- The following program is part of our "Here & Now" 2018
Wisconsin Vote election coverage.
- I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Tonight on "Here & Now," incumbent U.S.
Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin is here.
After that, a closer look at what the latest Marquette Law
School Poll numbers mean in races for governor and U.S.
Senate in Wisconsin.
And the latest from the Dane County executive on this week's
record rainfall and flooding.
It's "Here & Now" for August 24.
- Funding for "Here & Now" is provided, in part,
by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
- Last week, we talked with
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir.
This week, incumbent U.S. Senator
Democrat Tammy Baldwin is here.
Baldwin is a Madison native and graduate
of the UW-Madison Law School.
She was elected to three terms in the State Assembly
before serving seven terms
as the 2nd District U.S. Representative.
She defeated former governor Tommy Thompson in 2012
for the U.S. Senate seat to which she now seeks re-election.
Incumbent Senator Tammy Baldwin joins us now from Milwaukee and
thanks very much for doing so.
- I'm delighted to join you.
Thank you, Frederica.
- First I wanted to ask you what is your reaction to this
week's Marquette Law School Poll that found you two points up
on your challenger Leah Vukmir among likely voters?
- You know, having experienced $11 million of nasty attack ads
from out-of-state billionaires, this is what happens
when you have this special interest money in politics.
And it's why that should be one of the things,
top of our list for reforms.
But I always thought this was going to be a competitive race.
And I think ultimately where the voters are going to be looking
in terms of a clear choice is who's in their corner,
who's fighting for them and who's doing the bidding
of these out-of-state, powerful special interests.
-Now, as we said, we interviewed Leah Vukmir last Friday.
She called you a "backbencher."
What's your response to that?
- So I'm really proud of the ways in which
I champion Wisconsin issues.
The things that people bring to me, we discuss.
Right now one of the biggest concerns
on the minds of Wisconsinites is health care.
In particular, they've seen a fight last year where they
almost saw their health care ripped away and the protections
ripped away.
And right now after we narrowly defeated that legislation,
we're seeing the administration try to unravel it as well as the
case that's going up to the Supreme Court ultimately,
to take away protections for people
with pre-existing conditions.
I am leading that fight in the Senate of the United States.
I know what it was like to have a childhood illness
and then be labeled as a child with a pre-existing condition.
I know that almost half of Wisconsinites struggle with
these issues in their families.
So I am fighting for them.
And this is really one of the fights of our times.
- Now, many people, including your challenger,
say that they do support protecting people with
pre-existing conditions and ten Republican Senators yesterday
introduced a bill to do just that.
So why are those protections at such risk?
- Well, they're at risk for a number of reasons.
First of all, the administration is no longer defending those
protections in a lawsuit that was brought by Governor Walker
and Attorney General Schimel and other states challenging the
constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act and in
particular they're attacking that provision that requires
coverage for people who have been sick before.
But the other way, and where you're going to see Senate
action, and I'm going to take the lead,
is the administration support of something called junk plans.
These are plans that are only intended to be very temporary
bridge plans for people between jobs or between plans.
And they don't have to cover anything.
It's really -- if you read the fine print, you'd be horrified.
Certainly no pre-existing conditions.
They have limits on how much they'll pay out.
We saw one the other day that won't cover hospitalization if
it happens on a Friday night or Saturday night.
What's that message?
Don't get sick on a weekend?
I'm mean it's -- these are absurd and they don't have the
protections that Americans need to know that they are secure.
And so we are going to try to overturn that Trump rule.
And the Republicans in the Senate who are speaking out to
save pre-existing condition coverage,
they can join me and we can win on this.
- Speaking of Donald Trump, as you well know,
he won Wisconsin and he endorses
and has the support of Leah Vukmir.
What is your position on his presidency?
- Well, that's a really huge question,
and you're asking me at the end of a week in which on Tuesday
we saw one set of guilty verdicts
in a trial of his former campaign manager
and another, his personal lawyer,
plead guilty on several counts, including two
where he directly implicated the president.
On the other hand, I would tell you that my approach to the
president and I think I had the chance earlier to tell you the
story of my first time meeting with him, where I said.
"I'm going to talk about buy America policies because that's
clearly something that we agree on and we can work together on."
And so the bottom line is if he's proposing something that
helps Wisconsin, I'm probably going to work with him.
And if he's proposing something or has done something to harm
Wisconsin, I'm going to stand up, just as I always do.
- What's your position as to whether Brett Kavanaugh's
confirmation to the U.S.
Supreme Court should be delayed because of the conviction of
Paul Manafort and the guilty plea of Michael Cohen?
- Well, I think Wisconsinites demand a fair, impartial,
independent judge-- justice on the Supreme Court
because the stakes are so high.
I mean, this next justice will probably have a pivotal vote
on that very case to consider whether pre-existing health
conditions are going to be covered.
They'll have deciding vote on whether Roe versus Wade will
remain the law of the land and women will have equality
and also access to reproductive health care.
They'll decide on incredibly
important powerful environmental cases.
And the list goes on.
But they'll also decide whether they're going to side with
corporate special interests or with consumers and workers and
those who have a dispute to bring to the Supreme Court.
Now, it's up to Chairman Grassley
whether he wants to delay.
I think there's already been a real concern
about documents not being delivered.
He'll decide.
I doubt he'll delay it.
But he could.
- I think this is true.
The National Rifle Association gives you a score of F for your
positions on gun control and your challenger whom it endorses
variably an A or A+.
What gun control measures do you think need to be enacted?
- Well, it shows you where the NRA is.
I'm a gun owner myself.
And so I strongly support the Second Amendment.
But I do not think that the Second Amendment precludes
common sense safety legislation.
At the federal level, I think we need to have a comprehensive,
universal background check with no loopholes for internet sales
or going to gun shows
and not having a thorough background check.
And then I think we have to go beyond there.
There are a number of provisions relating to, frankly,
the ability to convert a semi-automatic weapon into an
automatic weapon with a bump stock.
And I think we should be considering
these enormous magazines
that can allow so many shots to be fired.
Those aren't needed for-- those are weapons of war, basically,
on our streets and we've got to step up.
- Why did you vote against the federal tax cut?
- Are you talking about the tax legislation
that was brought forward last year?
- Yes.
- Well, first of all, I strongly support
middle class tax cuts.
And, frankly, that was too little of the focus
of that bill.
And they weren't even permanent,
meaning they're going to go up again.
But 83% of the tax measure went to the top 1% in the individual
side and very profitable multinational corporations and
others on the corporate side.
They actually gave corporations more than they asked for,
leaving over a trillion dollar hole in our nation's budget.
We were told it would trickle down,
but I haven't seen the sort of pay raises and investments in
manufacturing that I was told or, you know,
that was part of what was touted.
And lastly, with this hole in our budget now of a trillion
dollars, there are people who are talking about cutting social
security, Medicare, Medicaid.
The safety nets for a secure retirement for somebody who's
worked hard their whole life.
That's absolutely unacceptable to me.
- Are you among Democrats who believe who believe that the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE ought to be
eliminated in the wake of the administration's zero-tolerance
immigration policy?
- I do not support the elimination of ICE,
but I do support a real focus on setting priorities.
The enforcement of our immigration laws ought to be
prioritized to start with dangerous criminals,
drug dealers.
And when we see and hear some of the stories,
it's clear that they don't always have their priorities
right and they ought to be overseen both by the
administration and the Congress of the United States.
But on the larger topic, I do believe we need comprehensive
immigration reform.
We have a broken system, for sure.
That that comprehensive reform ought to address the plight of
the dreamers, these child separations that are immoral on
our southern border and also create strong but smart
border security.
- All right.
Senator Tammy Baldwin, thanks very much.
- Thank you.
- New statewide poll numbers out this week on the U.S.
Senate race as well as the race for governor between Tony Evers
and incumbent Scott Walker.
In tonight's closer look, we go over the results of the latest
Marquette Law School survey with the poll's director,
Charles Franklin.
And Charles, thanks very much for being here.
- Good to be here.
- Well it would seem to me that the watchword on your polling
for both the U.S. Senate
and the governor's race is tight.
- Tight's a good word for it.
46/46 in the governor's race, 49/47 in the Senate race,
both with a 4.5% margin of error.
So obviously inside that margin.
You know, if you look back in June,
we had Walker ahead by four and Baldwin ahead by nine.
But those were among registered voters,
everybody that's registered to vote.
These numbers that are so tight are among likely voters,
the people that say they're sure they'll vote in November.
For an apples to apples comparison,
registered voters had Walker ahead by two this month as
opposed to four in June and had Baldwin ahead by eight compared
to nine.
So the Baldwin race doesn't tighten as much with registered
voters, but does with likelies.
And likelies are people who pay more attention to politics,
more likely to know about the candidates.
- And are those the numbers that people should be watching?
- Yes. I think at this point.
We shift from registered voters to likely as we get close enough
to an election for people to really be making up their minds
about whether they're going to vote.
Asking how sure are you going to vote nine months ahead of time
seems a little early.
But as we go through September and October especially,
those likely voter numbers should become more and more
meaningful as people both choose their candidates and make up
their minds to participate.
- Were you surprised by the bounce that Leah Vukmir appeared
to get post-primary?
- Well, it's a pretty substantial bounce.
I think both candidates--
remember, we were in the field Wednesday to Sunday
right after the primary.
So both had come off primary wins.
In Vukmir's case, a pretty divisive Republican primary.
And so this may represent Nicholson supporters now moving
sharply to her and that would account for some of the bounce.
But it's also both she and Evers have increased their familiarity
to voters.
People are now better able to identify them.
That may be helping both of the challengers.
- Now, back to the governor's race specifically.
Those are even as we have already shown.
Now that is despite the fact that the governor was warning
his supporters that he might be down in this very poll.
Why would he have forecast that?
- Well, lowering expectations is not necessarily a bad
political strategy, and we saw other polls, not mine,
but by Marist for NBC and the Emerson College Poll that showed
Walker behind by 13 and I think by nine the week or so before
the primary.
So we had him up by four in our last June poll.
You know, where are you in there?
Maybe we are the high number.
Maybe those other folks
are exceptionally good for Democrats.
But where are we?
So I think the governor was lowering expectations.
Of course, what we don't know is what does his own polling show?
Did he say that based on something that internally is
showing not so good numbers for him?
- That would be likely, I imagine.
So in terms of favorables and unfavorables,
what stands out here?
- First of all, it is getting to know the candidates better.
You may not notice it there, but if you add up those numbers,
you see that Vukmir and Evers still are in the 30% range of
people who say they don't know them.
But that's down from the 60s and 70s a couple months ago.
So they are both in better shape there.
The balance for Vukmir is just a little bit net negative,
but it's basically even or positive for the others,
and with Walker a shade higher, Evers a little bit net positive.
So all of the candidates are in roughly competitive ground on
these measures.
- Let's take a look.
You did some issues polling as well, Wisconsin issues.
It's interesting to note that the top issues for respondents
are the same as they ever were, right?
I mean, it is jobs, education and health coverage.
- Exactly.
And jobs and the economy is near the top of most important
problems almost always except at the end of real boom times,
where, you know, under 3% unemployment,
it's a little surprising that that still rises to the top of
concerns.
But with K-12 education, you have an issue that has been
engaged by the Walker Administration for his entire
term, two terms, and Tony Evers as school superintendent.
So that's a natural one there.
But other measures have shown greater concern for education
over time.
Health coverage is endemic.
Everybody worries about it.
And the last one, roads and road repair,
didn't make the top three for the most important,
but it did bounce up to the top four when you include
the second-most important issue.
- Just super briefly, what did you find about Donald Trump?
- Well, Trump's approval numbers are still under water a
bit, about 45 approve, 51 disapprove.
87% approve among Republicans, 5% among Democrats.
Independents it's about 34% approve.
And on other issues like immigration,
dealings with Russia, his approval ratings are a bit lower
than his overall.
It goes from the 45 down three or four points on immigration
and then down another two or three points on Russia.
- People who like the man like the man,
not necessarily his policies.
- The policies are a little slippery compared to the overall
approval.
- All right.
Charles Franklin, thanks very much.
- Thank you.
- Weather shared the Wisconsin headlines with politics this
week, especially in Dane County, where Governor Walker joined
local officials to declare a state of emergency on Wednesday,
after Monday's storms closed roads,
swamped homes and left one person dead.
Hardest hit?
Western Dane County, pounded by more than 15 inches of rain.
Tonight with more rain predicted,
Madison's isthmus is in harm's way.
The Yahara River, the river that connects Madison's two lakes
bulged over its banks as rushing water flowed from Lake Mendota
down into Lake Monona.
Rising levels there had shoreline residents sandbagging
to protect homes.
Dane County Executive Joe Parisi joins us now by phone from
Mazomanie, one of the hardest hit spots.
Thanks very much for doing so.
-Thanks for having me.
- So what's the latest on flood conditions and threats?
-Well, it really depends on the side of the county you're on.
Here in Mazomanie, the waters have subsided.
As you mentioned, this community was very hard hit.
And now we're in the recovery, the clean-up phase.
We have a lot of people whose homes were inundated.
They're looking for resources.
We're connecting them with the help that they need.
So we're in the recovery phase here.
Now, the challenge that we have is the water that landed
on the western side of the county is now making its way
through our chain of lakes.
So the more active situation now is in the city of Madison and
then along the chain of lakes in towns like Monona
and the town of Dunn.
- How big is the threat to the city of Madison?
-Well, there is already water in the streets in the isthmus.
A number of streets have been closed.
And there could be more that are closing.
There's a lot of water moving from Lake Mendota into Monona
now.
So the Yahara River is flooded.
And the challenge in Madison is that a lot of their storm water
outfalls that usually empty into the river and into the lakes are
now under water.
So there's nowhere for water to drain and the water instead
backs up into the neighborhoods.
And then further down, in Monona and other communities on the
lakes, they're dealing with literal lake flooding,
because we are at record high levels for most of our lakes at
the moment.
So we really have three somewhat unique situations going on.
We have recovery, we have the water backing up through the
storm sewers in Madison and then we have lake flooding in other
communities.
- As for the rain Monday night into Tuesday,
has Dane County ever seen anything like that?
-No.
That was record rainfall, particularly for that period of
time.
That was actually a record, a state record of one rain event.
I lived in Dane County my entire life.
I've never witnessed anything like it.
- What's the dollar damage estimate to homes,
businesses and infrastructure?
-Our initial assessment -- an it's certainly not complete --
is over $100 million at this point.
- Does government have to do anything, in your mind,
differently going forward if
this is kind of a new weather pattern?
- Well, we certainly do have to be aware
that this is no longer a 1,000-year event.
We've received 100-year rainfalls every few years
lately.
Our climate is certainly changing.
It's becoming much wetter.
We're receiving much more rain.
We've been building into our updated emergency natural hazard
mitigation plans, this prediction for increased
precipitation.
So the answer is yes, we certainly have to be aware that
this is going to occur more often.
- Does Dane County expect to get a federal disaster
assistance?
-That's the reason -- we certainly expect we will.
That's the reason that we're documenting everything that we
have.
There's a process one has to follow to get FEMA assistance.
Declaring the state of emergency was the first step and then
documenting the amount of damage is the important next step.
- Can property owners recover any losses as probably most
are not covered by insurance?
- You know, it really depends.
It's much more difficult for, for example, private homeowners.
There has to be a large cumulative threshold passed
and then there has to be an individual threshold passed,
too.
So it puts a lot of folks in a really challenging spot.
- How seriously should people be taking the threats from this
kind of rising water in Madison and then downstream?
-Well, they should certainly monitor the situation.
The communities downstream and some in Madison that are looking
at lake flooding are already sandbagging and already working
on that and monitoring that, Monona in particular.
In the city of Madison, it's an ongoing active situation and
people should be aware and people -- we have a website.
People go to CountyOfDane.com, there's a link,
a very obvious link to a website dedicated just to the flooding
and it has updates on it.
It has resources.
But particularly next week, early next week when it's
supposed to rain a lot, we could see even worse flooding in the
city of Madison.
So people should be aware.
They should be paying attention to their local news and visiting
that website because it's still a very active situation.
- Okay.
Dane County Executive Joe Parisi,
thanks very much and good luck.
-Thank you.
- The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents met Thursday
and approved $107 million from the state
for outcomes-based funding.
Marisa Wojcik tells us more.
- The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents have
released a proposal that will request $107 million
from the state to expand outcomes-based goals.
UW System institutions will receive a portion of the funding
based on how well they meet standards for growing student
access, graduation rates, contributions to the workforce
and operational efficiency.
Of the UW System's total annual budget of $6.3 billion this
year, 17.8% came from state dollars and 23.6% came from
student tuition.
Most of the state funding that the UW System receives,
about $1.1 billion, does not rely on outcomes-based metrics.
The state contribution to the UW System has been declining since
the system was created in 1973.
Because of this, the UW System began to rely more on student
tuition dollars to make up the difference.
Two factors have made this reliance on student tuition
dollars difficult for universities to cover costs.
The first is student enrollment, which has been declining since
2010 following the recession and hasn't been able to pick back
up.
The second is a tuition freeze, put in place by the state
legislature in 2015, and is set to be extended an additional two
years.
State dollars to the UW may be slipping.
But the UW System itself contributes $24 billion to the
state economy and supports 167,
000 jobs annually according to a recent Board of Regents' study.
For these and other Fast Facts, visit wpt.org.
- Now for an update on the state's job market and its
thirst for workers.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation today
launched its latest pitch to get workers into the state,
this time targeting U.S. veterans.
An earlier ad blitz looked to Chicago for young college grads.
The new marketing plan includes outreach to veterans at
transition summits as they return to civilian life and
encourage them to settle in Wisconsin.
The $1.9 million plan is a cooperative effort between WEDC
and the Departments of Workforce Development,
Veterans Affairs and Tourism.
Finally tonight, a look ahead to next week,
when we bring you a special "Here & Now" program focusing on
diversity in Wisconsin's workforce.
Reporter Marisa Wojcik introduces us to workers and
employers finding the way toward inclusion.
We'll hear about the obstacles and successes and then pick the
brains of professionals in the community
making diversity job one.
Until then, I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Have a great weekend.
- Funding for "Here & Now" is provided, in part,
by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
For more information on "Here & Now's" 2018 election coverage,
go to WisconsinVote.org.