The Recombobulation Area

Less than a week after the election, Lieutenant Governor-elect Sarah Godlewski joins us at The Recombobulation Area — on her birthday, no less! Godlewski is the former State Treasurer, the current Secretary of State, and will soon be Wisconsin’s next Lieutenant Governor. We talked about Election Night, and an unexpectedly early call in the governor’s race. We talked about Democrats flipping the le...

The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat podcast features Dr. Kristin Lyerly , Pat Kreitlow ( The View from UpNorth ) of UpNorthNews, Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, and Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area. There is so much happening in the Wisconsin political universe, and your friends at the “Wisconsin Politics Group Chat” podcast are here to break it all down. And this week, there’s obviously a...

What a night. If you missed our live election night coverage from downtown Milwaukee, revisit the full show here. David Crowley is going to be our next governor. A Democratic trifecta is happening. This was an exhilarating, triumphant Election Night, and you can relive all of it here. Featuring these absolute legends: Kate Duffy , Dr. Kristin Lyerly and Patrick Kreitlow . With Dr. Chris Ford, spec...

It’s the day before the election, and I sat down with my friend Angela Lang, the co-executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC), for one last conversation before Wisconsinites head to the polls. We talk about: * Why Milwaukee is feeling the Brewers’ World Series run, and why “Milwaukee sucks” is a losing campaign message * David Crowley’s Brewers deal, his favorability in...

The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The race in Assembly District 61 could determine which party controls the Assembly. Democratic challenger Ben Brist is taking on Republican incumbent Bob Donovan. This is an incredibly important race. So, we sat down with Brist to talk...

We are just days away from the Nov. 3 election in Wisconsin, and … THE MILWAUKEE BREWERS HAVE WON THE WORLD SERIES! Former WisDems chair Ben Wikler joined The Recombobulation Area the morning after the Milwaukee Brewers won the World Series, so of course, we started the episode talking about the game, this team, and what it means for Milwaukee and Wisconsin. And, of course, Wikler connected this t...

The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat podcast features Dr. Kristin Lyerly , Pat Kreitlow ( The View from UpNorth ) of UpNorthNews, Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, and Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area. There is so much happening in the Wisconsin political universe, and your friends at the “Wisconsin Politics Group Chat” podcast are here to break it all down. On this episode, we reacted to the...

Republicans have controlled the State Assembly for the last 16 years, and for 30 of the last 32 years. But in 2026, Democrats have a realistic chance at flipping the Assembly for the first time in a long time. In 2024, the first election held under new maps, Democrats made significant gains, picking up 10 seats to narrow Republicans’ majority. Now, they’re hoping to go the rest of the way. If they...

In many ways, the race for control of the Wisconsin State Assembly goes through Assembly District 88, located in eastern Green Bay, De Pere and Brown County. This northeastern Wisconsin district was home to the closest Assembly race in the state in 2024, where less than 250 votes made the difference. Republican Ben Franklin (no, not that one) won that race, but as Democratic Challenger Brandy Toll...

In this year’s election in Wisconsin, there is, of course, the first open race for governor in 16 years, where David Crowley is facing Tom Tiffany. There is also a major fork-in-the-road election happening up and down the ballot for control of the Wisconsin State Legislature, where Democrats have their first realistic chance at winning control of both the Senate and Assembly in a generation. Here...

Scot Ross did political communications and research at the state and federal levels for 25 years. His last dozen years in politics, he ran One Wisconsin Now, an opposition research and communication outfit, and for the last 15 years, he’s been the liberal pundit for PBS Wisconsin. He has some thoughts on the upcoming election. We talked about Tom Tiffany not paying any income taxes for years , som...

The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat podcast features Dr. Kristin Lyerly , Pat Kreitlow ( The View from UpNorth ) of UpNorthNews, Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, and Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area. This week’s episode features Dr. Christopher Ford, a board-certified emergency medicine physician based in Milwaukee, and host of the Pulse Check Wisconsin podcast, where he connects healthcare,...

Mark Pocan served 14 years in the Wisconsin State Assembly before being elected to Congress in 2012, and is now in his seventh term representing Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District. Congressman Pocan is running unopposed for re-election this year, and is getting to work helping other candidates in Wisconsin as part of Democrats’ quest to flip the House of Representatives. The 3rd Congressional...

The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat podcast features Dr. Kristin Lyerly , Pat Kreitlow ( The View from UpNorth ) of UpNorthNews, Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, and Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area. There is so much happening in the Wisconsin political universe, and your friends at the “Wisconsin Politics Group Chat” podcast are here to break it all down. This episode aired live on the Moth...

As we get closer and closer to the Nov. 3 election, there’s been an issue that’s continued to emerge as an especially contentious one – data centers. Perhaps more specifically, it’s been the type of hyperscale AI data centers that are being proposed or built all over the country, including here in Wisconsin. From a political standpoint, a broad opposition to these data centers has emerged in a big...

As we get closer and closer to the Nov. 3 election, there’s been an issue that’s continued to emerge as an especially contentious one – data centers. Perhaps more specifically, it’s been the type of hyperscale AI data centers that are being proposed or built all over the country, including here in Wisconsin. From a political standpoint, a broad opposition to these data centers has emerged in a big...

The Nov. 3 election is coming up soon, and while the race for governor has drawn most of the headlines here in Wisconsin — with good reason, in many cases — the race for control of the Wisconsin State Legislature is also an incredibly big deal, and will determine so much about the future of our great state. This is the first election in the state legislature where the gerrymandered maps are comple...

The Nov. 3 election is coming up soon, and while the race for governor has drawn most of the campaign headlines here in Wisconsin — with good reason, in many cases — the race for control of the Wisconsin State Legislature is also an incredibly big deal, and will determine so much about the future of our great state. This is the first election in the state legislature where the gerrymandered maps a...

The Nov. 3 election is coming up soon, and while the race for governor has drawn most of the campaign headlines here in Wisconsin — with good reason, in many cases — the race for control of the Wisconsin State Legislature is also an incredibly big deal, and will determine so much about the future of our great state. This is the first election in the state legislature where the gerrymandered maps a...

The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat podcast features Dr. Kristin Lyerly , Pat Kreitlow ( The View from UpNorth ) of UpNorthNews, Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, and Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area. This episode features Angela Lang, co-executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, filling in for Dan Shafer. There is so much happening in the Wisconsin political universe, a...

There is so much happening in the Wisconsin political universe, and your friends at the “Wisconsin Politics Group Chat” podcast are here to break it all down. This episode aired live on the Motherhood for Good YouTube Channel on Friday, Sept. 18, at 1 p.m. For a beat-by-beat breakdown, check out our topics and timestamps below: * 01:22 Measles in Wisconsin & vaccination rates * 02:20 “Diarrhea let...

With less than 50 days to go before the Nov. 3 election, Todd Allbaugh joined the podcast to recombobulate on the state of the race. Todd is a former Republican who left the party during the Walker years, was a legislative staffer for former state senator Dale Schultz, and was the host of the “Todd Allbaugh Show” on Civic Media for several years. He’s also from Richland Center, which is right in r...

The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat podcast features Dr. Kristin Lyerly , Pat Kreitlow ( The View from UpNorth ) of UpNorthNews, Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, and Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area. Find all of these episodes on The Recombobulation Area’s podcast feed ( Apple Podcasts , Spotify , here on Substack ). There is so much happening in the Wisconsin political universe, and your fr...

The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat podcast features Dr. Kristin Lyerly , Pat Kreitlow ( The View from UpNorth ) of UpNorthNews, Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, and Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area. Find all of these episodes on The Recombobulation Area’s podcast feed ( Apple Podcasts , Spotify , here on Substack ). There is so much happening in the Wisconsin political universe, and your fr...

After a discombobulating primary election night, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is now the Democratic nominee for governor. And while we knew this was coming — she was uncontested in her run, after all — Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski is now the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. Godlewski is off on the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s “Unity Tour,” which started with a break...