Good morning.
The time is 6.53.
It is Thursday, October the 30th of 2025.
I am Chad Holmes.
It is the WXCO morning report.
Part of mornings with Pat Crite Low on 98.9 WXCO.
Online at wxco.fm multiple devices and Alexa by searching wxco and on the civic media app coming up in just a little bit at 722 We will be joined by Nancy Stencil who is the chairperson of the marathon County Democratic Party We are joined by Nancy every other Thursday morning to talk about what is happening politically and Is actually quite a bit in terms of the seventh congressional district
There is, of course, going to be an open seat as Tom Tiffany, the incumbent, has decided that he is going for the Republican nomination for governor of Wisconsin and at this point looking like a pretty significant front runner when it comes to the Republican race.
Not quite as deep a field on the Republican side for governor as there is on the Democratic side.
But that means that
There is an open seat that is going on for both the Democratic and the Republican sides.
And just yesterday, in fact, I saw a video for a Republican candidate, a very young Republican candidate, Michael Alfonso.
I'm familiar with Michael Alfonso.
He went to Newman Catholic High School.
He was a member of their football team.
But very young.
Inexperienced, he does have connections to the Duffy family.
He is married.
In fact, to Sean Duffy, the former congressman is his father-in-law.
the Duffy children, many of them went to the New Macathic schools, New Macathic High School, and Mr. Alfonzo married Evita Duffy, one of Sean Duffy's daughters.
So there
is that connection there, as Duffy, of course, was the congressperson for the Seventh Congressional District before Tom Tiffany.
So yesterday saw this video, and again, it talks a lot about...
what he considers problems with no solutions.
And we're curious to see how he frames this campaign because again, really no experience governmentally except his connection to the Duffy family.
And I'm very curious to see if there are any other Republicans that decide to put their hand into the ring.
I'm assuming there will be in the next year.
Of course, the primary will be held in August before the general election in September.
And then on the Democratic side, there is Fred Clark.
He is a candidate for the 7th Congressional District.
There was actually a reception hosted by Marathon County Board Supervisor, John Robinson, and his wife, former Wasa Mayor as well, that was held last week.
So Fred Clark was in the area, trying to, I think, raise a little bit of money for the upcoming campaign.
very different kind of candidate than Michael Alfonzo.
So again, it's, we're starting to find ourselves into almost political season.
I think once
we get
past, once we get past the holidays, once we get into actual 2026, it's going to really heat up.
We have a Supreme Court race coming up in the spring.
And then of course we will have the very active gubernatorial race coming up as well.
And then here, an open seat in the seventh congressional district as well.
So there'll be a lot to talk about politically and we'll talk about what's going on with Nancy Stencil coming up at 722.
Absolutely.
I see and I hear you hear the voice of Ian Welsh across the way.
Ian, good morning.
Good morning, Chad.
Another dark start, but that's going to change very soon.
Yeah, I believe that daylight savings time is.
Is it a Saturday night or a Sunday
night?
Well, Saturday night, early Sunday morning.
Officially, the clocks go back at 2 a.m.
on Sunday morning.
I think most of us decide before we go to bed just to change up the clocks.
So make sure you set
your clocks back on Saturday evening, otherwise you might be an hour late on Sunday.
You'll be going to church and then walking in and it'll just be coming out.
Exactly.
Or is it the other way where I can't remember?
You get so confused sometimes about these clocks.
It's like... Fall back and... Actually...
Forward actually then on Sunday morning if you go if you think in a it's nine o'clock It's time for church.
You didn't turn your clocks back.
You'll actually be an hour early, so you won't be late Because because actually you know on Monday morning at this time it will be Five actually at this point of the morning it'll be 557 okay, so if you showed up
at our normal times, it'd be early.
So yeah, so actually, you have a little bit of a buffer this coming weekend, but the good thing about daylight savings time ending is, you get an extra hour of sleep.
You have an extra hour of the weekend coming up.
That's always something to look forward
to.
So exactly right, but then in the spring, you lose it, then you lose an hour of your weekend, but this is.
Just for one day.
It'll be the longest weekend of the year.
That's right.
Technically.
It'll be
very good for how.
Halloween that's right.
We have Halloween coming up tomorrow.
So again the last day of October Halloween then into November and then all of a sudden people started thinking about Thanksgiving and all of a sudden people sort of thinking about Christmas All the big holidays are coming up.
It does it's like it's crazy So it's like it's that busy time of year.
So there's a lot going on we'll
keep you up to speed on everything that is going on here in the Wasa area as hopefully it will be a wonderful holiday season.
We'll try to be as positive as we possibly can.
Focus on the little
things.
There you go.
That's exactly what we wanted here.
So again, coming up at 722, it'll be Nancy Stencil talking some politics coming up in our last segment.
What are you, one for three so far in the number for the day quiz?
One for three.
So I'm right where I need to be, but I can do better.
Well, if you get it right today, that will clinch a passing grade for the week.
So that'll be the final part of our morning report just before 830.
Coming up top of the hour, information, update, news, weather and sports and then more of mornings with pack right low here on 98.9 WXCO.
WXCO morning report on 98.9 WXCO WXCO dot FM mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the civic media app fair skies 30 degrees here in downtown Wausau at 722 It is Thursday morning and every other Thursday get a chance to talk about the political news going on locally statewide even nationally Democratic Party of Marathon County chairperson Nancy stencil Nancy.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the 7th because and I talked
to you outside here.
Oh, there's lots
to
talk about.
I know, I know, because yesterday I got a text from a friend of mine and said, I'll quote it says, are we living in make believe?
And it was the video of Michael Alfonso, the newest candidate on the Republican side.
And I said to you, I know Michael Alfonso.
I covered his football games at New Macathic.
He's very young.
I'm surprised he's 25, which you have to be to run for Congress.
But I kind of chuckled at the video because it starts off talking about high prices and these other issues that are being exacerbated by his hero, Donald Trump.
But it seems like we're starting to get into the seventh.
At his age, what
would he know about high prices yet?
Yeah, I heard that he was running.
And he's very, very far to the right.
I mean, he's very much Omega, and I think a lot of folks here in the OASA area know his father, or Lando Alfonso, who likes to throw bombs in the op-eds and stuff like that.
That's exactly it.
Nothing factual.
Just throw out a bunch of crap.
And also, I think maybe this kid feels he can ride into the Seventh Congressional on his father-in-law's footsteps.
And part of the video was talking about his wife, not his wife Evita.
his wife Evita Duffy.
Yes.
Yes.
There's a little name drop in there.
Of course.
There will be plenty of time to talk about Michael Alfonso and his
point of view as we continue.
We have
some great
candidates.
I saw last week that Fred Clark had a reception here in the Wasa area.
Yes he did.
And of course you know I'm running for office in this big seventh congressional district.
You got to have some resources to do
it.
And Fred has a lot of experience actually.
He retired a number years ago already up in the Northwoods and so he's really meshed in the communities up there and he knows what works, what doesn't work for messaging.
And he's just, I think he's going to be a terrific candidate.
He had served in the assembly a number of years back.
And this Sunday, well, the Dems have, we have a weekend of canvassing, weekend of action.
And the other candidate, Chris Armstrong, is going to be at the office at noon on Sunday.
And that's, I think sometimes primaries are.
poot-poot by the parties.
Yeah, we don't want we want to clear the field.
I think that a primary is important.
I thought it hurts the last time around that You get the bump because the party kind of cleared the field a little bit I thought yeah, you know I was it was a situation where the party put their hand on the scale I think the party needs to step back allow these candidates to gain their footing to talk about the issues meet the people because then when you win you get a little bit of a boost you're a winner
I think that's important.
And I
think those candidates learn from one another as well.
And that's a very, very important thing.
And I think primaries are really good.
I don't like to see them when we have like, you know, 10 candidates running.
And, you know, to me, that gets a little
difficult.
Well, moving forward, you'll hate that.
Yeah.
But we have a lot of good candidates, but I wish there weren't so many.
But when you have that primary, the only thing that
makes it more difficult is after the primary there's such a short time to really prove your point.
That is one of the interesting aspects.
You really gotta go fast after that.
The Wisconsin calendar is odd in that respect because we're gonna have an exceptionally long primary campaign and then once you get past the primary, a very short general election.
After August it's like, whoa, you better be ready to roll.
Yeah,
what are you looking for from these candidates on the Democratic side of the seventh because you've been through you mean you you put yourself right into on the ground throughout this district What do you think the people are looking for in the next year?
I think they're looking for somebody that actually represents the working class and when I say working class You know people that that are out there, you know working the two jobs that are
trying to raise a family and try to make ends meet.
And they know what their healthcare situation, people that are actually, they want people to represent them that are actually going to help them.
That brings up a question.
I think, you know, we've talked and sometimes it feels like there's a disconnect with leadership within a party where it's nationally or statewide.
There
is.
There's corporate Democrats and we were talking about New York and the Mam Donnie.
And the more I hear about the money that gets thrown and good old Andrew there, I want Mam Donnie to win.
He's got good points.
He's explained himself what he's going to do and how he's going to do
it.
It feels to me that we're coming to a tipping point when it comes to the National Democratic Party, when it comes to ideas like that, that if you're not able to take advantage in 2026 of a historically unpopular president and historically unpopular policies, then you have to look in the mirror.
We
have to get bold.
Very bold.
And I think that's what ma'am Donnie is doing.
It's not
business as usual.
We're tired of business as usual.
And frankly, there
is a similarity to 2008 in my mind with Mandami and Barack Obama.
Because in that election, there was this incredible thirst for change.
Yeah, there was.
And I think that thirst for change is there with the Democrats, and we're not getting it from leadership.
And I think it's got to come from outside
leadership.
You're right.
I do.
Yeah, it's got to come from grassroots grassroots is what's going to save us
and that's brings it to your job I mean, I know that times and I maybe I'm not speaking out of school.
There are frustrations you get with the state party in the national party How how much control do you and other local Democrats have in terms of trying to reach the people in what again a very difficult area?
We're not gonna sugarcoat
it.
They pretty much, you know roll out as they see fit
How how doors and phones and things like that should go and do we have to follow it?
No, absolutely you don't but you know your entire committee has to decide Which direction that's gonna go
is the old adage that the Democratic Party is always a circular firing spot true But it also shows there's I think a lot more
independence of thought within Democratic Party politics.
Sometimes it can be very difficult, but I think I'd still rather have it than everybody in their Nazi March
checks.
We'll
come back with Nancy at 752 here on 98.9 WXCO.
If you want me, you can find me left of center off of the strip.
In the outskirts, and in the fringes, in the corner out of the grid.
If you want me, you can find me left of center
off of the grid.
And welcome back to WXCO Morning Report on 98.9 WXCO.
Talking to Marathon Coney, Democratic Party Chairperson Nancy Stenzel.
Since we last talked, there was another No Kings rally.
Yes, I wanted to ask you were you I guess what were your thoughts on the rhetoric that came from Trump and other Republicans basically calling you and everybody else that came out basically, you know America hating and the far left and I mean really the red The red but I will say from the first no Kings rally back a few months ago during the summer to this one the rhetoric really
I thought got vitriotic from the right.
It really has.
Um, for this one, sadly, I, I should say, I was asked to speak up in Rhineland right there.
So I was up there.
I wasn't down here for
this one.
And I
really wish, um, in hindsight that we could like stagger times so that people could make it to more of them because I know they did that.
Marinette Menominee had one and then they were able to drive down to Green Bay and take part in that one too.
So, um, I,
I see a lot of it.
There is a faction of people here in town that, well, what we call Role Coal, come by with their trucks and just blast, you know, coal at ya, and stuff like that.
Overall, it was, all the protests were extremely peaceful.
No one was
arrested.
Little towns like Rhinelander even had over a thousand
people there.
Frankly, real quick, frankly, you know they were rooting for some sort of...
confrontations oh yeah they wanted
there are certain people that will come and look for confrontation and I mean if it was the right having a protest we wouldn't be going in and doing that kind of stuff
I mean
I worry about people's safety
by the way little bitty
towns way up north had a ton of people coming
another point is you remember back when they were doing the tea party rallies oh god the numbers that were involved in these tea party rallies
or miniscule compared to the North King's rally.
And yet it doesn't feel like it has the same messaging from national media and the such.
Because I remember with those tea parties, oh man, it was incredible rising of the people on the right.
Right, and
this they
downplay, and
is the media afraid of Trump?
What is it?
I mean, you know.
Oh, by the way, by the way, real fat guy stop jumping in this this idea of a liberal media is the biggest fallacy in the world Corporate media.
Yeah, it's basically corporate media and it's still bottom line and we've we're seeing it in in ways that we've never seen it before during this Trump administration But it's always been there in this idea that there is a liberal media is truly
and it's it's in it's in everything It's it's in media.
It's in politics.
It's in bottom line is
If you got the big money out of stuff, maybe working people could get somewhere.
And so much, and the reason I bring it up is because, and I think you talk about the working people, the dialogue that we have.
And I'll go back.
a year ago in the disastrous presidential debate.
One thing that jumped out about that debate beyond everything else is it started off by talking about issues that Donald Trump and Republicans have been talking about on the campaign trail.
They started off with the border.
Instead of talking about other issues that may have been talked about by the Democrats, it always feels like the dialogue is being pushed in a certain way.
And I think that people like yourself have to fight against this.
We
do.
And people, yeah, the Democrats are, that's why the
government is shut down.
Well, it's not a total fallacy.
Yeah.
But why?
Why?
Because we're fighting for healthcare.
And if we would give in tomorrow, your premiums are going to be so unaffordable.
Nobody's going to be able to afford health insurance anymore.
And basically the reasons that Republicans talk about when they're talking about that issue is that Democrats want to give illegal aliens free health care, which is again a lie.
Instead of calling it out as a lie, the media will say, well, this is a difference of opinion or the dark.
No, it's not
a difference of opinion.
They're not eligible to get any kind of health care.
And this is something that I'm really, I like like those no kings rallies.
They're bringing this out there.
I mean, there are people that they're coming out in droves from young people to people that are coming out of their homes and walkers to come to these rallies to make a point.
Don't touch my social security.
Don't touch the Medicaid, Medicare and it.
People like Donald Trump are hurting us
and the sports aspect of the way it's covered It's like a battle or a game.
No, it's not a game.
These are people's lives We need to talk about issues in a look at the snap benefits.
They could take that money from the USDA They they're choosing not to you would rather see people starve to death.
Why don't you just tell us that?
Exactly.
And the thing is, you can report on that on the issues and try to give the American people more information.
And we talked off the air about how one of the big factors in our democracy is we need to have an electorate that is knowledgeable of the issues.
And unfortunately right now, I don't think- No, people
are just like turning a blind eye unless you're the one that's starving to death.
And that is what's happening.
The food pantries do not have enough food to accommodate all the people.
These are not lazy people.
Children cannot work.
Disabled people cannot work.
And a lot of them are the elderly who are on fixed income that are hurting.
We were talking about prices of a hamburger.
And they can't afford to live.
And by the way, the idea, and whenever I do see one of these Republican elected officials on
one of the news networks or one of the business networks and they talk about just basically get a job.
I mean, these people are clueless.
They're clueless about what the real life consequences are.
That's
their sound bites.
Wake up to what is going on.
You know why it's easy for them to say is because they have a job and those people don't.
Yeah, by the way, they're still getting paid.
Yeah.
Well, you just say get a job when you
have a job.
Oh, boy, we even- Ice
is even getting overtime through all this crap.
Give me a break.
And they got the big increase in funding in that big, beautiful bill back in the day.
Yes,
they did.
Yep.
There's so
much
going on.
There is.
There's too much going
on.
But it was always good to talk about it with you a little.
Venting session from time to time.
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
We both walk away feeling better.
Yeah.
Nancy have a great rest of your weekend.
Great.
Yeah.
You too.
We're going to.
Hey, I'm coming back with Pat Crite low coming up at 806.
So maybe I'll vent with Pat some more.
I'm going to go out there and start keep on talking.
That's coming up next here on WXC.
And welcome back WXCO morning report on 98.9 WXCO online at wxco.fm mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the Civic Media app.
The time is 823 32 degrees and even freezing 32 here in North Central Wisconsin partly cloudy skies at our studios in downtown Wasa the corner of Washington Street in North Third Street.
I am Chad Holmes along with Ian Welsh and we'll have Ian with his number for the day coming up in just a few minutes.
But first I wanted to mention an interesting story this morning in the Wausau Daily Herald.
Eric Fonts is the author of the story talking about giving some information, some real information on SNAP benefits and the potential here in Central Wisconsin for a lot of people to be hurt with the
current government shutdown and the SNAP benefits coming to an end on November the 1st.
And also a little sidelight here in a moment, but in this story from the Wasa Daily Herald, wasadailyherald.com, Eric Vance, he talks a little bit to folks around Central Wisconsin and people that serve folks who are in need in Central Wisconsin about the impact that this government shutdown and the...
ending of the SNAP benefits could mean.
And very interesting information and talking about how many folks in the state of Wisconsin are affected by the loss of food share benefits.
Nearly 700,000 Wisconsin residents including one in four children under five will be affected.
by the loss of food share benefits starting on November the 1st.
Central Wisconsin food pantries are already reporting a significant increase in people seeking assistance due to the shutdown.
And these are not lazy people like Republicans and conservatives like to say.
These are a lot of hardworking folks who have families, who have children, who are in need.
And this game that's being played by...
the Republicans and Donald Trump is frankly inexcusable.
And the idea of taking away health care benefits, taking away SNAP benefits, taking away the things that folks put their tax dollars in as opposed to tax cuts for wealthy folks.
It's wrong.
It is just wrong.
the games that are being played by the Trump administration are really getting disgusting.
And one example of this game playing is if you go to the United States Department of Agriculture website, I got it up right now.
The USDA website, which is basically in charge of the stamp funding and
The agency that is the leader of this and right at the front of the USDA GOV website And this is a government website and it's not supposed to be politically motivated in any way the messaging but nope not with the Donald Trump administration
Complete political propaganda.
It says Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP.
Bottom line, the well has run dry.
At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 1st.
We are approaching an infection point for Senate Democrats.
They can continue to hold out for health care for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures, or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.
Garbage message on the front page of the website of the United States Department of Agriculture and she says official website of the United States government.
Yes, exactly those words
The games that are being played by Donald Trump and his administration and his his accomplices in the United States House and the United States Senate are Disgusting and that is disgusting.
It's supposed to be illegal But so many things are supposed to be illegal nowadays that just get ignored But here's another case of something that's supposed to be illegal this political messaging on each United States government website again People's lives are going to be affected
And yet they are playing these little games of trying to win political points through lies, through lies.
It's shameful and disgusting.
It is.
But it's par for the course for the Trump administration and his allies in Congress.
It is wrong.
Bottom line, it is wrong.
It should not be that complicated people to know what is right and what is wrong.
This is wrong.
The gerrymandering that has been started by the Republicans in order to try and steal a control of Congress next year is wrong.
You have to start saying what is right and what is wrong.
And start to think for yourselves and not what Donald Trump and your religious leaders are telling you to do.
It's about the issues and what is right and wrong.
Simple
as that, okay?
So that is my editorial comment here for this morning.
All right, let's wrap things up with our number for the day quiz.
We give Ian an opportunity every weekday morning at the end of our WXCO morning reports to choose between three numbers, one of which is our number for the day.
So based on the math, one out of three.
is 33%.
So anything above 33% is a for the week is a winning I should say is a passing grade for the week.
Anything that is above 500.
So more right than wrong is a winning week.
four out of five is an A grade and five out of five is a gold star perfect week.
Okay,
I'm ready.
He's one for three so far this week.
Our number for the day is the Toronto Blue Jays lead the LA Dodgers three games to two in the World Series.
If the Blue Jays win, it would be a team from outside the United States that wins.
How many times in Major League Baseball history has a team outside the United States won the World Series?
Your choices are one time, two times, three
times.
That's a very good question.
If I'm going to say... I'm going to say a two times.
Final answer, I'm going to say two.
The number of times a team from outside the United States has won the World Series is two times.
Nice.
The Blue Jays won the World Series in 1992 and again in 1993.
Awesome.
Passing
week.
All
right.
So two out of four and then I'll go for a winning week tomorrow.
It's a good place to be.
We'll talk to you tomorrow.
That's it tomorrow should happy Thursday everybody and we'll be back for the WXO morning report starting at 6.52 tomorrow morning right here on 98.9 WXO
Okay, Ian are we ready to record all good over here as soon as you're ready and real fast this will be airing tomorrow morning the way I do
part of the morning show, and it'll be on, and we also do a, we put it as a podcast as well, and a YouTube video, so.
Yeah, you're all about media.
So we will, and so I'm sure, are you on social media at all, the Rotary Club?
Yes, we do have a Facebook page, we do have an Instagram account, I
think.
I'll double check, but I'll tag you.
Okay, perfect.
So then you guys can forward it, and as well.
Perfect, that
would be great.
Yeah, we're working on getting that beefed up,
and I'm not the right person for that.
I understand that.
Too much gray hair here.
I know what you mean.
I have a hard time keeping up the technology myself.
It's really tough.
It is.
It's crazy.
I just want my job to continue until I die.
Because who knows how long radio is going to go on.
But we add so many other aspects to it to try to stay relevant.
So.
All right.
All right.
So whenever you're setting it.
All right.
I stand by.
And good morning and welcome back to the WXCO morning report part of mornings with Pat Critello on 98.9 WXCO online at wxco.fm mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the Civic Media app.
I'm Chad Holmes joined by our in studio engineer and producer Ian Welsh.
Ian, good morning.
Good morning, Chad.
We will have more with you coming up in just a few minutes.
But first, we do have a guest across the table with me here this morning from the Rotary Club of Wausau.
It's the president, Lisa Dodson.
And Lisa, thank you for coming on by.
Good morning.
Thanks for having
me.
Absolutely.
And I wanted to start things off because the Rotary Club is involved in some activities, but I wanted for folks who may not be familiar with the Rotary Club.
And I think that people have always
It's always thought of as a community organization.
I think throughout the country, it's a long time organization.
What is the Rotary Club for those who may not be familiar?
Well, thanks for asking.
So the Rotary Club is an international service organization.
We have about 1.2 million members across the globe in 200 countries and 40,000 local clubs.
The Rotary Club of Wausau is one of three clubs here in the Wausau area.
We have a noon club that meets three times a month at the
BMO building.
There's also a Morning Early Birds Club and an After Hours Club.
So we're trying to reach out to people with all different walks of life and all different kind of work schedules and family life and things like that.
So the Rotary Club in general is a service organization and we do projects and
and work toward a bunch of different objectives.
In the case of the Rotary, we have seven major objectives.
Our overall is service above self, which means we are promoting the joy and the pleasure of serving our communities while we're doing good work.
So we also, internationally Rotary is involved in peace building, education, environmental work, disease prevention, advocacy for women and children, economic development and water and sanitation.
And so we do projects that really meet our community need, both here in Wausau and across the globe.
How do people get involved?
They are members.
So we have a, if you feel interested in membership, they can get ahold of me at LG Dodson Rotary at Wausau, or at LG
Dodson
Rotary at gmail.com.
Click on our website, which is wassaurotary.org, and get information about membership.
Happy to meet with anyone who wants to know more about our good work.
And in our show notes, where we have our podcast, we'll make sure to put both your email and also the Rotary Club website address there as well for easy access for folks who would like more information as well.
And another reason I wanted to bring you on is because I saw
Just recently a project that the Rotary Club is being involved in and it's really I think an important one because I think about when I've moved in my life, it's not easy to move and that's just maybe moving from a city to a city or maybe just across town when somebody moves into a new country and it comes into a new community where perhaps they
may not know the language as well, may not know the simplest things that we all take for granted.
And it's an immigrant community.
And the Rotary Club is involved in a rather significant event project.
involving immigrants, correct?
Correct.
So we have just formed what we're calling our Immigrant and Indigenous Goodwill Ambassadors Program.
Our intention is to reach out to our neighbors, all of our neighbors, particularly the ones who, as you noted, who are new to the area, maybe don't speak English and they're having trouble getting settled.
This kind of became even more urgent with recent budget cuts and things that
came down
from the federal government that has reduced the amount of support available for our legal immigrants.
the United States.
And so we have several members who are very active with the Ukrainian community, with the African resettlement community, with the Afghani community, and we put our heads together and said we need to be doing more than just we being the Rotary Club needs to be doing more to help assimilate our neighbors.
The other piece of
