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for having me.
>> Turning to this week's

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Inside Wisconsin politics.
Our panel of reporters

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discussed the campaign
implications of data

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centers and how the
candidates for governor are

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treating the brand new
wedge issue.

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>> As far as wedge issues
go, it's fairly clever.

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This is a relatively new
issue to politics, so it's

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not defined in the way that
some other issues are. You

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don't know exactly where
the interest groups stand

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with the parties. So Ana
how is that playing out in

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this attack from Tom
Tiffany? How is he going

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after David Crowley trying
to frame him?

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>> Yeah, I mean, he's
trying to use his initials

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against him. He's calling
him Data Data Center. David

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Crowley DC, DC as a way of
trying to kind of tie him

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to this. And the way he's
doing it is in a slightly

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convoluted way by saying
that because David Crowley

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hasn't pledged to kind of
roll back these specific

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tax incentives, that that
makes him more pro data

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center. David Crowley is
also kind of trying to

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split the difference a
little bit and say, well, I

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support local control. So
communities that don't want

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it don't have to have it. I
would want, you know, sort

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of tight controls and
regulations in this kind of

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thing. But the other kind
of interesting piece of how

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Tom Tiffany is handling
this. So I went yesterday

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to an endorsement
announcement for these

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environmental groups that
are now backing David

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Crowley. And of course,
environmental concerns are

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very tied up in people's
concerns over data centers.

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And part of the way that
that Tom Tiffany is now

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framing it is that data
centers are taking away

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farmland. And also because
there's a push from

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Democrats to have
sustainable energy, be sort

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of the backbone of data
centers. He's also now kind

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of using it as a one, two,
three punch of they're

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trying to take farmland,
not just to create data

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centers, but also to create
wind farms and solar farms.

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And so he can kind of
package it together in all

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of these things that will
speak to Republican voters.

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Democrats obviously, like
solar, like wind farms. And

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so they'll have more of
their work cut out for them

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to kind of distinguish
those issues.

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seeing some social media
appearances from Tom

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and he's kind of framing it
as data centers versus

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farmland. It's maybe like a
pretty transparent appeal

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to rural voters in that
instance.

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>> It's doing so many
things at the same time

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because it is about his
base and rural farmland.

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One of his earliest ads
months ago talked about how

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to prevent foreign
countries from coming in

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and buying up our farmland,
which is an issue that does

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concern people that are
worried about the rising

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cost of just trying to rent
out a field to put crops in

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the ground, as we've seen
with all the international

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tariffs affecting soybean
and corn farmers, they're

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looking for someone to
blame. And if they're some

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of the cognitive dissonance
for them is they don't want

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to blame Donald Trump. I've
interviewed them, and they

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don't really want to blame
him and his decisions. So

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if they Tom Tiffany says,
well, it's not his fault.

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It's over here. This is who
you blame for your rising

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costs. Well, they're more
than happy to follow along

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if they're if they're in
that inclination to begin

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with. So it's definitely a
way to do that. But what's

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another element that's
trying to split off those

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Hong voters from David
Crowley and split the left,

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because we've seen
elections where the far

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left and progressive left
have sat out. Maybe not in

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huge numbers, but enough
numbers where potentially

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it does swing an election.
We saw that with Hillary

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Clinton. We saw that with
Kamala Harris, and they're

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trying to repeat that
pattern with David Crowley.

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If they can paint him as
more moderate, more

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corporate and less true,
far left than some of those

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voters may go third party
or just set out together.

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And that's one of the
concerns, is he has to

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watch his flank, even
though he won by being in

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the center.
>> That's definitely an

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open question for me,
especially because you at

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least get the impression
that a lot of Hong voters

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are maybe not a politics
first kind of voter. You

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know, they came to her
because she spoke to them

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in different ways, more of
a movement candidate. She

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would not want to identify
with Donald Trump, but a

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movement candidate in that
way. You get different

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people into the political
arena. And, you know, one

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question that I think some
of them had during the

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primary was, why don't more
Democrats just say what

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Francesca Hong is saying?
We're going to have a

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moratorium on data centers.
I like the sounds of that.

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Why wouldn't David Crowley
Ana just say, hey, let's

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let's put the brakes on
these. And this data center

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issue is all taken care of
for me politically.

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>> Well, politically
speaking, data centers are

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not popular. The vast
majority of voters,

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Democrats and Republicans,
don't support data centers,

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or they certainly don't
support them sort of coming

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into their own communities.
But there is a real kind of

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question around the types
of jobs that they can bring

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in, the kind of economic
development possibilities

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there. And so I think like
as a politician, you don't

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necessarily want to say,
you know, categorically, I

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will not support a thing
that could be a driver of

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economic growth, especially
in some of these kind of

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hard hit places in
Wisconsin that are kind of

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hurting for economic
opportunities. You know,

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is that a lot of the the
data center, a lot of the

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unions that Bakke David
Crowley are involved in

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data center construction.
And so one of the things

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that he has said is that,
you know, again, if a local

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community wants a data
center, one of the things

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that he would want to see
is that it has to be union

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built. That gets you union
support. And unions are a

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pretty big part of how the
Democratic Party defines

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itself as being a party of
the unions. And unions are

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a pretty big part of how
Republicans have started to

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kind of make huge inroads
with working people. So the

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union question, I think, is
an untapped and unanswered

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one so far.
>> Look for reporting from

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Murv Seymour on what
community members think

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about data centers. That's
next Friday on this program.

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In other state news, the UW
In other state news, the UW