>> The following program is a PBS Wisconsin Original
Production. >> Snowfall breaks records
across Wisconsin as political gridlock breaks,
with passage of bipartisan bills in the final regular
session of the state Senate. [MUSIC]
I'm Frederica Freyberg tonight on "Here& Now",
price shocks for fuel and fertilizer have Wisconsin
farmers planning ahead. We hear from state Supreme
Court candidates on the issue of abortion. And
primary candidates for governor also offer their
positions. State public defenders
sound the alarm on staff shortages. And we take a
look at our new podcast, Inside Wisconsin Politics.
[MUSIC] 20th.
>> Funding for Here and Now is provided by the Focus
Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
>> Fuel and Fertilizer. The cost of them has spiked due
to the war in Iran that has disrupted crude oil fields
and transport, as well as the export of fertilizer on
farms. In Wisconsin, growers consider their
crops and spring planting in the face of this price
volatility. Wisconsin Farmers Union President
Darin Von Ruden is here with more. He joins us from
Westby. And thanks a lot for being here.
>> Thanks for having me this morning.
>> So what are your farmer members saying about the
price shocks happening right now?
>> Well, lots of concerns. You know, some of our
members actually were able to book their inputs last
fall, so probably aren't going to see that sticker
shock this spring. Like we are amongst other members
that don't have the ability to because of cash flow
problems by that. So they're right now probably
examining, do we stay with corn and need to put more
nitrogen on the ground, or should we look at a, you
know, small grain crop or do we plant more soybeans
just because of that price of fertilizers has
increased so much in the last two weeks here.
>> What are the ways the increased cost of fuel
impact producers? >> Well, in really in all
aspects, number one, it costs more to get the, the
items that we need to produce the crops to the
farm. There are surcharges that are co-ops in process
or our delivery folks will be charging. It's going to
cost more to put the crop in the ground. If. Unless
you were able to book that fuel earlier, which doesn't
happen very often. And then just to get the products
that we produce to the consumer through the
processors and distributors, we're probably going to be
seeing surcharges on those deliveries to.
>> Now. The Trump administration just waved a
100 year old shipping law to speed up oil and
fertilizer shipments ahead of spring planting. How
welcome is that? >> Well, you know, if it
helps in that price of what the cost is to get by that
gallon of diesel or that gallon of gas, you know, it
certainly is welcome news, but I'm hearing that it's
it probably will have very little impact on it because,
you know, planting season is probably two weeks away
in southern Wisconsin here right now. So can that
really impact what's going to happen on day one when
farmers need to be in the fields? Big question mark
there. >> Yeah for sure. So how
how difficult is it to move from corn to soybeans or
other crops? Just kind of on a dime here.
>> The biggest thing is, is the availability of the
seeds. So, you know, farmers generally try to
have that contracted earlier delivery. You know,
at this time of year, those seeds are being delivered
to the farm. So if your supplier has adequate
supplies of both, you're in good shape. But some years
they'll the people that we buy from are trying to
guess what farmers are going to do. And so could
be shorted one or the other. And small grains is another
issue because a lot of suppliers don't necessarily
have large quantities of that seed available. So it
might take 2 to 3 weeks to get that to come in from
another source. >> So even ahead of the war
in Iran, how have Wisconsin farmers weathered tariffs
and resulting markets? >> Yeah, certainly, you
know, last year was not a good year for farmers on
the on the economic side, a lot of farmers posted
losses in corn and soybeans, especially because of that
disruption in the marketplace and not having
those overseas buyers to buy that. You know, we have
weather, a little bit of that with the increased
prices that we've seen. After President Trump
announced some of the trade deals with China, but we
still haven't seen all of those markets come back to
the level that they were two, three years ago.
>> How meaningful have one time payments out of
Washington to offset tariff losses been for farmers in
Wisconsin? >> Well, you know, it
certainly has helped ease some of the pain between
the banker and the farmer because they were able to
pay maybe a bigger portion of the the operating loan
that they had. But in reality, when you look at
the the real numbers, it was only about 15% of what
farmers needed to pay for their production costs. So,
you know, in the end, we're still quite a bit behind on
that process. And, you know, farmers generally want to
receive our income from the marketplace and not depend
on Uncle Sam to send us a check when we're in dire
needs. And so with the trade war that we had, you
know, those market conditions were really
impacted in a negative way. And it's really a
frustration of farmers that we need to depend on the
federal monies to come in in order to pay bills.
>> All right. Darin Von Ruden, thanks for
explaining all this to us. >> Thank you. Fredricka.
>> Just last year, the Wisconsin Supreme Court
overturned the state's 1849 abortion ban, the 4 to 3
decision by the Liberal majority settled the legal
question of which state statute governs abortion.
But that doesn't mean the topic won't be a big factor
in the ad campaign. In this spring's race for a seat on
the Supreme Court, that race is between
conservative Judge Maria Lazar and Liberal Judge
Chris Taylor "Here& Now". Senior political reporter
Zac Schultz sat down with the candidates and has the
story. >> In 2022, the United
States Supreme Court scrambled the political
world with the Dobbs decision overturning Roe
versus Wade and returning the issue of abortion to
the states. In Wisconsin, that meant an 1849 abortion
ban went back into effect. >> As we fight to protect
and now restore reproductive freedom in
Wisconsin. >> The Democratic Attorney
general, Josh Kaul, filed a. >> Lawsuit saying a more
recent abortion law passed by Republicans when Roe was
still in effect, nullified the 1849 ban. The court
agreed with the Liberal majority deciding the case
by one vote. This election will fill the seat of the
retiring conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley. So
if Judge Taylor or Judge Lazar had been on that case,
it wouldn't have changed the outcome. But we wanted
to know if they agreed with the court's decision.
>> So I agree with the decision that the 1849 law
should not be implemented based on laws that had been
passed since then that directly conflict with it.
I think that that was the right decision by the
majority on the state Supreme Court. Again, it
was by one vote. This really contrasts with my
opponent. My opponent would have voted to implement an
1849 abortion ban that was passed when I couldn't vote
and many people couldn't vote. So I think it was
really the right decision by our state Supreme Court.
And that's a big point of difference between myself
and my opponent. >> I'm not going to say how
it would rule, but I will say what I will do moving
forward, and I have put that in positions. I've
released a statement, I've released an op ed talking
about abortion and indicating that this is a
really complicated issue for the woman, and her life
is so valuable and important. And I've
indicated that 1 I respect the rule as decided by the
state Supreme Court. I will only be one of three
members in the majority in the minority, so I won't be
changing that. And two, I think women in the state
need clarity. They need certainty. And three, you
need to lower the temperature on this issue.
This is resolved as far as I'm concerned, for courts,
for the judiciary. The legislature can do what
they want, and the people in the state of Wisconsin
can do what they want. But the judiciary, it's clear
it's done. >> Reporting from Madison.
I'm Zac Schultz for "Here& Now".
>> While the Wisconsin Supreme Court has settled
the issue of state law surrounding abortion, the
medical procedure is not a constitutionally protected
right in Wisconsin. So the next legislature and
governor could change the law at any time. As part of
our continuing series examining the big issues in
the governor's election, Zac Schultz asked the
leading candidates about the topic of abortion.
>> My choice. >> In the nearly four years
since the Dobbs decision has returned the issue of
abortion to the states, Wisconsin's Republican
controlled legislature and Democratic Governor Tony
Evers were not able to agree on any laws regarding
abortion, whether that was time limits, exceptions for
rape and incest, or medical definitions for when the
life of the mother was in danger. We asked the
leading candidates for governor if they would like
to see any changes to Wisconsin's abortion laws.
>> Yes, and I've authored many of them. I believe
that abortion and frankly, all health care decisions
are personal and individual politicians have no role in
making those decisions for you. And certainly we
cannot allow abortion, contraception, IVF to be
criminalized or put doctors under threat when they're
simply providing care. I want to see your freedom to
make your own decisions guaranteed in this state.
>> Look, I'm a huge champion when it comes down
to to abortion here in the state of Wisconsin. When I
was a state representative in 2017, I coauthored
legislation declaring abortion as health care and
as a as a father of three daughters. Being a girl dad
times three is important for me to make sure that
they have the same rights that their mother and
grandmother had, not less. And so I'm going to always
be a champion for women's rights to choose.
>> No. So I voted for the current law, which ten
years ago when I was in the state legislature, which is
you can have an abortion up to five months. And I voted
for that law. And as governor, I will uphold it.
>> Well, abortion to me is a decision that is best
made between a woman and her health care provider.
Abortion is health care. And so, you know, I'd like
to see us to do things that get politics out of that
and ensure that that women and their doctors can make
those decisions, educated and informed decisions on
their own. >> What we need to do is to
make sure that we enshrine Roe within Wisconsin.
That's what I've always been really clear about.
I'm, again, a nurse by background. We know that
these type of healthcare decisions are best made
between a patient and their doctor, and Roe has been
something that has kept women safe for decades. And
we need to make sure that we have legislation to keep
women safe in Wisconsin so that it does not go back
and forth between if we have different leaders
between Republicans and Democrats.
1849 abortion ban. And I think abortion freedom and
is, you know, about health care and democracy as well.
And so I think it's important that we keep in
mind that abortion is health care, and that
access to that health care has to be equitable.
>> And I would love to see this country get back to a
pre Dobbs era, because Roe was the law of the land
that was generally accepted by Democrats, of course,
but even Republicans who didn't necessarily like
abortion wasn't their thing. Roe was sort of a
compromise for them and something they felt
comfortable with. >> I would like to see it
proactively protected. Women's right to choose
right now is dependent on court cases, and we need to
have a law on the on the books that protects women's
right to choose, protects women's rights, to take
care of everything that they need for their bodies
and puts women first in that conversation.
>> Reporting from Madison. I'm Zac Schultz for "Here&
Now". >> Our attorneys are
drowning. That's a quote from the Wisconsin state
public defender. After the state Senate adjourned
without taking up a bill to fund 52 new positions,
including 18 additional attorneys, the agency says
a staff shortage leaves defendants waiting for
representation and a backlog of cases in the
courts. Here to talk about it, deputy State Public
Defender Bridget Krause, and thanks very much for
being here. >> Good morning. Thanks for
having me. >> So how has the shortage
of support staff and attorneys grown?
>> It's grown tremendously over the last few years,
especially since the pandemic. Not only have we
been short with the number of private bar lawyers that
are taking cases in the state of Wisconsin, we've
also had an increase in the number of cases coming in,
but we have not had an increase in the number of
public defenders or public defender's support staff
added to the SPD. So it has been growth over a number
of years. And I think after the pandemic, we finally
saw how it was affecting both the legal system as
well as the attorneys and the clients that are
represented by the public defender's office.
>> What are the consequences of not having
enough people to timely defend everyone who needs
it? >> People waiting in
custody longer, right cases go longer without having a
lawyer. So we have had clients sitting in custody
prior to a preliminary hearing, which they're
entitled to have within ten days if they're in custody,
20 days if they're out of custody and they're sitting
there without a lawyer because there's no lawyer
to take their case, you also have cases in the
system longer, right? So cases that might have
resolved 66 months to nine months pre-pandemic now are
waiting longer to resolve or longer to even get an
attorney. So there's a lot of delay in both getting a
client, a lawyer, and there's a lot of delay in
resolving a case which could have an impact on
both the system as well as the individuals who, you
know, the complaining witnesses in a case, the
people that have gone to the police for help, it
delays the case for them. Also.
>> What are the frustrations like inside
the courtroom, inside the criminal justice system?
>> I think the judges are frustrated, right? They're
frustrated. >> Because there's no
lawyer sitting with the client at very important
stages, including a preliminary hearing as the
case moves forward. Right. It's hard to get a lawyer
to sit with that client if there's no lawyers
available. There's a lot of frustration by public
defenders. Honestly, we want to represent our
clients. We don't want people sitting in custody
without a lawyer, right? We don't want people sitting
there that could be innocent of the crimes that
they've been accused of, because they don't have a
lawyer to represent them. I think it's frustrating for
prosecutors, too, honestly, because they have charged
specific cases and someone doesn't have a lawyer.
Therefore, that case cannot move forward. So I think
there's a lot of frustration in the system.
It's probably frustrating also, honestly, for the
sheriff's office that run the jails, because if you
can't get a lawyer for a client, that client might
sit in custody and then you have more people in custody
than should be in custody and the jails can't handle
it. new prosecutor positions.
How does that exacerbate case delays?
>> I mean, there's only so many.
>> Lawyers to take the cases that are coming in.
And when you add prosecutors, you add the
number of cases coming into the system. So if you're
adding prosecutors on one side, they're reviewing
charges, they're charging cases. But if you don't
have the lawyers on the other side to represent
those clients, it just bottlenecks the system. So
any progress that we make in bringing in new lawyers,
new private bar lawyers to take the cases, any
progress we make in filling vacancies in the state
public defender's really go nowhere because of the
increase in the number of cases coming into the
system. >> So you spoke to private
bar attorneys who can be appointed, and are they at
all helping to offset this shortage?
>> I think they're helping as much as they can. Right?
They also only have so much bandwidth. So they can also
only take so many cases. We have some really great
private bar partners who take cases for us. Right.
And they've taken cases for us for years. But at some
point they are also saturated with representing
clients. And it's not just a warm body next to a
client, right? A client has a right to effective
ethical representation. And if you have too many cases,
you can't provide that to a client. So I think our
private bar partners are working really hard to help
us. But again, you only have so many lawyers. And
if you continue to bring the cases in, you just
don't have enough lawyers to handle those cases.
>> Now, your agency calls this an unfunded mandate.
What's the mandate? >> I think the mandate is,
you know, Gideon, the anniversary of Gideon was
just this past Wednesday. And Gideon, the US Supreme
Court said that clients have a constitutional right
to have a lawyer represent them. That's the mandate.
When you don't have lawyers checking the prosecution,
checking the police department, it causes a
tremendous it causes an effect across the state,
across our counties, across our cities, because people
are unchecked and they're able to prosecute people or
charge people with very serious cases. And if you
don't have a lawyer sitting next to that client, it
affects the entire community. So we have an
obligation, an obligation in our state to provide
lawyers for people that are charged with crimes. There
is a there is a constitutional protecting.
Those clients have to be proven guilty beyond a
reasonable doubt. But you need a lawyer sitting next
to that client providing that defense, reviewing
that discovery, providing that advice to clients and
fighting in court if necessary. And when you
don't have that, the entire system fails.
>> We leave it there. Bridgette Krause, thanks
very much. >> Thank you.
>> The state Senate adjourned this week, but
not before passing bipartisan bills to release
more than $125 million for PFAs cleanup protections
and help for communities poisoned by the forever
chemical. After years of impasse, the measures now
head to the governor for signing in. Related news,
tonight we share a new on air program and podcast
from W, r and PBS Wisconsin News. Inside Wisconsin
Politics is a weekly political roundtable that
brings together our most experienced Capitol
reporters to share the week's political and
government news, explaining what happened, what it
means and why it matters. PBS Wisconsin senior
political reporter Zac Schultz w p r Capitol
Bureau Chief Shawn Johnson and w r political reporters
Rich Kramer and Anna Van Wagtendonk joined The
conversation. Today's program included the
breaking news that the Republican state Senate
majority leader will not run for reelection. The
crew unpacked whether the governor will sign the
online sports betting bill passed out of the chamber,
the approval of money for the UW to offset name,
image and likeness costs of athletes and data centers,
and how the politics of the final regular Senate
session played into it all. Here's an excerpt.
>> The Wisconsin Senate wraps up its regular
business for 2026. What passed, what didn't, and
what can we learn from the way this Senate voted? This
is inside Wisconsin politics.
The Senate gave us lots to talk about, including as
we're getting ready to record news that the Senate
majority leader, Devin LeMahiue, is not going to
seek reelection, which in the world of the state
Capitol, as you all know, that is a pretty big deal.
Zac, what can we take from that, given the way that
the Senate has been acting this week? And how big a
deal is it in the Capitol? >> Well, it certainly felt
like a week of voting where people weren't worried
the next term. There were questions of whether that
signaled LeMahiue knew that his majority position was
at stake. As Republicans are worried about having
the Dems flip the Senate. But I think the bigger
picture to look here is we're going to have a new
majority leader in the Senate, a new speaker in
the Assembly and a new governor. And the last time
that happened was 2011 with Scott Walker and the Fitz's
running the show. Big changes that time. We might
see big changes next session, too.
>> A wave election. And there's people, of course,
every every election is nationalized right now. And
there have already been people talking about
nationalized democratic you know, that Capitol
building and you know how much sway leaders carry,
how big of a deal is it to you that Devin LeMahiue,
the leader that you've covered in that Senate
since you've been here is stepping down?
that came forward where there was a real question
of whether Devin would let them get to the floor,
because he did not have Republican votes. And so
there were kind of threats being floated about what
that would mean for his leadership position. And
those bills passed with necessary Democratic votes
in order to pass. And so then him stepping down, it
really is this kind of signal that he whatever
kind of consequences might have come in the caucus, he
doesn't have to worry about them anymore.
>> And Rich, you were covering the session this
week and that question of whether or not to get
Democratic votes is talking about. And, you
know, the Senate Senator LeMahiue even had some kind
of not so veiled threats thrown out from a member of
his own caucus. Don't do that. Basically, how
unusual was this session week in terms of
bipartisanship? Frankly. >> Things are changing
there. It feels like things are changing in the Senate.
They used to have a supermajority not that long
ago. Then we got new maps after the Wisconsin Supreme
Court's Liberal majority struck down ones that were
drawn by Republicans back in 2011. And then we had an
election under those maps. So that supermajority went
down to 18 Republican senators. And that threat
goes to this thing called the the rule of 17. It's an
informal rule, but the idea is that if you're in the
majority, you pass bills with majority support. You
don't even really consider them if you don't have
those 17 votes. But we saw examples where Devin
LeMahiue went ahead and passed them anyway with
Democratic support. >> So let's unpack a couple
of the bills where this did end up being a factor this
week. And one of the bills that did die was this
Republican data center bill would regulate data centers.
Speaker Vos very helpfully had a forum on the last day
of Senate session where he had some opinions about the
Senate not taking up his data center bill. Ana what
did he have to say? >> Yeah, I mean, this was
basically the closest that the legislature came to
having any type of regulatory bill for data
centers, which of course, are kind of exploding
across the state. And the fact that it is that it did
not reach the floor of the Senate means that the
session has passed without basically any guardrails,
any new guardrails coming on. But this was a
Republican bill Vos championed it. It had a few
Democratic votes in the Assembly, but most
Democrats said this is rushed. We need to be more
thoughtful about how we are regulating data centers.
And then the Senate didn't even bring it to the floor.
But Vos talked about, you know, that really being as
he thought, an issue for Senate Republicans, that if
they don't kind of lead on this issue, that it might
cost them votes in November. >> Yeah. It's rare to hear
a speaker come out against a majority leader from his
own party the week that he's still in session with
that kind of criticism. I think sort of the secret
was sort of out on Tuesday. I mean, we didn't know know
that Devin LeMahiue was not going to seek reelection,
but there was talk about it. There was speculation about
it. People are looking at the Senate math and they're
thinking about it. >> Well, it changes a lot
when no one has to worry about reelection next year.
And Serve Wisconsin LeMahiue can all speak in
ways that we have not heard or we have not heard them
speak publicly. We've heard them off the record or
heard from their staffers. But I think this bill in
particular still has the next election cycle written
all over it, as Vos pointed out, because it's a major
issue in the gubernatorial campaign. I think if
LeMahiue had a strong point of view, he would have
brought up the floor and let Democrats help pass it
if he thought that was the way to go. But there's not
a clear advantage at this time. And Tom, Tiffany as
governor is clearly as well. So this is
definitely one for the fall. >> You can find the full
Inside Wisconsin politics at PBS Wisconsin. Org dot,
YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Visit our
website at PBS. Org and then click on the news tab.
That's our program for tonight. I'm Frederica
Freyberg. Have a good weekend.
>> Funding for here and Now is provided by the fund for
Journalism and Friends of
PBS Wisconsin.