What The Wisconsin Republicans Did This Morning Will Backfire-- Bigly!

Call me crazy but I think Wisconsin Republicans made a big strategic boo-boo last night and this morning. The Republican legislators worked all night and into this morning in their lame duck session and, despite protests, internal disagreement and Democratic opposition both Houses of the state legislature passed a package of proposals designed to fuck Democratic voters and empower the GOP-controlled Legislature at the expense of the incoming all-Democratic executive branch. Governor-elect Tony Evers and Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul warned them that the ensuing lawsuits will tie the state up in gridlock. (Keep in mind that in the popular vote in legislative elections last month in Wisconsin, Democrats won 53-45% but, entirely because of Republican gerrymandering, Democrats only won 36% of the seats in the Assembly-- 53% of the vote but 36% of the seats.)

Just after midnight, the Assembly enacted a venal Medicaid work requirement that would prevent Evers from withdrawing a federal waiver request to implement the work requirement and require new legislative oversight of gubernatorial waiver requests related to health care. In the Senate, backroom deal making led to this morning's vote to weaken the governor’s power to put administrative rules enacting state laws in place. The legislature, not the governor, would have the majority of appointments on the state’s economic development agency that Evers has said he wants to dismantle. The Republican bill also restricts early voting to no more than two weeks before an election and gives the legislature-- not the attorney general-- the power to withdraw Wisconsin from the Texas lawsuit challenging the federal health care law that protects people with pre-existing conditions.

The state Senate passed this package of steaming shit 17-16, all Democrats plus one Republican, Rob Cowles of Green Bay, voting against it. Democratic state Senator Chris Larson, who represents a suburban district south of Milwaukee told me just moments ago that "This morning, fresh off an election defeat, the Republican-controlled legislature voted to subvert the will of the people. The effects of this vote will be felt for years to come. Never before in Wisconsin’s 170 year history has an extraordinary session been used in such a cold, calculated way in order to usurp the power of duly elected constitutional officers. It is particularly disturbing that legislative Republicans would chose to poison the well of bipartisanship before duly elected officials are allowed to take office."

Larson-- like DWT-- sees the potential damage these moves will do not just to the state, but to the Republican Party itself, where independent voters are looking at it in disgust. "What the Republicans have done is terribly short-sighted and will leave a permanent stain on their and our state’s legacy," he continued. "It is unfortunate, that by refusing to recognize the voice of the people, they have broken Wisconsin Government. It will be all of our neighbors who suffer for years to come. Wisconsinites went to the polls in record midterm numbers and voted for change on November 6th. They responded to the people by essentially appointing the losing side as Attorney General. Now unelected, unaccountable private lawyers can potentially usurp any federal case from the duly elected Attorney General. We have a rich American history of peaceful transfer of power for the good of the people. This morning, Republicans instead decided to burn the house down on their way out the door."

Ari Berman, writing for Mother Jones, put the Republican Party racist assault on voting rights into a cohesive national context.

The 2018 election saw historic victories for voting rights. Seven states passed ballot initiatives that will make it easier to vote and harder to gerrymander. And some of the biggest cheerleaders for restricting access to the ballot, such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, lost their gubernatorial races.

But now Republicans in four key swing states-- Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and North Carolina-- are undertaking unprecedented efforts in lame-duck legislative sessions to strip newly elected Democratic officials of their power to oversee state voting laws and rushing to pass new laws that will make it harder to vote.

...Currently, Wisconsin counties can decide when to begin the early voting period. Democratic cities like Madison and Milwaukee began early voting six weeks before the election in 2018 and saw record turnout. The new bill would limit the early voting period to just two weeks across Wisconsin.

The new effort to cut early voting is similar to a previous law that was struck down by a federal court. In 2014, Wisconsin’s Legislature cut early voting from 30 days to 12, reduced early voting hours on nights and weekends, and restricted early voting to one location per municipality, hampering voters in large urban areas. A federal judge ruled in 2016 that the early voting cuts “intentionally discriminate on the basis of race” and had been passed “to suppress the reliably Democratic vote of Milwaukee’s African Americans.”

After the law was overturned, jurisdictions in Wisconsin, particularly in places like Madison and Milwaukee, expanded early voting locations and hours, leading to record turnout in 2016 and 2018. Democrats have pledged to sue if the new law is passed by the Legislature on Tuesday.

The new bill would also prevent Evers from making the state’s voter ID law less restrictive by barring him from expanding the types of IDs Wisconsinites can use to vote. The law, which first went into effect in 2016, led to a sharp decrease in black voter turnout in the last presidential election. A study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that the ID requirement kept as many as 23,000 people from voting in two of the state’s most Democratic counties, Milwaukee County and Madison’s Dane County, with African Americans more than three times as likely as whites to be deterred from voting. President Donald Trump won the state by that very margin. “It is very probable,” Milwaukee’s top election official, Neil Albrecht, told Mother Jones last year, that “enough people were prevented from voting to have changed the outcome of the presidential election in Wisconsin.”

The GOP bill would also move the state’s 2020 presidential primary from April to March, while keeping the state Supreme Court election in April. A lower turnout in the court race would likely benefit Republicans and help them keep their majority on the court.

...Republican efforts to strip Democrats of power during lame-duck legislative sessions originated in North Carolina in 2016. Following the election of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in 2016, the Republican-led Legislature passed a series of bills to reduce his power, which included preventing the governor from appointing a majority of members to the state board of elections and 100 county boards of elections.

Now the North Carolina Legislature is at it again. It originally passed a voter ID law in 2013 that the federal courts said targeted black voters “with almost surgical precision.” After that law was struck down in court, the Republican Legislature put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2018 requiring government-issued photo ID to vote. It passed with 60 percent support on Election Day, but because Republicans lost their legislative supermajority in 2018, they’re rushing to pass a bill implementing the amendment in the lame-duck session so Cooper will be unable to veto it.

Republicans in all four of these states owe their majorities partly to extreme partisan gerrymandering. Ohio Republicans barely got 50 percent of the vote in last month’s elections, but hold a supermajority in the Legislature, while Republicans in Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina got a minority of votes but control a majority of seats. Now, by stripping power from Democratic officials who won a majority of votes and enacting laws making it harder to vote, they are further enshrining minority rule.

Just back from Berniepalooza, Randy Bryce was busy all day and all night yesterday. This morning, he told me that he "had the opportunity to testify in opposition to the power grab. First words out of my mouth was that this isn’t a bill, it’s a coup. The Republicans need to answer one very simple question. If this was so badly needed, why did they wait until after the election to write it? We are witnessing a very sad time in our state’s history. They are literally doing this in the middle of the night."

Let Me Make Your Day

The 6 women in this focus group are all from swing states and all voted for Trump. Most would do it again... although half say they are disappointed. They all say they want to use the midterms to "send a message." Take a look. One thing for sure, this sure doesn't sound like part of any wave. But, keep in mind they were all Trump voters in 2016.

This morning Axios launched an idea for how they plan to measure the upcoming wave. Their premise is flawed, though, because they use the silly conventional wisdom that there's a blue wave. No one gives a shot about the shitty Democratic Party which is-- at best-- somewhat better than the Republican Party. If there's a wave-- and I am certain there is, it's an anti-red wave, not a blue wave. And they're not the same. A blue wave would mean enthusiasm for Democrats. The DCCC has made sure that would be impossible by recruiting a big bag of shit for candidates. Pelosi is killing whatever hope there could be for a progressive agenda by boasting she will institute PAYGO in January. An anti-red wave is just the widely shared certainty that Trump is not up to the job and that the congressional Republicans have no intention of checking him. That's what will sweep lots of Democraps into Congress.

Axios picked 8 races to watch to measure the non-existent blue wave. "If it's a truly strong wave," wrote Alexi McCammond, "we'll know not just from the high-profile races, but from lesser-known ones that would only be competitive if Democrats are winning everywhere." She then immediately offers one of the most high-profile races in the cycle as the first example: Beto vs Cruz in the Texas Senate contest.

2. Ohio gubernatorial: Democrat Richard Cordray and Republican Mike DeWine are fighting to replace Gov. John Kasich. The last time Ohio elected a Democratic governor was in 2006. But Kyle Kondik of Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball notes: "If Democrats are winning Ohio’s governorship they probably are winning at least 4-5 of the 6 Midwest governorships at play (maybe all 6)."

3. West Virginia's 3rd district: Trump won the district by 30 points, but Democrat Richard Ojeda is getting a lot of national attention in the race for this open seat. He’s redefining the West Virginia Democrat: he voted for Trump in 2016, he's pro-labor, pro-gun, and has the backing of the coal miners. The RealClearPolitics polling average suggests he's in a tight race with Republican Carol Miller.

4. California's 45th district: This seat is held by Republican Rep. Mimi Walters, and she's facing Democrat Katie Porter. Orange County is becoming increasingly diverse, and the number of registered Republican voters has consistently declined. If Democrats pull off a win here, Kondik says, it means they'll do well across Southern California, picking up crucial Republican-held seats in districts Hillary Clinton won.

5. Minnesota's 8th district: It's considered one of the Democrats' most at-risk seats this cycle. The incumbent, Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan, is retiring. Democrats have held this district for years, and Barack Obama won it twice-- but it swung from Obama +6 in 2012 to Trump +15 in 2016. Democrat Joe Radinovich, a former state legislator and labor organizer, is facing Republican Pete Stauber, a county commissioner.

6. Texas' 23rd district: Incumbent Republican Rep. Will Hurd, a former CIA agent, faces Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones-- a Filipina-American, a member of the LGBTQ community and an Iraq war veteran. This district contains one-third of the U.S./Mexico border, has the second-highest population of DACA recipients, and has urban, rural, and suburban areas. Hurd has distanced himself from Trump.

7. Florida's 26th district: Health care is a big issue here, and it'll be a test of whether a moderate Republican in the Trump era can hold on to a largely Hispanic district. Many see incumbent Rep. Carlos Curbelo as one of the best-positioned Republicans in Clinton-won districts. But voters looking for something new could hand a surprise upset to Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Latina immigrant.

8. Iowa's 3rd district: It's held by Republican Rep. David Young, who Kyle Kondik of Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball calls "an accidental incumbent." He was selected to run at a convention in Iowa in 2014 after getting less than 35% of the vote in the primary. If Democrat Cindy Axne wins here, Kondik says, that probably means they'll win Iowa's 1st district, held by vulnerable GOP Rep. Rod Blum, too.

The bottom line: If Democrats lose any of the above races, that doesn't mean they'll lose their chance to take back the House. But the more of these races they win, the more likely it is that the House and state offices will change hands-- and even the Senate might not be out of the question.

You want to know if the anti-red wave is massive? Forget this stuff (except the Texas Senate contest). If Democrats win these contests, all actual and reasonable possibilities, the GOP is WIPED OUT:

1- Former baseball player JD Scholten is within the margin of error against Steve King in Iowa's reddest district and momentum shows he's got a 50-50 chance right now.

2- Former rock dj Dayna Steele is running a competitive race against former dentist Brian Babin in one of Texas' reddest districts. The DCCC doesn't know anything about it but she's making this a bona fide two-party district.

3- Ammar Campa-Najjar (CA-50) and Nate McMurray (NY-27) are both running in red districts with R+11 PVIs. A Democrat win in a couple of seats that red? Impossible? Both Republicans have been indicted for serious criminal activities. Campa-Najjar has climbed into a statistical dead heat with Drunken Hunter and Nate McMurray is also surging now that the GOP has announced they're keeping incumbent Chris Collins on the ballot.

4- If far right sociopath Chris McDaniel (R) beats mainstream conservative Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) and winds up in the general with Democrat Mike Espy, a former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, polls show Mississippi will elect a Democrat the the U.S. Senate. The last time Mississippi elected a non-incumbent Democrat to the Senate was in 1947. How old were your parents in 1947?

5- Gil Cisneros, a conservative Republican potato chip taster who won the lottery and is now a multimillionaire-- and claiming to be a Democrat-- was shoe-horned by the DCCC into CA-39, a district far from where he lives. He's probably their least viable candidate but they wanted to stay on his good side so he'd keep sending them money. He's the least-likely-to-win Democratic challenger in southern California. If he does win-- and if the wave is big enough, he will-- say kaddish for the California Republican Party.

6- The Wisconsin "trifecta +": a clean sweep-- Tony Evers beats Scott Walker, Tammy Baldwin beats Leah Vukmir, Randy Bryce beats Ryan-clone Brian Steil-- and the + part: The Democrats take back the state Senate by holding onto Caleb Frostman special election win on the Door Peninsula (SD-1) and taking 2 GOP seats where more Dems voted than Republicans in the primaries-- Kriss Marion beating Howard Marklein (SD-17) and Lee Snodgrass beating Roger Roth (SD-19).

7- Kansas flips when 2 progressives, Jim Thompson and Sharice Davids, plus a Blue Dog (Paul Davis), all win, switching the state House delegation from 4 Republicans and no Democrats, to 3 Democrats and 1 Republican. Could it happen? It's a damn shame that the DCCC got that Blue Dog the nomination for the eastern part of the state.

8- And in the Senate contests, Democrats hold all their seats and win in Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas, giving McConnell a fatal heart attack in Louisville's Pickle Park in the wee hours of November 6 and then John Yamuth wins the special election, giving the Democrats a 54-46 majority.

If those 8 things happen, you won't just know there's a wave, well, a tsunami to be more precise... Trump will be asking Putin for political asylum; take my word for it.

Now, how about something a little less serious... a little more lighthearted? Trump has a funny dick, that looks "Like a toadstool… I lay there," wrote former sex-worker and Trump paramour Stormy Daniels, "annoyed that I was getting fucked by a guy with Yeti pubes and a dick like the mushroom character in Mario Kart… It may have been the least impressive sex I’d ever had, but clearly he didn’t share that opinion."

Elections Last Night... Some Excitement In South Carolina

Trumpanzee, of course, had to make the primaries all about himself by tweeting an endorsement against South Carolina's Congressman Mark Sanford, whose voting record is pretty pro-Trump (73.1%) in a district where Trump only won with 53.5%-- has called Trump out now and then. Maybe Trump got an idea to attack him yesterday after his meeting with Kim Jong-un, who once killed a general for not applauding him with enough vigor. In any case, everyone in the state knows Sanford because he used to be governor and it is extraordinarily rare for a president to attack an incumbent of his own party. Once the glow of being fucked by Kim Jong-Un wore off, Trump took down the tweet-- this tweet:

Do you watch Southern Charm on TV? SC-01-- most of the state's coast, from Hilton Head through Beaufort and the white parts of Charleston and north beyond McClellanville-- are not really that Trumpish of a district. But Trumpish enough. Largely due to being heavily gerrymandered to put as many African-Americans as possible into Jim Clyburn's 6th CD, the PVI is a prohibitive R+10. The Trump candidate, Katie Arrington, beat Sanford in a 3 person race, the third being Dimitri Cherny, a Berniecrat who switched parties in March. He has a Bernie tattoo on his forearm and has run for Congress twice before (as a Democrat). In November the Democrat running against Arrington will be Joe Cunningham who beat Toby Smith yesterday 60.1% to 39.9%.

• Katie Arrington- 32,499 (50.5%)
• Mark Sanford- 29,969 (46.6%)
• Dimitry Cherny- 1,899 (3.0%)

Meawhile, parenthetically, Senator Bob Corker, got up on the Senate floor yesterday to rip his cowardly Republican colleagues, hours before Sanford lost. Now they'll be even more cowardly... and more likely to serve as his handmaidens and enablers.

In Virginia the only worthwhile congressional race that was worth watching was in the 10th district which includes DC's well-heeled western suburbs, including most of McLean, all of Leesbug, Winchester, Chantilly and Dulles Airport and skirts both the Maryland and West Virginia borders. Incumbent Republican Barbara Comstock is a long-time extremist who has been trying to behave like a mainstream conservative. The DCCC was favoring conservaDem Jennifer Wexton in the 6-person race. The Democratic establishment never learns and they managed to get their worthless and meaningless status quo careerist candidate nominated

• Jennifer Wexton- 22,530 (41.8%)
• Alison Friedman- 12,362 (22.9%)
• Lindsey Stover- 8,660 (16.1%)
• Dan Helmer- 6,738 (12.5%)
• Paul Pelletier- 2,023 (3.8%)
• Julia Biggins- 1,530 (2.8%)

And the KKK guy, Corey Stewart, won the U.S. Senate nomination to run against Tim Kaine. The Republican establishment was sad last night-- and they still are this morning. They don't want their party to be publicly associated with racists and neo-Nazis. Stewart won with 44.8% against Nick Freitas (43.1%) and E.W. Jackson-- maybe even a crazier loon than Stewart-- (12.1%)

Because of the introduction of tiered voting, we won't have the final numbers from Maine until the end of week or possibly next week. But with just over 60% of the votes counted, the progressive candidate in Maine's 2nd congressional district, Jared Golden, was way out front with 50.5% against 2 other candidates, Lucas St. Clair (40.2%) and Craig Olson (9.3%).

With all the hubbub about the primaries today, we don't want to lose track of an extremely important special election that took place in northeastern Wisconsin yesterday, State Senate seat 1-- which includes all of Door and Kewaunee counties and parts of Brown, Manitowoc, Calumet and Outagamie counties.

The former incumbent, state Senator Frank Lasse (R) retired in December to take a position in Scott Walker's administration since his district was so red that Walker seemed sure there was no chance it could possibly flip from red to blue. The Senate seat had gone to Trump by a whopping 18 points in 2016 and in 2014 Walker had won it by 24 points. Oops! Last time Walker made that kind of a calculation, it was for a deep red Senate seat in western Wisconsin, and the special election was won by Democrat Patty Schachtner. Walker, dismayed, called that result a "wake-up call" that should warn Republicans they could be in trouble this fall. He then promptly called off all special elections. He was challenged in the courts and thrashed by the judges, ergo: last night.

Last night, Democrat Caleb Frostman, the former head of the Door County Economic Development Corp, beat state Rep. André Jacque 14,606 (51.4%) to 13,800 (48.6%). The most progressive member of the state Senate, Chris Larson, who worked hard to help Frostman win, was over the moon last night. "This is the third and strongest indication in a few short months that a blue wave is crashing across Wisconsin," he told me. "Wisconsinites are on to the Republican con and nothing is going to keep them from the polls. Underwater, we’ve seen the largest cuts to education, an unbridled attack on the working class, our environment put in danger, and a degradation of our culture of open, transparent government. We are ready to move forward with strong, progressive candidates like Caleb Frostman. Caleb has a background in economic development and knows that helping businesses doesn’t  have to come at the expense of students or access to healthcare. I am proud to pass him the baton of the youngest Democrat in our senate caucus and look forward to working with him to ensure we have even more people fighting for the working class after this fall's elections."

This seat will be up for reelection in November. The Republican control Wisconsin's state Senate is just 17-15 so very winnable by the Democrats in this political environment. Randy Bryce, not a public official but a candidate in the southern Wisconsin, also worked hard to help pull Frostman over the finish line. He implored his own supporters to contribute to Frostman's campaign. To some extent Frostman's victory showed the power Bryce has for other Democrats all around the state and all over the country. He's what Democratic solidarity is all about. Last night Bryce told me that "Wisconsin continues to show what a wave is-- working families coming together, no matter what the Beltway or the pundits say, to stick it to those trying to rip apart our futures. Tonight, Caleb Frostman showed that we aren’t splintering, rather he showed we’re growing. Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Brian Steil, you’re not going to fool working people again. Folks are catching on and are ready to make sure you feel it this November."

Tuesday In Maine-- Much At Stake... And South Carolina And Wisconsin

Tomorrow there are primaries in 5 states, Nevada, Maine, Virginia, North Dakota and South Carolina. We're watching Maine more closely than any of the other states. Blue America has only endorsed one federal candidate in any of the 5 states-- Jared Golden, who's running for Wall Street oriented Bruce Poliquin's seat in the sprawling non-Portland bulk of the state. Tomorrow he has to get through the establishment richie rich guy, Lucas St. Clair, whose mother cheated the founder of Burt's Bee's out of his company and then moved it to North Carolina. St. Clair is wealthy and so are his friends and they're spending dark money like mad to beat Golden, a former small town kind who joined the marine, saw front line duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and came back home and is now the state legislator's majority whip. Golden is a dedicated progressive. St. Clair is an environmental care with no clear political point of view-- kind of "whatever." Bernie won the district over Clinton but in the general Trump won by over 10 points-- and won an electoral vote. The PVI is R+2 but Golden has what it takes to communicate with the people in the district far better than wither St. Clair or Poliquin.

With Maine's own Trumpanzee, Paul LePage termed out, there's also a gubernatorial race-- and there lots of candidates running from both parties and a brand spanking new anked-choice voting system. So... impossible to predict-- and certainly something we're not going to get a final conclusion on for a few days. The 7 Democrats are front-runner Janet Mills, the state's Attorney General, former state Rep Mark Eves, former state Rep Diane Russell, state Senator Mark Dion, former mayor Donna Dion, Adam Cote and Betsy Sweet. There are 4 Republicans, state Rep Kenneth Fredette, state Senator Garrtee Mason, Mart Mayhew and Shawn Moody. There are also 6 independents. Independents are important in Maine since they sometimes win and sometimes throw races to Republicans, which is how LePage won.

Maine has a U.S. Senate race for Angus King's seat. He's an independent and considered a shoe-in, although there's a Democrat, Zak Ringelstein running unopposed tomorrow (far more progressive than King) and two Republicans vying for their party's ticket, Eric Brakey and Max Linn.

The state Senate is a big deal tomorrow. Currently there are 18 Republicans and 17 Democrats but in n 2016, five seats won by Democrats had a margin of victory of less than 10% and four seats won by Republicans had a margin of victory of less than 10%. Also, Hillary won five districts that elected Republicans to the state Senate and Trump won four districts that elected Democrats to the state Senate. The races to watch tomorrow:

• District 1- Troy Jackson (D) is the incumbent but Trump won by 7.2 points
• District 2- Michael Carpenter (D) is the incumbent but Trump beat Hillary by a whopping 29.9 points
• District 3- Rodney Whittemore (R) is the incumbent and Trump won the district by 19.5 points, although Obama has taken it in 2012 by 4.6 points.
• District 11- Michael Thibodeau (R) is the incumbent but Clinton narrowly won the district in 2016 (by less than a point); Obama had won it by almost 11 points.
• District 14- Shenna Bellows (D) is the incumbent but Trump took the district by 2.4 points.

The Democrats control the state House 74-70 with 7 Independents hoping seats. There are 4 seats that are the most flippable, one Republican seat, one Democratic seat and two independent seats. Remember, Trump won 18 districts that elected Democrats and Hillary won eight districts that elected Republicans. Four of the districts held by independents went for Clinton and one went for Trump.

• District 33- A GOP district that Hillary won by 31 points
• District 82- An independent incumbent where Trump won by 23 points
• District 94- An independent incumbent where Hillary won by 40 points
• District 138- A Democratic district where Trump won by 26 points.

BONUS: South Carolina

As Alex Isenstadt pointed out today, Mark Sanford (R-SC) may be in trouble tomorrow. No friend of Señor Trumpanzee, he's up against a Republican primary opponent, state Rep. Katie Arrington, who is-- and in a district that voted 53.5% to 40.4% for Trump. Arrington has cast Sanford as a disloyal Never-Trumper. We'll see if that works among Republican primary voters tomorrow.



And... Wisconsin

There are no primaries tomorrow. That's on August 14. Tomorrow though are 2 crucial special election. A few days ago the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel summed it all up: "Tuesday's special elections in Wisconsin could offer clues about a possible 'blue wave'" There's a state Senate district and an Assembly district which Scott Walker desperately tried to avoid special elections in. Two courts told him to stop behaving like a fascist. Tomorrow's the day. Randy Bryce has been campaign for both and raising money for both, Ann Groves Lloyd and Caleb Frostman.

Scott Walker's War Against Democracy Itself

A couple of weeks ago, Wisconsin's far right governor, Scott Walker, warned that Patty Schachtner's upset win over state Rep. Adam Jarchow in a deep red state Senate district was a "wake up call" for the GOP. And he's now figured out how to answer that call. He's refusing to allow special elections to fill vacant seats in the state legislature. I kid you not! As John Nichols explained in The Nation last week, Scott Walker works for the Koch brothers, not Wisconsin working families. And if there's one thing the Koch brothers and the other plutocrats who dream of making Walker president really hate, it's democracy. Walker and his right-wing allies in the legislature "redrew legislative district lines to prevent competitive elections, enacted multiple measures that made it harder for Wisconsinites to vote, and dismantled the state Government Accountability Board that used to provide nonpartisan oversight of elections and ethics issues."

But it turns out that Walker and his cronies were just getting started on a project that in recent weeks has seen embattled Wisconsin Republicans upend new commissions that were supposed to promote fair elections and responsible governance, while the governor has refused to call elections to fill legislative vacancies in districts that might be won by Democrats.

As the onetime Republican star who crashed and burned as a contender for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination prepared to deliver his annual State of the State message, Republican state senators denied the confirmations of the directors of Wisconsin’s ethics and elections commissions and Senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald, a close ally of the governor, said he wanted to force out employees of the commissions who had participated in investigations of Republican wrongdoing.

After Walker’s Republicans effectively voted to oust Ethics Commission administrators Brian Bell and Michael Haas and began talking about reclassifying positions at the commissions as part of a partisan purge of nonpartisan oversight agencies, Democratic state Representative Jimmy Anderson blasted his Republican colleagues for undermining “the integrity of our electoral process as well as the vital role that these watchdogs play in regulating lobbying and campaign activity. Wisconsin has a long-standing tradition as a leader in nonpartisan election administration.”

Anderson is right. But nothing the legislature has done so undermines the integrity of the electoral process as what Walker is doing personally.

The governor is deliberately denying Wisconsinites representation in the legislature by refusing to call special elections to fill open seats in the State Assembly and the State Senate.

In doing so, he is rejecting the clear intent of Wisconsin’s statutes, which declare: “Any vacancy in the office of state senator or representative to the Assembly occurring before the 2nd Tuesday in May in the year in which a regular election is held to fill that seat shall be filled as promptly as possible by special election.”

So what’s up?

It may be that Walker is refusing to schedule the special elections because he is scared. The results of special elections held last Tuesday were disastrous for Walker and his Republican allies. The party lost a State Senate seat in western Wisconsin’s 10th District, as a 26-point Republican advantage in November 2016 shifted to an 11-point Democratic advantage in January 2018. And the GOP came closer than anyone expected to losing an Assembly seat in overwhelmingly Republican Washington County, where a Democrat won 43 percent of the vote. Even the governor admits the loss of the State Senate seat represents a “wake-up call.” And Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, argues that: “Governor Walker is running scared and is playing politics with people’s right to be represented in the State Capitol. He is clearly feeling the heat and scrambling to boost lack luster polls and the Republican brand, but voters are wide awake and aren’t buying it.”

It may be that Walker-- who has run his campaigns with massive infusions of money from outside Wisconsin, approved such extreme gerrymandering that the federal courts have intervened, and backed restrictive voter-ID laws, assaults on early voting, same-day registration, and a host of other assaults on voting rights-- really is as willing to sacrifice Wisconsin democracy on the altar of his many ambitions as his critics suggest.

Whatever his reason, the fact remains that Walker has refused to call special elections to fill the seats of former state senator Frank Lasee, of De Pere, and former state representative Keith Ripp, of Lodi, a pair of Republicans who quit the legislature in December to take posts with the governor’s administration. The governor wants to leave those seats open until January 2019-- denying tens of thousands of Wisconsinites representation for a full year.

When the governor initially refused to call the special elections, his aides claimed that it would be a waste of money to hold them because the legislature wouldn’t be all that busy in 2018-- but the state Senate has already been quite busy, as the assaults on the elections and ethics commissions confirm.

State Senator Chris Larson, the most progressive political leader in Wisconsin, and the guy who started the process of recruiting Randy Bryce to run against Ryan, told me that "Walker and Republicans know the voting public has lost patience with them. They cut education to historic lows while dealing up the largest corporate giveaway in the country’s history. Instead of changing course and actually serving the people, they are instead setting the table for a very shady election cycle. It starts with denying special elections from happening, add in their sabotage of the election and ethics commissions, and layer that all on top of their known past shenanigans of restrictive IDs for voting, gerrymandering, and coordinating with outside special interests. Democrats can and will win seats in Wisconsin this fall, including beating Speaker Ryan and electing a Democratic Governor. But these ardent Trump apologists aren’t going quietly into the night. More than ever, we need bold progressives to run for office who are willing to get out and fight for their neighbors."

Lasee's district, Senate District 1-- east and south of Green Bay-- is made up of Door and Kewaunee counties and bits of Brown and Calumet counties. What frightens Walker is that the heart of the district, the Door Peninsula, voted for Trump in 2016 but for Obama in 2012. Also in the 2016 primaries, Bernie beat Clinton in the district and got more votes that Trump to boot.

Keith Ripp's Assembly district 42 includes most of Columbia and Dodge counties and small bits of Dane, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, and Marquette counties and the cities of Columbus, Fox Lake, Lodi and Waupun. Columbia, the heart of the district, went for Trump in 2016 but strongly for Obama in 2012. During the primary, Bernie didn't just beat Hillary 6,455 (60.5%) to 4,183 (39.2%), but also got more votes than Trump (4,413). Bernie crushed Hillary in every part of Ripp's district. Voters wanted change, when the Democrats gave them an avatar of the status quo, they went for Trump and the GOP. That walkup call Walker heard ringing was Wisconsin voters swinging back towards the Democrats, very, very strongly.

There Are Still Democrats Who Focus On Blue Collar Workers In The Midwest-- Let's Meet Chris Larson Again

Remember when the Wisconsin state Senate ground to a halt to put a break on Scott Walker's anti-union jihad? The architect and leader of that was Chris Larson, who just reminded his supporters the other day that with Trump about to be installed in the White House-- and with a Republican Congress and majorities in legislatures across America-- including his own state-- "each and every victory the progressive movement has logged is about to be on the menu for repeal. It's on us to step up and fight like never before so our children don't have to struggle to get a fair shot at the American dream." I've been trying to persuade Chris to run for federal office for years but he still thinks the greatest contributions he can make are right there in Wisconsin. He's running for reelection to his state senate seat and Blue America has endorsed him-- our first legislative endorsement of the year.

He's campaigning on a platform that states, strongly, that "we can’t afford to go back to a time when our family and friends couldn’t marry the person they love; when women had to pay more than men for their health care insurance; or when we viewed climate change as something deniable and without consequence. The rights set in place under Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society are about to be second guessed. Under the threat of attacks on our societal values, we simply cannot abandon our commitment to each other.... The out-of-touch, harmful, and reckless priorities of Scott Walker, Donald Trump, and Paul Ryan are looming over us, growing darker and darker each day. Now is not the time to retreat."

I asked Chris to re-introduce himself with a guest post. He wrote about why he feels so strongly that "we have the important task of keeping our commitment to each other by expressing our shared values.

Fighting Back In Wisconsin
-by Wisconsin State Senator Chris Larson

The guarantees that were put in place by great progressive leaders are about to be ripped up. We saw this happen in Wisconsin where many of the progressive guarantees were born. If you know nothing about Wisconsin, you should know that we pride ourselves on our progressive ideals, our dedication to quality education, and our appreciation for the great outdoors.

We pioneered open primaries, passed the first workers compensation law, and were the first to bar discrimination of women. We put in place unemployment insurance before others and gave public employees the right to join a union and collectively bargain for their fair share.

On educating our people, Wisconsin was ahead of the curve in ensuring every child has access to a quality education. We not only put it in our state constitution, we set up the first Kindergarten in the country.

Our appreciation for the environment was one thing that could bring us all together. We’ve got a place where you can camp for cheap and hunt and fish on public land. Our US Senator Gaylord Nelson set up Earth Day so we would all think more about finding balance with our planet.

All this changed after Republicans took control of our state. Quickly, after the 2010 tea party wave, the largest cuts to education in state history forced the University of Wisconsin to fall out of the top 5 research institutions for the first time in 45 years. Class sizes have ballooned while local school boards were forced to pass a record number of referendums to make up the state-funding gap for local schools.

In the meantime, they went after the working man and what resulted was Wisconsin tripped itself out of the gate. We have the fastest shrinking middle class in the country and we fell behind the nation in job growth.

Scott Walker made it a point of pride to refuse federal funds for job creation and expansion of health care coverage for our neighbors. Our health care costs are now among the highest in the Midwest.

They've done just about everything to allow polluting industries to right the rules on destroying our shared environment. Republicans caved to threats from mining interests and re-wrote laws and rules in their favor. As a result, pristine lakes and streams have dried up and neighbors are forced to dig well after well in search of fresh water.

Knowing these things wouldn’t fly with voting Wisconsinites, Republicans sought to galvanize their power by quickly silencing the voice of the public. Very quickly, they went after public employee unions, their members, and others who fund progressive politics. Walker broke the law by coordinating with the special interest “Club for Growth” so they could push back against the historic recall against him. When this was revealed, the Republican court ordered an end to the investigation and that evidence be destroyed. If that wasn’t enough, the Republicans in the legislature set a new low by making it illegal for similar future investigations to take place against politicians and also made Wisconsin the first state where this previously illegal coordination would now be legal.

Not to let anything to chance, they put forward the most restrictive voter ID law in the country, redrew legislative districts to lock their majority in place, and spent millions to get a state Supreme Court that rubber-stamps their agenda.

We can’t let this happen to the rest of our country.

The fight is on us now. The question is whether we fight back or just let it happen.

We can’t allow a Russian puppet and those that put party over country to destroy the things we care most about.

If we don’t fight now, our children will have to reinvent the hallmarks our country established in previous generations: the rights set in place under Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.

We cannot abandon our commitment to each other.

We are still fighting back in Wisconsin. Despite Scott Walker’s unparalleled corruption, power grabbing, and illegal coordinating, Wisconsin was still the closest state in the country.

We’re still fighting back because we have to. I hope you’ll stand up and fight back for what we care about, too. It's the only way things will move forward again.

Please join us in helping make sure we can look forward to another term of Chris Larson's strong, principled leadership in the Wisconsin state Senate.

What Will It Take To Turn The Wisconsin State Senate Blue?

Unless you were completely out of it last week, you probably saw something about Wisconsin prosecutors accusing Gov. Scott Walker of overseeing a sweeping “criminal scheme” to illegally coordinate fundraising and campaign activity among conservative groups in a broad effort to help him-- and Republican senators-- beat back recalls in 2011 and 2012. Walker worked with the Kochs and Rove to secretly and illegally raise money and coordinate spending with a dozen right-wing groups during the recall elections.

Juxtaposed with that report was from from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that while Walker was playing politics and trying to coverup his conspiracy, Wisconsin continued underperforming the national economy.

[The] release of the latest Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data brings more disappointing economic news for Wisconsin's middle-class, as the jobs numbers show Wisconsin ranked dead last in the Midwest and 35th in the country overall in job creation since Scott Walker took office.

Wisconsin continues to underperform the national economy all around; both the national economy and Midwest neighbors like Minnesota have regained all the jobs lost in the Great Recession, while Wisconsin has failed to do so, growing jobs at just about half the national average. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported last week that Wisconsin's GDP growth over the last three years was well below the national average and second-to-last among all Midwest states.

The combination has caused Blue America to launch a new goal-- winning the 3 Wisconsin state Senate seats that will check Walker and put the state Senate back in Democratic hands. And, with the help of Democratic Minority Leader Chris Larson, we've already found 2 awesome progressive candidates, Appleton's Penny Bernard Schaber and Sheboygan's Martha Laning. You can find them both, along with Chris, on this special Wisconsin ActBlue page.

Chris told us that "if even some of the allegations by prosecutors are true in the documents out last week, it looks like the outcome of the Gubernatorial and Senate recall elections were altered by illegal corporate money and coordination." This is the message he put on Facebook:

Public integrity and anti-corruption laws have have been a key part of Wisconsin's way for over a century. Wisconsin has been known for our open and transparent government, regardless of the party in power.

Simply put: we are not a state that takes corruption lightly.

But this latest bombshell has revealed that Scott Walker and his inner circle of advisors created a complex scheme of lies, deception, and dishonesty to win at all costs. Governor Scott Walker has created a culture of corruption in Wisconsin that is unacceptable. Anti-corruption laws exist to prevent influence pedaling and preferable legislation from being bought in elections. Regardless of party, every Republican, Democrat, and Independent in our state should be outraged by what Walker and his allies have done.

Enough is enough. Scott Walker needs to come clean, stop playing games, and stop embarrassing Wisconsin.

Yes, Progressives Are Proud Running On Health Care Reform-- Meet Martha Laning Of Sheboygan

A few days ago we took a look at the first of our progressive candidates for the Wisconsin state Senate, Assemblywoman Penny Bernard Schaber from Appleton. Blue America is working to help Wisconsin Democrats flip the state Senate and deprive Scott Walker-- yes, that Scott Walker-- of his near dictatorial control over the state. They only need to win three races to do it. Our second candidate, Martha Laning has never run for office before. But her stunning record of achievement in the realm of civic engagement would be the envy of most politicians.

Martha and her husband and their three children live in Sheboygan. The 9th Senate District extends south from up Calumet and Manitowoc counties, through Sheboygan to the Ozaukee county line. She's been a can do kind of community activist, working with her neighbors to make sure local schools had the facilities they needed to give their children a decent education. She took a job with the Plymouth Intergenerational Coalition to help get their new project off the ground. When the economy collapsed many believed the project would fall apart-- but Martha persevered. She brought together business and community leaders to raise over $4.6 Million for the project, which was completed in May 2011. The building now serves as a community center bringing seniors and children together, and their collaborative efforts have been labeled a model for the State of Wisconsin. She explained that she's running for the Senate because she’s seen firsthand how much we can accomplish when people work together to take on a challenge. She knows that after years of partisanship and gridlock, "it’s time for new leaders who are willing to work with both sides of the aisle to get things done for Wisconsin families.   As Senator she’ll bring Republicans and Democrats together to reinvest in our classrooms and job training programs, give local businesses the support they need to grow, return local control to the local representatives elected to serve their community, safeguard health and safety services that local families rely on, and balance the state’s budget the right way-- by working with both parties to find the best solutions."

I asked her to introduce herself with a guest post about a topic that is central to her campaign, Scott Brown's refusal to expand Medicare/Badger Care to many of the state's most needy families. If you like what you read, please consider contributing to her grassroots campaign here.

Wisconsin And The Affordable Care Act
-by Martha Laning

The question of "Was it wise for the State to refuse the federal Medicare Expansion funds here in Wisconsin?" is easy to answer because unlike most issues I can not find one good reason to have not accepted those dollars.

So let's start with the facts. The state of Wisconsin has traditionally been one of the most progressive health care states in the nation. Republican Governor Tommy Tompson and Democratic Governor Jim Doyle were both supportive of ensuring health care was provided to "at risk" Wisconsinites.

Before the Affordable Care Act, Wisconsin offered Badger Care to all children and parents with custodial rights whose families were at or below 200% of poverty level. For pregnant woman, the level of coverage was 300%. Some childless adults were covered as well-- there was a cap on coverage once 60,000 people were enrolled. Once Governor Walker took office, he reduced the coverage cap for childless adults to 20,000 enrollees. Badger Care was funded by the federal government at 60% and the remaining 40% was paid by the state.

With the passing of the Affordable Care Act:

The state was asked by the federal government to cover all people who lived at or below 133% of the poverty level (children, pregnant woman and adults with or without children). Yes, you read that right-- the federal govenment was reducing the number of people that Wisconsin would be expected to cover under Badger Care from 200% or 300% (depending on whether it was a child, pregnant woman etc.) to just 133% of the poverty level.

In exchange the state was offered not only the 60% of cost reimbursement for offering Badger Care to people at or below the federal poverty level, but 100% of the cost of insuring people from 101% to 133% of the poverty level.

The federal government also offered coverage for people living at 133% to 400% of the poverty level, federal subsidies, on a sliding scale, to make their health care affordable. Traditionally, Wisconsin had covered some of these people and if we accepted the Federal Government's offer our Badger Care expenses would decline. For people making between 133% and 200%/300% (200% for a child or parent with children or 300% for pregnant woman) the people would take on a larger portion of their health care expenses because Wisconsin had traditionally paid more under Governor Thompson and Governor Doyle.

The bottom line is that whether the legislators like or dislike the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is irrelevant because the decisiion to pass the ACA is a federal decision. The state legislators role, on the other hand, is to be sure that Wisconsin residents get the full benefits of the federal laws passed. So to me this was a no brainer decision-- the ACA had passed and I as a legislator would have wanted Wisconsin to get our share of the benefits. Instead our Legislature and Governor made a political statement about not liking the Affordable Care Act and rejected the required changes thereby refusing $149 million in federal reimbursement for just the current 2 year budget. If that decision holds, Wisconsin will continue to lose out.

The loss to our state goes further than just a federal funding loss. At risk Wisconsinites lost valuable affordable coverage and our economy was robbed of dollars that would have been spent in the state. I believe we will soon be learning that the cost of health care in Wisconsin is higher here than in other states in part by the fact that doctors and hospitals are being left with unpaid deductibles that our at risk citizens can't afford.

I see three losses for Wisconsin:

• 70,000 of Wisconsin residents were denied full coverage health care that Wisconsin federal tax dollars would have paid for-- those tax dollars, sent in by hard working Wisconsinites were not used to help Wisconsinites OR reimbursed to us, but were sent to other states. That isn't fair or right!

• Low income families and individuals, who were no longer covered, were expected to go on the exchange to get health care. They were expected to pay for their health care using money they could have spent in Wisconsin's economy. So the Governor's and Legislature's decision reduced the dollars spent in stores and shops in Wisconsin which hurts our economy.

• Finally the affordable coverage offered to the low income families, even with federal subsidies, have high deductibles, which will become a drain on our doctors and hospitals when families with little to no discretionary income are unable to pay the deductibles. When you're struggling to pay for food and housing you don't have money for a $1,000 deductible so these low income families leave the burden on our doctors and hospitals. That drives up health care costs and may be one of the reasons Minnesota has lower insurance premiums-- because doctors and hospitals know that bills charged in Minnesota are more likely to be paid. (Minnesota covers under the state's health care program people up to 200% of the federal poverty level.)

I can not think of a single reason why we would reject Wisconsite's hard earned federal tax dollars from coming here. I understand that Govenor Walker did not like the ACA but that was a federal question; the state's question was whether or not to accept federal dollars to cover Wisconsinites... he got it wrong. This decision should not have been a political statement, it should have been a decision to provide the best services to the people of Wisconsin.

Again, if you want to help turn Wisconsin's Senate blue, this page is dedicated to doing just that.

Taking Back The Wisconsin State Senate-- Meet Penny Bernard Schaber

With Steve Israel running the DCCC there is no chance of the Democrats winning back the House, literally, none whatsoever. Israel is leaving too many vulnerable Republicans on the table and squandering DCCC money on ridiculous races that aren't long shots, but NO SHOTS. People think I'm being apocryphal when I say he's flushing resources down a toilet with a PVI of R+15. But I'm being literal. Israel is trying to get fellow Blue Dogs elected in impossibly red districts-- in Arkansas he's working to elect conservative Democrats in districts that have PVIs of R+8, R+14 and R+15 and in West Virginia he's helping conservatives in R+11 and R+14 districts-- while ignoring candidates running against Republicans in much more vulnerable districts or, worse yet, working behind the scenes to make sure these Republicans would have either no opponent at all (Ileana Ros Lehtinen, Charlie Dent and David Jolly) or no plausible opponent (Peter King, Pat Meehan and Reid Ribble). It's still very much worth building a progressive movement by supporting excellent candidates like these but don't kid yourself into thinking there's going to be a change in control over the House. That simply cannot happen while Steve Israel is at the helm of the DCCC.

That doesn't make us any less enthusiastic about, for example, helping Kelly Westlund beat Sean Duffy is WI-07, Dave Obey's sprawling old R+2 district in the northwestern part of the state. That's another one Israle is completely ignoring, Kelly being a progressive and all. But her congressional race and Rob Zerban's race against Paul Ryan in the southeastern corner of the state, aren't the only game in town-- or at least not in Wisconsin. Blue America is taking on the task of helping flip the state Senate. We can stop Scott Walker dead in his tracks by winning a net of three seats in the state Senate. We're talking to all the plausible candidates and not only are there at least 3 Democrats who can win, there are at least 3 with strong progressive values and visions who can!

We're still talking to all of the candidates but we've already found one I want to introduce today, Appleton Assemblywoman Penny Bernard Schaber. You may recall a couple of months ago the pitiful story of Senate President Michael Ellis, who was caught on tape spectacularly breaking campaign finance law. Ellis was the Republican Penny was running against. He dropped out of the race. At the time Senate Democratic Leader Chris Larson told us, "The people of Wisconsin are sick of the culture of corruption in Madison. We need to end the days of pay-to-play governing and do-anything-to-stay-in-power politics utilized by current Republican leaders… Footage released earlier this week about Ellis’ illegal plans to attack his opponent, Penny Bernard Schaber, with illegal campaign money marks a new chapter in the continued culture of corruption within the Senate Republican caucus. Voters will not stand for this kind of unethical behavior any longer. It's time that we restore balance to our state government by electing a proven reformer like Penny to a Democratic-led Senate."

So what do we know about Penny? Before jumping into politics, she had over 30 years of experience as a Physical Therapist in hospitals, clinics, schools and nursing homes." I have learned how important it is to analyze the problem in front of me," she told us this morning, "to do my best to determine the root cause and to lay out an achievable plan with short term and long term goals and then implement the plan reaching these goals in a reasonable and relatively short period of time. It has been my job to take things that don’t work so well and help them to work better. This approach has not failed me in all my years as a PT. I continue to use this method in my new career as a State Representative; however it is not as easy as I hoped it would be. It seems that for every cause I find for a problem and potential solution I attempt to implement, I find more road blocks and detours than I anticipated. But I do not let this stop me, it may slow me down a bit but it does not squelch my desire to see government work well and work for everyone in Wisconsin."

Penny was elected to represent the 57th Assembly District in 2008 becoming the first Democrat in 97 years to represent the district. She ran for the same office in 2006, worked hard to create a grassroots network of supporters and volunteers and, in the end, taking 47% of the vote-- not bad for a first ever attempt at elected office. It didn't stop her and she continued to keep the grassroots effort together and to expand it so that she managed to frighten the incumbent off and then beat the GOP's designated replacement, Jo Egelhoff 15,383- 11,560, in the next go-round. After winning a tough race in 2010-- the Tea Party wave election-- the Republicans didn't even out up an opponent against her in 2012.

She's well known among her colleagues for being prepared in committee to ask questions for working to develop improvements to proposed legislation. "In my first term in office I was able to work with an experienced Senator, Mark Miller, from Madison, on a bill that would require recycling of electronic waste materials including computers, TV’s, printers and many other items. This bill required cooperation from the product’s sellers and users of the items and has been very successful and is keeping millions of pounds of materials out of our landfills and has created several small business and increased jobs in Wisconsin. I am very proud of this legislation.

"My top priority in the upcoming legislative term is to pass legislation that would create a nonpartisan commission that would draw the lines for all redistricting of local, state and federal elected official districts. I was part of an effort to do this in my first term of office and am committed to making sure this happens before the next redistricting occurs in 2020. This is my top priority because when the party in power is able to draw the lines to increase their power, the citizens are not being considered and become the losers in Government, and the majority party quickly becomes a permanent majority and no longer needs to listen to citizens or work for all citizens. To fix government, I believe this is the place to start. It will be my priority in my campaign for State Senate where I believe I will have the opportunity to win a very challenging campaign and will be able to change the future for Wisconsin."

I followed up on that with her asking why that's the most important issue the state Senate will be facing next year. She had put a lot of thought into it and her response inspired everyone here at Blue America:

In order to take the first step toward fixing Government we need to have a Non Partisan Council or Commission be responsible for drawing the boundaries for Legislative Districts. Iowa uses a Non Partisan Commission to draw its boundaries for elected offices and they have compact, contiguous districts that are competitive and therefore give the voters not only a voice but also a choice!

When the party in power gets to draw the lines of the districts without input from anyone else, especially not from the minority party and not from the voters, they will draw the lines to their favor. This happens regardless of which party is in power.

The voters deserve the opportunity make a choice, to be part of competitive and contested elections because the voters are the key to making Government work for them. As redistricting by either party becomes hyper partisan the voice of the voter is lost and not heard by the people who are elected to represent them. The voters loose every time under this method.

It is time for the voters to be heard in Wisconsin and the first step for this to happen is to work very hard to build legislation that uses a non partisan commission or council to draw the lines of all districts in Wisconsin. This is a key first step for giving the power back to the citizens of our state.

Blue America is just getting started with our effort to help Wisconsin Democrats take back the state Senate and Penny is our first candidate. If you'd like to help, we have a brand new page to do that on. And remember, there's no such thing as a contribution that is too small.