Battleground Wisconsin Brian Wooldridge

We discuss President Biden’s visit to Wisconsin for the 4th time this year on Wednesday and his highlighting the difference of his successful economic policies which passed Congress including Infrastructure, CHIPS and Inflation Reduction Acts. Wisconsin is clearly ground zero for the presidential election and important U.S. Senate seat held by Tammy Baldwin.

Wisconsin Democrats announced this week that they will commit $7 million to TV ads in 5 key state Senate races. We talk about why. Wisconsin still remains the only state where no criminal charges have been filed of the five states where fake electors signed papers fraudulently asserting they were the duly qualified electors. Why? We unpack the racist House Republican scheme this week to determine immigrants are not people in scam to not count them in the next census. We laud Law Forward for calling on the US Attorney to investigate GOP operatives for racist voter suppression texts to Souls to the Polls.

We continue to call for Wisconsin lawmakers to get serious about the developing healthcare system crisis, as another for-profit company announces new cancer clinics Western Wisconsin to take advantage of some of the profitable parts of the collapsed Hospital Sister Health System in the region.

In Mt. Horeb this week guns, death, and middle school kids in lockdown. We reflect.

We recap Tuesday’s 40th Anniversary event in Eau Claire. Thanks to everyone who attended one of the 5 celebrations of our proud history. As always, we are inspired by our members around Wisconsin and their commitment to building a just multiracial democracy. Please consider joining Citizen Action Today! You are needed.

We update state legislative candidate announcements and remind you to reach out to people you think should run.

We dissect the systemic implications of Marshfield Medical Center in Rice Lake, which paused its labor and delivery services this week. In other hospital monopoly news, Bellin and Gundersen Healthcare merge into the soulless profit seeking Emplify Health, further disconnecting it from its primary mission of meeting community healthcare needs.

A Dane County court overturns the PSC decision that allowed people to lease their solar energy system. Will the big fossil fuel utilities be permitted to block the renewable energy revolution?

We praise the organizing by voting rights advocates who continue their push for removing fraudulent fake elector Bob Spindell from Wisconsin’s elections commission.

We take a deeper dive into the Gaza Protests that hit the UW system and campuses across the country. What do they reveal about the power of organizing and the reality of who runs the modern UW System and other major American universities?

We preview the final 40th Anniversary event next Tuesday, April 30th, 6pm, in Eau Claire. Robert reminds connects our 40th birthday to the abuses of the large hospital monopolies who recently ripped a huge hole in the health care safety net in their craven pursuit of profit. We talk about the new report showing among the fastest rising in the nation rents in Wisconsin and Milwaukee. We look at the racist plan to “wreak havoc” on voting rights group Souls to the Polls by the new executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party.

Wisconsin’s sleepy environmental regulators abandon rules on nitrates pollution and a Republican state legislator on the powerful Joint Finance Committee anonymously blocks opioid treatment money. What does this say about the anti-democracy state Legislature’s failure to lead on these and other critical issues. We continue to encourage progressive candidates to see the generational opportunity the fairer maps provide the progressive movement.

Trump is headed back to Wisconsin next week between trial dates as the Arizona AG indicts Trump’s fake electors and Trump campaign co-conspirators. That is now 4 states who have taken action, why is Wisconsin letting the election subverters get off scott free?.

Robert and Matt have a bull session on the Chicago Bears’ unveiling of a $4.2 billion public shakedown on top of White Sox demand for $2 billion. What Wisconsin can teach Illinois about subsidizing billionaires?

In a potential preview of November, MAGAite Steven Campbell refuses to step down following losing his Green Bay City Council election, even after losing the recount he paid for. Trump has been encouraging his acolytes to seek fraud claims everywhere, laying the groundwork for his future claims of a stolen election in the fall.

We talk about the decision of Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley to step down, setting up another epic Supreme Court election next April that will determine the balance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the future of abortion rights and democracy in the Badger State. Also as nomination papers drop, we urge movement progressives to run in state legislative races.

Meanwhile, the bitter fruits of right-rule continued in Wisconsin. We discuss the staggering implications of a new report revealing that nearly 40% of Wisconsin teachers left the profession after 6 years, a direct result of Act 10 and the GOP assault on public education. Meanwhile on the energy front, renewable energy laggard We Energies proposes another outrageous 15% rate hike as Southeast Wisconsin residents protest the increase.

Finally a new MU Law Poll has U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin over 50% and leading Eric Hovde.

We discuss the WIsconsin Voters approval of 60% of Spring 2024 Election school referendums and the analysis done by the Wisconsin Policy Forum of referendum performance over the last couple of decades. Robert reviews the latest MAGA efforts to recall Robin Vos and its implications for the Republican Party and the institutions that support it. We talk about the Arizona Supreme Court’s stunning abortion decision. What are the implications for healthcare and Trump’s and Hovde’s abortion election season tap dance? Inflation is higher than expected, what does it mean for the economy and election?

We welcome Laura Dresser, Associate Director, of the High Road Strategy Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Peter Rickman, president, Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Union to discuss the findings and key policy and organizing implications of a new High Road Center report, “From Community Benefits, to Collective Bargaining, and Back.”

We debrief this week’s Spring General Election. We look at the implications of the high ‘Uninstructed Vote” in the Democratic Presidential primary. Will it put additional pressure on President Biden to change course on the unfolding humanitarian travesty in Gaza? We also dig into the central role that strong voter support for public education played in local elections throughout the state, local election success stories and disappointments. With the Spring Elections now behind us, we turn to the critical task of recruiting progressive candidates for state legislative elections.

We remind our listeners that our 40th Anniversary event in Wausau is next Thursday, April 11th, 5:30pm and encourage listeners to join Robert and Matt in celebrating 40 years of powerful organizing.

We welcome Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski to discuss the continued attacks on her office and the structures that support our democracy. Secretary of State Godlewski also talks about the importance of public education and why she barnstormed the state supporting many of the 90 public school referendums on the ballot this Spring.

Citizen Action Climate Coordinator Kat Klawes joins us to discuss an opportunity for our listeners to take action in support of a FREE weatherization program being considered by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission to implement important climate components of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act passed by Democrats in Congress in 2022.

Sign petition in support of FREE weatherization of Wisconsin homes.
https://www.greenhomeownersunited.com/ira2024en