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...

Western Wisconsin’s congressman says he was assaulted at Milwaukee’s Republican National Convention, but a women’s group disagrees. Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden took social media Tuesday to say a protester with the group Code Pink assaulted him while he was standing in line at the RNC. “While standing in line to enter an event at the RNC today, I was assaulted by what appeared to be a member of the pro-Hamas group CODEPINK. A nearby police officer witnessed this assault and I understand they have been arrested,” Van Orden said. “This appears to be an incident of political violence and I will never tolerate this. Regardless of the severity of the violence, political violence is political violence.” Code Pink almost immediately said Van Orden was the one who bumped into who they called a “visibly Palestinian” woman. “CODEPINK's Palestine Organizer Nour [Jaghama] has been unjustly arrested at the RNC after a congressman shoved past her and had her arrested on fal...

Wisconsin’s Democrat leadership continued its push for ballot drop boxes as Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a response brief with the Wisconsin Supreme Court to allow them. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers filed a brief in early April looking overturn a ruling from 2022 that said ballot drop boxes are not allowed under state law. Kaul wrote that, by spring 2021, 570 drop boxes were placed across 66 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties and the share of Wisconsin voters casting an absentee ballot increased from 6% to 30% from 2002 to 2022. Kaul argued Wisconsin law does not prohibit drop boxes. “Voting should be safe, secure and accessible — and drop boxes are,” Kaul said in a statement . “Unfortunately, the use of drop boxes has been swept into the broader and baseless attacks on our elections and our democracy. “Through our filing, we’re arguing that Wisconsin law does not prohibit the use of drop boxes, and that clerks should be able to determine whether to offer this convenient method o...

Wisconsin’s pro-life groups are unified in telling the Wisconsin Supreme Court it is not the court’s job to create a right to abortion. Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action and Pro-Life Wisconsin all filed a joint brief with the court that argues there is no right to abortion and add that if there is to be one, that decision is up to lawmakers. “The Supreme Court is not the proper venue to create health and safety law nor the proper mechanism to add a constitutional amendment. The legislature is the proper body to weigh the policy considerations and create law, not the court,” Wisconsin Family Action president Christine File said. “Finding a right to abortion in our state constitution, where there clearly is none, would be the most extreme form of legislating from the bench,” Dan Miller, state director at Pro-Life Wisconsin, said. “The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled in Dobbs that there is no federal constitutional right to abortion. Nothing in Wisconsin’s cons...

Wisconsin’s next Supreme Court race could be even more contentious and even more expensive than the last one. Liberal Justice Anne Walsh Bradley surprised the state on Thursday when she announced she would not run for re-election next year. "My decision has not come lightly. It is made after careful consideration and reflection. I know I can do the job and do it well. I know I can win re-election, should I run. But it's just time to pass the torch, bring fresh perspectives to the court," Walsh Bradley said in a statement. She is one of Wisconsin’s longest-serving justices, serving her third 10-year term on the court. She wrote, “In the 177-year history of the court, only four justices have served longer than my length of service.” Walsh Bradley’s decision means the next election will be open. Former Republican attorney general, and current Waukesha County judge, Brad Schimel has already jumped into the race. There aren’t any declared Democrats yet. Schimel...

Wisconsin’s governor is asking the state Supreme Court to allow ballot drop boxes ahead of this November’s election. Gov. Tony Evers filed a brief with the court, asking the new liberal-majority to overturn a ruling from 2022 that said ballot drop boxes are not allowed under state law. “At the very heart of our democracy is the fundamental freedom to vote. In Wisconsin, we must work to protect that freedom and to empower our clerks and election administrators working hard at the local level to make decisions that are right for their communities. Drop box voting is safe and secure, and there is nothing in Wisconsin’s election laws that prohibit our local clerks from using this secure option, absent an incorrect ruling by our courts,” Evers said in a statement. Wisconsin law does not specifically allow for ballot drop boxes anywhere other than the local clerk’s office. The then-conservative-majority court based its ruling that banned ballot drop boxes on that fact. But Evers ...

Wisconsin’s push to help children in the state’s schools read better took its next step forward Monday. The budget-writing Joint Finance Committee approved four new reading programs for the state’s public schools. JFC co-chairman Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, said more than 60% of Wisconsin fourth-graders currently cannot read or write at grade level. Born said changing the way Wisconsin teachers teach reading is the obvious first step. “Between 60 and 70% of our kids can't read at the proper level. Who runs that system now folks? Who's the one providing the council and the guidance to all of our school districts on that now? [Department of Instruction],” Born said during Monday’s hearing. “DPI is part of the failure of our kids to read. What are we doing? We had to create legislation…so our kids can read.” The new reading curricula are required under Wisconsin’s read overhaul law, known as Act 20. But Born said schools are not required to use the new lessons. He did say l...

Some of Wisconsin’s Republican congressmen say there is a problem with Gov. Tony Evers’ latest problems with the state’s political maps. Evers this week asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take a look at the state’s congressional maps. "MONDAY: I signed fair maps for Wisconsin’s Legislature," Evers tweeted Wednesday. "NEXT UP: fair maps for our congressional districts." The liberal law firm The Elias Group has already asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reconsider the state’s congressional maps, just like the court reconsidered the state’s legislative maps. The high court tossed those state maps back in December. But Wisconsin lawmakers ended the court’s review and replacement by passing Evers’ preferred maps for Assembly and Senate districts. Western Wisconsin Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden on Wednesday pointed out the Congressional maps are also Evers’ own. “The maps are a 100% product of the Dems,” Van Orden said in a tweet. “Evers drew ...

Wisconsin’s assembly speaker is not calling his proposal for medical marijuana dead, but he says it’s not going to happen this year. Speaker Robin Vos told reporters Thursday there are too many different views of marijuana to find a consensus on a strict-medical only plan. “I think we have now seen, unfortunately, people who from the very beginning have said that they have concerns that this will lead to widespread recreational marijuana and many of my colleagues on the other side continue to say that that is their goal which of course that's their right,” Vos said. Vos’ plan would create five state-owned marijuana dispensaries that would sell non-smoking marijuana to people with 15 specific health conditions. Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate, specifically, don’t like the idea of state-owned pot shops. “I still think we have the votes in the Assembly to pass it,” Vos added. “I've not had anybody come to me who was a supporter and say they have changed their posit...

Wisconsin’s election managers say as long as there is a house number and a street name, absentee voting witness slips don’t need a city, the state, a zip code or anything else. The Wisconsin Elections Commission clarified the rule for absentee ballot witnesses address information. The commission told clerks to error on the side of counting ballots and issued five specific clarifications as to when ballots are not to be rejected. An absentee ballot may not be rejected if: The witness’s street number, street name, and municipality are present, but there is neither a state name nor a ZIP code provided; The witness’s street number, street name, and ZIP code are present, but there is neither a municipality nor a state name provided; The witness’s street number and street name are present and match the street number and street name of the voter, but no other address information is provided; The witness certification indicates that the witness's address is the...

Wisconsin’s budget-makers are expecting less money over the next year but say that shouldn’t stop the state from giving taxpayers some of their money back. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau released an updated revenue forecast for the state budget that will end in June 2025. “Based upon our analysis, we project the closing, net general fund balance at the end of this biennium (June 30, 2025) to be $3,152.0 million. This is $439.1 million below the net balance that was projected at the time of enactment of the 2023-25 biennial budget,” the report stated. Most of that decrease, some $422 million, comes from an expected drop in tax collections. Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, and Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, the head of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee said even with the lower estimate, a $3.1 billion surplus is plenty of money to pay for a tax cut for Wisconsinites. “Earlier this week, Republicans introduced a plan to send over $2 billion to the people of Wiscons...

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will not reconsider its ruling that tossed out the state’s political maps. The new liberal-majority court ruled 4-3 against a request from Republican lawmakers to listen to arguments again. Lawyers for the Republican-controlled legislature also said Friday’s deadline for new maps was too quick of a turnaround. The liberal-majority court ruled just before Christmas that Wisconsin’s political maps from 2022 were too gerrymandered in favor of Republicans. The court then ordered new maps for both the Wisconsin Assembly and Wisconsin Senate to be drawn before this spring’s primaries. Gov. Tony Evers has said he intends to offer input on the new maps, but he said it will likely be up to the court’s experts to decide what the new legislative boundaries will be. The Wisconsin Supreme Court didn’t offer an explanation with its decision. The deadline for those maps is 5 p.m. today. After that, experts hired by the court will either issue a report on ne...

Wisconsin’s governor is making it clear he’s not going to sign off on the end of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Gov. Tony Evers was a guest on Upfront on Milwaukee TV over the weekend and said he will veto the Republican-backed plan to get rid of the elections commission and shift its powers to the secretary of state’s office. “Under no circumstances, simple as that,” Evers said. Republican Rep. Ty Bodden, R-Stockbridge, introduced the plan last week. He said moving the responsibility for managing Wisconsin’s elections to the elected secretary of state will help restore faith in the state’s electoral process. “The Wisconsin Elections Commission and its makeup has been a disaster for the state of Wisconsin. The Government Accountability Board was a failed agency and WEC was another failed experiment that replaced it. Let’s not try to reinvent the wheel, but rather give the responsibilities back to the secretary of state, the position that administers elections in 38 other...

One of Wisconsin’s congressmen is warning about a potential Chinese strategy to corner the market on electric cars. Congressman Mike Gallagher and other members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party this week sent a letter to the U.S. ambassador warning China may flood the U.S. market with electric vehicles. “We are concerned by how the People’s Republic of China is preparing to flood the United States and global markets with automobiles, particularly electric vehicles, propped up by massive subsidies and long-standing localization and other discriminatory policies employed by the PRC,” Gallagher and the Select Committee wrote in the letter. “We request that the Office of the United States Trade Representative consider whether to launch a new Section 301 investigation into these practices and the harm they pose to the American automotive industry and American workers and what actions should be taken to...

Wisconsin’s governor is criticizing Republican lawmakers for not following science and what he is calling an “antipathy” toward LGBTQ people. The governor said in an interview with WisEeye he will veto the Republican-backed plan to ban sex change operations and hormone therapy for children in Wisconsin. “I didn’t realize that the legislature had the ability to know more about that issue than the physicians that are with those kids,” Gov. Tony Evers said. Both the Wisconsin Assembly and the State Senate this month passed legislation that would ban transgender procedures for children. Wisconsin Right Now published a  multipart series exploring gender treatments in Wisconsin hospitals. Republicans said the idea is to give young people and their families time to “hit the pause button.” “What this bill does is it grants minors the time for their minds to develop in order to make the right choice for them at the appropriate developmental age,” Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha, sa...

One of Wisconsin's congressmen says he wants to get ahead of any policy that may invite Palestinian refugees into the U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wisconsin, introduced a piece of legislation that would not allow people fleeing the Gaza Strip to be brought to America. “It prevents people that have a Palestinian Authority visa from being able to come into the United States,” Tiffany told Jay Weber on News Talk 1130-WISN. Tiffany says the legislation is necessary after how the Biden Administration handled the evacuation of U.S. troops and allies out of Afghanistan. “We saw what happened in Afghanistan a little over two years ago when you had about 100,000 people that came in unvetted. This would be the same thing,” Tiffany said. Tiffany, who has long been a critic of President Biden and his immigration policies, said the United States must do a much better job of vetting the people who come into this country. “When you have children that are given maps without Israel on i...

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says the U.S. Supreme Court will have the final word on Janet Protasiewicz's recusal in the legislative redistricting cases after a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice said he did not believe there was a strong enough case to impeach her at this time. “Justice Protasiewicz should have recused herself. We think the United States Supreme Court precedent compels her recusal, and the United States Supreme Court will have the last word here," Vos said in a statement. “Justice Protasiewicz is asking to be taken at her word that she will apply the law. Given the Wisconsin Supreme Court is limiting its review of the redistricting case to two questions, legal contiguity and separation of powers, applying the law should be straightforward. The Wisconsin Supreme Court addressed these very questions less than two years ago, and the law remains the same.” https://twitter.com/mattsmith_news/status/1711766721273426006 Whether Protasiewicz should recuse...

"The poor test scores are even more striking when you look at the success of students in Wisconsin choice schools." - Will Flanders; The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty Nearly 60% of students in Wisconsin's Public Schools continue to be unable to read, write, or do math at grade level. The State's Department of Public Instruction released the latest standardized test scores Tuesday, and they show 39.2% of public school students are proficient or better in reading, while 41.1% are proficient or better in math. But those are the statewide averages. Individual schools saw differing results, and the numbers show low-income students did worse across the board. DPI's numbers show 22.6% of low-income students are proficient in reading, and 23.1% are proficient in math. The numbers also show 42.2% of low-income students are rated minimal in reading, while 45.9% of low-income students are rated as minimal in math. Wisconsin’s worst-in-the-nation raci...

The legal challenge to Wisconsin’s pre-Roe abortion law could move more quickly after Planned Parenthood announced Thursday it will resume providing abortions in the state. “With the recent confirmation from the Court that there is not an enforceable abortion ban in Wisconsin, our staff can now provide the full scope of sexual and reproductive health care to anyone in Wisconsin who needs it, no matter what,” President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin Tanya Atkinson said. Planned Parenthood plans to resume performing abortions Monday. A Dane County judge ruled in July Wisconsin’s pre-Roe abortion law didn’t apply to abortions. Judge Diane Schlipper said there is no such thing as an ‘1849 Abortion Ban’ in Wisconsin,” she said the state’s ban on abortion, instead, applies to feticide. Gov. Tony Evers praised Planned Parenthood’s announcement. “This is great news, but our fight to restore the same reproductive freedoms Wisconsinites had up until the day #SCOTUS overt...