STATEWIDE - Another week, another set of record COVID-19 infections, deaths, and hospitalizations in Wisconsin. Will the do-nothing Republican Legislature start doing its job at this moment of great peril, or is undermine Govenor Evers all they care about? We discuss the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Amy Coney Barrett, who has been the most evasive Supreme Court nominee in modern history. She would not even commit on the right to birth control, or that climate change is a threat, let alone Roe v. Wade and the Affordable Care Act. Robert talks about the civil rights violations by Wauwatosa Police in their outrageous and discriminatory response to peaceful protesters. Finally, we are joined by State Assembly candidates Kriss Marion and Shaun Murphy-Lopez who are challenging Republican incumbents in the “driftless” region of the state.

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MADISON - If you haven’t voted already, please get ready to do so.

If you’ve got an absentee ballot, make sure you fill it out correctly and get a witness to sign it, and then either mail it in or hand it in at your local clerk’s office or in a municipally designated drop box (City of Madison Clerk lists locations here).

If you’re planning on voting in person, please consider voting early, which is what I’m going to do.

Early voting starts statewide next Tuesday, Oct. 20. However, each city, village and town in Wisconsin is responsible for setting the dates and hours for their municipality. So check with your municipal clerk’s office about the hours and locations. Be sure to bring your driver’s license or passport or other approved ID.

Remember, you can register at the polls either when you go to vote early or on Nov. 3. Just bring a utility bill or other proof of residence along with your ID.

Wisconsin used to have the second highest turnout in the country, right behind Minnesota. But we slipped to fifth place in 2016.

Let’s get to first place this time!

I’d like to see a turnout of 80 percent in Wisconsin, like they have in Scandinavian countries.

One word of caution on Election Night: We might not know who the winners are, especially in the presidential race, since it’s doubtful that all the absentee ballots will be counted by midnight. We’ll need to be patient and recognize how important it is to count every vote.

One way to speed things up would be to change the law in Wisconsin as to when poll workers can start counting absentee ballots. I wrote about this here:

Chris Larson’s Good Idea

I look forward to celebrating Wisconsin’s massive voter turnout with you in a post-election note.

Thanks for doing your part!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs urges veterans to protect each other, and everyone else, from the virus by wearing masks.

MADISON —​ Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Mary Kolar today delivered the Democratic Radio Address encouraging Wisconsinites to help keep Wisconsin's 350,000 veterans safe by staying home and wearing a mask.

Audio file of radio address.

Hello. I’m Mary Kolar, Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. I hope you and your loved ones are well.

Unfortunately, too many of us in Wisconsin, including family, friends and neighbors, are not well. More people, every single day, get sick from the coronavirus. COVID-19 is sneaky, some will not experience symptoms and others get very ill. Some die.

As the advocate for our state’s 350,000 veterans, I implore you to do all you can to keep yourself healthy and protect those in our communities who took an oath to serve our country, stand up for it, and fight if necessary. They stood up for us, now let’s stand up for them.

Many of our state’s veterans are older, and with conditions that put them in a high-risk category for complications from COVID-19. Many live in rural areas, where COVID-19 is now rapidly spreading, and are also far from a hospital. And there are veterans who live at our Wisconsin’s Veterans Homes, nursing homes where we fight every day to keep them safe from the virus.

Please, for those who have served our country and those who support them, I ask you to join me in the fight: stay home when possible, mask up and stay six feet away from others when you go out, and wash hands frequently. These are known ways we can do our part to prevent the spread of this deadly virus. This isn’t political; this is literally the possibility of long-term negative health consequences or death.

By protecting ourselves from the virus, we protect them, our veterans – our nation’s heroes.

Let’s have each other’s backs and do our part to keep each other safe. Thank you.

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/fossil-fuel-industry-exxon-s5.jpgWe've over-weighted the amount of power that our fossil fuel producers have, and we need the people of Wisconsin to stand up for real solutions, says 5th CD candidate Palzewicz.

WISCONSIN - We discuss the continued failure to control the COVID-19 outbreak in Wisconsin, including the deliberate Republican state legislative effort to undermine any state response. We debrief the new MU Law Poll and the VP debate. Yet another police officer will have no charges brought against them for the killing of a Black teen in Wauwatosa. We close the show by welcoming State Assembly candidates Jacob Malinowski and Jessica Katzenmeyer to discuss their suburban Milwaukee campaigns.

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WISCONSIN -- Tuesday night at the vice presidential debate, Kamala Harris made it clear to Wisconsinites that a Biden-Harris administration will protect protections for pre-existing conditions. Right now, Trump and his administration are working to strip protections for people with pre-existing conditions, which could threaten over 2.4 million people in the Badger state.

Mike Pence continued to lie and distract from Trump’s attacks on our health care system and failed COVID-19 response, and refused to address any sort of plan that would protect Americans with pre-existing conditions. Read below to understand how Wisconsinite Sarah Conklin doesn’t see this election as a partisan issue, but a life and death decision because of her pre-existing conditions. 

The Cap Times: Sarah Conklin: Vote for candidates who will protect our health care

• As a resident of Outagamie County and someone who has multiple preexisting conditions, it’s terrifying to see the number of COVID-19 cases spiking as hospitals nearing maximum capacity.
• Over the last 25 years, I’ve given birth, had 16 surgeries, been diagnosed with relapsing/remitting multiple sclerosis and survived breast cancer — needless to say, I’m a “high-risk” Wisconsinite when it comes to the coronavirus.As hospitals run out of beds, I have to wonder what happens if someone like me gets sick? Where will I go if I need the emergency room, but even going to the hospital is a risk in itself?
• This is the reality Wisconsinites across the state are facing — especially those with preexisting or underlying conditions that make them more susceptible to this deadly virus. What makes accepting this worse is we know it didn’t have to be this way. The reason we’re headed in the wrong direction now is for the simple reason that the elected Republicans will not take this pandemic seriously. Just last week, the president was headed here to hold a rally that didn’t mandate mask usage or social distancing, despite Green Bay seeing its COVID-19 cases going through the roof. So really, it’s no surprise that other elected Republicans across the state are following Trump’s lead as they try to repeal the mask mandate and hold events where social distancing and masks are just a punchline for their candidates. Sen. Ron Johnson went so far as to attend an event after he knew he had been exposed to COVID-19.
• Meanwhile, Trump still hasn’t announced his health care plan, even as he relentlessly attacks the Affordable Care Act in court. After his failure to respond to COVID-19 when it could have made a difference, more than 1,300 Wisconsinites have died and our state’s economy is in turmoil. It seems the only way to fully defeat the coronavirus and reclaim our lives is by voting out every Republican at every level of office, including the administration in the White House. It doesn’t matter if they represent us in Washington or Wisconsin — they have all pretended that this virus is nothing to worry about even though nearly 210,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.
• Your political leaning doesn’t matter when our lives literally hang in the balance this November. For the sake of people like me with preexisting conditions, for your family, for your community, and for your country, please vote for the candidates who take this crisis seriously and are doing everything possible to keep us safe. Health care is on the ballot this November, and that’s why it’s critical we elect Democrats up and down the ticket.

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/trump-wh-covid-s5.pngWillfully downplaying the severity of COVID-19, disregarding the safety of our citizens by ignoring science, and fighting every attempt the Governor makes to slow the spread, has helped make Wisconsin the Nation’s new COVID-19 hotspot, says Karl Jaeger.

WISCONSIN - We debrief the presidential “debate” this week, discuss the potential of a Trump strategy to use the state legislature to overturn electors and appoint new electors that support Trump, and sound the alarm on the deepening COVID-19 crisis throughout Wisconsin. We are joined by Kristin Lyerly and Kathy Hinkfuss who are running for State Assembly in the Green Bay area. Both are healthcare professionals who are running outstanding campaigns to win in gerrymandered districts.

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http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/tony-evers-students-back-s5.pngThe COVID-19 pandemic is surging in Wisconsin. Take precautions to put the brakes on the pandemic and keep your family, friends, employees and co-workers, and neighbors safe.

Palzewicz believes in examining budget priorities to determine cost-effective programs for healthcare, infrastructure, and national defense.

Brookfield, WI – America too often overlooks its senior citizens. Call it age discrimination,  disrespect, or just a lack of appreciation, but seniors are a great untapped resource.  Democrat Tom Palzewicz, running for Wisconsin's Fifth Congressional District seat, envisions a new, post-COVID economy that embraces seniors' knowledge and experience and embraces what they bring to the table.

Seniors are often overlooked as if they no longer know anything because they are retired or have reached a certain age.   On the other hand, Palzewicz recognized true expertise when he and his brother set up their business.

"We brought my mom in to be our executive assistant when my brother and I were first starting our business," Palzewicz recalled with a smile. "She had just retired as a 25 year executive assistant at Charter manufacturing. She's wonderful. She just came in and did whatever we needed to do."

"Once again, because we've tied jobs to healthcare, it doesn't allow us to tap into this pool. This is a massive brain drain in our country because when people retire, they take all that knowledge with them, and you have two choices. You can become a consultant. If you've made enough money and have access to healthcare, or you just have to go scrape by, and you don't get to use that knowledge."

"If we decouple those two things, if we decouple the healthcare market from the labor market, we create tremendous opportunities for seniors to give back. A lot of them just ended up working in nonprofits or volunteering their time in ways that they care about.  If you're a company that provides benefits, it's very difficult to hire people who are already retired or in their advanced age, because there's just too much liability that you have to assume.  If we change healthcare, there's this huge amount of experience that could be passed along in a work environment that we're missing out on."

Palzewicz believes in examining budget priorities to determine cost-effective programs for healthcare, infrastructure, and national defense.

"Here's a case in point. Europe invests more of its money into people and infrastructure. Their quality of life is so much better than ours because they have their priorities set from a budgetary standpoint.  We continue the two things that Republicans have always run on: higher defense spending and lower taxes. Those two priorities are actually incompatible if you do the math.  Look at Fitzgerald's stuff. It says exactly the same thing. He's running on more defense spending and lower taxes.  This is like a parallel line that slowly will meet at some point and cross over.  People either don't understand it or don't care."

"Republicans bring out this magic wand and say, 'I'm going to lower your taxes and the government's going to get more money.' And it never happened not once.  People still believe it though. If you said, 'if we had to cut everything, what's the one department you would keep?' they would say, 'defense spending and give me my taxes back.'"

Palzewicz favors a common-sense approach that allows for every age group to participate in the economy.  Retirees, seniors can be an effective, productive element in the American economy, given small adjustments to include them.

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Tom Palzewicz is the Democrat running for Congress in Wisconsin's 5th Congressional District. He is a small-business owner and Navy Veteran running against Scott Fitzgerald in this traditionally red district.