Here & Now

McCoshen And Ross Debate Chance Of Gun Reform In Wis.

Frederica Freyberg:

Special session, special election, regular elections. We want to break it all down with our two political commentators Bill McCoshen, managing partner of Capitol Consultants, and One Wisconsin Now Executive Director, Scot Ross. Thanks you guys for being here.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

So first reaction to the governor’s call for a special session on school safety?

Bill McCoshen:

Well, seems to be a little disagreement between the houses on whether or not there will be a special session. The speaker, Robin Vos, and the governor agreed there should be a special session. The governor introduced his agenda. Majority Leader of the Senate Scott Fitzgerald said not so fast. We’re going to pass bills in regular session next Tuesday when they met. So it sort of remains to be seen whether or not this is going to actually happen.

Scot Ross:

Aside from the fact Republicans can’t govern even though they’re in charge of everything, let us not forget this. This is a plan Scott Walker is doing because he has a political problem. And so course his plan does nothing about — his plan to keep guns out of schools does nothing to keep guns out of schools. In fact, giving $100 million slush fund to Brad Schimel, a guy who a week and a half ago said we should put guns in schools, seems like the worst possible idea you could ever have if you really want to keep guns out of our schools.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you think about the optics of the governor being way, way out of state, up north when thousands of students marched on the capitol over school safety?

Scot Ross:

I'll give him a break on that. I’m sure it was probably scheduled. He has been traveling non-stop around the state as he’s getting ready for his re-election campaign. Whether you’re in Florence, whether you’re in Ladysmith, whether you’re in Madison, you know that Scott Walker is in the pocket of the National Rifle Association. The guy’s gotten $3.5 million from them. One of the biggest elected official grabs in all of America.

Frederica Freyberg:

What about–go ahead.

Bill McCoshen:

Yeah, I would say, I agree. The governor’s traveling all the time and you can’t adjust your schedule because one group of protestors going to happen to show up on a particular day. But I would say school safety is a big issue nationally now largely because of what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Florida. Now different governors are taking different approaches. I think this is a reasonable approach on behalf of Governor Walker. It remains to be seen whether or not the legislature’s actually going to act on it. But it is an issue voters are focusing on right now.

Frederica Freyberg:

We did see a recent Marquette Law School poll that said 81% of the respondents were in favor of universal background checks and 56% of respondents were in favor of banning assault-style weapons. So is the approach that Wisconsin is looking at somewhat tone deaf?

Bill McCoshen:

No. I don’t think so. Walker is in favor of background checks. President Trump’s in favor of background checks. I don’t know why that’s not part of the package here. It probably could have been and maybe will be before this thing is all done. But as far as it relates to guns, that’s a trickier ones. The guns weren’t the issue in Florida. It was a failure by law enforcement, both in the sheriff’s department and by the FBI that really caused that to happen.

Scot Ross:

I'm going to be very quick. I’m going to tell you a story. Scott Walker authored a bill to put concealed carry on the street. In 2002 he ran for county executive and voted against conceal carry. As governor he signed concealed carry into office. Scott Walker has one way to deal with things politically. He has a problem because people want real common sense gun reforms. But instead of doing that, he is throwing money at Brad Schimel. That is not a solution. It’s not going to keep guns out of our schools unfortunately.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you say the issue is not the guns?

Bill McCoshen:

It's not the guns. No, not in this particular case. What happened in Florida was a failure on the part of law enforcement. There’s no question about that. They had dozens of notices about this kid and they didn’t do anything with them. And then the guys that did respond stood outside and let this shooting continue. What happened from law enforcement there is a lesson to law enforcement across the nation what you cannot do in a situation like that.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let's move to Pennsylvania. Scot Ross?

Scot Ross:

Yes. It’s actually Pennsylvania 18. I grew up there. My dad and my brother still live there. And this was a utter shellacking for Donald Trump and for Paul Ryan. They went in and Paul Ryan spent $13.5 million and lost a seat that Donald Trump won by 20 points. I mean the last time a Democrat held that office I think I was in my late 20s. This is a huge, huge victory. And an indication that there is a big blue wave coming.

Frederica Freyberg:

Indication of that?

Bill McCoshen:

Oh my god. Not even close. This race is separated by 600 votes. It’s likely to go to a recount. Perhaps Conor Lamb wins, perhaps he doesn’t. I would say this about Conor Lamb. He’s the kind of Democrat that my mom and dad would have voted for in the past. He’s pro-life. He’s pro-gun. He’s pro-military and he’s anti-big government. This guy came out against Nancy Pelosi. Those are things my parents would have related to. Likely Scot’s parents relate to. He’s a moderate Democrat which is very different than Democrats are offering anywhere else in the country.

Scot Ross:

I will add this. My mom absolutely, if she were still alive, would have voted for Conor Lamb because he’s pro-union and she was a union public school teacher for 35 years and you’re totally right about that. But Conor Lamb, let’s not kid ourselves, he came out against Trump’s tax cut, against Trump’s cuts to Obamacare, against Paul Ryan’s attacks on…

Bill McCoshen:

He’s for the tariffs.

Scot Ross:

Yeah, of course, on social security Medicare. He said no more restrictions on abortion even though he is pro-life.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you reject the idea that a conservative Democrat won, because he was a conservative Democrat as opposed to a tide against Donald Trump.

Scot Ross:

I would say this. Many, many, many elections–what? 90, 95% are won on filing day because you get the right candidate for the district. He was the right candidate for this district. But to paint him as a Republican, which is what Paul Ryan and the Republicans are trying to do because they got shell lacked I think is disingenuous to say the least looking at the facts.

Bill McCoshen:

I’m not painting him as a Republican, I’m just saying that’s what Democrats used to look like. They don’t look anything like that today.

Frederica Freyberg:

Are you saying Republicans aren’t worried about this?

Bill McCoshen:

They ought to be. It’s a wake-up call. Donald Trump won this district by 20 points. There’s no question about that. The president himself went and campaigned 72 hours before the final vote yet his candidate or our party’s candidate lost by 600, at least by this point in time. So it’s a wake-up call for sure.

Frederica Freyberg:

So millionaire anti-Trump millionaire Tom Steyer is setting up shop in Wisconsin. Tammy Baldwin is being bashed by big money already on the airwaves. What kind of moneyed warfare should we be expecting going forward?

Scot Ross:

I think there’s going to be a lot of money spent. I mean, what, they spent the most money of any Senate race against Tammy Baldwin so far. There’s opportunity here. It’s why Scott Walker is refusing to hold special elections in the 42nd Assembly district and the 1st Senate district. We have an election coming up on April 3rd, which literally, oh god, the eyes of America are going to be back on Wisconsin politically because what happens here with that in the fact that progressives have a first chance in a generation to win an open Supreme Court seat is pretty big news.

Bill McCoshen:

Electoral history is on Tammy Baldwin's side at this point in time, but Republicans see this as a golden opportunity. It’s one of their top ten targets nationally. Look for about $50 million or more to be spent in this race.

Frederica Freyberg:

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross, thank you.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:

Thank you.