biden's first term or Biden's term, Biden's presidency.
And it ranks very much as the top issue concern.
Nearly 70% of voters say inflation and the cost of living is
is very concerning and 27% of voters that higher than any other issue say it continues to be the most important issue.
So we'll look to that I think going forward a whole lot.
When we come back, Dan will tell us in Cordia Marquette Law School what is the least important issue.
It might surprise you and why it might spell trouble for Republicans in 2026.
We'll recapobulate with a master of recapobulation.
Dan Schaefer with more after this on the Cinec Media Radio.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,
civicmedia.us.
or over easy.
The hard questions here, they all show in hour number two.
And also news you can use if you're gonna be traveling, how can you get through these tough times?
We'll also break down a list of the 40 airports that real world star Sean Duffy says they are going to throttle back.
And so he held a press conference, not just in his underpants, like on Real World, but in a full suit.
And so we'll go over that in hour number two.
Always suited up and ready to go.
The founder of the Reconbibulation Area, our political editor at Civic Media.
You can find all of his work at thereconbibulationarea.news, the one and the only Dan Schaefer.
Gonna be busy at the Reconbibulation Area at General Mitchell Field.
It's get well luckily Milwaukee's airport is not on John Duffy's list of 40 We noted this in today's edition of specific media today.
Go subscribe
as well But noted that none of the Wisconsin airports are part of this list of 40 for you know, you know cutting back the number of flights or whatever it might be so Still some still you're still able to recombobulate at the Milwaukee Airport
very good
Despite this ongoing
shot.
We should give a shout out to Ron John
Johnson and Tom Tiffany, they don't have the power to get flood relief, FEMA relief for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but by God, they can keep the airports open.
For now.
For now.
Before the break, Dan, we were talking about the Marquette Law School poll that came out last week.
You broke this down in a tweet.
Issues before the break, we were talking about that people across the state are important to them, which seems to favor the Democrats.
Tell us some of the issues according to this poll that are not so hot in voters' minds and how that can play out in 2026.
Yeah, so this ranking of the most important issue we talked about before the breakout inflation and the cost of living is by far the number one issue for people right now.
But they had, you know, a number of other things, health insurance, jobs in the economy, gun violence, abortion policy, whatever it might be.
Ranking last on this list of 10 different items is crime in your community.
And now I think this is interesting because the way Marquette pulled it a little bit differently than it typically does.
If you just say crime, it's one thing.
But if you say crime in your community, then you have fewer people saying it's a most important issue.
You see this on a number of times in the Marquette poll where people might be broadly not supportive of public schools, perhaps.
But when you ask about your public school, people are very supportive of it.
And I think it's a similar type of thing about crime in your community here.
You say crime might be a problem more broadly.
points of things that might happen in Milwaukee, but crime generally is different than saying crime in where you live.
Absolutely, and now we transition into 2026, of course, the Supreme Court race in April, but then these legislative races, Democrats, Dan Schaefer, I think they have a shot at the Senate.
How do you see this shaping up a year out?
Well, I think the Tuesday results, you know, we can look at what happened in New York City.
We can look at the governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia.
But I want to look it to the Virginia House of Delegates.
As old as Dan
Schaffer can, go ahead.
That's right.
So in the Virginia House of Delegates, Democrats went from 51 seats, a slight majority in their 100 seat chamber there, to 64 seats.
So the down ballot impact of what's happening nationally, you know, obviously Virginia, there's a lot of federal workers that are going to be impacted by the shutdown.
So that's one thing.
But I think that also tells us that if we are looking ahead to Wisconsin's midterm, I think there is a real actual chance that Democrats could win a trifecta in the upcoming midterms.
If Virginia is able to get to a near supermajority status, Democrats, they're able to get to
in your supermajority status.
I think Republicans in Wisconsin could win a majority.
I think they might be the favorites in the Senate.
I think the assembly is a little bit tougher, but all they would have to do in the Senate is flip two seats that were won by Kamala Harris last year, and they would be able to win the majority in the Senate.
And then in the assembly down ballot,
Again, if you're looking at the down ballot impact of what's happening at the national level, history tells us that the party that's not in the White House is going to do better in the midterms.
If that could be a seismic change for Wisconsin government, if Democrats can get themselves together and really compete for a trifecta right now, because the opportunity is there.
We had State Senator Kelder Royce, one of the Democratic candidates for governor here yesterday, caller in Appleton, Cindy called in and said, I hope based on
the results nationwide Tuesday that, quote, Democrats don't get cocky, unquote, in Wisconsin, she meant.
And Senator Royce sat right here as a Democrat and said, I couldn't agree more.
And that isn't one of the lessons, Dan, especially in these gubernatorial races.
Forget the social issues.
Stick to the pocketbook issues and things that really matter to voters.
Yeah, I think you know you don't want to ignore issues entirely But I don't think you want to overemphasize anything that's not the number one issue And I think we're seeing in the polling and across the board here is the economy continues to struggle
That's the number one issue, affordability, inflation, the economy.
There's so many issues tied to that.
I think we saw health insurance and housing show up in the Marquette University Law School poll as major issues of concern for people as well.
So I think you're right.
They can't be complacent by any means, but it has to be some encouraging results from Tuesday.
People can use a little hope.
Looking ahead, hope
is a good thing.
As Jesse Jackson said at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, keep hope alive.
Love that speech, love that line.
Quick speed round, former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, Democrat, in or out of the race.
Seems like he's probably headed towards getting into the race.
We will see.
I think he has said that he wants to make a decision before the end of the month here, so stay tuned.
But all signs pointing to him running at this point.
As you look, Dan, at
Well, I'm not gonna ask any more political questions.
Is Milwaukee finally calmed down and content that Yanis isn't going anywhere?
Are people just, I see all the speculation and I think he's fine, he's fine.
He's fine.
It's also overblown.
All the nonsense in the offseason about Yanis.
He loves Milwaukee.
He loves the Bucks.
They're off to a good start this season.
I'm excited for tomorrow night's game.
They're hosting the Chicago Bulls who have had off to a good start.
We rarely have the Bulls and the Bucks good at the same time.
The Bulls haven't been good in a while.
Maybe they'll both be good.
We'll have another regional rivalry, rivalry like we did with Brewers Cubs also.
Not only good, but great.
Dan Shaver, you can catch him at the Recon Modulation Area.News.
Back after this.
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