PBS Wisconsin Original production.
>> Blistering temperatures take over the state as
extreme heat warnings leave people finding relief
outdoors and in. I'm Frederica Freyberg tonight
on "Here& Now" a dive into primary election races with
political panelists Bill McCoshen and Scot Ross.
[MUSIC] stewardship fund could
carry weight into November. As vaccine misinformation
spreads. We look at the state's numbers over time
and the end of an era for Schlitz beer brings
reflection and nostalgia. It's "Here& Now" for July
3rd. >> Funding for Here and Now
is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and
Friends of PBS Wisconsin. >> Along with the weather,
the heat is also on in Wisconsin's primary
election campaigns. With just about six weeks to go
before the August 11th runoffs. There are
congressional races like in the seventh and Third
districts to watch, and the race for governor, where
six Democrats are still vying to be chosen to take
on the leading Republican in the race. As the
campaigns heat up, we turn to political panelists
Republican Bill McCoshen and Democrat Scot Ross. And
thanks for being here, guys. >> Thanks for having us.
>> So first to you, Scott. With absentee ballots going
out and now being arguably into the final stretch, who
is breaking through on the Democratic side for
candidates for governor and why?
still could be anybody's ball game. There's a lot of
spending going on right now. I guess, you know, they say
it's not a sprint. It's a marathon. But we have
crossed the 20 mile marker and we're getting to the
point where people are going to have to start
making up their minds about who their candidates are
going to be. I think the Democrats have an
think they are fighting. You know, they're they're
running down downhill because the Republicans are
so in trouble because of the record of, of, of
Donald Trump and the fact that their nominee, Tom
Tiffany, is a radical extremist who is completely
and totally tied to Trump in every single way.
>> So, Bill, do you want to respond to that?
>> I don't agree that there's it's anybody's
ballgame. 1 has already dropped out. Missy Hughes I
wouldn't be surprised if two more dropped out in
July. We got 38 days to go. I think it's really three
people who are seriously in contention to win this.
It's Francesca Hong legislator from Madison,
Mandela Barnes, former lieutenant governor and
current Lieutenant governor Sarah Rodriguez. I think
those are the only three who have a legitimate shot
to win at this point, based on all the polling. We will
have a new Marquette poll out in about ten days here
in Wisconsin that will sort of tell give everyone the
picture of where things are at. But what we know from
private polls and some other publicly released
polls is those are the top three. And Hong is the one
that's surging at this point.
Hong Scott, what do Democratic strategists make
of Democratic socialists? >> I mean, listen, for the
last 50 years, when a Democratic elected wants to
spend money that's not on tax cuts for rich people or
corporations. Bill's party calls them socialists. They
call them welfare. They call them worse. I mean,
for God's sakes, they were calling his old boss, Tommy
Thompson, signature achievement BadgerCare here
in Wisconsin Welfare. That's what the speaker of
the Assembly was calling it. So, you know, we're a big
tent. And the fact is, is that when it comes to
people's expenses, when it comes to gas prices,
Republicans are a failure for Wisconsinites, a
failure for America. That's why Democrats are going to
win this election in the fall, not because of labels
that Republicans have been putting on us for 50 years.
Anyhow. that label on her.
>> Well, I mean, Democrats. >> Are owning it and
proudly owning it. And I think that's actually
worked to Francesca Hong advantage. I mean, she's
gone on national podcasts with a guy named Hassan
Piker, who's got several million followers, and she
raised 100 grand in one day. Why? She's the boldest
progressive in the race. She's willing to say what
others are not willing to say, and she's willing to
be a democratic socialist. And and none of the others
have attacked her for that. I can guarantee you, Tom
Tiffany is going to contrast with her if she
ends up getting through the primary in 38 days.
>> I mean, Tiffany has been attacking Barnes and Hong
the entirety of his campaign and again.
>> Which I think is smart. >> Yeah, of course. But,
you know, let's let's not kid ourselves. Tom Tiffany
was on a podcast last week with a book burner who says
that foreign governments are turning our kids trans.
So like, if we want to, if we want to talk about the
internet and who is appearing on internet
fight that Democrats. have 13 Democrats in the
Congress who have signed up to sort of fight the
Democratic Socialists. That's less than 10% of the
Democratic members of the So it is a it is a tough
line to hoe right now for Democrats. They're not sure
if they should be with the socialists. Guys like J.B.
Pritzker have come out in favor. Said, we need more
socialists in our party. That's stunning to me.
>> I think the thing you think about that is that
all the all the candidates who are calling themselves
Democratic socialists and the ones who have been
elected are all younger, they're all millennials.
They're all the ones who are staring up, standing up
to the gerontocracy that is the Democratic Party with
our 75 year old Senate Majority Leader, Chuck
Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. So I
think it's you know, ideologically, Democrats
are all in the same, are all in the same camp, which
is we want fully funded schools. We want access to
affordable health care. We want to protect our clean
air and water. We want our civil liberties. And we
don't want ICE Gestapo, you know, disappearing 38
people in Wisconsin yesterday.
up in two words. They want bold progressivism. And
that's why Hong's in the game. Eight years ago, when
Tony Evers won this primary with 42%. By the way, the
winner of this will not come close to that number.
She would have been a fringe candidate today.
She's got a chance to win it.
>> Super interesting. So Bill, who would Tom Tiffany
most want as a general election opponent and who
would he be afraid of? >> I think he would have
been most concerned about those that are not going to
make it to the finish line. Believe it or not, I think
Democrats decided that the sort of more moderate who
can appeal to trade union guys or sort of the
moderate old school Democrats, they're not
going to make it to the finish line in this race.
So all three of those who we've both agreed are sort
of in the front of the pack are pretty progressive. And
that's a good contrast for Tiffany. So I don't think
he has a problem with any of the three top tier
candidates. >> Tom, Tiffany's biggest
problem is not who he's going to face, but the fact
that he's on the ballot at all. This is a guy who took
money out. He took food out of the mouths of children
to give billionaires tax breaks. He wants a national
abortion ban. He took $300 billion from rural health
care. So rural Wisconsin, when your hospitals are
closing, you can thank Tom Tiffany for that. And he he
supports the $2 billion payoff for the January 6th
terrorist terrorist insurrectionists. So this
is a guy who is radically out of touch with where
Wisconsin folks are, especially now when prices
are higher than they've ever been. Gas prices are
higher than they've ever been because of the war of
choice in Iran. And the fact that Trump is making
billions of dollars while people can't afford food.
>> The landscape is challenging for a sitting
congressman in this cycle. There's no question about
that. But I think Tom Tiffany can easily make the
contrast between common sense and crazy. And I
think most Wisconsin voters will side with common sense.
>> He's trying a makeover. It's not going to work. He
scrubbed his website before he got in the race. And you
know, he can't hide from his record. He can't run
from it as much as he ducks the media. He cannot run
from it. third and seventh
congressional races, will carry the day? Of course,
in the primary, presumably. But in the general.
>> Both of those seats lean red. Remember, our
congressional maps were not changed. These are the same
ones that have. We've run on for the last couple of
cycles, which means Derrick Van Orden should be
considered the favorite. He's the incumbent, and it
means that the Republican. Whomever comes out of the
primary in 38 days should be the favorite in the
seventh. I think Donald Trump is going to help
Derrick Van Orden. I think he's going to be in western
Wisconsin once or twice. I think. JD. Vance will be. I
think Donald Trump will ultimately help in the
seventh. But I think they also don't want to have to
spend too many resources up there. That's kind of a
messy primary, which is unfortunate. On our side
between Kevin Herman and former Iranian hostage and
successful businessman and and young man Michael
Alfonso, who did get the president's endorsement.
You know, my hope is that Republicans sort of put
down their arms and stop the circular firing squad
that's going on on that, because I think either
would be ultimately a great congressperson. But but
right now, it's pretty messy for the Republicans.
>> Scott, what are the next six weeks look like in
these races? >> I think the next six
weeks are in the third and the seventh day. I think
you're going to see Republicans ducking the
media. Derrick Van Orton is just terrified of going
before any sort of camera. You know, that's not, you
know, some right wing podcaster. I think that he
is the one who is in the most trouble, you know,
whoever comes out of the primary. And obviously, you
know, there's Rebecca Cooke who has a massive
fundraising advantage, and Emily Berg, who's who's the
councilman up in Eau Claire. I think either one of them
contrasts great against the record of of Derrick Van
Orden. I mean, he's been, you know, if Tom Tiffany
wasn't in Congress, he'd be our most extremist member
of Congress. So I think that he's got a lot of he's
got a lot to answer for. And I think the voters are
going to hold him accountable for that.
>> All right. We need to leave it there. We'll
circle back with you both before the primary and
after, of course, Bill McCoshen Scot Ross. Thank
you. >> Thanks for having us.
>> A long standing state conservation program
expired this week for more than 35 years, Wisconsin
outdoor recreation and land projects have been created
and maintained by a program called the Knowles Nelson
Stewardship Fund. Created in 1989 by then Governor
Tommy Thompson and the state legislature. It has
been a successful bipartisan fixture for
protecting natural areas. However, recent changes to
who can veto new projects led to the Republican
decision to not renew its funding in the last budget.
Charles Carlin of Gathering Waters Wisconsin Alliance
for Land Trusts is hoping the next legislature can
still make it happen. >> The Wisconsin landscape
and the outdoor recreation infrastructure that we have
in Wisconsin simply wouldn't be here today
without the successes of the Knowles Nelson
Stewardship Program. The program has been operating
for over 35 years, has helped us permanently
protect more than 650,000 acres of land, most of
which is open for public recreation. Getting out
there, bird watching, going hunting, going for a hike
with your family, and every single neighborhood in the
state has been touched by Knowles Nelson. It's not an
exaggeration. You know, are within a mile of a
Knowles Nelson investment. So these are the trails
that we walk and bike on, the beach fronts where we
go swimming, the wheat harvesters that help keep
our lakes clean, the playground equipment that
our kids play on at local parks. All of this is made
possible by the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Program,
land that has been protected with Knowles
Nelson is permanently protected. Nothing is going
to undo that. What it means, however, moving forward is
if we need a new segment of the Ice Age trail or the
North Country Trail, there's no state money to
make that happen. And then all of that stuff that we
need to get out and enjoy the places that make
Wisconsin special. So a trailhead to park your car
at, a kiosk that shows you the map of where you're
going to go walk the boat launched, put your kayak or
your fishing boat in the water as that stuff ages
and needs to be repaired. We have now shot ourselves
in the foot and taken away. Really our only significant
source of funding to to do that, to take care of that
infrastructure. This doesn't have to be Knowles
Nelson is done forever. So what's happened is the
money has run out, but the program stays on the books.
So all of the laws that guide it are there. The DNR
staff who administer the program are still there.
What we need is for the legislature to come back
and invest money in the program so that it can get
moving again. Knowles Nelson costs each Wisconsin
resident about $11. So I took my kid to fish fry at
Culver's the other week, and I think it was about
$15 each. This is a value we can afford. Our November
elections are going to have really real consequences
for what kind of latitude the legislature has to fund
Knowles Nelson again, and what priorities they'll
choose. >> Turning to health news,
a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey shows
adults with a higher usage of AI chatbots are more
likely to believe false information about vaccines.
Overall, child vaccination rates have decreased
globally since the pandemic. But as “Here& Now” student
journalist Elijah Pines points out, vaccination
rates have been decreasing and Wisconsin parents
seeking waivers increasing since the mid 80s.
>> Wisconsin student immunization law mandates
that any student wanting to enter the public school
system must have the required vaccines. If a
student doesn't meet the requirements, parents may
be charged up to $25 per day. Their child is
noncompliant, but no one in Wisconsin has been fined
under the statute that mandates compliance since
at least 2018, which is as far back as court data
tracks charges. Children can instead get a waiver
and be exempt from vaccination if there is a
medical or religious reason, or for reasons of personal
conviction. A personal conviction waiver is when a
parent believes their child should be exempt from a
vaccine. Wisconsin is one of 19 states that allow for
personal conviction waivers, and their popularity has
been steadily rising over the past couple of decades.
At the same time, the number of students up to
date on required vaccines has gone down. For public
health advocates, the numbers are concerning, but
vaccination rates in public health is more nuanced than
numbers alone. For starters, despite personal conviction
waivers going up, the vast majority of students get
the required vaccines 86.4% in the last school year.
Still, fewer students are meeting requirements than
they used to. One reason is because there are more
required shots than there were when the law was first
introduced from three required vaccines in 1975
to 7 required vaccines. Today, any time there has
been a change in requirements, compliance
goes down. These numbers also track all required
vaccines, both who's waiving some and who is
waiving them all. Last year, only 1.3% of students had
waivers exempting them from all vaccines, and that's
lower than it was in the previous year. Ultimately,
the state's job to control public health has to
respect individuals decisions, and a parent can
only control what's best for their own child. So how
can parents make the best choice when there's fewer
vaccines? Protecting the public? According to
Wisconsin DHS, the best answer is talking with the
child's doctor, saying public health and health
care providers across the state are here to help
families break down these barriers to keep families
safe from vaccine preventable diseases.
Reporting from Madison. I'm Elijah Pines for "Here&
Now". >> It's a bittersweet start
to summer for beer lovers as Pabst Brewery taps out
on production of one of its most iconic brands. Schlitz.
Some of the founding family continue to have ties to
Wisconsin. Tonight, Murv Seymour takes us inside
their private collection and to a southwestern
Wisconsin brewery that has gone back in time to honor
Schlitz as it ends production.
>> It is a long history that almost 180 years old.
>> To learn the story of Schlitz, we went to the
Milwaukee neighborhood blocks from its earliest
beginnings. >> The Schlitz story
actually starts with anybody named Schlitz was a
young German immigrant. August Krug.
publicly seen Schlitz archives.
>> What we have in the Schlitz archive is really
an amazing collection of artifacts, advertising,
photographs. >> Old films, cassettes,
original Schlitz artwork. It's all part of the
private collection of the Uihlein family who helped
give birth to the Schlitz brand.
>> It was the largest lager brewing company in the
world, and definitely the largest company in the
United States. >> John Eastberg oversees
this rare collection. >> This is one of the
earliest photographs taken of this neighborhood, where
the Schlitz Brewing Company originally started. This
would be where the Fiserv Forum is and where the
bucks play today. August Krug had hired a bookkeeper
by the name of Joseph Schlitz, and when Krug died
in 1856, his widow, Ana Krug, married the
bookkeeper and became Ana Krug Schlitz.
>> Artifacts along the walls and on the shelves of
this 2500 square foot space chronologically pieces
together a story. >> This is one of my
favorite pieces in our archive.
spreadsheet from 1889, made by then bookkeeper and
largest Schlitz shareholder Auguste Uihlein Ana Krug
Schlitz nephew. >> So he took two pieces of
Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company letterhead, glued
them together, and then detailed the output of all
of his local competitors, but also his national
competitors. He is listing all the different breweries
across America, and then Schlitz is at the very
bottom. >> Just over a decade later,
Schlitz would rise to the top of the list.
>> Each piece is another piece to the puzzle of a
company that essentially started in 1849 and is run
in one way, shape, or form all the way to 2026.
>> There are original ads used during prohibition,
when beer companies were simply trying to survive.
Schlitz launches its own brand of nonalcoholic beers,
sodas and candies. >> Their idea was to
produce high quality chocolate, and they built a
specific plant for it. They created very attractive
packaging and advertising. Pabst went into a processed
cheese product, and the Uihlein created the Uihlein,
spelled phonetically. ELINE candy company.
>> You have to have a mission in life.
>> If you think the Uihlein Schlitz collection is sweet.
>> In my case, I'm reserving the the past of
Schlitz. >> Wait until you see the
Schlitz that sits 35 miles to the west.
>> Each one is a specific category on the history of
the brewery. I believe there's close to a thousand
bottles in this room. I don't know of any other
collection of Schlitz bottles that is this large.
1902 Schlitz became the largest brewery in the
world, brewed the most beer, sold the most beer, and
then they created this piece of advertising. This
is what we call a fat man. And the caption is I rule
the world. In other words, they control the market in
the world. >> He owns one of only a
few of the original fat man figures.
>> This is probably 1905 1910. Best of my knowledge,
there's only 3 or 4 surviving.
>> 85 years. >> Jung outdoor saloon sign,
probably 1870 1875. >> Collector Leonard
Jurgensen admits. >> That's a stained glass
window out of a saloon in Chicago.
>> He has a problem. >> Plate glass window right
out of the general offices. The front window collecting
is an addiction. If I've never seen it before, I
have to have it. >> What started out as one
simple piece of Schlitz memorabilia has grown into
thousands in almost 50 years.
>> I just started to collect out of curiosity.
>> And counting. >> First known beer case
Schlitz bottle beer. There's not a piece that I
have here that I can't tell you why it was created,
when it was created and what was the reason for it?
This room really demonstrates is the
evolution of the label. The evolution of bottles.
>> Bottles led to worldwide distribution in Vos.
Labeling prevented piracy while enhancing worldwide
branding. >> And all the competition
had to do was remove the labels, clean the bottles,
and then put their brand of beer in it. And what they
soon discover is that if you had a bottle and it's
embossed with your name on it, Blatz or Pabst or
Miller's could not use it. Every bottle here is is a
container for Schlitz beer. Some of them are 1877. Some
of them are are 1999. Some of them still have the beer
in them. This is paper label bottle from 1893
Chicago World's Fair. I'm preserving the past. A lot
of these things could have end 'up in a dumpster, in a
landfill. A lot of these things I rescued the beer
that made Milwaukee famous after it was acquired by
Stroh's Brewing Company. They dropped that famous
slogan, and for years they called it a great American
beer. And a year later they went back to the famous
slogan. The slogan was created in 1893 by Alfred
von Klotzhausen, who made lithographs for them. He
shared it with them. They used it, and they
incorporated in almost everything they did after
them 135 years. They still look at that slogan as key
to the word Schlitz. >> This has got to be the
coolest brewing day of my life.
>> Inside the glass and concrete walls of Wisconsin
Brewing Company. >> The history of Schlitz
in itself is amazing. >> Something special is
brewing. >> Schlitz is an amazing
brand, an amazing partner of Wisconsin's heritage.
>> It's standing room only with brewmaster Kerby
Nelson. Center stage. >> Beer bottles. What color
are they? >> With almost 50 years of
beer brewing experience. >> So brown glass evolved
as a way to protect beer, to keep it fresher and more
representative of what's supposed to be.
on a masterclass in beer making.
>> These can just get in there and party to their
heart's content and turn it into beer.
>> And Schlitz history. >> For me to have the
chance to brew. An example of the beer that made
Milwaukee famous from its golden era was absolutely
irresistible. detailed recipe from
Schlitz Logs dating back to the 1940s.
>> The Schlitz that we produce is based on when
Schlitz was on top of the world.
permission from Pabst, the owners of Schlitz, Kerby
and the team used today's brewing technology to make
yesteryears beer. >> In 1950. These. They
were selling 5 million barrels.
this tiny control room, every phase of the beer
making process is monitored. They meticulously test and
taste until the mix is just right. We were there on day
one. >> We're making wort this
liquid yeast food that will be fermented in that
beloved, into that beloved liquid we know as beer.
>> Kerby says. For him, this part of modern beer
making. It's like watching a giant video game back on
the barroom floor. See the man in that jacket?
>> Oh, I'm experienced and I'm, well, I like beer. In
fact, if you look at it, I love beer.
>> That's Mark Holzman, sporting his rarely seen
but hard to miss beer jacket.
>> It's 25 years of collecting patches. I've
scoured every antique shop I could find, and I look
for patches that would fit in specific places.
>> He and everyone else here wants to be part of
what might be the most important chapter of
>> I try every kind of beer I can try, and I. Everyone
has its own flavor. >> About a month after we
were in the control room, in two months since paps
announced that Schlitz is shutting down, Wisconsin
Brewing pumps out about 200 barrels of what they call
commemorative Schlitz beer. When it's all said and done
over the next 6 or 7 hours, this production line will
spit out enough beer to make 3000 cases, which is
about 167,000 cans. >> Hi Miss Christine, this
is Sadie with Wisconsin Brewing Company. How are
you doing? >> From the brewery's
warehouse, Sadie Nelson works to update callers
from all over the country, even Canada, on the status
of this seeming liquid gold for so many customers and
this brew master their journeys with making and
getting a can of Schlitz. It's personal.
>> Because working for Schlitz for 20 years and
surprising an 88 year old man with a four pack signed
by the Brew master. I think that there's nothing better.
>> Folks at Wisconsin Brewing tell me that those
that are lucky enough will get at least a case of beer,
but to help make sure others get a taste, they're
also offering four packs. When asked why the Schlitz
brand has faded, Kerby Nelson and others say it's
because Schlitz changed their recipe and people
changed their drinking habits.
>> I bet you I've seen ten breweries going to auction
in the last two weeks, and a lot of it has to do with
there is too much. But again, changing habits.
People are really pulling back from alcohol and beer
is in a downward trend right now. It'll be back.
>> But will Schlitz be back? >> I'm hopeful that
Wisconsin Brewer will pick up the label and be able to
brew small batches through maybe a least option with
the Pabst Brewing Company. It would be a shame to let
such a legacy brand kind of fade away.
>> Fade away is not just the beer that made
Milwaukee famous, but the beer in Milwaukee that will
never be forgotten. Reporting from Verona,
Milwaukee, and Oconomowoc. I'm Murv Seymour for Here
and Now. >> For more on this and
other issues facing Wisconsin, visit our
website at PBS wisconsin.org and then
click on the news tab. That's our program for
tonight. I'm Frederica Freyberg. Have a good
weekend. [MUSIC]
>> Funding for "Here& Now" is provided by the Focus
Fund for Journalism and friends of PBS Wisconsin.