The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production
you're watching "Here& Now". >> 2024 Election Coverage
Wisconsin hits near record turnout in the primary election.
>> The vote against the constitutional amendments was
the decisive winner in that election, and voters reject a
GOP proposal to shift spending power away from the governor.
>> I'm Frederica Freyberg tonight on "Here& Now" we break
down the primary results with political scientist Anthony
Chergosky. Plus, a preview of the Democratic National
Convention next week and why Wisconsin is so critical in
November. The UW system is struggling. We speak with a
former regent looking to the future. And finally, how one
community is replicating a state program for themselves. It's
"Here& Now" for August 16th. >> Funding for Here and Now is
provided by the Focus Fund for journalism and Friends of PBS.
Wisconsin. its fall primary election this
week, and there were some pretty surprising results, including
two constitutional amendment rejected 57 to 42%. Those
questions would have required legislative approval before a
governor could spend federal money coming into the state, and
would have barred future legislatures from giving that
power away. "Here& Now" reporter Nathan Denzin checked in with UW
lacrosse, political science professor Anthony Chergosky for
his take on the primary results, and started by asking him who
stood out as winners. >> Governor Evers and the
Democratic Party. Because the vote against the constitutional
amendments was the decisive winner in that election. So when
we look at that election, the ballot measures were worded in a
very odd, confusing, lawyerly way. And so voters, when they
looked at the text on the ballot for the amendments, they didn't
have much to work with. That meant that Evers and the
Democrats could make a big influence on voters through
their campaign messaging. And Evers and the Democrats did
indeed make a strong push against those amendments. They
were able to engage and mobilize their base, and that led to the
amendments getting defeated. So those amendments were defeated
by a pretty large margin. Was that surprising at all to you?
It was in the sense that a low turnout election is always hard
to predict. We don't know how voters are going to go because
we don't know who's going to show up at the polls. But
turnout was quite high by the standards of August primaries.
And that speaks to the ability of Evers and the Democrats to
mobilize their base in the eighth. Tony Wied, the MAGA
candidate, the Trump supported candidate, won,
>> what does that say about the influence of MAGA when you had
two other candidates, Roger Roth and André Jacque, who were
endorsed by more traditional conservative Republican voices?
>> It shows that the Trump endorsement can matter in
competitive Republican two years ago with Tim Michels
defeating Rebecca Kleefisch in the Republican campaign for the
gubernatorial nomination. Trump endorsed Michels and that, I
think, put him over the top against Kleefisch. And this time
around in the eighth Congressional District. I think
it's fair to say that Donald Trump's endorsement of Tony Wied
helped put him over the top. On top of that, Donald Trump spoke
out against Roger Roth, the former state senator who came in
second in the race for the nomination against Wied. Roger
Roth was called a Rino or Republican in name only by
Donald Trump. So the campaign and Trump's factor, Trump's
influence in the campaign, I think, made a big effect on the
outcome. Democratic primary contested
between three people. Rebecca Cook came out on top. It was a
pretty contentious last few weeks of the campaign, what kind
of takeaways can you take from from that race, and how is cook
going to face up against Derrick Van Orden in the general
election? strong fundraiser, and the
Democrats are going to need plenty of financial resources if
they hope to unseat Derrick Van Orden, because although this
district here in western Wisconsin is competitive, it
does lean a little bit in the Republican Party's favor. So
Rebecca Cook will have a bit of an uphill battle ahead of her.
That means that she'll need plenty of financial resources to
launch a negative campaign against Derrick Van Orden, and
to develop her own political brand. Core to her political
brand is the idea that she's an outsider, which, interestingly,
Derrick Van Orden developed when he first ran for Congress. So
it's interesting to see those parallels between the
candidates, though the parallels basically start and end right
there in some state elections. >> Tim Ramthun and Janelle
Brandtjen both lost their primary elections. Is that
surprising at all? Does that show that kind of this trend of
election deniers winning office is kind of dying out?
>> I think it shows that the influence of candidates denying
the 2020 election result and the Trump endorsement factor is a
little all over the place. It's hard to draw any consistent
conclusions about how much it matters for a candidate to be
skeptical or to deny the outcome of the previous presidential
election, and how much it matters for Trump to endorse
them. But clearly, with Tim Michaels last cycle and with
Tony Wied this cycle, we see that the Trump endorsement still
matters quite a bit in certain circumstances. In Republican
vice presidential presidential candidates, there are going to
be in Wisconsin a lot. >> They've already been in
Wisconsin a lot, how do Harris and Walls play here, especially
in western Wisconsin, and how do Trump and JD Vance play here?
>> Well, the western Wisconsin region has been tilting a little
more Republican in recent election cycles, but I don't see
it as being overwhelmingly Republican by any stretch of the
imagination. There are certain regions that Democrats can bank
on for a lot of votes. There are certain regions that Republicans
can bank on for a lot of votes. But western Wisconsin is hard
for either party to bank on. And that means that there will be a
highly competitive campaign ahead of us here. Do you think
that Tim Walz has any additional sway here because of the
proximity to Minnesota? He might. And it could be because
people in this area are familiar with his record. People here
might have developed somewhat positive or negative impressions
of how he has performed as governor of Minnesota. And his
political style may resonate with voters in this area because
he has that folksy Midwestern way about him. Too early to tell
in general, running mates don't have much of an effect at all on
presidential election outcomes, watching to see how western
Wisconsin voters respond to the Walls running mate candidacy.
>> Are there any big winners or losers from these state level
primaries? Dane County turnout. I mean,
Dane County's turnout was astronomical compared to the
state as a whole. And that is yet another example of how Dane
County is a powerhouse in the Democratic Party coalition. I
think Democrats are looking at the near 50% turnout in the
Madison area and licking their chops as they think ahead to
what that might, what that might foreshadow for the Wisconsin for
the general election ahead of us.
politics is described as a battleground, a tipping point, a
swing state. But how did Wisconsin get to be so key
nationally "Here& Now"? Reporter Steven Potter explores the
history of Wisconsin politics to understand how we got to this
point and what kind of attention we can expect as we narrow in on
the November election. >> And I promise we will make
Wisconsin great again. We're going to make it so the path to
the white House goes through Wisconsin.
significance when it comes to national politics, and
president. >> Wisconsin is incredibly
important, as it has been for the last few election cycles. It
is a swing state in the sense that it could go either
Republican or it could go Democrat. And our electorate is
about evenly divided. >> Jonathan Kasparek is a
professor of history at UW Milwaukee's Waukesha campus,
where he's been a political expert for 20 years. He says one
thing keeping Wisconsin in the national spotlight is that it's
a microcosm and a mirror of American voting trends.
>> And like the national picture, Wisconsin is pretty
evenly divided. A lot of the rural areas are red. So if you
look at a map broken down by counties, there's a lot of red,
but not a lot of voters, whereas there's a little bit about of
blue and a lot of voters, but it sort of equals out.
>> But this evenly matched electorate of Democrats and
Republicans also means that Wisconsin has bounced back and
forth between the two parties in statewide races over the years.
In 2008, Wisconsin voted for Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama. But then in 2010, the state elected
Republican Scott Walker as governor and Republican Ron
Johnson as U.S. Senator. In 2012, Wisconsin went for Obama
again, while also electing Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy
Baldwin. In 2014, Scott Walker won again as governor, then in
2016, Wisconsin chose Republican Donald Trump as president, only
to turn around and elect Democratic Governor Tony Evers
in 2018. And in 2020, Wisconsin helped Democrat Joe Biden win
the white House. But then in 2022, the state split the
ticket, electing both Democratic Governor Tony Evers and
Republican Senator Ron Johnson again in the same statewide
election. All of this has led Wisconsin to be known not only
as unpredictable, but also very, very purple.
>> It is confusing. We have the oddest pair of senators, I
think, in the country. Our behavior as absolutely baffling
to national pundits. They're never quite sure what to make of
us because of things like electing Tammy Baldwin and Ron
Johnson. forth means that voters here
prioritize issues more than political parties.
>> Wisconsin voters. It's often very basic bread and butter
issues, and they are concerned about the economy. They are
concerned about education. They are concerned about health care.
So there are things that I don't think either party really has a
lock on. up to the campaigns to prove
their candidates are worth the trip to the polls on Election
Day. is, is we have to turn out more
of our voters than they do of theirs. I think it's going to
continue to be close. We've been close since 2000. I think we're
going to remain close. It really is going to I think, continue to
come down to attractive candidates who can generate a
lot of enthusiasm and really get voters excited to vote. I think
we're going to see an awful lot of Kamala Harris and Donald
Trump over the next few weeks. They're going to be here a lot.
>> Steven Potter joins us now from Chicago, where he'll be
part of the "Here& Now" political team covering the
Democratic National Convention >> Hi, Frederica.
>> So, so how will Wisconsin play a part there at the DNC?
>> So convention officials are still being pretty tight lipped
as to who will take the stage at the DNC next week of Wisconsin
elected officials. It could perhaps be Wisconsin governor
Tony Evers, or maybe U.S. House of representative member Gwen
Moore. Most likely, however, it would be U.S. Senator Tammy
Baldwin. your story that we just aired
this is going to be kind of a hold on to your hats campaign
moving toward November, given how very, very purple we are.
And I would imagine that at the convention, people will be
paying a lot of attention to Wisconsin. But even in the midst
of the convention next week, Kamala Harris is reprising her
swing state blitz. >> Yeah, absolutely. After
campaigning this weekend in another battleground state of
Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris, and Governor Tim Walz will be
traveling to Milwaukee for a rally at Tuesday at the Fiserv
forum, which is exactly where the Republican National
Convention was held just last month. This is another example
of how significant Wisconsin is to have the Democratic
presidential nominee traveling to Wisconsin during the
Democratic National Convention. >> Yeah, I've never, ever heard
of that. We should mention that GOP VP nominee JD Vance spoke in
Milwaukee today. So as you say, Wisconsin super important here.
We will be looking for your reporting next week from the
DNC. Thank you Steve. Thank you. Starting Monday look for "Here&
Now" 2024 election coverage from the Democratic National
Convention in Chicago at 2 p.m. live each day. Senior political
reporter Zac Schultz, with panelists McCoshen and Ross.
Then each night at 830, a Wisconsin update. And on Friday,
full coverage in a "Here& Now" one hour special starting at 7
p.m. as a sign of the times, 35 tenured faculty from two year
Waukesha and Washington County campuses that had merged with UW
Milwaukee are expecting layoff notices. It's just the latest
round of job loss and campus closures across the state. As
the University of Wisconsin administration acts to cut costs
even as it tries to boost enrollment. A legislative study
committee on the future of the UW system is grappling with just
that. A member of that committee, former UW Regent
Robert Atwell, has some firm ideas about how to move forward.
We should note PBS Wisconsin is part of UW-Madison. Mr. Atwell
joins us now. And thanks very much for being here.
>> My pleasure. Thank you. Frederica.
>> So I just want to ask what kind of a freefall is the UW
system apart from Madison in right now?
>> I mean, I think the system is facing very serious challenges
and I think the council is becoming an important forum for
really communicating with each other and with the people of
Wisconsin about it. You know, at the heart of it is the decline
in enrollment. The Legislative enrollment overall in the
system. I believe since 2010, has declined from 156,000 full
time equivalent students to 136, while Madison has grown by about
10,000. In that period. So, you know, you're looking at really a
25 to 30% decline in FTE attendance. If I'm reading the
data right at the at the campuses outside of Madison.
>> So you are a regent when the decision was made to close UW
Richland, but five more branch campuses have taken the ax since
then. What is your reaction to this manner of cost cutting?
>> In my opinion, we're not acting aggressively enough, and
in particular, we're not creating the right public
understanding and we're taking incremental actions which which
it's not clear to me, are actually addressing the
fundamental problems. So I'm I mean, I am of the opinion we
need to freeze to stop closing campuses until we're ready to
have have the real conversation about how we're going to
configure this system to meet the reality of the demography we
have. And how we're going to do that better, which I think many
institutions, whether it's hospitals, grocery stores,
banks, K-12, are grappling with these same issues and we're not
immune to them at the university. I'm not averse to
the idea of kind of reconfiguring things. In fact,
I'm pretty sure it's necessary to figure out the role of tech
schools. Former two year campuses and four year campuses.
But I don't think you're getting to the heart of our cost
structure by just closing fond du Lac or Richland Center, I
mean, enrollment is with the enrollment is, but but, you
know, I would prefer frankly, it's a I live in rural areas,
have most of my time in the state. I think we need to
preserve access locations to the maximum extent possible. But
more importantly, we've got to have the real data and the real
discussion about what's happening.
just economic reality that has to be acted on right now, given
the structural deficits across the system?
>> Yeah. Well, when you are facing long term trends and
these are long term trends and you ignore them long enough, you
get yourself backed into a corner where you have decisions
between bad and worse. And I'd say that's what we're doing is
we're reacting incrementally to facts as they exist in the
moment instead of looking at it and saying, okay, how can we
first of all pay our people? Because I'm tired of hearing
about our pay gap and not doing anything about it. If we employ
people, let's pay them at an appropriate level. It's going to
make our our financial situation look worse in the near term, but
it also sets us up to make to make the right decisions and the
good decisions. And there's a legitimate discussion about
should we just shove more money into the system overall, or
should we step back, make the hard decisions and then
reinvest? I am definitely in the second camp, I think, except for
paying our people at the median level, especially our
instructional and frontline. And, you know, the lowest income
people in the system. I don't advocate more funding until we
really have the conversation and formulate the hard decisions.
And, and these demographic problems are not new. You know,
the declining fertility rate, the decline in young people, the
aging of the population. This is stuff that's been obvious for 10
or 15 years. >> But I did want to ask you
about putting money into the system. I know that Governor
Evers has said that he would recommend $800 million in the
next biennial budget to go to the UW system, but that just
seems like that's not something that would happen.
>> Yeah, I, I don't support his position. I respect Governor
Evers. We served on the board of Regents together before he was
governor. He was a good man. He has his philosophy. He's an
educator. I think spreading more peanut butter over the current
system is really going to we're really going to do is fund more
internal competition. That's what we're going to do. And I
don't think that and will pay to further delay the hard
decisions. The people of Wisconsin need us to make. Why
do people not pursue higher education here to the same
degree they do in other states, even surrounding us? Why is
that? But I'm not sure we're listening enough to our
non-customers like, what's what is it they don't see about what
we do as having value for them and their lives?
>> Well, in fact, I heard on that committee I heard a lot of
skepticism about the value of a college degree, do you think
that skepticism is misplaced? >> Well, let me say I'm a big
believer in education. I believe in the value of higher ed, but I
also know it's not for everybody, and I don't think
that President Rothman and I have had this exchange. I, I
don't think saying that if you go to college and we give you a
degree, you're going to make $900,000 more over the course of
your lifetime. I think that's misleading because it basically
appropriates to the university all of the differences that go
into someone who chooses to attend college and achieves that
outcome. So I think we add value. Are we really as valuable
as we think we are? We're just telling ourselves what we want
to think about ourselves. >> Former UW Regent Bob Atwell,
thanks very much. >> All right. Thank you. See yo.
>> "Child Care Counts". That's the name of a Covid era state
funding program for child care providers that expires next
year. It's also the adage of advocates that want the state to
invest permanently in the increasing cost of child care in
a collaboration with Wisconsin Public Radio's ""America
Amplified" project, here and Now's, Aditi Debnath is
reporting on questions voters are asking this election. This
is the second story in that series.
>> Where are your parents while you're here, Lily at Winter
mountain. They're at work. >> Arthouse Preschool owner
Heather Murray explains to her students why they're observing a
day without child care. >> Now a lot of kids at
Wisconsin and across the country do not have a place to play or
to learn, so we're here to talk about that today.
>> Waunakee Village Board member Robert McPherson joins Murray.
>> We created the Mordecai child Care Providers Assistance
>> The program invests $85,000 into the local child care
industry. it helps us at the village be
able to help the child care providers within the village to
help pay for provider services. >> Murray got the idea for
Arthouse Preschool more than 18 years ago.
elementary school teacher and then started this center when my
youngest was about 14 months old, wanting quality child care
for my own kids. >> Since the pandemic, she's
been advocating for increased state support for child care.
>> The state of Wisconsin received close to $800 million
in Covid relief money that was to be directed to child care.
That is what allowed us to keep our industry going.
>> Ruth Schmidt runs WECA, the Wisconsin Early Childhood
Association. That pandemic program called "Child Care
Counts", the Waunakee Child Care Providers Assistance Program
aims to mirror child care counts on a local level.
>> For me, it does two things. It's a step in the right
direction and an acknowledgment that this industry needs
financial support. full time, and both of us have
careers that are important to us, and neither of us were
really interested or at a point where we thought it made sense
for our family to stop. >> Amy Kloppenburg has two sons
that attend art house. She makes the 12 mile drive to Waunakee
from nearby Madison twice a day for her kids. It hasn't been
easy. exaggerating. I contacted 35
daycares, both on Madison's east and west side, and then I
finally started reaching out farther than Madison.
>> Finding childcare is stressful and at times complex
for parents like Amy. Is there child care in your area? If
there is, is there availability in the classroom? If there is,
can you afford it? >> Personally, when I raised
tuition, I had two families that decided it was better if they
stayed at home financially. So we're essentially pricing some
families out of childcare. >> That means that working hard
to make sure that you all have enough toys, enough books,
enough teachers. represents Waunakee in the state
assembly. He attends the art house event with his newborn
daughter, Emmie. >> I put forward legislation to
continue the "Child Care Counts" program at an amount of 350
million, and that's just a drop in the bucket compared to the
five or excuse me, $3 billion surplus that we have in this
state. Republicans rejected proposals
by Joers and Governor Evers to invest state money into child
care. Instead, Assembly Republicans passed a package to
address the profitability of child care centers. Part of the
plan calls for a loan program to help child care centers to pay
for renovations and changing the minimum age for entry level
positions from 18 to 16. Governor Evers vetoed all but
one bill in that package, which expands a tax credit program for
child care expenses. The political standoff means
government support is ending. >> We've seen the "Child Care
Counts" money be greatly reduced over the years, and we will see
it expire next year. So the money that's being used at a
state level is just enough to keep the doors open.
>> Heather Murray says state funding is actually less than
what providers like herself need to keep centers open.
Overwhelmingly, Murray says, she needs more money to pay her
employees a fair wage. >> We need investments from the
state to be able to be able to maintain the staff we have now
and the salaries that they're getting.
investment is a stopgap measure, not a permanent subsidy.
>> We as a village were helping to stop for a couple of months,
we think is so much money that we're going to have, but we're
hoping that the state and federal resources will come
together and continue to provide child care providers, because
this is really something that we need.
>> Surprisingly, the families getting priced out are not the
low income ones. >> We're losing that middle
section right? We still have supports for low income
families, and we still have high income families that can afford
care. that fall into that middle
section. >> When my child was born, we
couldn't find childcare for the first 6 to 8 months of her life,
and it meant that I couldn't go back to work.
>> It shouldn't just be for people who have a partner that
both people work. People should be able to live and work and
have childcare. >> Reporting from Waunakee. I'm
Aditi Debnath for "Here& Now" >> For more on this and other
issues facing Wisconsin, visit our web site at PBS Wisconsin.
Org and then click on the news tab to see all of our election
coverage. Visit Wisconsin Vote.org. That's our program for
tonight I'm Frederica Freyberg. Have a good weekend.
>> Funding for "Here& Now" is provided by the Focus Fund for
Journalism and Friends of PBS.