Battleground Wisconsin

We discuss Tuesday’s primary election in Wisconsin and celebrate huge victories by Citizen Action members Mandela Barnes, Sarah Godlewski, Marisabel Cabrera and Jeff Smith. Our panel begins to handicap the Governor and U.S. Senate races. and we welcome Citizen Action co-op member and candidate for the State Assembly Kim Butler to discuss her important race in Western Wisconsin.

Lee Snodgrass, Citizen Action’s endorsed candidate in Senate District 19, joins us to talk about her campaign, the importance of the race to gaining power in the legislature, and encourage volunteers to meet Lee and help get out the vote in the Appleton area this Saturday.

We focus on next Tuesday’s Primary Election in Wisconsin. The panel discusses the Democratic governor primary and whether anyone other than presumed front runner Tony Evers can emerge the winner. We also review other important state legislative primaries, including Jeff Smith in Senate District 31 and Marisabel Cabrera in Assembly District 9. We announce Citizen Action’s endorsement of Earnell Lucas in the Milwaukee County Sheriff's race. Lee Snodgrass, Citizen Action’s endorsed candidate in Senate District 19, joins us to talk about her campaign, the importance of the race to gaining power in the legislature, and encourage volunteers to meet Lee and help get out the vote in the Appleton area this Saturday. We close the show with a discussion of Tammy Baldwin’s outstanding leadership on Medicare For All legislation and more WEDC contracts for Scott Walker donors.

Special guest panelist, Luz Sosa, educates us on ICE’s detainment and the attempt to deport of Citizen Action/Accion Ciudadana member Ricardo Fierro, a major civic leader who is married with 7 children. The shocking case reveals the moral bankruptcy of our current immigration policies. We are joined by Citizen Action board member Carmen Cabrera to discuss the important primary election for co-op member Marisabel Cabrera on August 14th and why you need to volunteer to help her win a seat in the State Assembly. Western Wisconsin co-op leader Jeff Smith talks with us about his primary election for State Senate. Finally, Robert educates us on the latest Trump and Walker efforts at sabotaging the Affordable Care Act.

We welcome Eric Marsch, executive director of NORML Southeastern Wisconsin, to discuss the marijuana referendums sweeping across the state this summer for the November election and how they are moving the legalization issue forward in the state. We also are joined by Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member & candidate for State Treasurer, Sarah Godlewski, to talk about her campaign. Don’t forget to vote for Sarah on Tuesday, August 14th. We also discuss new national polling finding Trump’s approval rating at 36%, with 52% disapproving. More importantly, Democrats hold a 47%-to-39% lead in congressional preference.

We welcome Citizen Action of Wisconsin endorsed Lt. Governor candidate Mandela Barnes to talk about his race. We review the latest Marquette Law Poll and take a deep dive into the Democratic Governor’s primary. Robert tells us about the news conference this weekend with Congresswoman Gwen Moore and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi about the GOP’s continued sabotage of the Affordable Care Act. Join us Saturday, 7/21, at 10: 45am, at Independence First (540 S. 1st St. in Milwaukee.) And of course, as we do most weeks, we have more Foxconn revelations.

We do a deep dive into Donald Trump’s latest sabotage of the Affordable Care Act and its political implications for the 2018 election. We look at Trump’s new arch-conservative Supreme Court nominee and how Democrats are turning to healthcare as the center of their strategy to defeat his appointment. We welcome Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member and Milwaukee County Board Supervisor, Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, to talk about her resolution opposing Trump’s zero tolerance immigration policy. We close by discussing WEDC failure to collect a $1.1 million loan from a jailed DePere businessman convicted of bank fraud and Foxconn’s sleazy effort to lower wage requirements for the jobs it has promised to create with our public money.

In a special episode of Battleground Wisconsin State Senator Chris Larson and Lt. Governor candidate Mandela Barnes join regular panelists Rebecca Lynch and Robert Kraig for an in-depth conversation about the progressive upsurge in Democratic primaries. Are the victories of strong progressive candidates a threat to Democratic election prospects in 2018, or are they a sign of a new reform politics that can change America? In addition, the panel digs into the question of what it means to be a progressive, and how we can create a movement grounded in empathy and love which both breaks structural racism and sexism, while also inviting in working class voters who have turned away from Democrats in recent elections.

We welcome Candice Owley, President of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals to discuss this week’s Janus ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that seeks to gut union and worker power. Will these right wing politicians in robes succeed, or will their rigging of the system backfire by sparking a new era of labor activism and protest? We also talk over the implication of Justice Kennedy’s decision to step down from the Supreme Court. Will it make the Supreme Court even worse? Luz Sosa, lead organizer for Citizen Action Latino Co-op Caucus, Accion Ciudadana, joins us from Thursday’s Milwaukee protest of President Trump, who is in Wisconsin for the Foxconn groundbreaking. Luz tells us more about a media event led by Citizen Action on Saturday at the Federal Building opposing family separation, indefinite internment, and the many Trump/GOP human rights violations on the border.

Family Separation Issue - Excerpt from Battleground Wisconsin Episode #348 Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member Erica Flynn, who is running for state assembly, discusses her trip to Texas this past weekend. Erica was part of Citizen Action of Wisconsin and People's Action delegation that attended a vigil at the Ursula Border Processing Center, where hundreds of children are still incarcerated in detention centers under Trump's brutal family separation policy.

Our panel analyzes in depth the latest MU Law poll that was released this week. We welcome Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member Erica Flynn, who is running for state assembly, to discuss her trip to Texas this weekend. Erica was part of Citizen Action of Wisconsin and People's Action delegation that attended a vigil at the Ursula Border Processing Center, where hundreds of children are still incarcerated in detention centers under Trump's brutal family separation policy. We also review the Supreme Court gerrymandering decision and Robert talks about new disturbing UW research showing showing a 20% rise in Wisconsin child poverty last year, despite Walker's claim that the economy is doing great.

We dig into the results from Tuesday’s special legislative elections in Wisconsin and the ramifications for the general election. Next, we welcome Lindsay Dorff, Northeast WI Organizing Cooperative Steering Committee member, to discuss gerrymandering in Wisconsin and the pending Supreme Court verdict for the Gil v Whitford case. Lindsay also tells us about the Citizen Action Northeast Cooperative’s member assembly this Saturday and their Governor candidate forum next Saturday, June 23rd. Our panel also talks about Attorney General Brad Schimel’s lawsuit to sabotage the ACA, Lake County (IL) Board unanimous resolution calling for the state of Wisconsin to reconsider waiving of environmental regulations for Foxconn, and a new study finds Wisconsin's poverty rate rising dramatically in spite of low unemployment.

In the wake of her retirement announcement, we thank Justice Shirley Abrahamson for her decades of distinguished progressive leadership on the State Supreme Court. Robert debriefs Battleground Wisconsin's dust up with the Walker Campaign the Republican Party, and the Vukmir Campaign, over our image from last week’s show, which made state and national headlines. We also dissect Scott Walker’s new TV ad that attempts to put pants on his pig of a health care record. Robert also analyzes a new report that suggests Medicare is at risk and educates us about a new Trump administration Medicaid transparency plan that may unintentionally document that conservatives are taking health care away from millions of people. We also discuss the news that Wisconsin will receive $86 million less than sought to upgrade I-94 for Foxconn and discuss a new study finding Wisconsin's arcane expungement laws are keeping thousands of potential workers from employment.

With the deadline for election nomination papers passing Friday, we welcome special guest Senator Chris Larson to dig into the official opening of the Wisconsin political season. We bat around the races for Governor, U.S. Senate, and the critical special election the the 1st State Senate District in Northeast Wisconsin. In addition, it turns out that Scott Walker's election year pivot to a constructive position on health care was only that, as his administration took new steps this week to sabotage the ACA. Also more "blame the workers" for the lack of economic opportunity rhetoric from conservative politicians, and the latest on the Foxconn scandal.

We discuss the release of police body-cam footage showing the use of a stun gun on Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown after police unnecessarily escalated an encounter over a parking violation. We review a news report that Foxconn is already changing the production plans at its yet to be built Wisconsin factory, again calling into question the long term sustainability of an environmentally threatening project that will create far fewer jobs than progressive alternatives. We review the terrible 5-4 Supreme Court decision that greatly restricts worker legal rights in the workplace. In yet more bleak economic news for Gov. Walker, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic reports that Minnesota had more total jobs than Wisconsin in 2017 for the first time in recent history and added more jobs each year for the last 10 years. We also talk about state representative Leon Young’s sudden decision not to run for reelection, and the latest Dem Governor's race scuttlebutt.

We welcome back former Battleground WI panelist Jorna Taylor to dig into breaking political news. We discuss the huge opportunity for progressives to elect a state senator in the District 1 special election on June 12th now that the unpopular Rep. Andre Jacque has come through the GOP primary despite establishment opposition. We also discuss Peter Barca’s decision not to run in Congressional District 1, news that Republican Ed Brooks will resign in Assembly District 50, and get Jorna’s thoughts on the governor’s race. Finally we bat around Governor Walker’s order to state agencies for 0% growth in their 2019-2020 budgets; the latest Foxconn scandal, $100 political baby bribes, net neutrality, and more.

We discuss the courageous new Tammy Baldwin TV ad exposing her mother’s battle with drug addiction and its impact on her family. The ad and tone of Tammy’s campaign stands in sharp contrast to the sewer war between Nicholson and Vukmir that escalated this week with Vukmir saying Baldwin was a member of “Team Terrorism” and close with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. We review a bad week for some Democratic governor candidates and the Illinois Attorney General sues the EPA over Foxconn’s air exemption. We welcome Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI) David Cooper to discuss his new report demonstrating how Minnesota buries Wisconsin in economic performance on all measures.

This week's show starts with an analysis of Scott Walker's first reelection ad, doubtless the beginning of a record dirty money air blitz on Wisconsin voters. Next we look at the latest mean spirited attack on people living in poverty: a U.S. House bill supported by the Trump Administration which would cut over 70,000 Wisconsinites off food assistance, including 23,000 children. We discuss the latest on Foxconn, and preview the upcoming Governors's candidate forum on education issues, at the Mirimar Theater in Milwaukee on Saturday May 12 (12 Noon to 3 PM) and live on WRDD Radio 1510

We welcome Citizen Action North central WI organizer Joel Lewis to discuss a new multi-year rural organizing project we launched this week with our national network, People’s Action, in 10 states targeting 72 counties. The project aims to counter Trump’s fraudulent right-wing populism with a progressive populist movement built from the bottom up in rural and small towns. We also review Walker’s DNR rubber stamping both the diversion of Lake Michigan water for Foxconn and their approval to become a major smog producer in southeastern Wisconsin. We close the show talking about the millions being spent by a few wealthy conservatives to defeat Sen. Tammy Baldwin, including running racist ads.

We discuss the current very open state of the Democratic gubernatorial primary race and the news that Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and and progressive talk radio celebrity Mike Crute may enter the crowded field. Marina Dimitrijevic from the Wisconsin Working Families Party joins us to discuss the Wisconsin Choice campaign to focus the primary on bold progressive issues, and to give activists the opportunity to vote in a straw poll on the candidates. Finally we welcome members of the savestjoes.org coalition (Arkesia Jackson from BLOC and Nate Gilliam from WI Federation of Nurses & Health Professional and Katie Dunn from Citizen Action Healthcare for All Organizing Co-op) to discuss the news that Ascension will pause its plans to close much of the critical safety net hospital. The coalition is hosting a community meeting on April 24th, 6pm at Parklawn Assembly, 3725 N. Sherman Ave. in Milwaukee.