Wisconsin Right Now

Dorow is the 4th candidate to enter the race. Dan Kelly is the other conservative. Two extremist liberal candidates are also running. The primary election is Feb. 21. The Supreme Court race is for control of the court. Chief Judge Jennifer Dorow announced on Wednesday that she was running for state Supreme Court, saying she wants her three children and "all of Wisconsin's young people" to live in a "safe, prosperous state, where the rule of law and respect for the Constitution are part of our core values." In the press conference at the Waukesha County Courthouse, where she is a judge, Dorow said she made her decision after many discussions with family and close friends and a "lot of prayer." "I am running as a judicial conservative to carry on the legacy of a judicial giant and someone I respect and admire, and that’s Justice Patience Roggensack," said Dorow, who is running for the seat that Roggensack, a conservative,...

There are new questions about the 2020 election after the latest numbers from the 2022 election. Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, on Tuesday said this year’s military voting numbers show something happened between the two elections. “We have learned that the number of active military members voting in the 2022 election dropped by over 83% since the 2020 election!” Brandtjen said in a statement. Brandtjen is at the center of the story about military ballots in Wisconsin. She received three fake military ballots ahead of Election Day. Those ballots, it turned out, came from a Milwaukee election manager. “When Milwaukee deputy election clerk Kim Zapata created three military members out of thin air and sent requests for legitimate ballots to my home address, the vulnerability of the military ballot process was exposed,” Brandtken added. Military voters in Wisconsin don’t have to actually register, and never have to show voter ID in order to get an absentee ballot in th...

A Wisconsin Republican congressman is amping-up the war of words against TikTok. Congressman Mike Gallagher was on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures over the weekend, and talked about China and its influence over TikTok. “TikTok should be banned. Senator Marco Rubio and I have legislation that does exactly that. TikTok is digital fentanyl addicting our kids, and just like actual fentanyl, it ultimately goes back to the Chinese Communist Party.,” Gallagher said. TikTok is owned by a Chinese tech firm called ByteDance. The company says more than a billion people use TikTok each month. Gallagher says that means China is essentially spying on a billion people each month, including a lot of young people in America. “TikTok is owned by ByteDance. ByteDance is controlled by the CCP. That means the CCP can track your location. It can track your keystrokes. It can censor your news. Why would we give our foremost adversary that amount of power?” Gallagher asked. Gallagher’s criticism...

The next legal fight over whether someone has to belong to a group as a condition to do their job may be coming to a courtroom soon. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Monday asked the United State Supreme Court to take once again a look at mandatory bar membership in the state. “For far too long, this Court’s precedents have allowed States to put attorneys to the choice of either losing their ability to earn a living in their profession or associating with and funding opinions with which they disagree,” WILL argued in its amicus brief. WILL is calling the challenge a First Amendment case. [caption id="attachment_94848" align="alignleft" width="189"] ANTHONY LOCOCO Deputy Counsel[/caption] “Forcing objecting attorneys to join and fund an organization that engages in speech with which they disagree is contrary to fundamental values of free speech and free association,” WILL Deputy Counsel Anthony LoCoco, said. “If the State Bar wants ...

  More than 40% of U.S. small business owners say they couldn’t pay rent on time or in full for the month of November, the highest this year. The small business network group  Alignable released the survey, which found that the hardship varies by industry. A notable 57% of beauty salons said they couldn’t make rent as well as 45% of gyms, 44% of retail and 44% of restaurants. “Making matters worse, this occurred during a quarter when more money should be coming in and rent delinquency rates should be decreasing,” Alignable said. “But so far this quarter, the opposite has been true.” This latest report continues a steady increase in businesses that can't pay rent this year. “Last month, rent delinquency rates increased seven percentage points from 30% in September to 37% in October,” Alignable said. “And now, in November, that rate is another four percentage points higher, reaching a new high across a variety of industries.” Business owners cite a range of reasons for t...

The University of Wisconsin is all but closing one of its smallest campuses. UW President Jay Rothman said in a letter Tuesday the UW-Platteville will end all in-person classes at its Richland campus. Rothman ordered Platteville’s chancellor to end the degree program at the Richland campus because only 60 students are taking classes there right now. “While the University of Wisconsin System remains committed to the branch campuses and to providing as broad of access for students as possible, there comes a time when financial pressure and low enrollment makes in-person degree level academic instruction no longer tenable,” Rothman wrote in his letter. Next year the 60 Richland students will be transitioned to either the Platteville or Baraboo campuses. No one is saying what will happen to the faculty and staff members teaching at the Richland campus. And Rothman isn’t saying if this will be the last or only small UW campus to close. “Each of the branch campuses have a diffe...

There is already a focus on Wisconsin’s next election. Former Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday said if liberals win the race for Supreme Court in Wisconsin, all of the state’s reforms from his time in office will be in danger. “An activist court, as we’ve seen elsewhere in the country, could do almost anything,” Walker told News Talk 113O WISN’s Jay Weber. “If you listen to at least a couple of of the liberal candidates … they sound very much aligned with some of the things we’ve seen in California and Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.” Walker says that could mean changes not only to Act 10 or Right to Work in Wisconsin, but could mean changes to things like redistricting that he says “affects the rest of the country.” Judge Dan Kelly is the leading conservative candidate for Supreme Court on the Republican side so far. Walker appointed Kelly to the court back in 2016, and on Tuesday said Kelly made his mark on the court. “Kelly to me was much like [Antonin] Scalia was on the U.S. Sup...

Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney has charged Gary Eugene Davis with the domestic violence murder of Jacquelyn Jo Rooney, 51. The victim died from over 12 stab wounds to the torso, three skull fractures from blunt force trauma and blunt force trauma to her jaw "which broke her upper jaw off." The criminal complaint says that Davis, 57, is from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and he was dating Rooney. He is also known as Gary E. Davis. Davis was charged with first-degree intentional homicide with use of a dangerous weapon as well as mayhem and hiding a corpse. He is a repeater because he was previously convicted of Felony Intimidate Victim/Threaten Force - Domestic Abuse. Bail was set at $2 million, according to online court records. "She was born on January 27, 1971, in Fond du Lac, the daughter of Warren and Sharon (Hoch) White," Rooney's obituary reads . "Jackie was a 1989 graduate of Laconia High School. She was a loving, caring, free spirit...

Authorities have caught the suspects who stole a young man's buck in Columbia County, Wisconsin. The Columbia County Sheriff's Department wrote: "This young man got his deer back today! The suspects have been identified and charged with theft and trespassing. A big thank you to the Facebook sleuths and for everyone who shared this story." They continued: "The original post from this hunting family has gotten over 4,500 shares in less than a day. Without that, this quick outcome would not have been possible. Great work by our local DNR Wardens working together with the family and us to come to this resolution." Sarah Diehm wrote on Facebook, "My son's 1st buck. Unfortunately it was stolen right off our property. Please keep an eye out for anyone bragging abt a beautiful unique buck. Reports have been made with Columbia County Sheriff and DNR warden. ETA: we were hunting off of Hwy O between Portage and Wis Dells." She later post...

Elon Musk said on Saturday night that he is restoring former President Donald Trump to Twitter. "The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei," Musk wrote on his Twitter page , which has 117 million followers. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1594131768298315777 The move comes after Musk tweeted out a Twitter poll asking users whether Trump should be reinstated. More than 15 million votes were case in Musk's poll. Reinstating Trump won Musk's poll 51.8% to 48.2%. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593767953706921985 It's not clear whether Trump, now a declared candidate for president in 2024, wants to come back to Twitter since he has a competing social media platform now, Truth Social. Musk has already reinstated other pages on both the left and right that were censored by Twitter including comedienne Kathy Griffin and the conservative satire page Babylon Bee.

Burlington police are reporting a terrified random attack on a woman in a residential driveway. The suspect - identified as Richard Sallmann of Delavan - is accused of wrapping a jacket around the woman's head and trying to suffocate her as she sat in a car. Police say it was a random attack; Richard Sallmann and the victim did not know each other. A woman wrote on the police department's Facebook page: "My sister in law almost died at the hands of this man. She is very beat up and broken physically right now. Not to mention the mental trauma she is enduring. Vile human being ." "On Wednesday, November 16, 2022, at 8:16 a.m. the Burlington Police Department was dispatched to the 100 block of Madison St. for the report of a woman yelling for help," police wrote in a Nov. 18, 2022, news release. "Officers arrived on scene to find a male suspect assaulting a female victim with a jacket wrapped around her head and still engaged in a physical alterca...

  Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who has led her party as U.S. House Speaker and House Minority Leader for roughly two decades, announced Thursday that she would step down from her leadership role. Pelosi, who is 82, said she plans to continue representing her California district in Congress. “I will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress,” Pelosi said, adding that “the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect.” Pelosi was the first woman to be Speaker of the House. Her announcement comes just hours after Republicans were projected to have a narrow majority in the House, setting the nation up for at least two years of divided government. "I have enjoyed working with three presidents achieving historic investments in clean energy with President George Bush, transformative health care reform with President Barack Obama, and forging the future from infrastructure to health care to climate act...

  When Congress authorized $80 billion this year to beef up Internal Revenue Service enforcement and staffing, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy warned that “Democrats’ new army of 87,000 IRS agents will be coming for you.” A video quickly went viral racking up millions of views, purporting to show a bunch of clumsy bureaucrats receiving firearms training, prompting alarm that the IRS would be engaged in military-style raids of taxpayers. The GOP claims were widely attacked as exaggerations – since the video, though from the IRS, didn’t show official agent training – but the criticism has shed light on a growing trend: the rapid arming of the federal government. A report issued last year by the watchdog group Open The Books, “The Militarization of The U.S. Executive Agencies,” found that more than 200,000 federal bureaucrats now have been granted the authority to carry guns and make arrests – more than the 186,000 Americans serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. “One...

Republicans took a majority of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after multiple media outlets projected California Republican Mike Garcia would win the 27th Congressional District. CNN, Fox News, the New York Times and the Washington Post all reported the GOP took the House majority as of Wednesday night. With a handful of races still left to call, Republicans are projected to hold at least 218 seats, enough to secure majority control. Democrats had 210 seats as of Wednesday. The New York Times tweeted , "Republicans seized a slender majority in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. It will reorder the balance of power in Washington and is expected to effectively give the party a veto on President [Joe] Biden's agenda for the next two years." Conservatives celebrated. "SO LONG, NANCY!" Fox News commentator Sean Hannity posted on Twitter. Democrat Nancy Pelosi is the outgoing Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Speaker of th...

here is a growing chorus of Milwaukee Democrats who say the state is missing the mark by expanding I-94 instead of focusing on buses and bicycles. The Department of Transportation on Friday announced plans to widen I-94 between 70th Street and 16th Street in Milwaukee. That includes the lanes around American Family Field. The ultimate goal is to add new lanes, going from the current six lanes up to eight lanes. Rep. Jonathan Brostoff, D-Milwaukee, is accusing Wis-Dot of living in the past. “The DOT has an opportunity to redirect funds away from a backwards, environmentally disastrous ‘car is king’ mentality, and towards improvements that would do generational good in our communities,” Brotsoff said. Many Milwaukee Democrats oppose the interstate project, either because they don’t like the costs, the environmental impact, or they believe that interstates have historically cut off communities of color. Brostoff says he’d rather see Wisconsin invest in mass transit and bike lane...

Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to keep U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell as head of their party in the Senate. The votes came in for McConnell despite a push from Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., to take the spot. Scott leads the National Republican Study Committee. He sent a letter to his Republican colleagues dated Nov. 15 making the case for their vote. “I’m writing to you today because I believe it’s time for the Senate Republican Conference to be far more bold and resolute than we have been in the past. We must start saying what we are for, not just what we are against,” he said. “I do not believe we can simply continue to say the Democrats are radical, which they are. Republican voters expect and deserve to know our plan to promote and advance conservative values. We need to listen to their calls for action and start governing in Washington like we campaign back at home. There is a Republican Party that is alive and well in communities across America. It is time there is one in Washingto...

  At noon on Wednesday, a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives remained unresolved but was nearing a decision. By consensus, Republicans have been called victorious for 217 of the 435 seats and needed just one more to flip control of the chamber with 10 remaining. Races in California, where seven are uncalled, could be decided today and have a mix of the GOP and Democrats leading. The following are the remaining situations: • California 3rd Congressional District: Republican Kevin Kiley 52.8% of the vote, Democrat Kermit Jones 47.2%; precincts counted 57%; difference about 10,000+ votes. • California 13th; Democrat Adam Gray 50.3%, Republican John Duarte 49.7%; precincts 86%; difference about 3,000+ votes. • California 22nd; Republican Rep. David Valadao 52.4%, Democrat Rudy Salas 47.6%; precincts 64%; difference about 3,000+ votes. • California 27th; Republican Rep. Mike Garcia 54.2%, Democrat Christy Smith, 45.8; precincts 70%; difference about 13,000+ vote...

A murder victim's son went after Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm hard at Darrell Brooks' sentencing, calling him a "coward" whose bail policies are partly responsible for Brooks being on the streets to commit the Waukesha parade attack. "He (Chisholm) is a coward who hides from the accountability of his office's negligence," the victim's son said during the Nov. 15, 2022, sentencing. "If he had a tiny single sliver of integrity he would resign. Not once has Mr. Chisholm said three simple words to these victims and families: 'I am sorry.'" You can watch the video here: https://twitter.com/Johnmcurtis/status/1592634186455711744 The son laid into Brooks, calling him a "repulsive" narcissists, and saying that his name "brings anger and hatred into my heart." Then he said that he holds two other people culpable for his mother's murder: Brooks' mother and Milwaukee County District Attor...

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday Nov. 15, 2022 that he is running for president again. He added, "I will fight like no one has ever fought before." Trump confirmed the talk swirling for weeks: He's in. He could face a primary challenge from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, although DeSantis has not confirmed that. In his speech, Trump ticked off Joe Biden's failures. He focused on fixing the economy and supply chain. He also said there has been a "total breakdown of law and order" under Biden and promised to restore public safety. Here's the announcement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-V8ge7Euig "This is our country, our government," Trump said. Trump said that inflation "is destroying your family and your life... this campaign will be for you." He also said that Biden had destroyed the borders, and he would secure them. He said the Biden administration had "destroyed" the American economy. Trump...

We've heard from three sources that Waukesha County Judge Jennifer Dorow is considering a run for state Supreme Court. We broke this news exclusively last week on social media. The race is incredibly important because it is for control of the court. Conservative former Justice Dan Kelly is already in the race. Kelly is known for his strong conservative opinions on the court, including helping strike down Tony Evers' Safer at Home order. He is an attorney who worked on redistricting matters for conservatives, defending Republican redistricting maps, and who advised conservative non-profits, including the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. He was appointed to the seat by former Gov. Scott Walker. He's been a leader in the Federalist Society. Kelly lost the seat in 2020 getting 44.7% to liberal Jill Karofsky's 55.2%. His supporters point out that this loss occurred in a presidential primary election. Dorow is a chief judge who was appointed to the Waukesha ...

Republicans are one seat away from capturing a majority of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives as there are still 13 races yet to be called.   With several races still uncalled, Republicans are on the verge of taking the 218 seats needed for a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. So far, 217 House seats have been called for Republicans, according to The Associated Press, opposed to 205 for Democrats, leaving a little more than a dozen seats up for grabs, mostly in California, and along with it control of the House. “When it comes to nominations – both judicial and executive – it will be more of the same. If the Democrats stick together, they can confirm whoever they want,” said John Malcom, an expert at the Heritage Foundation “In terms of policy, a lot will depend on whether the Republicans get the majority in the House, and if so, by how much.” Divided government seems likely and could halt much of President Joe Biden’s agenda. Biden's several-trillion d...

Yes, we know. The loss of the governor's and attorney general's races was a hard pill to swallow. We get the national narratives are troubling too. However, in Wisconsin, there were some really positive developments to come out of the midterm elections 2022. Here are six positive developments for conservatives. A lot of those positives came out of northwestern and western Wisconsin. 1. We don't have to endure Sen. Mandela Barnes (HUGE WIN!) Let's be honest. Many of us said, "Please, please, just let Ron Johnson hang on" as the other results went the wrong way. And he did! A great ray of sunshine on an otherwise dismal night. We don't have to endure U.S. Sen. Mandela Barnes (D-Wisconsin). It's worth repeating. We don't have to endure U.S. Sen. Mandela Barnes. Johnson won without waffling on his principles and despite a massive, unfair concerted media attack on his reputation. He proved that Republicans can still win in Wisconsin. They...

Something is really off here. Republican Tim Michels contributed almost twice as much of his own money to defeat conservative Rebecca Kleefisch as he did to defeat Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Campaign finance reports filed and amended through Nov. 8, 2022, show that Michels contributed just over $6.7 million to his own campaign after the primary. In contrast, campaign finance reports show that Michels contributed nearly $12 million of his own money during the primary to defeat Kleefisch, who had served as lieutenant governor under Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Michels and his supporters staked his primary campaign on the argument that he could self-fund against Tony Evers and, thus, match the Democratic governor's spending dollar for dollar. In fact, Michels insiders said he would contribute as much as $50 million. That did not happen. It's also worth pondering that some Kleefisch supporters noted during the primary that Michels' company benefits financially ...

Tim Michels lost the governor's race by a margin larger than all observers expected. Next week, we move forward. The state Supreme Court is looming, and it needs the full attention of conservatives. It will have ours. However, it's imperative that we dissect what went wrong in the governor's race so Republicans don't make the same mistakes again. To be blunt: Republicans were lied to. They were seduced by the idea of a self-funding candidate who didn't deliver. He dragged down other statewide candidates as a result. A small group of Republican insiders parachuted Michels into the gubernatorial primary at the last minute to blow up the two good conservatives already in the race, turning it into a money-draining bloodbath. The people searching for a Rebecca Kleefisch alternative and pushing Michels early on included Reince Priebus, Bill McCoshen, John Gard, Diane Hendricks, and Tommy Thompson. They had sought other alternatives (Eric Hovde, McCoshen and Tommy)...

Wisconsin’s new wolf hunt plan doesn’t include a target number for the state’s wolf population. The Department of Natural Resources on Thursday unveiled its new plan. “The proposed draft Wolf Management Plan reflects the detailed and significant work done by DNR staff to ensure the health and stability of Wisconsin’s wolf population,” DNR Secretary Preston D. Cole said in a statement. Wisconsin’s current wolf management plan has not changed since 2007, and has been a source of friction between hunters and environmentalists. Perhaps the biggest change in the new wolf plan is the end to a specific number for Wisconsin’s wolf population. “Moving away from a single numeric population goal and instead using an adaptive management process focused on balancing the [DNR’s] three main objectives,” the agency said in a news release. Those main objectives include: Ensuring a healthy and sustainable wolf population to fulfill its ecological role. Addressing and reducing wolf...

"My message is very pure and simple. We want freedom, we want prosperity and we want security" - new Congressman-elect Derrick Van Orden Former Navy SEAL Derrick Van Orden flipped a Congressional district in western Wisconsin that had been in Democratic hands for 26 years. It was a bright spot for Republicans on Tuesday. "There are people in my district who said, 'You realize I have not had someone I feel has represented me my entire life. That’s a big deal," Van Orden told Wisconsin Right Now in an interview shortly after the election. Van Orden, who won the seat vacated by Democrat Ron Kind, disputed media narratives that it was a bad night for Republicans nationally. Van Orden received 51.8% to 48.2% for Democrat Brad Pfaff. "The Republican Party across the nation garnered more than 1 million votes more than the Democratic Party," he said. "The problem was the expectations were set so high that people were disappointed that every ...

The Assembly Republican majority caucus re-elected Robin Vos (R-Rochester) as Speaker for the 2023-2024 legislative session and said he’s willing to work on “solutions” with Gov. Tony Evers. Vos on Thursday said he sees Republicans offering the governor compromises on abortion, school choice and taxes. “I think when you look at where we are, we need to make some potential changes to the 1849 [abortion] law. One of the things that I want to make sure of is that we have a law that can withstand court challenges,” Vos told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber Thursday morning. “When Tony Evers said he wouldn’t even consider making exceptions for rape and incest because he wants radical, up-until-birth abortion laws, let’s put something in front of him and see if he really believes that.” The governor said during the recent campaign that he wouldn’t sign an abortion exemption law because it would continue to ban most abortions in the state. Many other Republicans in the legislature have...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ sweeping win in Florida on Tuesday has propelled his stature in the Republican Party just as candidates backed by former President Donald Trump struggled on election day, setting a more favorable stage for DeSantis ahead of a potential 2024 presidential primary matchup. DeSantis won his gubernatorial race in 2018 by about 33,000 votes. This time around, with 99% of the total reporting, DeSantis leads his Democrat opponent by more than 1.5 million votes. DeSantis’ win validated his brand of economically strong, anti-COVID restriction politics with an edge on culture war issues. He hammered home that message in his victory speech Tuesday night. "We have embraced freedom,” DeSantis said. “We have maintained law and order. We have protected the rights of parents. We have respected our taxpayers, and we reject woke ideology ... We will never ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die!" Miami-Dade County supported Hillary Cl...

The next four years at the Wisconsin Capitol are likely to be the same as the last four years. Governor Evers took the governor's mansion. The Republicans held on to the legislature but fell just short of a supermajority. That means the same kind of split government that Wisconsin has seen for the past four years. “Republicans won't have a supermajority in the state Assembly. Gov. Evers' veto pen is secure,” Wisconsin Democratic Party boss Ben Wikler said on Twitter after Tuesday’s election. Republicans needed to flip one seat in the State Senate to get to a supermajority, they did that by winning Democratic Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley’s seat in far northwestern Wisconsin. She didn’t run again. Republicans needed to take five seats in the Assembly in order to get a supermajority there. They grabbed three seats. The top Democrat in the Assembly, Rep. Greta Neubauer, said stopping a Republican supermajority is something to celebrate. “With the governor’s...