The
following program is part of our here-in-now 2016 Wisconsin vote election coverage.
Funding for here-and-now is provided in part by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
Tonight, here and now from the City of Warsaw, in the heart of the state, in the heart of
the election season, where local voters are looking for answers to their top concerns.
I personally concern how immigration issues issue number one in Wassa's jobs.
I think that's really important to everyone, jobs and economic development.
I believe in supporting those that need help, but there needs to be some encouragement for
them to go back to work.
Welcome to Wassa and the here-and-now Wisconsin vote special.
We're coming to you live from the Thrive Foodery in Wassa's River District.
A busy night here at Thrive is customers kick off their weekend with dinner and conversation.
Conversation that may well include politics.
I'm Frederica Freiberg.
Welcome to Wassa and a special edition of here-and-now.
It's our first stop as we travel to state with our Wisconsin public radio partners to
take our Wisconsin vote election project on the road.
Tonight, we'll dive into the seventh congressional race.
Later, a UW political scientist surveys the politics of the central part of our state.
We'll learn about the deeply rooted Mung community in the Wassa area.
A reporter's ex-shots takes a look at the lack of trust in this election season.
But first, Wassa's seventh congressional district is represented in Washington by Republican
Sean Duffy, who was in his third term.
Congressman Duffy was invited to appear together tonight with his opponent.
He said he was unable to schedule it.
We also asked if he would sit down with us for one-on-one interview to be taped anytime,
anywhere during this past week.
He declined that request as well.
The challenger in the race is Democrat Mary Heft, in addition to her years as a professor
at UW-Baron County in Rice Lake, Ms. Heft is also a former Rice Lake school board member.
Mary Heft joins us now.
And thanks very much for being there.
Thank you, Frederica.
It's my pleasure.
When I was quite a jump from school board to Congress, why did you decide to take on
a wealth-financed incumbent?
Well, I didn't take on a wealth-financed incumbent.
I took on a mission.
My university students were suffering.
I saw their plight.
I saw the difficulty for them to pay their tuition, to get full-time jobs, supporting
moms and dads, poverty in Wisconsin, 30-year-all-time highs.
So when Democratic leaders came to me and said, Mary, do this, I said, I have to.
I'm doing this for my students.
Now, Yufa repeatedly asked Sean Duffy to withdraw his support for Donald Trump.
His response to that has been variations on this theme, which we quote now in his absence.
He says, Trump's recent comments are reprehensible.
I never endorsed Donald Trump because of his stance on women or his family values.
I endorsed him for his policies, defeating ISIS, securing our border, and growing our
economy.
What is your reaction to that reasoning on his part?
Well, it makes no sense.
This is a man, we're talking Donald Trump right now, who has admitted to the sexual
abuse of women.
So he calls that Sean Duffy calls that Donald Trump's private life.
But that is a man who would be president.
And as a man who would be president, he's going to be addressing issues of gender inequity,
violence against women and men, reproductive rights.
These are all policies that a president is going to have a huge impact on.
When Sean Duffy knows that, he knows that.
You can't separate the two.
For his part, he asks how you can support Hillary Clinton.
Oh, Hillary Clinton, all someone has to do is do the research on this woman.
A woman who, when she graduated from law school, could have taken any prestigious job.
Instead, what she's done is spend a lifetime fighting for the rights of women and children.
I have great admiration for this woman and her.
What she's done for us as Americans, great admiration.
What is your number one issue in this, the seventh congressional district?
It's changed right now.
It's my realization that money is buying the votes of people in Congress and Senate.
My opponent, Sean Duffy, recently has accepted $400,000 in political contributions from bankers.
But he cheers the banking oversight committee in Congress.
He's accepted the money from the people he oversees and he knows they want something
in return for their both, something he's, for their money, something he's willing to
give them.
He has made it his cause to cripple the consumer financial protection bureau.
And that's the bureau just recently that uncovered what Wells Fargo did.
Now, I took a look at the campaign finance reporting and yours says that you have raised
$63,000.
That's quite a difference from Congress when Sean Duffy.
Frederica, I think it's better than that now, it's the way that it's how I've raised my
money is not from, I don't have the Koch brothers in back of me, like he does.
It's why he says there's no such thing as climate change, he has to.
The Koch brothers right now have companies that spew 24 million tons of carbon into
the air that you and I breathe every year.
He has to deny it.
So he gets their big funding by denying that there's such a thing as climate change.
We should reiterate at this point that we did invite Congressman Sean Duffy to join us
and he declined that opportunity.
And I think this is why he declined and I think it's why he micromanaged the debates
that we're going to have.
I want to move on to health care and specifically the Affordable Care Act.
There are stark differences between your positions.
Here is his quoting from his website, his campaign website, again in his absence.
It says Sean Duffy has voted to repeal Obamacare dozens of times now and he has also kept his
promise to introduce his own proposal.
Sean's market focused proposal, it says on his website, retains the few good portions
of Obamacare but puts doctors and patients in charge of health decisions rather than
unelected government bureaucrats.
But respond to that and also tell us about your support of a plan that's akin to Medicare
for all.
Right.
Sean Duffy made a promise.
His promise to the people was that he would not vote against the Affordable Care Act until
he had an alternative that was viable.
And that, the alternative that he's talking about right now is an alternative I haven't
even seen.
What right now what the people need, all people, well thanks to the Affordable Care Act we've
got 20 million people who previously weren't insured, we're at almost 90% of the people
in our country that are insured now.
People with pre-existing conditions like I just talked to a man who is near tears when
he said my son with diabetes finally now can get insurance.
That's important.
Really?
But what's the problem is, is that it's too expensive for many and so we've got to have
a single payer and that's a viable plan.
All right we need to leave it there.
Mary Habs.
Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Coming off, Reporters Act Schultz says Wisconsinites have some very definite opinions on the subject
of trust in this election, trust in the process and the players, including the media.
His report in just a few moments as we continue our here and now Wisconsin vote special here
at Pride Foodery in Warsaw.
I think that most of the people I've talked with are really frustrated with the media
coverage of both sides and both public and not public but general media as well as the
conservative media.
Welcome back.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have the highest unfavorable ratings of any presidential
candidates in history and one of the biggest storylines that Donald Trump has inserted into
the race is whether or not the election will feature rampant voter fraud.
So it's probably not surprising to hear that Americans trust in government, politics and
the media have reached all-time lows.
Here in our Reporters Act Schultz shows us what that means on the campaign trail in Wisconsin.
There's a new batch of emails that's all ahead of this hour.
Over the course of four decades Donald Trump built his personal brand believing the old
phrase, there's no such thing as bad publicity, but the last few months in the spotlight may
have changed his mind.
And his supporters are fully on board.
They aren't out of the mainstream.
According to the pollster Gallup, American trust in mass media has reached an all-time
low with just 32% saying they have a fair amount or great deal of trust in the media.
Broken down by party, just 14% of Republicans have at least a fair amount of trust in the
media.
At 51%, Democrats are considerably more confident in the media, but even they have big concerns.
What I think is rough in the news coverage is that people who get the most press are
usually people making outrageous statements or doing some crazy things.
A lot of the media portrays politics as a personality contest, as a dancing with the star's event.
You're listening to News Radio 620WTMJ on Charlie Sykes.
Charlie Sykes has spent the last couple decades building his own media brand as the most influential
conservative talk show host in Wisconsin.
There was a perception on the part of conservatives that the mainstream media was biased, that
it was unfair, that it was selective in what it covered, and I think this was true.
And as a result of this, you had a market for conservative talk radio.
Introducing the next president of the United States, Mr. Donald J. Trump.
But the rise of Donald Trump has led Sykes to believe conservative talk radio went too
far in delegitimizing mainstream media in the eyes and ears of conservatives.
Our critiques of the mainstream media had perhaps had unintended consequences that we
had been too successful.
Sykes was one of the first and loudest voices in the Never Trump movement.
Because I think what Donald Trump has done has been to create this perfect storm of awfulness.
He tried to counter Trump supporters with facts from the New York Times or Washington
Post.
The instinct of reaction was, well, those are liberal rags.
We don't need to pay any attention.
And that was my will moment.
Have we actually created kind of a monster here?
Conservative voters today don't need the mainstream media to feel informed.
Beyond Fox News, they have websites like Breitbart and The Drudge Report that aggregate content
from other sources.
But all of them reputable or reported with the highest standards of journalism.
Trump's biggest media asset is his Twitter account, with 12 and a half million followers
retweeting his message.
His Twitter account and all the people that are promoting him on Twitter, that helps a
lot.
You wake up and you realize, well, there aren't no more gatekeepers.
There's no more fact-checking.
We have to watch what's going on because this is a dirty business, this is a very, very
dirty business.
You know what I mean?
Watch what's going on.
Trump doesn't stop with attacking the media.
He has delegitimized all of the institutions of our society.
Trump has attacked the whole system from government to the military to political parties to the
political process itself.
It's all part of the rigged system being run at your expense.
They're already having dead people vote in Colorado and absentee ballots.
I mean, they can't win without cheating.
Here we are, in which you do have the wildest conspiracy theories from the far reaches
of the alt-right fever swamps that are now part of the mainstream political dialogue,
and that's dangerous.
It's made voters across the political spectrum nervous about whether the election will be
legitimate.
I'm not as comfortable with it this year, no.
I keep reading stories about, you know, missing ballots and this and that.
There's a lot of things on the internet, you know, where people that are in charge
of our elections have been shown and proven how easily it can be rigged.
They're going to blame it on being rigged, and this will be very important for their
narrative.
And I think the damage that we'll do to the country is huge because they do have this
echo chamber where they will convince an awful lot of people that somehow this was stolen
from them.
That's part of it.
The insights is ending his radio show at the end of the year and plans to write a book
about what happened to the conservative movement.
And I think that conservatives, honestly, at the end of this process have to look themselves
in the eye and say, okay, to what extent did we contribute to that?
To what extent did we ignore that?
And where do we go from here?
Well, of all of the people who can hear political messaging in the media and on the
trail and cut through the clutter, our next guest gives us an expert's edge.
Chair of the UW-Stevens Point Political Science Department, Professor John Blakeman, Professor
thanks very much for being here.
Thanks for having me.
Well, so answer this question of media bias, helping rig the election according to the
Trump campaign.
What is your reaction to this talk of this election being rigged?
Well, from the standpoint of media bias, I don't know.
Certainly, I think the media has been a little more accommodating to the Clinton campaign
than the Trump campaign, perhaps.
But the media cannot rig an election in and of itself.
And when Trump goes on to talk about rigging an election, I think he's also talking about
the process, which has sort of a deeper, darker issue associated with it.
Well, so how resonant in these hearts is that idea of conspiracy, along with the vitriol
that kind of necessarily comes with it?
Right.
Well, you know, about 50% of Trump supporters buy the rigged election argument right now.
And Trump isn't the first candidate to make it.
John McCain made it back in 2008, but he quickly backtracked from it.
Because it seems now to be a very solid part of Trump's campaign message.
You were telling me about something you call rural rage at work in Wisconsin.
How does that manifest in this election?
Well, in Wisconsin, interestingly, if you look, for instance, at the most recent Marquette
poll, which does divide people up according to whether they live in an urban, suburban,
rural area, rural voters actually don't differ.
They don't differ too much on economic issues, on other policies, where they really differ
is on immigration.
And so perhaps Trump's message on immigration is appealing to people in more rural areas
and driving a kind of angst or rage that will prompt them to vote.
Is it more sense that voters in rural areas are the candidates for these voters are tapping
into the so-called politics of resentment?
Yeah, I think there is a lot to the politics of resentment.
But I think in Wisconsin, a lot of the politics of resentment are really state-level issues
that have to do with higher education or the role of the DNR in regulating the deer herd.
And these really aren't national issues, and Trump, of course, is not going to address
any of that.
What kind of position does Trump put down ballot Republican candidates in, especially
in this part of the state where he won the primary and the third and seventh congressional
districts?
Well, Ron Kind and the third has no challenger, so I guess there's no down ballot issue there
unless a lot of people write in someone else, which could happen.
In the seventh district, Sean Duffy is a two-term incumbent now.
He's been very successful getting votes, winning elections, I should say.
I don't really see that down ballot issues in the seventh are going to be much of an
issue at all.
All right.
Well, thank you very much for joining us, John Blake.
Yeah, thank you.
And if you are just joining us, and notice that we are not in our usual studio digs,
that is because we're coming to you live from Warsaw's River District, specifically
from the dining room of Thrive Foodery, co-owned and operated by David L'Oreal and Elizabeth
Hinner.
And we want to give a shout out to David and Elizabeth for allowing us in tonight.
We asked one of them to join us for an interview, and they turned us down.
That's not because they're shy or unfriendly, but because they say they cannot leave the
kitchen on a busy Friday night.
And there they are.
Louisiana native, David has grown roots in Warsaw and dedicates his kitchen to the mission
of sustainability and community outreach, thrives menu features produce from Warsaw
area growers, local dairy and meats and craft here as well.
Even the walls are reclaimed materials, including the buildings, original overhead
garage door and other doors and families reclaimed by the Warsaw Habitat for Humanity.
Coming up next on our Wisconsin Vote Special Edition of here and now, we'll look at the
cultural and economic contributions of the Warsaw, among people in Warsaw.
It's interesting how businesses and different fields of study or skills are sharing knowledge
with each other.
And it also seems to cultivate that kind of community sense.
Welcome back to Warsaw's Thrive Food Area.
A prominent part of the Warsaw community is the lung population marathon and surrounding
counties.
About 9,000 people of Southeast Asian descent now call Central Wisconsin home.
As allies of the West during the Vietnam War, the first to arrive landed here following
the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.
Wisconsin has the third highest lung population in the country, and Warsaw are the second
highest in the state.
The transition has not always been easy or smooth, but now some 40 years on, new generations
of one called the Warsaw area the only home they've known and are increasingly leaders
in the community.
For example, 22-year-old Yilang Zhang was just elected to the Marathon County Board of Supervisors
and he joins us now.
Thanks very much for being here.
I'm glad to be here.
Well, tell us about your family and when and why they arrived in Warsaw.
Sure.
My family arrived in the 1980s.
I was not the first family here, but we were one of the ones who arrived in the 1980s,
so it was fantastic and we chose this as a place of to be, and it's been a great ever
sense.
How would you describe the transition that came with the arrival, both for among families
and the Warsaw community?
Sure.
In the past, Warsaw was known as the widest city in the entire country.
In the last 40 years, there has been a lot of progress that has been done.
To the point where we have elected officials that are among the descent, such as me and
you know, Marya Cowell, who sits on the Wasser scoreboard.
Is there still work to do integrating among families into the fabric of the Warsaw community?
Sure.
You know, there can always be improvement in everything.
You know, the Wasser community here in the Marathon County has been very supportive of
the progress and the integrating of the Mung community into the larger community at large.
You know, we are booming here, but we're having businesses, you know, we have Mung teachers,
lawyers and everything, and you know, there still works to be done, but you know, there
has been a lot of progress that has been done in the last 40 years as well.
Has the presidential campaign rhetoric around immigrants brought out lingering racial divisions
in this area?
Sure.
You know, that's a very good question.
From what I experience, you know, if this has been the year where I've seen a lot of
Mung individuals, especially people in the Mung community, who has paid very close attention
to the presidential election, you know, all of them were refugees as children or an exact
product of refugees and everything.
So you know, they were a product of immigrants and everything, and so it makes them look
at the election very closely, and this, like I said before, this is the first time I've
seen this interest in election in politics.
It has a county supervisor.
What are the issues you most want to address on behalf of your Mung constituents?
You know, I represent the District 19, but a lot of the Mung individuals kind of see me
as the liaison to the Marathon County Board.
I've seen many problems and many obstacles, I should say, that kind of prohibits them
that stops the Mung community from advancing much further.
There's been a lot of mental health problems in the Mung community that I see that's a
very big issue.
They think of the, you know, the word mental health in Mung means crazy.
So you know, this needs to be a lot of education.
In addition, we see that there's not a lot of cultural sensitive programs that are able
to help our Mung youth to be able to help them build confidence and also be sensitive
to their culture.
Now, I know that Warsaw now has a Mung Chamber of Commerce to assist business startups.
How needed is that in your mind?
Sure, you know, the Mung community, you know, you know, we were brought to this country
with the hopes of being able to participate with elections, the education, also be able
to participate in the, you know, business field, and you know, a lot of Mung individuals
in the Mung community, I know that wants to start business there, you know, they want
to pursue the American dream and everything.
And with the Mung Chamber of Commerce here and providing that resources, providing loans
and our resources to them, that allows them to be able to pursue their, you know, pursue
the American dream.
Where do you envision the Mung community in Warsaw being 40 years from now?
That's a very fantastic question.
We ask that question all the time to ourselves, you know, we want to see a, you know, a world
where, you know, we as the Mung community that are able to thrive as other race.
But we've only been here in 40 years, but we've made more progress than we have ever
had in the last 200 years.
And so, you know, we want to see us even advance even more and be, you know, just like everybody
else.
All right.
Yilang Zhang, thank you very much for being here.
Finally tonight, in addition to programs like here and now, Wisconsin Public Television
also produces our long programs that explore the history of cities across the state.
So tonight, a short glimpse from hometown stories, Warsaw.
Changes in Warsaw's skyline reflect new growth on the riverside, as new uses are found for
the old industrial sites that once lined the banks.
One of the things that really anchors, I think, the history of Warsaw is the Wisconsin River.
It still tells the story of 1839 when George Stevens came up, started his first sawmill.
It still tells the story of a variety of other people that have come and made loss of what
it is.
And I think that anchor is the Wisconsin River that continues to flow down this wonderful
city.
Home town stories, Warsaw can be found in its entirety on our website, WPT.org.
From the banks of the Wisconsin River to the Warsaw River District and fried food, we are
here and now home for the evening.
We want to thank co-owners and chefs, David L'Oreal and Elizabeth Penner, for letting
us set up shop and broadcast on a busy Friday night.
Next week, our WPRWPT Wisconsin Vote Project hits the road again, and here and now, we'll
come to you from La Crosse in a Pearl Street win, for more on our upcoming Wisconsin Vote
Road Trip programs, including the Joy Cardine show, here and now, and our Meet the Media
event, go to the events page, or www.wisconsinvote.org.
I'm Frederica Freiber, have a great weekend.
Funding for Here and Now is provided in part by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
For more information, visit our website at www.wisconsinvote.org.