Category: Wisconsin

Study Says Stricter Voter ID Laws Do Not Lead to Voter Suppression

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by Nick Givas   Former Department of Justice attorney J. Christian Adams said voter ID laws do not lead to voter suppression Wednesday on “Fox & Friends,” citing a study from The National Bureau of Economic Research. “This is a huge survey,” Adams said. “Fifty-thousand sampled. They discovered that voter ID has absolutely no negative impact on voters — something most of us already knew, a small fringe of dishonest people didn’t know. They make money off of this. They raise huge sums of money to pay lawyers to attack states that implement voter ID … This is something most Americans agree with, and now we know it doesn’t do any harm.” The study examined 10 states with voter ID laws, including Georgia and Wisconsin. It found minorities were not negatively affected by the measures, Adams said. “A huge survey found that it did not effect minorities negatively, which tells you they have been lying,” he added. “They have been scaring minorities in the worse possible ways about voter ID and election integrity laws. They use it to increase their own power, to create this hysteria, and frankly, Brian, the survey showed that if voter ID does anything, it increases…

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Steve Gill Commentary: The Christian Vote, Particularly the Catholic Votes, Are Critical to Trump’s Re-Election in 2020

Steve Gill

Three states in the midwest that Hillary Clinton was counting on to carry her to victory in 2016 narrowly ended up in the Donald Trump column — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. If those three states had been won by Clinton, their 46 Electoral votes would have given her the presidency with slightly more than the necessary 270 needed to win. The total vote margin for Donald Trump in all three of those states was only 107,000! He carried Michigan by 11,837. Wisconsin by 27,257. Pennsylvania by 68,236. The big question as 2020 looms is whether he can retain or expand those margins regardless of whom the Democrats pick as their standard-bearer. Democrats won Senate races in all three states in 2018 and knocked off Republican Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin as well, giving them hope that they can swing them back to blue in 2020. Christian voters were a key component in Trump’s victory in those and other battleground states, like Ohio, Florida and Iowa. George Barna detailed the impact of the Christian vote in 2016 in his book The Day Christians Changed America.  Groups like Lift the Vote, a non-profit focused on energizing and mobilizing Evangelical voters in key…

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Chicago Mayoral Candidate Wants to Sue Indiana and Wisconsin to Stop Gun Violence

Anthony Gockowski

Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico, a Democrat, recently suggested that he would sue the states of Indiana and Wisconsin in an effort to curb gun violence in his city. During a Thursday candidate’s forum, Chico said that “we have to get these illegal guns off our streets.” “The gang-bangers that are committing crimes with guns are out of control, and what we’re finding is that more than 60 percent of the guns used in these crimes are coming from over the border. I’ve said that if we can’t get Indiana and Wisconsin to work with us, we sue them, and that includes the Cabela’s gun shop right in Indiana—right in Hammond, Indiana. We can no longer take this,” Chico elaborated. Those numbers stem from a 2017 Gun Trace Report conducted by the Chicago Police Department in collaboration with Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office and the University of Chicago Crime Lab. The report found that 21 percent of firearms recovered in crimes came from Indiana, while four percent were from Wisconsin. 40 percent, however, came from within Illinois, while another five percent were from Mississippi. Additionally, the report found that two Illinois-based firearms stores produced the most guns recovered in crimes, while the…

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13-Year-Old Jayme Closs Found Alive 87 Days After Being Abducted from Her Wisconsin Home

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by Evie Fordham   A 13-year-old girl who was missing for 87 days was found alive in Gordon, Wisconsin, after escaping from her alleged abductor, authorities announced at a press conference Friday. Jayme Closs was allegedly kidnapped and held in a home in a “remote” area by 21-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson, according to CNN. Patterson may also be responsible for the murders of Closs’s parents, James and Denise Closs. They were found shot to death in their home on Oct. 15, the night their daughter disappeared, reported NBC News. “Jayme was taken against her will and escaped from the residence at which she was being held in. We also don’t believe at this time the suspect had any contact with the family. We do believe that Jayme was the only target,” Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said according to CNN. Patterson has been arrested and charged with murder and kidnapping. “For 88 days I have said we would work tirelessly to bring Jayme Closs home. We have done just that,” Fitzgerald continued. “Jayme is safe.” Jayme Closs escaped from the home where she was being held and approached a woman walking her dog for help Thursday night, according to CNN.…

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Scott Walker Will Help Chair Trump’s Reelection Campaign in Wisconsin

Anthony Gockowski

Former Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), who officially left office this week after eight years, announced Wednesday that he plans to help chair President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign in Wisconsin. “I’m going to help chair his and Vice President Pence’s campaign here in Wisconsin,” Walker said on Fox and Friends. “I want to be a part of making sure that we keep this president and this administration intact.” Thanks to @foxandfriends for having me on this morning to talk about how we ended our term with a $588 million surplus, our plans for the future and more. https://t.co/ZKimBBHRFy — Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) January 9, 2019 While Walker plans to work in the private sector for a few years, he’s repeatedly expressed interest in running for the U.S. Senate in 2022 if Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) decides against seeking reelection, which some believe is likely since Johnson has imposed term limits on himself. “My friend, Ron Johnson, has said that he wouldn’t be running again but I’m going to defer to him. If he wants to run again, I think he’s a good and effective United States Senator. If he didn’t, well I’ll think about it,” Walker said on The Jay Weber…

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Wisconsin Governor Issues Executive Order on ‘Gender Identity or Expression’ on First Day in Office

Anthony Gockowski

In one of his first acts in office, Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) signed an executive order seeking to prohibit discrimination on the basis of “gender identity or expression” in state agencies. Executive Order #1 states that it “is the expressed policy of my administration that the executive branch should prevent discrimination and harassment against any class of citizens because of age, race, religion, color, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression,” and so forth. The order is not yet available online, likely because Evers was just sworn in Monday, but he posted a picture of it to his Facebook page. “In addition to the excitement of taking the oath of office today, I had the opportunity to sign my first two executive orders as governor. These orders prevent discrimination in state agencies and recognize the importance of state employees,” Ever said in a Facebook post. “Each person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. This fosters sound government, society, and business, and it’s just the right thing to do.” According to The Capital Times, the order states that any recipients of government contracts or grants can only hire on the basis of merit, and requires the Equal Employment…

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Obama Says Politicians Lying is Something We Have Not Seen Before. Here Are Three of His Biggest Whoppers

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by Tim Pearce   Former President Barack Obama lamented the state of political rhetoric in the U.S. at a rally in Wisconsin on Friday, saying politicians are “just blatantly, repeatedly, baldly, shamelessly lying.” Obama traveled to Wisconsin to campaign for Democratic candidates including Sen. Tammy Baldwin, gubernatorial candidate Tony Evers and others. Obama accused Republicans of lying about healthcare, namely that GOP politicians would protect coverage of pre-existing conditions. “Listen throughout human history, certainly throughout American history, politicians have exaggerated. They make promises that they may try to fulfill, but then it turns out to be harder than they expected,” Obama told the crowd assembled in Milwaukee. “They pump up the things that they did that are good.” “They downplay the things that they did that aren’t so good. They try to put a positive spin on things,” Obama continued. “But what we have not seen before, in our recent public life, at least, is politicians just blatantly, repeatedly, baldly, shamelessly lying.” Obama spun news, evaded questions, contradicted himself and made false statements a number of times while he was in office. In 2011, Obama claimed he signed into law the biggest middle-class tax cut in history, referring to the Making…

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Wisconsin GOP Senate Hopes Rely on Underdog Leah Vukmir

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Leah Vukmir, Tammy Baldwin

Leah Vukmir is used to being the underdog. Few gave the Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Wisconsin much of a chance of defeating her better-funded primary challenger last month, but she prevailed thanks largely to support from the party establishment. Now Vukmir faces another opponent with deeper pockets – Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin – in one of the most expensive Senate races in the country. The contest could determine control of the Senate and will be closely watched as an indicator of whether Wisconsin might return to its traditional status as a Democratic state during the 2020 presidential election. Vukmir is taking a big risk by tying herself to President Donald Trump, who won Wisconsin by less than 23,000 votes in 2016, and Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who faces a tough re-election contest in November. “I don’t think any of that intimidates her,” said former Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, Vukmir’s mentor when she was first elected to the Assembly in 2002. “She is the underdog, but she likes that position.” Vukmir, 60, is the daughter of Greek immigrants, a lifelong resident of the Milwaukee area and a registered nurse. Until the Senate campaign, she worked as a nursing instructor.…

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Koch Network Launches Massive Ad Campaign to Bring Down Dem Senate Candidates in Key States, Including Tennessee

Anthony Gockowski
Phil Bredesen

The Koch Network is preparing to launch a multi-million dollar ad campaign across three swing-states in the hopes of bringing down key Democrats in the midterm elections. Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a Koch-backed group, announced Wednesday that it would spend $820,000 in Wisconsin, $2.1 million in Missouri, and another $2 million in Tennessee, according to CNBC. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who has already faced $5 million in attack ads thus far, is outed for opposing the GOP tax bill and backing a $1.3 trillion spending bill in AFP’s latest ad. “For Tammy Baldwin, it’s higher taxes and more spending. Higher sales taxes, higher income taxes, higher energy taxes, voting for $1.3 trillion in spending. We can’t afford Tammy Baldwin,” the ad states, praising Baldwin’s Republican opponent Leah Vukmir. In Tennessee, the Koch network is going after former governor Phil Bredesen, who is now seeking a Senate seat, for spending $9 million on remodeling the governor’s mansion at the expense of taxpayers. “While we struggled through a recession, Bredesen wasted 9 million taxpayer dollars upgrading his governor’s mansion, $4 million on a party cave, gilded bathrooms, and a kitchen worth two Tennessee homes,” the ad states. “Phil Bredesen lived the…

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Wisconsin and New Jersey are Among the States Looking To Copy Minnesota Model Of Using Federal Funds To Lower Insurance Premiums

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Minnesota capitol

by Evie Fordham   Several states including Wisconsin and New Jersey are seeking to copy Minnesota’s model of federal reinsurance program funding that contributed to a 13-percent drop in premium rates in the state from 2017 to 2018. The Minnesota legislature adopted the program, which uses mostly federal funds to help insurers cover people with medical bills typically between $50,000 and $250,000, in 2017, reported Kaiser Health News. The program enables insurers to lower premiums and is a policy encouraged by the Trump administration. Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker is focusing his campaign on his health care accomplishments, including support for his state’s reinsurance program, reported RealClear Politics. He says premiums will be 11 percent lower than they would have been without the program in 2019, reported HealthLeaders Media. Minnesota’s 2018 reinsurance program received $131 million from the federal government, and many other states have applied or are applying for reinsurance program funding. Alaska and Oregon have programs similar to Minnesota’s in place. The main difference between Alaska’s program, which started in 2016, and other states’ is that Alaska’s covers all costs for people with “highest-cost conditions.” Wisconsin and Maine were approved in July, while Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland and New Jersey are working toward having programs set up by…

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Turnout in Minnesota, Wisconsin Primary Elections at a Twenty-Year High

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voters polling place

Reuters   Voter engagement in the 2018 U.S. midterm races remains feverish, primaries in notable swing states Wisconsin and Minnesota showed on Tuesday. Both states showed sharp increases in participation as voters picked candidates for Congress, Senate and governor, with Minnesota’s turnout surpassing a two-decade high and Wisconsin’s hitting levels not reached for a state primary since at least 2002. Democrats are hoping to replicate successes seen around the nation throughout the past 18 months in local and state special elections, where high levels of enthusiasm have propelled them to victories in races from Alabama’s Senate seat in December to a southwest Pennsylvania congressional district in March. The party is desperately seeking to flip control of Congress and capture more statehouses across the nation, as Republicans have control of both houses of Congress and the majority of state legislatures. In Minnesota, more than 900,000 voters turned out in a state known for high levels of voter engagement, according to unofficial state figures on Wednesday. That equals a turnout rate of roughly 22 percent, according to Minnesota’s secretary of state. It was also the highest for state primary nominating contests since 1994, not including presidential primaries, according to state data. More…

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Left’s War on Governor Walker in Wisconsin Was a Dry Run for Its ‘Resistance’ Against Trump

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Donald Trump, Scott Walker

by M.D. Kittle   Good morning America. You are now entering Wisconsin, circa 2011. The left’s #Resistance movement today against all things Trump is what big labor brought the Badger State seven years ago when “progressives” stomped all over civility in a campaign to topple Republican Gov. Scott Walker. “What happened in Wisconsin … is being writ large across the country,” state Sen. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, said last year following an anti-Trump Women’s March on Madison, complete with “F— Trump” signs and pink “pussyhat” clad protesters. That was in March 2017. Think about how much more nastiness and downright disorder has occurred since. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] Last month, the owner of a Virginia restaurant booted White House press secretary Sarah Sanders from the premises because Sanders works for President Donald Trump, and the eatery has “certain standards” to uphold. Days before a left-wing mob harassed U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and colleagues outside a Mexican restaurant. The members of Democratic Socialists of America shouted obscenities and attempted to “Shame! Shame! Shame!” the secretary for standing up for border detention laws that have separated some illegal immigrant…

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Wisconsin Supreme Court Sides With Conservative Prof Suspended For Blog Post He Wrote In 2014

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John McAdams

by Evie Fordham   The Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered Marquette University to “immediately reinstate” political science professor John McAdams on Friday after a four-year legal battle over McAdams’ criticism of a graduate student teacher on his conservative blog. McAdams refused to apologize for the blog post and was suspended from teaching at the Jesuit university without pay. He will be awarded damages and back pay by the Milwaukee County Circuit Court according to the state supreme court’s ruling, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The undisputed facts show that the University breached its contract with Dr. McAdams when it suspended him for engaging in activity protected by the contract’s guarantee of academic freedom,” stated Justice Daniel Kelly in the majority opinion. McAdams wrote a blog post criticizing former grad student instructor Cheryl Abbate on his self-described “independent” and “skeptical” campus news blog The Marquette Warrior in November 2014. The professor wrote the post after student complained to him that Abbate had told a him to drop her philosophy class after refusing to let him discuss his views on gay marriage in class. McAdams linked Abbate’s contact information in the post, and she received “dozens” of emails that she said made her feel unsafe, reported the Journal Sentinel. To examine whether…

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GOP Congressman Says He Received More Death Threats In 2017 Than Every Other Year Combined

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by Peter Hasson   Republican Arizona Rep. David Schweikert says he received more death threats in 2017 than every other year he’s been in office combined. “My fear is this is the playbook of a lot of our brothers and sisters on the left — they’re going to get fringier and fringier, louder and louder, angrier and angrier, and as you and I know, we sometimes have some folks in our society who aren’t completely healthy,” Schweikert said while appearing on “Plaidcast,” a podcast hosted by Republican Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin. “And we had more death threats last year, in my office, even one towards my little girl, than we’ve ever had in all the other years combined and my fear is that this rage that is being generated for political turnout is actually really becoming unhealthy for our political society,” Schweikert continued. The Arizona congressman has served in Congress since 2011. “It’s incredibly troubling, because I’ve had threats against my family and my children as well — horrible things said,” Duffy agreed. “We know what happened to [House Majority Whip] Steve Scalise last year and our baseball team and with that, I don’t think the left recognizes that…

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