Wisconsin Right Now

Wisconsin’s Senate race between incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin and Republican challenger Eric Hovde are nearly dead even, polls from Emerson College and Trafalgar Group showed. The results are like a Quinnipiac poll of 1,108 likely voters showing the two candidates are too close to call. The Emerson College poll of 800 likely Wisconsin voters had each candidate at 48% support in a poll conducted Oct. 21-22 through contacting the cell phones of potential voters (61% of respondents) and an online panel of voters (39%). The Emerson poll had Donald Trump with 49% support and Kamala Harris with 48% in the state. Nearly 65% of the 1.2% of undecided voters said that they lean toward Harris while 35% lean toward Trump. The poll showed that nearly 42% of voters believe the economy is the most important issue facing the state while 17% said threats to democracy, 10% said abortion access and 9% each said immigration and housing affordability. Of those surveyed, 46% said they voted...

Wisconsin’s Senate race between incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin and Republican challenger Eric Hovde is too close to call, according to a new Quinnipiac Poll. Baldwin has 49% support amount the 1,108 likely voters polled from Oct. 17-21 while Hovde saw 48% of the support in a poll with a 2.9% margin of error, making it too close to call. That’s a tightening from an Oct. 9 poll that showed Baldwin with 50% support compared to 46% for Hovde. The toss-up call is similar to how the Cook Political Report sees the race. The two faced off in what was expected to be their only debate Friday evening. The Quinnipiac Poll has run since 1994 and uses a random sampling of adults using random digit dialing with live interviewers calling both cell phones and land lines. The poll also showed Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are tied with 48% support from likely voters in the presidential race in the state. All third party candidates received less than 1% support. That compares to an Oct. 9...

Wisconsin Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde said in a 2012 interview that he was in favor of raising the retirement age for Social Security, something that is the focus of a new political ad from incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Hovde clarified his thoughts to the Milwaukee Press Club and on social media this week with a statement saying that his proposal won’t impact those nearing retirement or currently receiving Social Security. Instead, his proposal applies only to those under the age of 40 because the Congressional Budget Office predicts that Social Security will have negative cash flow by 2033. “If we don’t act now, Social Security will no longer be able to pay out full benefits,” Hovde wrote . Hovde added he has never proposed to cut Social Security either, instead proposing to put Social Security in a trust so it cannot be used for other government spending. “This should have happened from its beginning,” Hovde wrote. “For decades, Congress has treated...

  (The Center Square) – A bipartisan Senate report released Wednesday blasts the U.S. Secret Service for several significant failures that led to the near-fatal assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump in Butler County, Pennsylvania, over the summer. The report indicates that security knew the shooter was on the roof minutes before Trump was shot. Meanwhile, a bill that would increase the Secret Service protection for former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, now awaits President Joe Biden’s signature. The new Senate report lays out a litany of failures from the Secret Service, including failure to delegate responsibilities to agents and officers, failure to keep the key buildings cleared, failure to work will with local law enforcement, who were helping with security, and more. The report includes a list of failures, including that the Secret Service did not properly respond after the would-be assassin was identified as a suspi...

  (The Center Square) – A bipartisan Senate report released Wednesday blasts the U.S. Secret Service for several significant failures that led to the near-fatal assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump in Butler County, Pennsylvania, over the summer. The report indicates that security knew the shooter was on the roof minutes before Trump was shot. Meanwhile, a bill that would increase the Secret Service protection for former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, now awaits President Joe Biden’s signature. The new Senate report lays out a litany of failures from the Secret Service, including failure to delegate responsibilities to agents and officers, failure to keep the key buildings cleared, failure to work will with local law enforcement, who were helping with security, and more. The report includes a list of failures, including that the Secret Service did not properly respond after the would-be assassin was identified as a suspi...

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...

“Congress created Daylight Saving decades ago as a wartime effort, now it is well past time to lock the clock and end this experiment.” - U.S. Sen. James Lankford The U.S. Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023. Lawmakers unanimously adopted the Sunshine Protection Act, which advocates say will boost economic activity. The measure must pass the U.S. House of Representatives before going to President Joe Biden for consideration. The Sunshine Protection Act The bill,  S.623 , would apply to those states who participate in daylight saving time. Most states observe daylight saving time for eight months each year. The Sunshine Protection Act would do away with changing clocks twice a year. Hawaii and most of Arizona do not participate in Daylight Saving Time. U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-FL, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, sponsored the measure. “Resetting the clocks may soon be a thing of the past,” Whitehouse said in a state...

The U.S. Senate Wednesday night sent the Biden administration a message: Congress' upper chamber does not support the president's private sector vaccine mandate. With two Democratic senators joining all 50 Republicans, the Senate voted 52-48 to repeal President Joe Biden's executive mandate requiring that private-sector employers with 100 or more workers ensure their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19 or face weekly testing. Businesses that didn't follow the directive were to face stiff fines. U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and Jon Tester, D-Montana, joined Republicans in rebuking the mandate. While the measure, introduced by Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled U.S. House, federal courts already have halted Biden's private-sector and other vaccine mandates, saying they amount to executive overreach. "We've seen two consistent patterns in the past few months: the Biden Administrat...