Battleground Wisconsin

We return from our week off to news that Paul Ryan will not seek re-election. We discuss the implications nationally for Republicans and explore its impact on CD 1 candidates. We review last week’s spring election results, including 49 Citizen Action members winning their races. We welcome Andy Buck from the Painters Union to discuss the epidemic of wage theft in the construction trades and promote their Day of Action next Friday 4/20, 11-1pm in Milwaukee and Madison. Citizen Action co-op member Sue Anderson closes the show by telling us about a fundraiser the co-op and other groups are holding for Voces de la Frontera next Friday, 4/20, 5pm in Milwaukee.

We discuss how Scott Walker has finally been forced to call special elections in two state legislative seats after being slapped down by an appeals court judge. The special election will be on June 12th, with any primary set for May 15th. We also preview next week’s Spring Election on Tuesday, April 3rd. We dissect the WMC’s sleazy child sex predator ad that has greatly upset the family of the victim. Next we welcome Citizen Action Co-op member Sarah Godlewski to discuss why it so important to save our fiscal watchdog and Vote No on eliminating the State Treasurer. We bat around the latest Foxconn news and raise up the inspirational efforts of the Wisconsin student marchers who used their spring vacation this week to walk 50 miles to Paul Ryan’s house urging greater gun restrictions.

We welcome State Representative Amanda Stuck to discuss her effort to invest in Wisconsin’s paper industry in a smart and progressive fashion, in stark contrast to Scott Walker's Foxconn boondoggle. We also discuss breaking news in week’s special legislative session, Sen. Kathleen Vinehout’s surprising vote on gun safety, and we recap Saturday’s governor candidate forum in Wausau. Finally, we assess the failure of Leah Vukmir’s bill to expand prison spending and dramatically increase incarceration rates in Wisconsin.

With our regulars Matt Brusky and Rebecca Lynch on furlough, we welcome State Senator Chris Larson and State Rep. Evan Goyke to discuss the tumultuous end of the Legislative Session. We dig into some of the most dangerous eleventh hour proposals being considered by the radical conservative majority, and their panic over the impending blue wave that is swamping conservative candidates around the country. We close this week's program with an exclusive interview of Supreme Court candidate Judge Rebecca Dallet.

We discuss the evolving political debate on guns following the Florida school shooting, including the split between Gov. Walker's and Attorney General Brad Schimel on arming teachers. We talk about a new lawsuit, led by Eric Holder, which challenges Scott Walker's refusal to hold special elections in two open legislative districts. The panel also discusses: Wisconsin shifting of up to $90 million in local road funding to a Foxconn-related projects; advertising experts pan WEDC’s ads targeting young Chicagoans; and Election Commission administrator Michael Haas steps down in face of GOP witchunt. We close the show by welcoming Citizen Action co-op member Kris Lennon to preview a Fair Maps Town Hall in Racine on Saturday (March 10).

We review this week’s Spring Primary Election results and looking forward to April 3rd General Election. Robert reviews the latest Gov. Walker healthcare scheme which vainly attempts to cover one of his greatest political vulnerabilities. We dive into Attorney General Brad Schimel’s shameful election year call for arming teachers in Wisconsin schools in an effort to fire up gun advocates. Finally we review explosive new research from the ACLU documenting that that hundreds of thousands of Milwaukee Police stops violate basic constitutional rights because they are not based on reasonable cause, and disproportionately subject people of color to stigmatizing and traumatic police encounters.

We welcome Tim Burns, Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s endorsed candidate for State Supreme Court (primary next Tuesday, February 20) to discuss his novel willingness to run on his progressive values and fight for average people against the big corporate interests that are rigging the system. We also talk about the latest mass school shooting in Florida and the GOP’s serial appeasement of gun extremists. We also are joined by Citizen Action Western Wisconsin Organizing Cooperative member Sarah Godlewski who educates us about the referendum to abolish the State Treasurer, a move that would further reduce fiscal accountability in Wisconsin government.

We discuss Gov. Walker’s plan to lure Kimberly-Clark with a Foxconn-style public subsidy. We then dig into what elected Democrats from the region and the some of the Democrat governor candidates are saying and proposing as alternatives. We preview our Democratic Governor candidate forum in Eau Claire this Saturday at 9:30 am that will kick off Citizen Action's endorsement process. We also talk about the new data showing unexpectedly high enrollment in Obamacare. What are the implications for the GOP's sabotage and repeal crusade.

Gov. Walker rightly understands that he and Republicans are in serious political danger heading into his 2018 campaign. In an attempt to cover up political failings, Walker called a special session this week to further punish the working poor and struggling families in Wisconsin. Instead of calling a special session to address the shortage of family supporting jobs in most parts of the state, Walker chose to divide us by scapegoating the poor. Next we discuss a new reports revealing that $1.6 billion of the Foxconn state payout won’t be tied to job creation and that 39% of the water Foxconn takes from Lake Michigan won’t be returned to the lake. Finally we discuss the news that the state’s school choice program now has nearly 400 private schools registered for 2018-19.

Our panel reviews Gov. Walker’s State of the State (SOS) address which reveals a massive re-branding effort heading into the 2018 election. Robert analyzes Walker’s 11th hour conversion on health care designed to address his biggest electoral vulnerability. We welcome AFSCME Council 32’s Mike Horecki to talk about Walker’s belated effort to close Lincoln Hills after 7 years of pressure from workers and advocates to address the destructive impact of his policies. Health Care Co-op Organizer Katie Dunn joins us to promote this Saturday’s Healthcare Jeopardy forum with Democratic candidates for Governor in Milwaukee. We close with Rebecca educating us about a police shooting in Racine that has the community organized and searching for answers.

We start with the electoral wave that hit the west coast of Wisconsin on Tuesday with the surprise victory of Democrat Patty Schachtner in Senate District 10. We welcome Eric Couto, executive director of Wisconsin Progress, to discuss the implications of the SD 10 upset and the critical role of recruiting and training great candidates to run for office. Our panel takes a closer look at the Governor’s race following the release of campaign finance reports and the first public poll. Robert analyzes the junk science in the new Congressional report which absurdly concludes Medicaid is worsening the opioid crisis. Finally we chat with Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member Sue Anderson who invites our listeners to the Runaway Inequality Book Club discussion this Sunday, January 21. the goal is to better understand the failings of the neoliberal economy.

We discuss the Trump administration’s decision to legalize the imposition of Medicaid work requirements designed to force people off health coverage. We look closer at the historic number of GOP House resignations that are increasing the odds of a Democratic sweep in 2018. The panel analyses the state of Wisconsin’s gubernatorial election with this week’s addition of Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, and Walker's curiously overwrought reaction. We dissect the laughable $7 million WEDC ad campaign recruiting white millennials in Chicago with idyllic images of Madison and Milwaukee. Ironically in the same week Walker blasted Madison as crime ridden socialist wasteland.

We welcome Mark Thomsen, Chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, to discuss the highly partisan and potentially slanderous attack by Senate Leader Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Vos on commission administrator Michael Haas. We also talk about the increasingly combative GOP Senate primary between Leah Vukmir and Kevin Nicholson, revealing deepening fault lines within the Republican Party. We review news that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has determined it doesn’t have jurisdiction over wetlands on the initial parcels of Foxconn land; U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan's prediction that Foxconn will sink Walker and Republicans; and a new study finds that Wisconsin is the 10th most moved out of state.

After reviewing the draconian implications of the GOP tax scam bill that was forced through Congress this week, we welcome State Rep. Jonathan Brostoff to educate us on the GOP effort to expand Foxconn’s wetlands exemptions statewide, putting one million acres of wetlands at risk. Republicans are looking to ram the wetlands destruction bill quickly through the Legislature. Robert also tells us about Citizen Action’s 12th annual Health Insurance Cost Ranking Report which examines the cost of healthcare in different parts of the state. The report reveals the damage GOP sabotage of the ACA is causing and why BadgerCare Public Option legislation is so important. We also discuss MacIver Institute’s laughable list of the top ten lies of 2017 that includes Citizen Action for supporting BadgerCare for all. Happy holiday to all our listeners. See you in 2018!

We are joined by former state representative and Citizen Action Board member, Mandela Barnes, to discuss lessons from Tuesday's Alabama Senate election. Robert educates us on this week’s launch of the End Child Poverty campaign that Citizen Action is leading with WISDOM, Kids Forward and Wisconsin Council of Churches. We also discuss: New legislation from Rep. Goyke to cut Wisconsin’s prison population; Wisconsin now has 50 counties in a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies for "being directly responsible" for the opioid crisis; How legislation to close a corporate tax loophole in WI is being blocked by GOP leadership; and The latest Foxconn news. We also reflect on the 5 year anniversary of the Newton mass shooting of 20 students and 6 educators and how we have failed to pass basic gun restrictions since this incident.

This week two GOP senators unintentionally reveal the malicious motives behind the GOP tax scam bill. Next, we dig into the latest in "the Foxconn" scandal and Walker's sudden about face on federal health care funding. We welcome Eric Couto, executive director of Wisconsin Progress, to educate our listeners on the candidate recruitment and training program they offer progressive candidates. We also discuss Milwaukee Judge Joe Donald’s call for a new more humane and proactive approach to juvenile justice and for the closure of the scandal-ridden Lincoln Hills facility.

We discuss the rushed vote in the U.S. Senate on the GOP tax cut scam and Walker’s plan to spend $7 million on an ad campaign to “get more bodies” in the state. We also welcome Emerge Wisconsin executive director Erin Forest to discuss their growing training program to inspire and train Democratic women to run for office with the goal of changing the face of power, politics, and leadership in Wisconsin and the country.

We welcome state Representative Jonathan Brostoff to discuss new GOP wetlands destruction legislation, modeled on dangerous Foxconn wetlands exemptions, which could result in a loss of an estimated 1 million acres of our wetlands. We talk about the GOP federal tax cut plan approved by the House Thursday, including Sen. Ron Johnson's opposition. Robert also highlights the tax bill's sabotage of the Affordable Care Act by removing the ACA's individual mandate. We review the latest news in the 2018 gubernatorial election, including Mahlon Mitchell's announced candidacy this week and 2 special elections in the Legislature this winter. Milwaukee and other municipalities are set to increase voting locations, how about your city? Rep. Gordon Hintz fights the rent to own industry and Robert discusses new polling demonstrating the more education Republican voters have, the less they believe in climate change and other interesting findings.

On the week Gov. Walker launched his quest for a 3rd term, former panelist Jorna Taylor joins us to review election results on the east coast and predict their implications for Wisconsin in 2018. This week Wisconsin officially joined the Koch Brother-fueled right-wing conspiracy to radically reconstruct the U.S. Constitution. Ken Taylor, executive director of Kids Forward, joins us to talk about the State Senate approval of the "ConCon" and why it is a threat to democracy. We also discuss the rubber-stamping of the Foxconn contract by the WEDC board and the repeal of Wisconsin's sulfide mining moratorium heads to Walker's desk.

We discuss the latest Foxconn news including a new Democratic appointment to WEDC and the GOP desire to keep the details of the deal from public scrutiny. Kevin Kane joins us to educate listeners on the ACA open enrollment process and our role in preventing health care sabotage. We review Gov. Walker’s dirty effort to deregulation of CAFO’s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). We also discuss efforts by Voces de la Frontera, WI Farmers Union and allies to stop a new state anti-sanctuary bill that threatens fundamental human rights.