Congressman Glenn Grossman is running for re-election this November 3rd.
He joins us now.
Good morning, Glenn.
Good morning.
Which term would this be for you?
We're running for my seventh term.
You know, we're establishing more contacts and Washington all the time.
I think on my signature issue, which is welfare reform, we've had discussions with Vice President Bantz and hopefully that will bear fruit in the next term.
Okay.
You've got a number of opponents this time and Democrat and I think a couple of independence, don't you?
Right.
Kind of interesting.
There are four people to pick from other than myself.
So, and they're all campaigning to a variety of degrees.
I mean, I've seen them all in the campaign trail.
So plenty of people to pick from.
Okay.
So I'm going to ask this one right out of the gate.
President Trump's been talking a little bit about term limits.
uh... where are you at with that
well i'll tell you when i was in the state legislature my most productive years for my final years uh... every year you learn more about this job congress is a lot tougher job in state legislature so if the people want to remove me they can remove me but uh... i feel that i'm more effective now than i was two years ago and i'll be more effective two years from now that i am right now
The big question is, have you lost your enthusiasm?
And I've been enthusiastic because I run this job.
I hope that comes across on the interview today.
It certainly comes across the number of appearances I make around the district.
And I think it comes across because I'm on four committees in Washington, which is almost unprecedented.
So I have a huge workload there.
I have a huge workload here.
Okay.
Should Congress have a role with artificial intelligence and data centers?
Well, we did pass a bill already on data centers out of the house, so I'm a co-sponsor of the bill.
We were trying to force the data centers to pay for any infrastructure costs that have to be applied.
Sadly, I don't mean to be partisan here.
It got to the
Senate,
and after the vast majority of Democrats and Republicans voted for some regulation in the House, the Democrats and the Senate switched.
and that bill is not going to become law.
But I have co-sponsored it once.
I'm prepared to co-sponsor it again.
As far as artificial intelligence, we have, again, passed laws dealing with sexual content.
We should pass laws preventing people from putting phony images of somebody on the internet.
That being said,
I'm not for as much regulation as some other people.
Regulation benefits the big guy, right?
I don't care what business you're in and we want new people in the field at all times.
We don't want artificial intelligence to be something like 1984 where we have just a few people out there and those people are answerable to the government and make sure your view of history or your view of current events is that what is what the
the powers to be want.
I'll put it that way.
I think already you see that in things like Google in which some people come to the top and that's not right.
So we need to keep things simple enough that there are a lot of different platforms out there.
All right.
Moving on.
Are President Trump's tariffs working?
I am not a big fan of the tariffs, but to be honest, I was briefed with the trade representative.
Last week and he had some great stories with particularly with regard to China I mean our trade deficit with China is going to sink precipitously What we buy from China is going to be more Stuff like stuffed animals or textiles and that sort of thing and we are going to be able to be producing more high tech stuff as well as agriculture stuff So as long as he keeps the tariffs
He threatens tariffs, maybe a short term high tariffs, but reaches agreements in which they're not that great.
That's okay.
Overall, I'm not thrilled with them because tariffs are tax, right?
And there's a cost associated with them.
And I don't think that that's necessary.
That isn't good.
It allows government to grow still larger.
I feel the reason that we are a wealthier country than Europe is in Europe.
They hit you.
Twice, the federal government hits you on income tax and they hit you on sales tax with something called a VAT.
In the United States, we federal leads largely just deal with an income tax.
And if large tariffs become a permanent part of the landscape, I think it's going to lower the cost of living.
But any event, I do have concerns.
I've talked to Trump's people about it and they're worried about
my concerns.
Should we have gone to war with Iran?
I have not been adequately briefed on it.
Every president, going back quite a ways, says we can't let them get nuclear weapons.
I am frustrated that we have not had a separate briefing for congressmen.
But people on the inside that I know believe they were months, if not weeks, away from a nuclear weapon.
And if that's so, I think presidents, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden at least, claimed that they felt we should act.
I think the reason it hasn't been wrapped up so far is because the Iranians, Iranians do not like President Trump, and they feel as long as that war is out there, they're hurting them in the pulse, which they are.
But the Iranian economy is a total train wreck.
And I look to some resolution soon after the elections.
Do we still have issues with illegal immigrants?
Oh, no question.
No question.
I guess one of the big differences between me and my opponent in this election.
Joe Biden left, we don't know exactly, six to eight million people in this country, and we had well over 10 million people in this country illegally beforehand.
We cannot have a situation in which we have, I'm guessing now,
14, 15 million people in this country who shouldn't be here.
We're never
going to kick out everybody.
We all know that.
But we know as we're kicking out, people at least are told in the Southern United States that rents are beginning to drop a little bit, which is a good thing.
If you talk to law enforcement, there is no database in which they tell us exactly how many crimes are committed by illegal immigrants.
But anecdotally, there are things which
illegal immigrants are more likely to commit but the bigger problem is we do not want to change america and you cannot have let's say fifteen million people here or eighteen million people here illegally without fundamentally changing our culture uh... perhaps having a lack of respect for our constitution not to mention the huge unfairness it is to all the people who are waiting to come here legally
Can something be done about inflation and high gas prices?
Right on high grad gas prices in the long run I have been for things that would help out in the past Some things, you know, I didn't even board on but things like drilling in Alaska Fracking in North Dakota building the keystone pipeline all these things I'll point out I don't need a new partition here, but the Democrats fought him, you know the Democrats
are kind of anti-oil.
They think it leads to global warming.
And as a result, you have gas prices in California that are 630, 640 a gallon.
We can't have that.
I will continue to do all I can to vote to have more oil being produced in this country.
In the short term, like I said, I think things are going to change after the election.
Iran wants high oil gas prices to punish Donald Trump.
The prices aren't as high as they were under Biden, but they're still way too high.
And I think as their economy gets squeezed, things will improve there a little as well.
But we can do things.
Well, the other thing is some of this inflation, and again, it's way down from under the Biden years, is because we're running a deficit.
And I'm a very frugal person.
You know, on the Budget Committee, I voted against several amendments to spend more money put forth by the other party, and I'll continue to do that.
You cannot overspend and not have inflation.
Why should people vote for you on November 3rd?
Well, I think my experience getting things done, I think I'm like my opponent.
I am a supporter of ICE.
I am against
DEI sometimes is what you do, but also which we've been from having happening.
I don't like this idea of labeling everybody and giving references for this race or that race.
That's a clear difference between me and my opponent.
There are issues that only I tackle, I think in part because I won't take money from certain special interests, right?
I won't take money from drug companies, say, which almost every other congressman up there does.
I won't trade in stocks or so many other congressmen do.
But I'm going to bat for 14C, which is a program helping handicapped people work.
Things like Northwoods is in the Portage area, Green Valley in the Dodge County area.
And I am a supporter of work for people who otherwise can't work.
A lot of them have problems, spina bifida, that sort of thing.
So looking out for the...
and you can't find this because anybody I'm good at getting things done with my experience.
I was able to get together a bipartisan group of legislators to get money to my national through FEMA, which I thought was good.
And like I said, I was able to deal with Democrats to get that done.
I'm all alone out there, not all alone.
I've got some co-sponsors, but trying to have insurance companies cover
oral chemotherapy.
You know, nowadays it's not uncommon for doctors to say, if you have cancer, you'd be better dealing with a pill than going into a hospital.
I'm the champion about making sure your insurance companies cover that.
Again, I'm not afraid to stand up to the insurance companies.
So that's another example of something I'm getting done.
And finally on welfare, you know, the huge marriage penalty we've talked about before.
If you have a single person gets married, you can move.
$20,000 in benefits.
That's an issue that I'm the champion of in Washington.
I've met with Vice President Vance on the issue.
I don't think whoever replaces me is going to have the enthusiasm for that issue that I do.
And I'm sure too, as your listeners know, I get out and meet with everybody constantly.
I probably do over 40 trades a year and it allows me to know what's going on in the minds of constituents.
the way some congressmen who just sit there talking to campaign contributors or lobbyists view the world.
We've been talking with Congressman Glenn Grossman.
Glenn, thank you for joining us.
Well, glad to be on the show.
We're talking this morning with Matt Bandicolk, who is the Chief Deputy of the Green Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Matt, thanks for joining us.
Yeah, sorry I couldn't make it last month.
Could it be back?
Yeah, that was one of those calls you absolutely had to take.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm very fortunate.
Last month we had scheduled for September 18th there and we ended up having a fatal crash on 73 near Zink Road in the town of Manchester.
So we were dealing with that.
Just very unfortunate circumstance and always a tragedy when someone loses a life on Wisconsin roadways.
Glad to be
back.
Speaking of tragedies, on Monday we've got the anniversary of a tragedy actually for the Greenlight County Sheriff's Office and that was a response to a domestic violence call that cost you one of your deputies.
Yeah, it's been 23 years already, Bob, since the death of Bruce Williams.
And, you know, there's times when it still seems just like yesterday.
Strangely enough, I'm getting a little choked up right now.
But yeah, it's something that we have pledged to remember.
And we recognize his life and his service.
Every year on October 19th, we have a re-ceremony out at
St.
Stan Cemetery and we do our best to remember him every October 19th.
So 23 years on Monday and we wish his family and his wife and children all the best and just just want to remember and respect everything that went into
that.
So as a veteran deputy wasn't he?
Yeah he was my field training officer actually when I
started with the Greenlight County Sheriff's Office.
And that would have been in January 2002 when I was being trained in patrol.
I worked for a couple years prior in corrections and communications.
But just a go-to guy at the Sheriff's Office and very much a hard-working deputy, somebody that went out and did the best that he could for the community on every shift.
And if there was overtime available, he was on it.
And he really loved his job.
loved his family, loved his department and just a great all-around guy and truly missed and will forever be missed a day that impacted hundreds and thousands of lives and we just always want to remember his service and what he did for our community when he's here and do our best in his honor.
Okay next we move on to the flock camera system I'm not
Are there any flock cameras in Green Lake County?
Yes, we have nine in Green Lake County at various locations.
And it's been obviously a hot topic in the community and surrounding communities as well.
We've had a number of folks that have contacted us in regards to usage and how these cameras are being used.
And we wanted to be responsive to that.
And so we met with our committee.
Last week and we went over our flock policy with our public safety committee And we made some revisions to our policy in response to some of the community concerns You know we completely and totally respect some of the concerns that the community has brought up and
we
want to do our best to address those and maintain a Secure system that is beneficial for the community, you know with all the
changing of our demographics, our aging population, and how, you know, dementia and Alzheimer's and our efforts to keep people in their homes and on the roads longer and more capable.
We have, you know, a growing circumstance where people go missing or maybe get lost and these...
These tools have done a lot to improve those circumstances for law enforcement.
We've been able to locate people a lot more quickly and, you know, reunite them with their family.
And that was one of the first cases that we solved when we got the cameras back in 2023.
So they've been a great tool.
We've reduced our retention.
The default retention initially was 30 days for all data.
We've reduced that to seven days with the help of the provider.
We've also changed the
authorization circumstance will be reducing that to having to be authorized by a supervisor essentially or detective to make sure that it's not being misused.
We have been monitoring the system in the search as monthly.
We have not had any concerns about use within our agency.
Our usage is quite limited compared to a lot of other departments.
We focus on criminal matters and we also did change our policy or will be changing our policy to include some non-criminal matters.
We noticed that, you know, circumstances like reckless driving.
Called in by a community complainant those can be investigated with the aid of the block cameras and hopefully Reduce that behavior or at least hold the folks accountable that are that are perpetuating that behavior.
So Those are just a couple of the changes We've also put the
We did a presentation on fly cameras in May of 2026 kind of before all this stirred up You know and we wanted to be open and honest and transparent with the community and that's why we did that so Unfortunately, there were not very many people at that meeting and so we took that video of that meeting and we posted it on the sheriff's office web page We wanted people to see what we presented back in May
We've also added the transparency portal with the aid of the vendor and that provides another layer of transparency that the community can look at.
an aggressive job of being transparent, open, honest with the community, and using this in a responsible way.
We respect, again, the concerns of the community, and we want to do what we can to address those.
So we feel that we've done that, and we're going to continue to do that for the duration, at least in my career.
And with all these different technologies that are coming about, there's
there's going to be these types of concerns and and they're valid concerns and the best way to look at each one of these circumstances is can we put the appropriate guardrails in place to make sure that people are using this technology responsibly and that starts with the administration you know and whatever department or you know government entity we're talking about we need to have
you know people in those positions that are willing to hold others accountable and monitor systems trust but verify right that's a common common thing in our lives so um you know this is the first of many technological advances that will need to be addressed in the coming years and and i'm hopeful that everyone continues to do this in a responsible manner okay
A couple new Crime Stoppers signs.
Yeah, we just, actually just this week, Crime Stoppers were able to get out and put up a couple new signs.
I just always like to recognize the businesses that work with us and support us.
Cole Propane on County Highway K as you come in from the east side.
has partnered with us for a long time.
We had that sign there damaged on a couple of occasions by wind.
It's kind of exposed in a windy area there up on the prairie.
And so now this time we've reinforced it and hopefully it'll last much longer.
So we got a new sign up there.
And then also Sandali Ford in Berlin.
And we partnered with Sandali Ford and they were gracious enough to allow us to put a sign there.
And we got that all set up and ready to go too.
So just great to see the community support in those regards.
and the partnership with those businesses, it's much, excuse me, much appreciated for sure.
Okay.
You're going to have a transition in the sheriff's department with Sheriff Adole retiring.
And I understand that's in the future for you too.
Yeah.
Um, yeah, there's going to be a lot of changes at Greenlight County and, and, uh, obviously sheriff.
But all has been sheriff.
He'll be completing 20 years of sheriff.
And that's a that's a long time.
A lot of stability has been great for the community.
He's decided it's time to move on.
And so that new position will be filled with the election here upcoming.
And we're doing our best to be prepared for that transition and make sure that the incoming administration is ready to go as you know.
Boots on the ground ready and running when they walk in so we're working on that a lot of changes of course with that a lot of movement internally We're confident.
We got everything in place and we will get the remaining pieces Buttoned up before that transition occurs and yeah, I'm planning my retirement here in the first part of January and I'm not sure exactly what's next.
We'll have to wait and see what's gonna be coming But looking forward to that
It's going to be almost 20 years for me at the Sheriff's Office.
I've enjoyed it.
To work for a community like Green Lake County is very special.
It's not like...
anywhere else.
It's a very unique community.
We've been supported by our county board.
We've been supported by our committee.
We've been supported by the citizens and we work hard for them and they show up for us and really support us and it's just been great.
We've had our ups and downs.
You know, obviously in law enforcement, first responder work, you always have that, but it has been an honor and it'll be difficult.
Wrap it up.
But all good things must come to an end at some point, I guess.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, and on that note, we have to say goodbye, but Matt, thank you very much for joining us today.
Yeah, you bet.
Go Brewers!
That's the best news we've had in a long time.
This time, bring home the World Series.
Yeah.
All right.
We've been talking with Matt Van Nicole, the Chief Deputy for the Greenlight County Sheriff's Office.