Battleground Wisconsin

With Labor Day in the rear view mirror the general election campaign is now in full gear. Our panel analyzes Scott Walker’s strategy of focusing on Evers’ handling of a teacher licensing case. We also discuss Tammy Baldwin's pledge to protect Wisconsinites with pre-existing conditions and the huge amount of national money pouring into the state's Attorney General race. Rebecca updates us on WI Cho...

Our panel dissects the new MU Law poll and the onslaught of new political TV ads (spoiler alert: the Governor's race is a toss up). We then welcome Citizen Action Co-op member and State Assembly 60th District candidate Chris Rahlf who is running a strong campaign in a long time Republican district. We discuss the opportunities for Democrats in rural and small town areas and encourage volunteers to...

We discuss Tuesday’s primary election in Wisconsin and celebrate huge victories by Citizen Action members Mandela Barnes, Sarah Godlewski, Marisabel Cabrera and Jeff Smith. Our panel begins to handicap the Governor and U.S. Senate races. and we welcome Citizen Action co-op member and candidate for the State Assembly Kim Butler to discuss her important race in Western Wisconsin.

Lee Snodgrass, Citizen Action’s endorsed candidate in Senate District 19, joins us to talk about her campaign, the importance of the race to gaining power in the legislature, and encourage volunteers to meet Lee and help get out the vote in the Appleton area this Saturday.

We focus on next Tuesday’s Primary Election in Wisconsin. The panel discusses the Democratic governor primary and whether anyone other than presumed front runner Tony Evers can emerge the winner. We also review other important state legislative primaries, including Jeff Smith in Senate District 31 and Marisabel Cabrera in Assembly District 9. We announce Citizen Action’s endorsement of Earnell Luc...

Special guest panelist, Luz Sosa, educates us on ICE’s detainment and the attempt to deport of Citizen Action/Accion Ciudadana member Ricardo Fierro, a major civic leader who is married with 7 children. The shocking case reveals the moral bankruptcy of our current immigration policies. We are joined by Citizen Action board member Carmen Cabrera to discuss the important primary election for co-op m...

We welcome Eric Marsch, executive director of NORML Southeastern Wisconsin, to discuss the marijuana referendums sweeping across the state this summer for the November election and how they are moving the legalization issue forward in the state. We also are joined by Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member & candidate for State Treasurer, Sarah Godlewski, to talk about her campaign. Don’t for...

We welcome Citizen Action of Wisconsin endorsed Lt. Governor candidate Mandela Barnes to talk about his race. We review the latest Marquette Law Poll and take a deep dive into the Democratic Governor’s primary. Robert tells us about the news conference this weekend with Congresswoman Gwen Moore and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi about the GOP’s continued sabotage of the Affordable Care Act. Join u...

We do a deep dive into Donald Trump’s latest sabotage of the Affordable Care Act and its political implications for the 2018 election. We look at Trump’s new arch-conservative Supreme Court nominee and how Democrats are turning to healthcare as the center of their strategy to defeat his appointment. We welcome Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member and Milwaukee County Board Supervisor, Sylv...

In a special episode of Battleground Wisconsin State Senator Chris Larson and Lt. Governor candidate Mandela Barnes join regular panelists Rebecca Lynch and Robert Kraig for an in-depth conversation about the progressive upsurge in Democratic primaries. Are the victories of strong progressive candidates a threat to Democratic election prospects in 2018, or are they a sign of a new reform politics...

We welcome Candice Owley, President of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals to discuss this week’s Janus ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that seeks to gut union and worker power. Will these right wing politicians in robes succeed, or will their rigging of the system backfire by sparking a new era of labor activism and protest? We also talk over the implication of Justice Kenn...

Family Separation Issue - Excerpt from Battleground Wisconsin Episode #348 Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member Erica Flynn, who is running for state assembly, discusses her trip to Texas this past weekend. Erica was part of Citizen Action of Wisconsin and People's Action delegation that attended a vigil at the Ursula Border Processing Center, where hundreds of children are still incarcera...

Our panel analyzes in depth the latest MU Law poll that was released this week. We welcome Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative member Erica Flynn, who is running for state assembly, to discuss her trip to Texas this weekend. Erica was part of Citizen Action of Wisconsin and People's Action delegation that attended a vigil at the Ursula Border Processing Center, where hundreds of children are sti...

We dig into the results from Tuesday’s special legislative elections in Wisconsin and the ramifications for the general election. Next, we welcome Lindsay Dorff, Northeast WI Organizing Cooperative Steering Committee member, to discuss gerrymandering in Wisconsin and the pending Supreme Court verdict for the Gil v Whitford case. Lindsay also tells us about the Citizen Action Northeast Cooperative’...

In the wake of her retirement announcement, we thank Justice Shirley Abrahamson for her decades of distinguished progressive leadership on the State Supreme Court. Robert debriefs Battleground Wisconsin's dust up with the Walker Campaign the Republican Party, and the Vukmir Campaign, over our image from last week’s show, which made state and national headlines. We also dissect Scott Walker’s new T...

With the deadline for election nomination papers passing Friday, we welcome special guest Senator Chris Larson to dig into the official opening of the Wisconsin political season. We bat around the races for Governor, U.S. Senate, and the critical special election the the 1st State Senate District in Northeast Wisconsin. In addition, it turns out that Scott Walker's election year pivot to a constru...

We discuss the release of police body-cam footage showing the use of a stun gun on Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown after police unnecessarily escalated an encounter over a parking violation. We review a news report that Foxconn is already changing the production plans at its yet to be built Wisconsin factory, again calling into question the long term sustainability of an environmentally thre...

We welcome back former Battleground WI panelist Jorna Taylor to dig into breaking political news. We discuss the huge opportunity for progressives to elect a state senator in the District 1 special election on June 12th now that the unpopular Rep. Andre Jacque has come through the GOP primary despite establishment opposition. We also discuss Peter Barca’s decision not to run in Congressional Distr...

We discuss the courageous new Tammy Baldwin TV ad exposing her mother’s battle with drug addiction and its impact on her family. The ad and tone of Tammy’s campaign stands in sharp contrast to the sewer war between Nicholson and Vukmir that escalated this week with Vukmir saying Baldwin was a member of “Team Terrorism” and close with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. We review a bad week for...

This week's show starts with an analysis of Scott Walker's first reelection ad, doubtless the beginning of a record dirty money air blitz on Wisconsin voters. Next we look at the latest mean spirited attack on people living in poverty: a U.S. House bill supported by the Trump Administration which would cut over 70,000 Wisconsinites off food assistance, including 23,000 children. We discuss the lat...

We welcome Citizen Action North central WI organizer Joel Lewis to discuss a new multi-year rural organizing project we launched this week with our national network, People’s Action, in 10 states targeting 72 counties. The project aims to counter Trump’s fraudulent right-wing populism with a progressive populist movement built from the bottom up in rural and small towns. We also review Walker’s DN...

We discuss the current very open state of the Democratic gubernatorial primary race and the news that Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and and progressive talk radio celebrity Mike Crute may enter the crowded field. Marina Dimitrijevic from the Wisconsin Working Families Party joins us to discuss the Wisconsin Choice campaign to focus the primary on bold progressive issues, and to give activists the op...

We return from our week off to news that Paul Ryan will not seek re-election. We discuss the implications nationally for Republicans and explore its impact on CD 1 candidates. We review last week’s spring election results, including 49 Citizen Action members winning their races. We welcome Andy Buck from the Painters Union to discuss the epidemic of wage theft in the construction trades and promot...

We discuss how Scott Walker has finally been forced to call special elections in two state legislative seats after being slapped down by an appeals court judge. The special election will be on June 12th, with any primary set for May 15th. We also preview next week’s Spring Election on Tuesday, April 3rd. We dissect the WMC’s sleazy child sex predator ad that has greatly upset the family of the vic...

We welcome State Representative Amanda Stuck to discuss her effort to invest in Wisconsin’s paper industry in a smart and progressive fashion, in stark contrast to Scott Walker's Foxconn boondoggle. We also discuss breaking news in week’s special legislative session, Sen. Kathleen Vinehout’s surprising vote on gun safety, and we recap Saturday’s governor candidate forum in Wausau. Finally, we asse...