work. >> Even as Tammy Baldwin made
her victory speech two days after the election, Eric Hovde
demurred on conceding Zac Schultz joins us now from the
Capitol with more on this and a look at legislative races. Hey,
Zach. >> Hello, Fred.
>> So, for his part, Eric Hovde blames a third party candidate
on his loss. What is that about? >> Well, I'm sure for most of
our viewers, this will be the first time they've heard of
Thomas Leiber. He he really came out of nowhere. He doesn't have
any party. He didn't really come as attached to running any ads
or anything like that. But his name did appear on the ballot,
and he did receive a significant number of votes for a third
party candidate. And it becomes more significant when you have a
tighter race. However, even Bryan Schimming, chairman of the
Republican Party of Wisconsin, said it's incumbent on their
candidate to let voters know who is the real Republican in the
race and this isn't the first time that third party candidates
have played spoiler. The third party candidates in the
presidential race took a significant number of votes. In
2016, Democrats blamed Jill Stein and the Green Party for
taking a significant number of votes away from Hillary Clinton.
A lot of these cases, it's simply people deciding to raise
a protest vote. And when they're voting third party, especially
if they don't know who the actual candidate is. And in
fact, if Hovde had just ran closer to Trump, then perhaps he
would have come out ahead of Baldwin. But he's blaming it on
a third party candidate at this point.
allowed a switch from the current 22 to 11 Republican
majority in the state Senate to an election pickup of four seats
for Democrats, narrowing the Republican majority in that
chamber to 18 to 15. What are the implications of that?
>> Well, it's pretty big in the Senate. Republicans had a
supermajority, which means they had the ability to
constitutionally impeach people. We've seen them do that in the
past. They refused to seat any of Governor Evers appointees and
rejected quite a few of them. So with that large of a power
imbalance in the state Senate, Republicans could do whatever
they wanted with a much more narrow majority. Not only did
they lose two incumbents, which is pretty significant. Duey
Strobel sits on joint finance and he was a big conservative
figurehead in that party. And knocking him off is a pretty big
accomplishment for Democrats. And just the implications of
them running ahead and against these Republican headwinds that
came everywhere else. These were four swing seats that they won
and picked up in this race. And in prior years where we've seen
a red wave election, so to speak, 2010 2014 Democrats down
ballot are getting crushed. So the Democrats are rightfully so,
saying they did a really big job of winning these seats and
putting themselves in position to possibly challenge for the
majority in the Senate in 2026. >> So in the Assembly, the
current Republican majority is 64 to 35, and Democrats picked
up ten seats in that chamber, bringing their majority down to
54 to 45. Now that's a smaller gain, but still potentially
predictive for 2026. >> Well, it's significant in a
lot of ways, not in the Assembly. Republicans were only
two seats short of a supermajority, which meant in
the last session, Democrats had to have every member there every
session day, because if they shrunk their amount, then that
reduced what the Republicans needed to possibly override some
of Governor Evers vetoes. That threat is gone in this next
session. And once again, it puts Democrats in position to
challenge for the majorities in 26. And most importantly, we
should see shifts in what it means over the next two years of
governing in this state. I don't think anyone's going to predict
that Republicans and Governor Evers are suddenly going to have
a great relationship. But every vote that these Republicans tak,
they're going to have to think about their vulnerable members
and what it might mean back in their district in the next
election in years. And sessions past. Robin Vos, for example,
the Assembly Speaker, has let some of his more vulnerable
Republicans vote no against some Republican legislation because
with 64 or 60 votes, it mattered that it passed this time around
with only a 54 seat majority. If he can't let that many of these
vulnerable members take really damaging votes. So you might see
a shift in what actually comes to the floor over the next two
years. around the corner from a state
Supreme Court spring election on April 1st. What are the stakes
in that race? >> Well, every time we have an
election in Wisconsin, people say it's the most important
election of your lifetime. And they'll be saying that about
this one again. Right now, the Supreme Court has a 4 to 3
Liberal majority. The Justice that is retiring is Justice Ann
Walsh Bradley. She is part of that Liberal majority. So with
her out it's three three. Whoever wins this, whether it's
a conservative candidate or Liberal candidate, will decide
the makeup of the majority for the foreseeable future. So it
actually is quite significant. Last time around with the Janet
Protasiewicz, we saw record national level spending. We're
probably going to see that again. That's coming up in
April. So people who thought the political ads were gone for
their television, you may get a couple months off, but the ads
are coming back and they're going to come back in a big way.
>> So the current Liberal majority court is hearing oral
arguments on Monday in the lawsuit over abortion in
Wisconsin. What will that be deciding?
we handle abortion in Wisconsin. Currently, the 1849 law that
handles and regulates abortion in Wisconsin has been put on
hold by a Dane County judge. So the Supreme Court is reviewing
whether that's appropriate, whether abortion laws that have
been passed since 1849 supersede and override that. And so we're
kind of in a Roe environment as far as what that matters. But
they'll also at the same time be deciding if there is a
constitutional right to abortion, health care in
Wisconsin. So they could go either way. And as for what we
should expect next Monday, there's going to be increased
security in the Capitol. We've already been told people will
have to pass through metal detectors to get into the
chamber. They're expecting protesters. It's also Veterans
middle of oral arguments, we can expect to hear a 21 gun salute
for Veterans Day programing. So there will be a lot going on.
The bigger question, especially tying it back to that election
that we were just talking about, is when this decision might be
released. Does it come down before that April Supreme Court
election impacting it that way, or will it be released after
that election so that we don't know the fate of abortion rights
in Wisconsin in leading into that election next year?
>> All right, Zac Schultz, >> All right, Zac Schultz,