MADISON - What an ugly week for democracy in Wisconsin!

The Republican-dominated legislature rammed through their re-rigged maps, despite the overwhelming support among Wisconsinites for nonpartisan redistricting, as I noted here:

Wisconsin GOP Re-Rigs Maps

Also this week, Michael Gableman gave one of the most arrogant performances I’ve ever seen. He was providing testimony at a public informational hearing (which was by invitation only from far-right committee chair, Rep. Janel Brandtjen), and the only other person invited was Sgt. Michael Luell of the Racine County Sheriff's Office. Gableman refused to even give the names and qualifications of the people on his staff, whose salaries you and I are paying for!

There also was a hearing on the Legislative Audit Bureau’s report on elections administration, which I testified at, as you’ll see here:

A Few Points About the Audit Bureau Report on Elections

At the hearing Rep. Macco was incredibly rude to Meagan Wolfe, the staff director at the Wisconsin Elections Commission. It was disgusting to watch!

Then there was Ron Johnson speaking with Republican legislators after urging them last week to bypass the Wisconsin Elections Commission and just run the elections themselves!

Republicans in Wisconsin are going to keep whipping the dead horse about last November elections all the way through 2022 and maybe even up to 2024. That, too, is disgusting to watch.

OK, enough of the bad news.

Here’s some good news: My latest book, “12 Ways to Save Democracy in Wisconsin,” just came back from the printer, and goes on sale on Dec. 7.

You can pre-order today at the University of Wisconsin Press directly or you can order from Amazon.

Most of the proceeds go to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

I hope you like the book, and I hope you have a nice weekend.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director

Gerrymandering disintegrates democracy and serves only the majority power of elected officials, says lawmaker.

MADISON — Rep. Francesca Hong (D-76) issued the following statement:

“I am shaken, enraged and broken after witnessing WI Republicans undermine democracy today with the passage of a gerrymandered map, again. My GOP colleagues have doubled down on maintaining power through a rigged and unconstitutional manner that defies the will of the people.”

“Gerrymandering disintegrates democracy and serves only the majority power of elected officials and not the people of the state. Instead of living in a Wisconsin that provides opportunity for all, we are living in a Wisconsin that serves the privileged few.”

“The will and power of the people is deeply connected to their abilities to hold their elected officials accountable. Republicans continue to ignore the facts, the numbers, the truth that Wisconsin is a purple state. With the gerrymandered map 2.0 they are hell-bent and keeping us in the deep red. This undemocratic and irresponsible act will continue to keep Wisconsin back when it should be the people moving us forward. While I am deeply disappointed in today’s outcome, the people’s voice will always be first in the office of the 76th.

GOP arrogance, and that kind of manipulation, cannot be allowed to stand.

MADISON - The Wisconsin Legislature will be voting on the newly rigged maps as early as Monday next week, so please contact your representatives and urge them to vote no!

In his testimony last week, Robin Vos confessed that he tilted the maps in his partisan favor, boasting that there was nothing in our Wisconsin Constitution to prohibit it.

That kind of arrogance, and that kind of manipulation, cannot be allowed to stand.

So please contact your legislators and tell them to vote against Senate Bill 621 and Assembly Bill 624.

Here’s how you contact your state legislators:

• Toll-free legislative hotline at 1-800-362-9472 (266-9960 in Madison).
• E-mail directory for Senators, click here.
• E-mail directory for Assembly members, click here.
• If you do not know your legislator's name or district, use the "Find My Legislators" form on the front page of the Legislature's website.

Thanks for your activism, and for supporting fair maps!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers delivered the Democratic Radio Address on Thursday highlighting the release of new electoral maps prepared by the People's Maps Commission. The People's Maps Commission was created by the governor in 2020 and is the state's nonpartisan redistricting commission tasked with preparing maps for consideration by the governor and the Wisconsin State Legislature. The maps were finalized following a year-long process that included multiple rounds of opportunities for public input that resulted in nearly 2,000 submissions, including from Wisconsinites representing 68 of Wisconsin's 72 counties and 321 municipalities. More information about the final maps and the People's Maps Commission is available here: Wisconsin.gov/peoplesmaps.

Audio file of Radio Address.

Hi, folks. Governor Tony Evers here.

This week our state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission, the People’s Maps Commission, presented their final, fair maps to the Legislature and me for consideration.

In 2020, when I signed an executive order creating the People’s Maps Commission, I said it was time to look to the people of our state—not high-paid consultants, or lawyers, or elected officials—to draw our electoral maps for the next decade.

The People’s Maps Commission, who were selected to serve by a panel of three retired judges, spent the last year hosting listening sessions in each of Wisconsin's eight congressional districts and soliciting feedback and input from Wisconsinites before, during, and after preparing draft sets of maps.

The Commission received nearly 2,000 submissions from Wisconsinites in 68 of our 72 counties and 321 municipalities, as well as 18 leading redistricting experts. I know Wisconsinites were eager to participate because for years, the people of this state have asked their elected officials for nonpartisan redistricting. For years, the people of this state have demanded better and fairer maps. And for years, the people of this state have gone ignored.

The maps prepared by Republicans a decade ago have been called some of the most gerrymandered maps in the country. And a few weeks ago, they introduced a new set of gerrymandered maps modeled after the same gerrymandered maps we’ve had for 10 years so that they can preserve their undemocratic majorities in the Legislature while increasing their chances of disproportionately winning six of Wisconsin’s eight congressional districts.

Here’s the bottom line: if Republican maps come to me as they are currently drafted, I’ll veto them. It’s just as simple as that.

Wisconsinites want fair maps, and they want nonpartisan redistricting.

Please contact your legislators—tell them that you support nonpartisan redistricting and ask them to take up the maps prepared by the People’s Maps Commission.

Thank you.

With Aaron Rodgers out for a game because of COVID-19, progressive activist Laura Kiefert speaks out on the community responsibility to get vaccinated.

GREEN BAY, WI - I’m sick and tired of the vaccination debate and just as tired of keeping my frustration on the subject to myself. So here goes. I think that as a society, we have an obligation to safeguard one another. Yes, you get vaccinated to protect yourself – but you also get vaccinated to protect those around you. And we do this in order to control or eradicate diseases that ravage our population.

I believe everybody who is eligible should be required to get vaccinated if they want to engage with others in public spaces. In the interest of public health, vaccines or a recent negative test should be required to enter virtually all public spaces. If you want to go to a restaurant, bar, train station or concert, for example, you need to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test.

If a person chooses not to get vaccinated, they should stay home because no one has the right to infect others with a potentially deadly illness. I believe it is the ultimate act of selfishness to decide that your individual decision must take precedence over the literal life and death of the people around you.

We are talking here about someone choosing an unhealthy diet – something you could argue only affects an individual. We're talking about a very contagious disease that is so easily transmissible it's killed more than 750,000 Americans and millions of people around the world have died. And, it isn’t over yet.

Vaccination is not only a matter of individual choice because there are immunosuppressed Americans who do not have full immunity from the vaccine and there are many people, including our young children, who aren’t vaccinated, yet. How is it right that someone can opt to not be vaccinated and then spread the illness to vulnerable groups who did not make the choice to be so vulnerable?

So vaccination cannot be perceived as an individual choice. Instead, we need to equate it much more so to drunk driving. You can drink in private – that's your choice – but you can't just decide to get behind the wheel because you feel like it and don't think you'll get hurt. We have laws against drunk driving, since individual choice to undertake a dangerous public activity cannot override the need to protect the public from deadly harm.

We all want want our kids to go to school without being sent home constantly due to positive cases and the need to quarantine. We want workplaces to come back without the need for masks and distancing. We want our economy to thrive and travel to return to pre-pandemic normal. If we want those things to happen, then it's necessary for all people who are eligible in those environments to be vaccinated.

Baseless attacks on the Wisconsin Election Commission would be laughable, if they weren't so destructive to Democracy, says Senate Minority Leader.

MADISON – Yesterday, Republicans from Racine to Madison and beyond made baseless claims that the Wisconsin Elections Commission broke election law in nursing homes, called for resignations and threatened legal action.  In response Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley released the following statement:

“First and foremost, members and staff of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) acted appropriately under difficult circumstances during a pandemic; they did nothing illegal.  Second, WEC, in promulgating the guidance on Special Voting Deputies, was following the laws that the Republicans created - WI Statute 5.05 - "the elections commission shall have the responsibility for the administration of ... laws relating to elections and election campaign."  Third, this issue has been widely discussed and reported on for over a year.  Fourth, just six months ago, the Republicans re-appointed one of the very members they are now claiming must resign.

“The disingenuous display of outrage we saw yesterday borders on farce, except for the very real damage that baseless allegations of fraud and illegal activity are having on the public’s confidence in our elections.  The people of this state are not well served when their elected leaders start behaving like Chicken Little.  Their treatment of Megan Wolfe, who was confirmed unanimously by the State Senate in 2019, is especially troubling.  She is a non-partisan administrator who followed the guidance approved by all of three of the Republican appointed members of the Election Commission.  What message does throwing her under the bus send to the thousands of other non-partisan officials across the state?  The people of Wisconsin deserve better.”

At hearing, he admitted they tried to make the maps more favorable to Republicans in 2011. Now they may be able to draw maps that help them stay in power simply by moving lines.

MADISON - I spent five hours in the State Capitol yesterday for the hearing on the newly gerrymandered maps.

I was a little late getting into the hearing room because there was such a huge and amazing crowd of citizen activists who were also trying to get in. That was great to see!

When I got in, Speaker Robin Vos was in the middle of his testimony as the co-author of the bills (SB621/AB624). A few minutes later, while he was being questioned by the Democrats on the joint committee, he made a killer confession: He admitted that they tried to make the maps more favorable to the Republicans. “Was partisanship used? Yes,” he said.

That’s the whole ball game! We don’t want Republicans – or Democrats, for that matter – to be able to draw maps that help them stay in power simply by moving lines here or there on a map.

Three and a half hours later, I was able to give my testimony, which you can read here:

Reject Gerrymandered Maps

You can view a slightly improvised version on WisconsinEye's recording of the hearing starting at 12:59 p.m.

If you haven’t already, please contact your legislators, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to register your opposition to these bills.

We’re also concerned about the ongoing smearing of the Wisconsin Elections Commission and the endless smoke machine about last November’s elections. Here’s what I wrote about the recent Legislative Audit Bureau report:

LAB Hatchet Job on Wisconsin Elections Commission

Thanks for your concern for our democracy!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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MILWAUKEE - Our panel discusses President Biden’s push this week for a deal with Congressional Democrats on Build Back Better, while Sens. Sinema and Manchin continue to oppose popular policies on behalf of their corporate bosses. We review the devastating cuts to Biden's new plan demanded by Manchin and Sinema and whether the Progressive Caucus will support the deal or push for more negotiations. We interview Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes on his campaign for the U.S. Senate, in our continuing series of discussions with Democratic candidates.

RSVP to the Citizen Action’s 2022 U.S. Senate Candidate Online Forum with top candidates on Tuesday, November 16th, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm.

Listen Now - Episode #516
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MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers today delivered the Democratic Radio Address highlighting investments to expand access to mental and behavioral health support services and substance use treatment through a new pilot program using the hub-and-spoke model of care.

Audio File of Radio Address.

Hey there, folks. Governor Tony Evers here.

This past year presented uncertainty, isolation, and other significant changes to our daily lives.

We’ve seen the consequences of this pandemic play out with so many people experiencing increased stress, anxiety, depression, and challenges keeping up with their mental health. Additionally, and unfortunately, we’ve also seen a concerning increase in substance misuse and opioid-related tragedies in our state.

Even one life lost to opioid misuse is one too many, but in 2020 alone, opioid-related deaths took the lives of more than 1,000 of our friends, neighbors, and loved ones. 

I'm proud we’re tackling this issue head-on with a new, evidence-based pilot program for something called a“hub-and-spoke” model of care here in Wisconsin which will help people have access to comprehensive healthcare resources while focusing on ongoing, long-term, and integrated treatment and support. 

We also know that when it comes to substance misuse, early intervention is key. This week, we also announced a $2 million investment aimed at increasing mental health services for underserved communities through the Wisconsin United Coalition of Mutual Assistance Association.

We've invested $47 million of our ARPA funds to increase community-level support for people dealing with mental health challenges and working to overcome substance use disorder—with $22 million of these funds going towards Substance Use Prevention and Treatment Block grants. 

These grants will assist counties and tribal communities in addressing their unique needs, such as expanding access to NARCAN, supporting medication-assisted treatment, and expanding recovery and peer-support services. 

These are important steps forward towards ensuring everyone has access to quality, affordable healthcare, including mental and behavioral health services and treatment.

Thank you.

MADISON - If you’re concerned about the rigging of our voting district maps yet again by the Legislature, then I urge you to come to the State Capitol on Thursday, Oct. 28.

We’re having a press conference on the first floor (not ground floor) of the Capitol Rotunda at 8:30 a.m., and then the joint committee public hearing starts at 9:00 a.m. in Room 412E.

We hope you can attend the press conference and the hearing.

You can testify yourself if you’d like, but plan to keep testimony to 2-3 minutes. We ask that you RSVP here so the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition can plan for and track testimony--we are already gearing up for an overflow room. Whether or not you choose to testify, you should fill out a hearing slip when you get there and register as opposed. Volunteers will be available to assist.

The bills are SB621/AB624 for the Legislature’s two maps (Senate and Assembly).

And the bills for the Congressional maps are SB622/AB625.

All three maps would essentially cement in place the hyper-partisan, uncompetitive maps that we’ve been suffering under since 2011 for another decade! You can view the maps here.

If you cannot make the press conference or the hearing, please email your legislators and urge them to vote no on these bills. View an email directory for Assembly representatives and Senators here.

You can watch yesterday's Fair Maps Briefing video on Facebook to learn more about preparations for the hearing, including COVID protocols at the State Capitol. The hearing will be live streamed and recorded on WisconsinEye.com.

Thanks for your activism in favor of fair maps and in defense of our democracy!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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