Republican Former Reality TV Actor Is Resigning

Who remembers MTV's The Real World, one of the first "reality" shows? It started running in 1992 and, after 33 seasons, finally died in 2017. Sean Duffy, pretending to be a lumberjack, was on Season 6, in the Boston season. He played role of the season's Republican dipshit, often arguing with a liberal black woman, Kameelah Phillips, who he called a bitch in episode 4 and a racist who he compared to Hitler in episode 21. After the show was filmed Duffy met another conservative, Rachel Campos and married her. He went to law school and now they're about to have their 9th child. He was appointed district attorney for Ashland County, Wisconsin in 2002 and was never opposed when he ran for reelection in 2002-2008. When long-time congressional incumbent Dave Obey announced he was retiring, Duffy managed to win the district (2010, the Teabagger Cycle) 52-44% against state Senator Julie Lassa. He won the 4 subsequent reelection bids convincingly.

Now 47, Duffy has been uncomfortable in the House ever since his BBF, Paul Ryan, left and yesterday announced he would be resigning next month, thus triggering a special election. The latest GOP gerrymander has turned WI-07 pretty red although the first time he ran, Obama won (under the new boundaries). The PVI is a very daunting R+8 and Trump crushed Hillary by twenty points-- 57.7% to 37.3%. In the 2016 Democratic primary, this was Bernie territory. He didn't just beat Hillary in every county, he was also competitive with Trump in all but the deepest red ones and beat Trump outright in several. This list of counties is in order of which ones have the most voters:

• Marathon-

Bernie- 11,655
Hillary- 8,047
Trumpanzee- 13,299

• St Croix-

Bernie- 5,671
Hillary- 4,891
Trumpanzee- 6,700

• Oneida-

Bernie- 3,809
Hillary- 2,493
Trumpanzee- 4,327

• Douglas-

Bernie- 4,510
Hillary- 3,574
Trumpanzee- 3,676

• Polk-

Bernie- 2,473
Hillary- 2,174
Trumpanzee- 3,542

• Barron-

Bernie- 2,960
Hillary- 2,570
Trumpanzee- 4,217

• Wood-

Bernie- 6,747
Hillary- 4,424
Trumpanzee- 6,941

• Lincoln-

Bernie- 2,439
Hillary- 1,732
Trumpanzee- 3,060

• Vilas-

Bernie- 2,140
Hillary- 1,412
Trumpanzee- 3,241

• Clark-

Bernie- 1,942
Hillary- 1,475
Trumpanzee- 2,823

• Chippewa-

Bernie- 5,114
Hillary- 4,021
Trumpanzee- 5,832

• Langlade-

Bernie- 1,436
Hillary- 1,192
Trumpanzee- 2,407

• Bayfield-

Bernie- 2,604
Hillary- 1,484
Trumpanzee- 1,599

• Sawyer-

Bernie- 1,652
Hillary- 975
Trumpanzee- 2,034

• Taylor-

Bernie- 1,278
Hillary- 850
Trumpanzee- 2,100

• Washburn-

Bernie- 1,417
Hillary- 1,059
Trumpanzee- 1,926

• Burnett-

Bernie- 933
Hillary- 917
Trumpanzee- 1,628

• Ashland-

Bernie- 2,304
Hillary- 1,346
Trumpanzee- 1,367

• Price-

Bernie- 1,393
Hillary- 854
Trumpanzee- 1,673

• Rusk-

Bernie- 1,093
Hillary- 817
Trumpanzee- 1,617

• Forest-

Bernie- 647
Hillary- 609
Trumpanzee- 1,110

• Iron-

Bernie- 543
Hillary- 437
Trumpanzee- 940

• Juneau-

Bernie- 1,843
Hillary- 1,357
Trumpanzee- 2,780

• Florence-

Bernie- 293
Hillary- 175
Trumpanzee- 653

• Monroe-

Bernie- 3,533
Hillary- 2,270
Trumpanzee- 3,613

• Jackson-

Bernie- 1,845
Hillary- 1,294
Trumpanzee- 1,804

Duffy is a member the House Financial Services Committee and a staunch ally of the Wall Street banksters. While serving on the committee he has taken $3,960,753 in legalistic bribes, more than any other member of Congress from Wisconsin other than Paul Ryan. There has never been a vote for which he didn't take the side of the banksters over the interests of his own constituents. Not ever. Not once.

Yesterday he posted his resignation intentions on Facebook:

Next to marrying Rachel, representing you-- the people and families of Wisconsin’s 7th District-- in Congress has been the highest honor of my life. Together, we have engaged in the most important battles of our time: protecting freedom of speech and religious liberty, taking care of our veterans, defending the unborn, and saving American jobs and American capitalism.

After eight and a half years, the time has come for me to focus more on the reason we fight these battles-- family.

As you all know, raising a family is hard work. It's especially true for one as large and busy as mine. Being away from home in Washington four days a week is challenging and for that reason, I have always been open to signs from God when it comes to balancing my desire to serve both my family and my country.

Recently, we’ve learned that our baby, due in late October, will need even more love, time, and attention due to complications, including a heart condition. With much prayer, I have decided that this is the right time for me to take a break from public service in order to be the support my wife, baby and family need right now. It is not an easy decision-- because I truly love being your Congressman-- but it is the right decision for my family, which is my first love and responsibility.

On September 23, I will step down and allow others to step forward to begin laying out their own vision and plans for leading this beautiful district and the most honest, hard-working, family-oriented, patriotic, and God-fearing constituents in America.

I will be forever grateful for and humbled by the faith and sacred trust you have put in me all these years. I am especially grateful for the prayers said on behalf of our family. We hope they keep coming! I will miss being your Congressman, but I am also looking forward to having more time with my family, being home for more birthdays and hockey games, and having time to enjoy and care for our new baby girl, who is already so loved by our family.

A special thank you to my chief of staff, Pete Meachum, my district director, Jesse Garza, and the rest of my loyal and competent district & DC staff. They are the reason you have enjoyed the best and most attentive customer service this district has ever had to resolve your federal issues and problems. I am so proud of what they do and have full confidence they will continue to seamlessly provide these valuable services during the coming transition.

The neo-Nazi Trump-enabler and head of the ill-starred NRCC, Tom Emmer (R-MN), said that "This district is a Republican stronghold, and whoever the socialist Democrats nominate will be forced to answer for their party’s radical agenda of open borders, socialized health care and a lust for impeaching President Trump," simple(minded) quote the GOP has on file to use in all cases for this kind of situation. Rumors are that Duffy plans to run for the U.S. Senate in 2022, when Ron Johnson is retiring.

State Senator Chris Larson told me, flatly, that "Duffy has been a festering pool of hatred, division, and conspiracies since he started. Might just be time for him to cash in before Warren or Bernie ends the money train from DC."

The Republicans jockeying for support to replace him are former state Sen. Sheila Harsdorf, current state Senator Jerry Petrowski and Rep. Romaine Quinn. Democrats thinking of running include progressive activist and farmer Tony Schultz, former state Rep. Maddy Wright, state Senator Janet Bewley (an establishment Dem), state Senator Patty Schactner, and former Ashland City Councilwoman and former Duffy opponent Kelly Westlund, a strong progressive.

New Candidate-- Meet Kyle Frenette (WI-07)

Let me put a new candidate on your radar. I've been hearing about him from friends in the music business. That's because this Wisconsin kid from Chippewa Fall, a small town north of Eau Claire in WI-07, Dave Obey's old seat-- a massive district covering all of northwest Wisconsin. It stretches from Bayfield and Ironwood in the north down into River Falls and the Minneapolis suburbs in the southwest across to Chippewa Falls on Lake Wissota and east through Marshfield and Wausau to Rhinelander and Eagle River. Obama won the district in 2008, lost narrowly to Romney when the state legislature gerrymandered it in 2010 and Trump beat Hillary with a hefty 57.8% to 37.3%. The competitive 2015 PVI (R+2) is a far more challenging R+8 now. But Frenette thinks that's a mountain he can scale.

He's best known as the manager of Eau Claire's Grammy-winning Justin Vernon and his band Bon Iver. The music business is fascinated by his run for Congress and Pitchfork did a piece at the end of February, right after he announced, about why he's running. "He's running, wrote Amanda Wicks, "on a progressive platform with a focus toward raising the minimum wage, establishing universal healthcare, and making broadband internet a 'public utility instead of a private luxury.'"

Frenette has his work cut out for him. He’s seeking to unseat Republican Rep. Sean Duffy (formerly a Real World and Road Rules cast member), who has held the position since 2011, in a district that supported Donald Trump during the 2016 national election. And that’s if he gets through what’s supposed to be a crowded Democratic primary in August.

Pitchfork spoke to Frenette over the phone from northwest Wisconsin late last week about why he decided to run, the parallels between the music industry and politics, and what Justin Vernon thinks of his campaign. Frenette says he’ll bring Wisconsin to Washington, and he helped punctuate that point by scraping the newly fallen snow off his windshield as he discussed his motivation.

Pitchfork: Since Donald Trump’s election, more people have been getting involved in politics, but not everyone is running for Congress. What made you want to go that extra mile?

Kyle Frenette: Backwards policies that suppress the resources and opportunities available not just to people here in the 7th District of Wisconsin and across the state, but everywhere in the country. I grew up in a time when those resources and opportunities were available to me, like the internet providing a window to the outside world beyond my small town of 14,000 people in Chippewa Falls. We’re finding that the majority in control right now are in favor of suppressing all of that [in reference to Net Neutrality being rolled back], making it harder and harder for your everyday American to achieve what we grew up learning. Personally, so many of my friends still call northwestern Wisconsin home, so I saw an opportunity-- given the work Justin and I have done over the past ten years-- to amplify the voice of normal people, not the lobbyists, not the special interest groups.

We elected a celebrity president. My opponent Sean Duffy, he’s a former “Real World” cast member. So if celebrity is what it’s going to take to get people’s attention these days in the age of reality television then I’m going to use the success that Justin and I have had to amplify a better voice.

Throughout the 22, A Million tour, you guys have partnered with numerous progressively-minded organizations with an eye toward gender equity. In your opinion, why is progressive the best way forward?

In taking a look at everything that’s going on, and looking at both sides of the argument, the progressive direction is the one that appeals most to me, and the one that makes sense for most people. Greed is a really powerful drug, a really powerful emotion. I’ve had successes beyond my wildest dreams, but I work in an industry that’s somewhat elitist and I’ve seen the power of what money can do. That’s not to say both sides haven’t been conflicted, but progressive values speak to the heart of the masses, and who we are as human beings and taking care of one another. That’s where I lean philosophically and personally, and the direction I would feel most comfortable having children and giving to future generations.

How do you think you can influence the conservative mindset?

I’ve had a hard time with that, even in talking with family. We’re seeing more and more how divisive politics are and how divided as a country we are. For me, it goes back to the values that I was taught growing up here. We need to come together and we need to listen to each other. That’s it. If we don’t agree, that’s fine, but this divisiveness that’s fueling so much of our politics these days, it might very well be the end of us. Good leadership is about taking in all sides: evaluating a situation based on political factors, socioeconomic factors, human factors, and then making the right decision and going forward. For me, that decision should benefit as many people as possible.

Duffy last won the district by 61 percent and Trump carried it in 2016. Have you seen a general attitude shift in the past year away from GOP values?

Completely. We’re seeing this all across the country-- the pendulum has swung all the way to the right and now it’s centering. Here in the 7th, we had a special state Senate election in January; the candidate in District 10, Patty Schachtner, received national attention because she won, and she was outspent 5-to-1 by those backing the Republican candidate. It was a complete underdog race, and it was a surprise to me and a lot of folks. If that and Virginia [where Democrat Danica Roem unseated Republican Robert G. Marshall in Virginia’s House of Delegates race] and Alabama [where Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore for what was previously a Republican Senate seat] are any indication of where we’re heading, then I have hope. I’m just trying to be a part of that change and amplify people’s voices.

You’ve mentioned the music industry in light of what you’d face in Washington. What parallels do you see between the two?

The same types of things happen in the music industry [as they do in politics], but I’m going from a lake full of piranhas to an ocean full of sharks. Justin and I have been so fortunate in building something and having the support of so many to do things that we wanted: Maintaining our integrity, staying true to who we are, staying in this place and reinvesting back into our communities, and pushing the envelope a bit. All of those elements factor into the leadership that I’ve brought to Bon Iver and to my management company. If I can do an ounce of that in Washington and bring some of my Wisconsin values, then I’ll feel good.

Bon Iver’s song “Wisconsin” soundtracks your new campaign ad. Will he always have a place in your campaign, or will you distinguish yourself from that past eventually?

I haven’t thought about that all that much. It’s so much of who I am. Both him and I are just small-town Wisconsin, and we jumped into this for the last decade and never really lost sight of who we are. I’m using the opportunity I have to do good, and we definitely disagree on things, but we’ll see.

What was his response when you said you were running?

Oh, I haven’t been able to walk into a room without him telling everyone, which was to a point, like, “Dude, calm down.” He’s really happy.

Justin recently played two previously unreleased tracks—both titled around cities in Wisconsin-- at the For Emma, Forever Ago anniversary show, and then of course there’s “Wisconsin.” That state spirit he’s attempted to capture in his music, how do you see it influencing your move forward?

Well, Justin writes from the heart, he always has. Everything we’ve done has come through not leaving the center of who we are and where we come from, and you can hear that in the music. That’s what I think attracts so many people to the music. It’s true. So much of what he’s singing about, even when you can’t understand him, feels like a shared human experience. It’s absolutely beautiful, the song “Hayward, WI.”

And it’s in your district.

It is. Hawyard is in the heart of the 7th District.

Any plans to share that song officially?

Like he said at the show, he wrote that during the For Emma sessions at the cabin. I remember when he showed it to me 10 years ago, he had showed me “Blood Bank” and that song. We were like, “These are different. They’re more story based, they’re less ethereal, they’re more literal. ‘Blood Bank’ seems like the one to go with.” We just sat on “Hayward” for a long time. He’s played it live once or twice, but I don’t know. It’s hard to say.



It can affect us on that human and emotional level. I think that video we made for this campaign strikes that balance really well, and that in and of itself creates human connection. Hopefully it will yield more opportunities to come together and to just listen to each other.

Contested Elections Are Important For A Real Democracy-- Or Are We Russia Already?

Yeah, that's Sean Duffy on the right... helping wreck America with impunity

Funny how elections focus the minds of politicians-- or at least elections where there is real opposition. when the incompetent boobs who run the DCCC announced there would be no targeting of Republican congressmembers in Wisconsin in 2018-- not of Paul Ryan, of course, but also not of Sean Duffy and Glenn Grothman-- all 5 Republican members from Wisconsin relaxed... and stopped worrying about voting for policies far to the right of what would make sense for their mainstream constituents. The other day, Duffy went on CNN and brazenly defended Donald Trump, Jr. conspiring against America with the Kremlin, in other words treason. "I don't have an issue with it," said Duffy, knowing there would be no electoral consequences for himself. "There's nothing wrong with that. That's not a crime... I have no problems with what Donald Jr. did, and I don't think any prosecutor would either."

Duffy represents a traditionally progressive district in the northwest part of the state that stretches from Wausau to the suburbs of Duluth. In 2008 Obama beat McCain 53% to 45% and in 2012 Obama lost to Romney 51-48%. Dave Obey served as congressman from WI-07 from 1969 to 2011, when he retired and the DCCC lost the district to Duffy. They didn't back the progressive Democrats who ran against Duffy in 2014 or 2016 and so far this cycle there is no Democratic candidate-- all the prospective candidates citing DCCC hostility as a reason for not running, despite the urgency of having candidates run down-ticket to help reelect Tammy Baldwin. Not to mention, keeping the party from completely atrophying in the district. Atrophying of local parties, I'm sorry to say, is the only thing the DCCC has regularly accomplished since Pelosi started calling the shots there.

Anyway, with no opponent, Duffy is free to vote in lockstep with the Trump Regime and to go on TV and promote the nonsense and lies that the Regime is built on. The congressmembers who are being targeted in the 2018 cycle are far more likely to oppose Trump and to not make crackpot statements defending treason. Look at Scott Taylor in Virginia for example, He was also on CNN this week talking about Don Jr's treason with the Russians. Trump narrowly won his Virginia Beach/Williamsburg district-- 48.8% to 45.4%-- but there are already 3 Democrats vying for the nomination to oppose him. And Taylor's CNN appearance was very different--much more mainstream-- than Duffy's. He expressed his frustration with with the bobbing and weaving the Trump regime-- and Trump family-- have been displaying in their attempts to coverup the treasonous behavior.

"The reality is, if you had some meetings, if you met some folks ... say what you've done, get it out there. But yeah, it gets frustrating when you have this. Because I do think that some of this is really overplayed and I think ultimately folks that are on the streets-- American people-- don't care. They're over it," Taylor said on CNN's The Lead.

...Taylor also criticized Congress' handling of the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia sought to influence the 2016 presidential race in favor of Trump, saying that neither Democrats nor Republicans have taken meaningful steps to deter future efforts to meddle in U.S. elections.

"What you have to have here is a policy; A policy that says to other nations they will not interfere in our election," he said. "A Monroe Doctrine in cyber, if you will. That's missing from this debate and that's very unfortunate, both on the Democrats and the Republicans."

Another Republican who is going to have a tough reelection bid, Leonard Lance, voted for TrumpCare in committee, but when his constituents went wild he switched and voted against TrumpCare when the final vote came in the House. He has been regularly running to Chris Hayes' show on MSNBC to complain about Trump. Watch what Hayes did to him on Friday evening:



It would have been a far different conversation if Sean Duffy was Hayes' guest, of that we can be very sure. In a democracy, contested elections aren't just important to pick our representatives but also to hold them accountable for their behavior. That isn't something Sean Duffy-- and scores of other Republican incumbents-- have to worry about from a DCCC that has been utterly mishandled by Nancy Pelosi from the moment she got control of it. And there are some thing Pelosi is good at. But she's in a 100% safe blue district-- Hillary beat Trump there 86.2% to 8.7%-- and she is utterly clueless about how elections work-- as are the entire upper echelon of the Democratic congressional leadership. Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn and Crowley don't understand electoral politics-- which is reflected by DCCC strategies. They all desperately need primaries to sharpen their own focus.

Trump And Ryan Set Out To Make War On The Poor-- Take Wisconsin, For Example

This morning Carol Shea-Porter hosted a roundtable discussion at the Strafford Nutrition Program in Somersworth to highlight what her office called "the devastating harm President Trump’s budget blueprint proposal would cause to New Hampshire communities that rely on programs like Meals on Wheels." Despite Mick Mulvaney's lies on Meet the Press yesterday-- namely that the feds' cut to Meals on Wheels only amounts to 3% of their budget-- the truth is that 35% of Meals On Wheels funding comes from the federal government and the proposed cuts in the Trump budget would be catastrophic. Trump has made it commonplace for public officials-- especially his own-- to lie at will and assume there will be no accountability. Meals on Wheels, however, may be their donnybrook. Every really far right congressmen-- like Pete Sessions in the suburbs north of Dallas-- say they can't go along with Ryan on this one. But on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace asked Ryan this:

Are you comfortable with cutting funding for Meals on Wheels which supplies food-- and seniors depend on it-- to two-and-a-half million elderly Americans?

Simple straight forward question that, in light of Trump's budget, had to be asked. Ryan said he wants spending caps because they "make us focus on cutting spending that is wasteful spending" and that started babbling about "waste, fraud and abuse." What the hell is he talking about? Meals on Wheels, which began in Pennsylvania in 1954 and turned into a national program in 1974, delivers meals to individuals at home who are unable to purchase or prepare their own meals-- the housebound elderly poor and handicapped. Research has consistently shown that these meals significantly improve diet quality, increase nutrient intakes, reduce food insecurity and improve quality-of-life among the recipients. The program also reduces government expenditures by reducing the need of recipients to use hospitals, nursing homes or other expensive government-subsidized services. Meals on Wheels provided approximately 218 million meals to 2.5 million Americans, half of whom are veterans, at an annual cost of $2,765 each. Mulvaney's claim that the program is "just not showing any results" is widely rejected by... everyone who isn't part of the Trump Regime.

Over the weekend, the biggest newspaper in Wisconsin-- a state whose 10 electoral college votes Trump won (with alleged vote machine tampering) 1,409,467 (47.9%) to 1,382,210 (46.9%)-- 27,257 votes (1% of the total)-- looked at how TrumpCare would impact Trump voters in rural parts of the state. Former reality TV personality-turned-right-wing congressman, Sean Duffy, was the first member of Wisconsin's congressional delegation to jump on the Trump bandwagon. His sprawling northern district-- WI-07-- was solidly Democratic, the home of Dave Obey, until recently, when the DCCC ceded it to Duffy. In 2014 they refused to support progressive Kelly Westlund and last year they refused to support progressive Mary Hoeft. The district, strong Bernie territory in the primary, is not on any DCCC target lists for 2018, despite the fact that Obama beat McCain there 53-45% and then lost narrowly to Romney 50.9-47.8%. Instead, the DCCC brain surgeons are only looking at Trump's 57.8% to 37.3% win over Clinton. (Bernie would have won the district.) WI-07 was Trump's strongest district in the state-- and the one that will suffer the most if TrumpCare passes. Trump won 50-60 year old Obamacare enrollees in Wisconsin by 15 points-- "and they disproportionately live in rural areas that voted for Trump and are represented by Republicans in Congress."

Take the case of a fairly typical Obamacare enrollee-- a 60-year-old with an income of $30,000.

Nationwide, this man or woman would lose an average of $4,150 per year in health care tax credits and subsidies under the GOP plan, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

But those cuts would vary dramatically from county to county.

In Wisconsin, the cuts would be much smaller in the southwest and south central parts of the state. In Sauk County, for example, a 60-year-old with an income of $30,000 would lose $1,300 in tax credits and subsidies for his or her health care plan compared to current law.

But in some northern and western counties, that assistance would decrease by more than $7,000.

The main reason?

Under Obamacare, the financial aid people get to help them buy their health insurance is more generous in areas where health care costs are higher. Those areas include many rural counties where there are fewer health care providers.

“They’re getting a larger tax credit under the Affordable Care Act. And they would lose out on that under the House bill,” Cynthia Cox, an analyst with Kaiser, said of those areas.

Under the GOP plan, tax credits would not differ from county to county or region to region. There would be no boost in aid for people in places with high health care costs. That’s why those enrollees would see the biggest decline in their tax credits.

And because those areas are disproportionately rural and Republican, that complicates the politics of getting the GOP plan through Congress, where it may be voted on this week.

Republicans are weighing changes in the bill to secure the votes they need from within their own party for final passage, and those changes could include tweaks to the tax credits.

The biggest losses in tax credits in Wisconsin would occur in two mostly rural congressional districts, the northern seat held by Duffy and the western seat held by Democrat Ron Kind.

Duffy’s district has the highest number of Obamacare enrollees in the state (more than 35,000 last year) and Kind’s has the third highest.

Both areas were carried by Trump last fall. They are also the two congressional districts in Wisconsin that saw the biggest swings toward the GOP in 2016.

In both districts, a 60-year-old making $30,000 would lose an average of more than $5,500 a year in health care tax credits under the GOP plan, based on a Journal Sentinel analysis of the Kaiser data.

For older, low-income couples, the loss in tax credits would top $15,000 in parts of both districts.

“When I saw their plan ... I immediately said, ‘This is not going to be good for rural Wisconsin or rural America generally,’ which is ironic, given where (Trump’s) base of support came from,” said Kind, who voted against the GOP plan when it was approved along party lines by the House Ways and Means Committee.

“Without the means to pay for (plans), they won't be able to get covered,” said Kind.

Duffy said Saturday he has concerns about the ability of some older people to purchase a health care plan with the GOP tax credit as it is currently designed.

“The final page hasn’t been written” on the bill, he said. “Maybe we can improve the amount of money that an individual in their 60s gets in regard to their refundable tax credit.”

But Duffy said he did not favor the approach under Obamacare of offering bigger tax credits to people in higher-cost counties (though that has meant more generous subsidies in his rural district). And that view appears to be the prevailing one among House Republicans.

Duffy said that is the kind of government “micromanaging … we’re trying to get away from.”

More broadly, Duffy argued that Obamacare was unpopular in his district and was making health care more costly. He argued the GOP plan would create more competition, lower costs and, as a result, “my communities will get helped far more than what they have under Obamacare.”

While northern and western Wisconsin would see the biggest losses in tax credits under the GOP plan, parts of southern Wisconsin would be hurt a lot less.

The district that would see by far the smallest cuts in tax credits for older enrollees is one that voted heavily against Trump: the seat anchored by Madison and represented by Democrat Mark Pocan.

In Pocan’s district, the average loss in tax credits for a 60-year-old with a $30,000 income would be less than $2,000 a year-- a much smaller reduction than in northern Wisconsin.

And a 40-year-old enrollee in Pocan’s district with the same $30,000 income would actually get more assistance, not less, under the GOP plan, which treats younger and higher-income enrollees more favorably than the current system.

There were roughly 240,000 people enrolled in health plans on the federal marketplace under Obamacare last year in Wisconsin. The analysis in this story is based on just one measure (premium subsidies and tax credits) of how those Obamacare enrollees would fare under the GOP plan.

For example, it does not take into account the loss of cost-sharing subsidies for lower-income enrollees, the impact of Medicaid changes and cutbacks, or the potential of higher premiums for older enrollees.

A recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office found that the GOP plan would save more than $300 billion over 10 years but would result in an additional 24 million people being uninsured.

You hear a lot of this from Trump voters in the Midwest: "Originally the president said he wasn’t going to do nothing to Medicaid. Now they say he wants to take $880 billion out of Medicaid. That’s going to affect a lot of people who can’t afford to get insurance." That may account for his steadily plummeting favorability ratings-- down at 37% now. The NY Times reported yesterday that "As Republicans in Washington grapple with how to meet their promise of undoing the greatest expansion of health care coverage since the Great Society, they are struggling with what may be an irreconcilable problem: bridging the vast gulf between the expectations of blue-collar voters... who propelled Mr. Trump to the presidency, and longstanding party orthodoxy that it is not the federal government’s role to provide benefits to a wide swath of society. If they push forward the House-drafted health bill, which could come to a vote as early as this coming week, Republicans may honor their vow to repeal what they derided as Obamacare, but also risk doing disproportionate harm to the older, working-class white voters who are increasingly vital to their electoral coalition."

A new Pew Research Center survey indicated that the number of Republicans making below $30,000 a year who believe the federal government has a responsibility to ensure health coverage for all had risen to 52 percent from 31 percent last year. And while just 14 percent of Republicans who make between $30,000 and about $75,000 last year said the government bore responsibility for health care, now 34 percent of such voters do.

“This is a function of Donald Trump engineering a takeover of the Republican Party,” said Whit Ayres, a longtime Republican pollster. “It was takeover more than assimilation, and this is the eminently predictable result.”

But now that it is Mr. Trump’s Republican Party, those who elected him will expect him to fulfill his campaign commitments.

2018 should be a good electoral year for Democrats in Wisconsin-- if only there was no DCCC. The DCCC isn't targeting any Wisconsin GOP-held districts and plausible candidates don't want to run because they don't trust the DCCC not to interfere with their fundraising efforts and undermine their campaigns. So, even with the popular Tammy Baldwin at the top of the ticket, it now looks like Sean Duffy, as well as sociopaths Glenn Grothman, Mike Gallagher and Paul Ryan will all get free tickets to reelection courtesy of Nancy Pelosi and Ben Ray Lujan. well... at least Green Day will be on with Stephen Colbert tomorrow night. And even if no one at the DCCC understands their resistance, normal voters do-- in Wisconsin and everywhere else.

Why Do Conservative Incumbents Always Fear Debates? Take Wisconsin...

The results of last Monday's debate between Trump and Clinton show something different than just why conservatives don't like debates. Those results-- demonstrated again just a couple of hours ago in an ABC News/Washington Post poll released this morning-- show why an ill-prepared, adderall-fueled sociopath spouting conservative talking points he could remember, should probably skip debates... or any public appearance in front of people with 3-digit IQs. The big takeaway from the ABC poll is that, post-debate, 64% of Americans now express an unfavorable opinion of Trump, up 5 points from its pre-debate level. Only 18% of respondents said they thought Trump won the debate and only 29% of respondents think Trump's responses were factual-- 32% saying he intentionally lied. What about down-ballot, where conservatives are doing their best to avoid debating challengers? In Wisconsin, the most notorious of the Trumpists is shady former TV reality actor and current congressman Sean Duffy.

Duffy has another long vacation in front of him. Paul Ryan adjourned the House a couple of days ago so that his members could go home and defend their seats. Duffy, Donald Trump's top congressional surrogate in Wisconsin, seems to be too busy campaigning for Trump to take his own constituents' concerns seriously up in a sprawling northern district that stretches from Castle Rock Lake, Marshfield and Wausau in central Wisconsin, way out into the Minneapolis suburbs and up to Superior across from Duluth in the northwest corner of the state. The progressive Democrat vying for the seat. Mary Hoeft, has asked him to join her in debating the issues in every corner of the district-- 6 open, well-publicized debates across WI-07. He has continually ducked the question of debates and turned down invitations from nonpartisan organizations offering to host them. Suddenly, last week, he peremptorily announced that debates are set for Nov. 3 and 4, when early voting has ended-- and when most weekly newspapers won't be able to report the debate results until after the election. He picked his two hometowns-- one that has no television station, and he picked his own panelists and has indicated that Mary can take it or leave it. He even decided on the debate rules (with no opening statements so Mary can't talk about the aspects of his record that are important to Wisconsin's working families nor how he mishandled the whole debate situation).

Mary, a stalwart progressive, is a Blue America-backed candidate-- you can contribute to her campaign here-- and after she won her primary, in a landslide, the district was crossed off the DCCC candidates list. They're resfusing to help her in any way at all, even though Obama won the district, 53-45% in 2008 and then lost narrowly to Romney in 2012 and even though Russ Feingold is expected to trounce Ron Johnson across WI-07 on November 8. Clinton is also doing well in WI-07 and looking like she's going to run up big margins in Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland, Washburn, Jackson, Clark, Rusk, Barron, Sawyer, Forest, Oneida, Price, Lincoln, Chippewa, Juneau, Burnett and even St. Croix and Marathon counties. This is a district the DCCC could win-- while helping Clinton clinch it-- if they would just get over their obsessive hatred for progressives.

We asked Mary to take a few minutes away from her busy campaign schedule and explain how Duffy has been able to avoid a healthy public debate of the issues.

Is Sean Duffy Still Afraid To Debate A Woman?
-by Mary Hoeft, Democratic candidate for Congress, WI-07

"You've listened to Howie rake my opponent, Sean Duffy, over the coals, and justifiably so.  I've been hesitant to go too hard on Duffy because of my Western Wisconsin Nice Girl Upbringing. But DAMN, that man's got me mad now (or maybe I've been around Howie too long). The white gloves are off.

For months, I've worked to get Sean Duffy to agree to debate me. He's scared. He doesn't want to stand in front of an audience while I tell people that he chairs the banking oversight committee and took $400,000 in "political gifts" from bankers. He doesn't want me to say he recently received the single largest donation any congressman received from Wells Fargo.  He doesn't want me to say he's praising  Wells Fargo CEO Stumpf while blaming underlings for the scandal Stumpf condoned.

To silence me, Duffy refused to respond to every nonpartisan invitation to debate we both received. And then, last week, I received a strange call. A Wausau television station called me, asking for my reaction to the debates Duffy and I had agreed to. I was dumbfounded, I asked, "What debates?" Duffy had sent out a news release announcing he would participate in two debates, on November 3 and 4, in his hometowns of Wausau and Hayward. He thanked his handpicked panelists for agreeing to participate. There was no mention of an opponent. Apparently he felt I wouldn't be participating and he would have the stage to himself.

Duffy thinks he can treat a woman this way. Two years ago, he was trounced by his opponent Kelly Westlund in their first debate and withdrew from the second two. Kelly Westlund scared him. He tasted what it was like to lose to a woman and he didn't like it.

Like Trump, Sean may think  he can pull this crap on a woman he recently labeled "radical liberal socialist university professor!" He's wrong. I've spoken to every television station in my district. Our campaign has written to every panelist who agreed to participate. I've written to every newspaper. And now, I'm writing to you. The movement has begun.

If enough people know that Sean Duffy has violated my first amendment right to freedom of speech, people may pay attention. Sean Duffy isn't only a Wall Street Water Boy, he's a deceptive, manipulative politician who is about to be exposed."  Thanks Howie and Thank You!"

In Congress Duffy has spent his time working for the Wall Street interests that underwrite his political career-- since being elected to Congress in 2010 and grabbing a seat on the House Financial Services Committee-- Duffy has scooped up a whopping $2,319,422 in bribes from the Finance sector. This cycle alone, the banksters-- grateful for his go-easy approach to their misdeeds on the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee he chairs-- have given him $823,909, more than any other member of Congress from Wisconsin other than Speaker Ryan. Mary would like to turn the congressional seat into one where the interests of working families are put forward, not just rich campaign donors. Please consider helping her get her grassroots message out. Corporate America isn't contributing to her campaign and the DCCC is ignoring her; she's counting on us:



Attack # 23,417 On Our Earned Social Security Benefits By The Republican Granny Starver

Not surprisingly, Republicans are at it again. If they're not taking food out of kids' mouths, hurting working families or taking money from the elderly, they're just not happy. It is an example of the latter we'd like to talk about at DWT this evening.

As you may know, it has taken a long time to get 100% of Democrats in the Senate behind increasing Social Security, instead of keeping it as is or cutting it. But through hard work, Third-Way shaming and Blue-Dog self demolition, we've gotten there. In the House, we haven't quite made it yet. The Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- the New Dems-- is still strong there. But it is still Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, who used Social Security survivor benefits himself to attend college, who is leading the assault. He may call it a #BetterWay, but anyone paying attention knows it's just the same old failed austerity neoliberal nonsense he's been recycling for his whole donor-serving career. As he's failed to cut the program itself, he is now applying the tried and true GOP method of attack whenever they can't eliminate something. Defund it:

The need for Social Security staff services has increased as baby boomers begin to retire. Instead, these services have been cut back since 2011. And in late July, as the American Federation of Government Employees noted, “the House Appropriations Committee cut President Obama’s proposed budget for the Social Security Administration (SSA) by $1.2 billion. If they get their way, SSA will be forced to operate on $263 million less than it does now-- even though it’s already struggling to meet public demand.”

These congressional cuts would even force workers to take a two-week furlough. Crippling Social Security’s ability to function just when it’s needed most is the epitome of what Republican public policy has become. It’s part of a familiar right-wing strategy to degrade the quality of government services, then use that degradation to argue for privatization.

Not surprisingly, they are using the dumpster fire that is this election season to try and hide that they are doing this. But their is also a way to use this as an advantage. By running against the cretinous imbeciles trying to cut one of the most popular programs in the history of the country explicitly on this issue:

[Nancy] Altman has a message for every Democrat running for federal office: "I strongly encourage all Democrats running to office to make full funding for SSA, along with expansion of Social Security's modest benefits, a centerpiece of their campaigns." Because, as she points out, "a Democratic majority in Congress is the best way to ensure that Americans receive their earned benefits in a convenient and timely fashion as a result of the first class Social Security service they have purchased and deserve."

One of Ryan's most devoted-- and devious-- devoted henchmen, Trumpist Sean Duffy, is a big fan of privatizing Social Security and Medicare and of the whole ghastly grab-bag of neoliberal horrors that would devastate working families and obliterate the middle class. The progressive Democrat running against him this cycle in WI-07, Mary Hoeft, is frustrated by the unwillingness of the media to call him out on what he actually votes for rather than on his empty and condescending assurances, "My opponent Sean Duffy is a masterful liar," she told us today. "At his website he tells the people of his district that he would not privatize Social Security. Unfortunately, people believe him. I am shouting it from the rooftop that Sean Duffy is not telling the truth. I ask myself over and over again what does it take to expose a liar? If someone has that magical answer for me, please share it." You can donate to Mary and Blue America's other progressive champions, all of whom will fight these efforts that secretly attack Social Security by clicking on the thermometer below.

Today's House Financial Services Committee Meeting Will Demonstrate Why Not All Democrats Measure Up

Sleaze bag Sean Duffy is chair of the Financial Services' Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations-- Wells Fargo singled him out for this year's biggest bribe. Wonder why!

Today the most corrupted corner of Congress, the House Financial Services Committee, gets to "question" crooked Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, who Elizabeth Warren made mince-meat out of last week. Don't expect too many serious holding feet to the fire moments today. Members request getting onto the House Financial Services Committee primarily to be in position to be on the receiving end of the most gigantic flow of bribes in the history of Congress. Since 1990 the Financial Sector has doled out $2,375,923,205 in bribes to members of Congress and candidates for Congress. That's 2.3 BILLION dollars in flat-out bribes. And that's not because banksters are civic-minded! The surest way to get on that gravy train is to get on the House Financial Services Committee. Is it any wonder there is so little oversight of Wall Street predators?

The OpenSecrets chart above-- which only covers 2015-16-- shows the 25 Members of the House who have solicited and taken the most in bribery from the banksters. Shockingly-- or, alas, maybe not-- 13 of the most corrupt are members of the committee that's supposed to be keeping the banksters from ripping off the country, 10 typically crooked Republicans and the 3 most corrupt New Dems in Washington: Patrick Murphy (FL), Kirsten Sinema (AZ) and Jim Himes (CT). Some in Washington joke that when the House Financial Services Committee meets there's quorum for a meeting of the Wall Street owned and operated New Dems, the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

Thanks to Warren's very public grilling-- flambé-ing?-- of Stumpf last week, on Tuesday Wells Fargo's board of directors announced that they are clawing back $41 million in stock options from the crooked CEO and $19 million from the retired bankster who was directly responsible for the scandal, Carrie Tolstedt. Neither gets a bonus this year and Tolstedt gets no golden parachute severance package. The board also hired a law firm to do an independent investigation. The Labor Department has also launched an investigation of its own. What about the SEC and the Justice Department. What are they waiting for? Sworn affidavits of guilt from Stumpf, Tolstedt and the other top brass at Wells Fargo who ordered the theft of millions of dollars from the bank's customers to boost their annual bonuses?

But who at tomorrow's hearings can we expect any serious oversight from? Certainly not from one of the biggest crooks on the committee of all, Sean Duffy, the head of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Duffy took more in bribes from Wells Fargo this cycle than any other member of the committee-- $15,000 this year alone! His Democratic opponent this year back in Wisconsin's 7th CD, Mary Hoeft, issued a statement to residents of northwest Wisconsin saying that "Sean Duffy, chair of a congressional banking oversight subcommittee, accepted more than $400,000 in political contributions from bankers to use against me in this campaign. At the very least, Sean should have acknowledged the ethical dilemma he faced when accepting money from the bankers he oversees. That doesn't appear to be the case. He is doubling down on his efforts to cripple the Consumer's Financial Protection Bureau, the very agency designed by Elizabeth Warren and others to make sure Big Banks are never able to bring our economy to its knees again--an economy where 7 million Americans lost their homes to bankruptcy." (You can contribute to Mary's campaign to replace Duffy here.)

Will Murphy even show up?

All the Republicans on the committee are Wall Street stooges-- every.single.one.of. them! They will be defending Wall Street with all their might today-- pushing Wall Street's #1 agenda item of destroying the CFPB-- while pretending to be as stern with Strumpf as they sometimes make believe they are with Drumpf. The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, a notorious criminal from Texas named Jeb Hensarling, has taken more in Wall Street bribes than anyone else currently serving in the House other than Speaker Ryan ($7,202,670 for Hensarling and $8,237,251 for the Beltway media's esteemed Speaker). Other members of the Committee you can be sure will either be licking Strumpf's posterior today or laying low are Ed Royce (R-CA- $6,601,798), Jim Himes (New Dem-CT- $5,374,477), Scott Garrett (R-NJ- $4,874,049), Peter Roskam (R-IL- $4,028,343), Steve Stivers (R-OH- $4,026,487), Vice-Chair Patrick McHenry (R-NC- $3,760,861), Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL- $3,536,090), and Randy Neugebauer (R-TX-$3,466,470). Other shameless Wall Street hatchet men on the committee include Peter King (R-NY- $2,672,724), Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO- $2,275,065), and Frank Lucas (R-OK- $2,066,077).

So who might be worth listening to at the hearings today? Maxine Waters (CA), the ranking Democrat on the committee will probably scorch Wells Fargo and I'd hope that Mike Capuano (MA) and Keith Ellison (MN) get some time. There aren't any other members in that fetid cesspool worth listening to.

In Paul Ryan's Make Believe World, Obama Paid The Iranians Ransom; He Didn't... But Ryan Passed A Resolution About It Anyway

Republicans are still embarrassed about how Reagan got caught in what came to be known as the Iran-Contra scandal. It started as a scheme to ransom 7 U.S. hostages being held in Lebanon by having Israel sell U.S. weapons to Iran and the U.S. replacing those weapons for Israel. Oliver North's twist was to have the Iranian money shipped to fascist rebels in Nicaragua (the Contras). Reagan blocked all the investiagtions although eventually 14 of his officials were indicted, including Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. When Reagan went on TV to apologize, already suffering from the impact of Alzheimer's, he said "A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not. As the Tower board reported, what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages. This runs counter to my own beliefs, to administration policy, and to the original strategy we had in mind." In November 1986 Reagan's approval rating dropped from 67% to 46%, the largest drop any president's popularity ever suffered in the history of polling. Eventually George H.W. Bush pardoned all the criminals involved-- including Weinberger, National Security Adviser Bud McFarlane, far right sociopath Elliott Abrams, Oliver North, top CIA operatives Alan Fiers and Clair George and nearly a dozen others-- as he was leaving office.

The GOP has been looking for political payback ever since. Recently Paul Ryan concotted a story that the Obama Administration paid a $400 million "ransom" to get back several detained American citizens. The $400 million was Iranian money the U.S. had embargoed over 3 decades ago (payment for jets the Iranians had paid for and the U.S. never delivered). The U.S. balked at repaying the money it had finally agreed to pay Iran for the jets while Iran was holding U.S. prisoners. So Ryan (and Trump) called it paying "ransom" when the prisoners were released and the money was paid.

Thursday the House passed a resolution by right-wing imbecile Ed Royce, H.R. 5931, implicitly spanking the Administration for paying ransom to Iran. It passed 254-163.The only Republican honest enough to vote NO was Thomas Massie (KY) but 16 of the worst reactionary and cowardly fake Democrats crossed the aisle and voted with the GOP, these:

• Peter Aguilar (New Dem-CA)
• Brad Ashford (Blue Dog-NE)
• Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)
• Tony Cárdenas (CA)
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• Gwen Graham (Blue Dog-FL)
• Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ)
• Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL)
• Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY)
• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Raul Ruiz (CA)
• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)
• Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog-AZ)
• Juan Vargas (New Dem-CA)
• Filemon Vela (Blue Dog-TX)

I want to point out that very right-wing, very ambitious Florida Blue Dog Gwen Graham, who almost always votes with Republicans on contentious matters like this, plans to run for governor of Florida (unless Bill Nelson does, in which case she'd run for his Senate seat.) And right now, the DSCC is heavily backing right-wing New Dem Ann Kirkpatrick, another worthless pile of reeking garbage on two legs, for the Arizona Senate seat. Who wants to promote these kinds of trash politicians up the political ladder? Well, rote-Democratic establishment hacks of course-- and in this case, because of their plumbing, EMILY's List-- but no one who cares about the values and principles that differentiate the Democratic Party from the Republican Party. At least Loretta Sanchez, a Blue Dog who would normally vote with the GOP on this kind of crap and who's running for Barbara Boxer's open Senate seat, was smart enough to absent herself from the chamber and not vote at all. But these aren't the kind of women Americans need in our government. Wisconsin's Mary Hoeft, on the other hand, is.

Among Royce's crackpot co-sponsors was Wisconsin Trumpist Sean Duffy, a partisan worm always looking for an opportunity to create division and stoke hatred and fear. We contacted Hoeft, the progressive Democrat running for the northwestern and central Wisconsin district that Duffy operates out of. "Sean Duffy," she told us, "asked Obama Administration Officials how they could be sure this money won't go to terrorists The more important question Duffy should have asked, 'What honorable country takes more than 40 years to repay its debt for goods purchased but never delivered?' Another question, perhaps more irrelevant to Mr. Duffy, 'How can we be certain the $400,000 you accepted in campaign donations from bankers over the last few months isn't directly linked to your efforts to cripple the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?' Another question, 'How can we be certain, Mr. Duffy, since you recently received the largest single donation from Well Fargo of any member of Congress, that you didn't play a significant role in Wells Fargo's most recent scandal to defraud Americans?'" Blue America would like to see Hoeft replace Duffy in Congress. It would be good for Wisconsin and good for America. If you'd like to help, you can contribute to her campaign here.

Another co-sponsor of Royce's and Ryan's election year GOP gibberish resolution was, predictably, Texas' most Trumpy congressman, Lamar Smith. We called his Democratic opponent in the TX-21 congressional race, Tom Wakely, and Tom told us that to his mind "those willing to politicize our President's diplomatic resolutions, especially in the Middle East, show their warmongering colors. God forbid we reach necessary nuclear solutions with Iran without senseless bloodshed. This wasn't ever an issue of ransom. It was an issue of diplomacy and peace, but that doesn't fit the narrative of war. It doesn't fit the narrative of President Obama being weak. So here Lamar Smith and the House Republicans waste taxpayer dollars and time to beat their chest in an effort to prove just how tough they are. They use a facade of strength to try to trick their constituents into thinking they can solve any conflict with brute force because they lack the intelligence to understand the nuance of diplomatic solutions. President Obama is a hell of a lot tougher than any of the Republicans who sponsored this bill, and the constituents of my district are a hell of lot smarter than Lamar Smith."

Please consider helping Mary Hoeft and Tom Wakely replace Trump-genre congressional disgraces Sean Duffy and Lamar Smith by tapping on the thermometer below and contributing what you can:

Scott Walker Exposed-- Again-- For Criminal Corruption. U.S. Supreme Court To Examine The Case In 2 Weeks

In case you missed it yesterday, here's Ed Pilkington's massive leak (1,500 pages) of Scott Walker corruption documents that The Guardian published yesterday. Think of them in terms of the Zephyr Teachout video we looked out earlier and what The Guardian termed opening "a door onto how modern U.S. elections operate in the wake of Citizens United, the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that unleashed a flood of corporate money into the political process. They speak to the mounting sense of public unease about the cosy relationship between politicians and big business, and to the frustration of millions of Americans who feel disenfranchised by an electoral system that put the needs of corporate donors before ordinary voters."

In a companion piece, Pilkington explained how Walker was able to squelch an investigation into his corruption that would have derailed his presidential ambitions (later derailed by his lameness and inability to fight off TV reality clown and buffoon Donald Trump).

In a case that is the subject of a petition currently in front of the US supreme court, five Wisconsin prosecutors carried out a deep investigation into what they suspected were criminal campaign-finance violations by the campaign committee of Scott Walker, Wisconsin governor and former Republican presidential candidate. Known as the “John Doe investigation”, the inquiry has been a lightning rod for bitter disputes between conservatives and progressives for years.

In July 2015 the state’s supreme court halted the investigation, saying the prosecutors had misunderstood campaign finance law and as a result had picked on people and groups “wholly innocent of any wrongdoing”. Highly unusually, the court also ordered that all the evidence assembled by the prosecutors be destroyed and later held under seal.

Among the documents are several court filings from the case, as well as hundreds of pages of email exchanges obtained by the prosecutors under subpoena. The emails involve conversations concerning Walker, his top aides, conservative lobbyists, and leading Republican figures such as Karl Rove and the chair of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus.

Trump also appears in the files, making a donation of $15,000 following a personal visit from Walker to the Republican nominee’s Fifth Avenue headquarters.

In addition to Trump, many of the most powerful and wealthy rightwing figures in the nation crop up in the files: from Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone, hedge-fund manager Paul Singer and Las Vegas casino giant Sheldon Adelson, to magnate Carl Icahn. “I got $1m from John Menard today,” Walker says in one email, referring to the billionaire owner of the home improvement chain, Menards.

Among the new material contained in the documents are donations amounting to $750,000 to a third-party group closely aligned to Walker from the owner of NL Industries, a company that historically produced lead paint. Within the same timeframe as the donations, the Republican-controlled legislature passed new laws making it much more difficult for victims of lead paint poisoning to sue NL Industries and other former lead paint manufacturers (the laws were later overturned in the federal courts).

The John Doe files also provide new insight into the extensive efforts made by allies of Scott Walker to help a conservative member of the Wisconsin supreme court, David Prosser, hang onto his seat in a 2011 re-election. A network of like-minded groups and campaigners channeled $3.5m in undisclosed corporate funds to pay for TV and radio ads backing the judge.

The push was seen as vital, the documents disclose, as a means of retaining the rightwing majority of the court and thereby preserving the anti-union measures introduced by Walker. “If we lose [Justice Prosser], the Walker agenda is toast,” one ally writes in an email sent around to the governor’s chief of staff and several conservative lobbyists.

In 2015, Justice Prosser refused to recuse himself from a case in which the state supreme court sat in judgment over the John Doe investigation, despite the fact that the investigation focused on precisely the same network of lobbying groups and donors that had helped him hang onto his seat. The judge joined a majority of four conservative justices who voted to terminate the investigation and destroy all the documents now leaked to the Guardian.

Prosser told the Guardian that four years had passed since his re-election before he joined the decision to close the John Doe investigation, over which time any potential conflict of interest had faded.

All this money to save Walker's hide was funneled through the Wisconsin Club for Growth. One of my favorite revelations was that Gogebic Taconite, the mining company for which Walker and his right-wing henchmen in the state legislature eased mining regulations for a proposed iron mine gave a $700,000 bribe. The prosecuteors have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the corrupted decision bribed members of the Wisconsin court. The Supreme Court is scheduled to review that decision September 26.

Mary Hoeft, the progressive Democrat challenging Walker crony Sean Walker for the 7th district congressional seat in the northwest and central part of the state, is campaigning hard on getting unrestricted corporate money and dark contributions out of American politics. We called her this morning and she told us "As I continue in this campaign I realize more and more the role money plays in an election. Sean Duffy has made it clear that he doesn't have to debate me because he has no desire to have his positions heard by the people of my district. He has enough money to buy enough commercials to say whatever lies about me that he chooses. He will have the final say before people go into the voting booth. I continue to move forward, grateful for the generous donation of people like you. But the ugly truth remains that in America, elections are bought, not won."

With Hillary and Russ Feingold at the top of the ticket, this is a perfect opportunity for the Democrats to oust Duffy and other Walker allies around the state. Unfortunately, the DCCC doesn't see it that way and they're doing nothing to help Mary at all. Please consider giving her and other progressive Democrats a hand, by tapping on the thermometer below: