Announcer:

The following program is part of our “Here & Now” 2018 Wisconsin Vote election coverage.

Frederica Freyberg:

I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” incumbent U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin is here. After that, a closer look at what the latest Marquette Law School Poll numbers mean in races for governor and U.S. Senate in Wisconsin. And the latest from the Dane County executive on this week’s record rainfall and flooding. It’s “Here & Now” for August 24.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here & Now” is provided, in part, by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

Frederica Freyberg:

Last week, we talked with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir. This week, incumbent U.S. Senator Democrat Tammy Baldwin is here. Baldwin is a Madison native and graduate of the UW-Madison Law School. She was elected to three terms in the State Assembly before serving seven terms as the 2nd District U.S. Representative. She defeated former governor Tommy Thompson in 2012 for the U.S. Senate seat to which she now seeks re-election. Incumbent Senator Tammy Baldwin joins us now from Milwaukee and thanks very much for doing so.

Tammy Baldwin:

I’m delighted to join you. Thank you, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:

First I wanted to ask you what is your reaction to this week’s Marquette Law School Poll that found you two points up on your challenger Leah Vukmir among likely voters?

Tammy Baldwin:

You know, having experienced $11 million of nasty attack ads from out-of-state billionaires, this is what happens when you have this special interest money in politics. And it’s why that should be one of the things, top of our list for reforms. But I always thought this was going to be a competitive race. And I think ultimately where the voters are going to be looking in terms of a clear choice is who’s in their corner, who’s fighting for them and who’s doing the bidding of these out-of-state, powerful special interests.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, as we said, we interviewed Leah Vukmir last Friday. She called you a “backbencher.” What’s your response to that?

Tammy Baldwin:

So I’m really proud of the ways in which I champion Wisconsin issues. The things that people bring to me, we discuss. Right now one of the biggest concerns on the minds of Wisconsinites is health care. In particular, they’ve seen a fight last year where they almost saw their health care ripped away and the protections ripped away. And right now after we narrowly defeated that legislation, we’re seeing the administration try to unravel it as well as the case that’s going up to the Supreme Court ultimately, to take away protections for people with pre-existing conditions. I am leading that fight in the Senate of the United States. I know what it was like to have a childhood illness and then be labeled as a child with a pre-existing condition. I know that almost half of Wisconsinites struggle with these issues in their families. So I am fighting for them. And this is really one of the fights of our times.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, many people, including your challenger, say that they do support protecting people with pre-existing conditions and ten Republican Senators yesterday introduced a bill to do just that. So why are those protections at such risk?

Tammy Baldwin:

Well, they’re at risk for a number of reasons. First of all, the administration is no longer defending those protections in a lawsuit that was brought by Governor Walker and Attorney General Schimel and other states challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act and in particular they’re attacking that provision that requires coverage for people who have been sick before. But the other way, and where you’re going to see Senate action, and I’m going to take the lead, is the administration support of something called junk plans. These are plans that are only intended to be very temporary bridge plans for people between jobs or between plans. And they don’t have to cover anything. It’s really — if you read the fine print, you’d be horrified. Certainly no pre-existing conditions. They have limits on how much they’ll pay out. We saw one the other day that won’t cover hospitalization if it happens on a Friday night or Saturday night. What’s that message? Don’t get sick on a weekend? I’m mean it’s — these are absurd and they don’t have the protections that Americans need to know that they are secure. And so we are going to try to overturn that Trump rule. And the Republicans in the Senate who are speaking out to save pre-existing condition coverage, they can join me and we can win on this.

Frederica Freyberg:

Speaking of Donald Trump, as you well know, he won Wisconsin and he endorses and has the support of Leah Vukmir. What is your position on his presidency?

Tammy Baldwin:

Well, that’s a really huge question, and you’re asking me at the end of a week in which on Tuesday we saw one set of guilty verdicts in a trial of his former campaign manager and another, his personal lawyer, plead guilty on several counts, including two where he directly implicated the president. On the other hand, I would tell you that my approach to the president and I think I had the chance earlier to tell you the story of my first time meeting with him, where I said. “I’m going to talk about buy America policies because that’s clearly something that we agree on and we can work together on.” And so the bottom line is if he’s proposing something that helps Wisconsin, I’m probably going to work with him. And if he’s proposing something or has done something to harm Wisconsin, I’m going to stand up, just as I always do.

Frederica Freyberg:

What’s your position as to whether Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court should be delayed because of the conviction of Paul Manafort and the guilty plea of Michael Cohen?

Tammy Baldwin:

Well, I think Wisconsinites demand a fair, impartial, independent judge — justice on the Supreme Court because the stakes are so high. I mean, this next justice will probably have a pivotal vote on that very case to consider whether pre-existing health conditions are going to be covered. They’ll have deciding vote on whether Roe versus Wade will remain the law of the land and women will have equality and also access to reproductive health care. They’ll decide on incredibly important powerful environmental cases. And the list goes on. But they’ll also decide whether they’re going to side with corporate special interests or with consumers and workers and those who have a dispute to bring to the Supreme Court. Now, it’s up to Chairman Grassley whether he wants to delay. I think there’s already been a real concern about documents not being delivered. He’ll decide. I doubt he’ll delay it. But he could.

Frederica Freyberg:

I think this is true. The National Rifle Association gives you a score of F for your positions on gun control and your challenger whom it endorses variably an A or A+. What gun control measures do you think need to be enacted?

Tammy Baldwin:

Well, it shows you where the NRA is. I’m a gun owner myself. And so I strongly support the Second Amendment. But I do not think that the Second Amendment precludes common sense safety legislation. At the federal level, I think we need to have a comprehensive, universal background check with no loopholes for internet sales or going to gun shows and not having a thorough background check. And then I think we have to go beyond there. There are a number of provisions relating to, frankly, the ability to convert a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon with a bump stock. And I think we should be considering these enormous magazines that can allow so many shots to be fired. Those aren’t needed for — those are weapons of war, basically, on our streets and we’ve got to step up.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why did you vote against the federal tax cut?

Tammy Baldwin:

Are you talking about the tax legislation that was brought forward last year?

Frederica Freyberg:

Yes.

Tammy Baldwin:

Well, first of all, I strongly support middle class tax cuts. And, frankly, that was too little of the focus of that bill. And they weren’t even permanent, meaning they’re going to go up again. But 83% of the tax measure went to the top 1% in the individual side and very profitable multinational corporations and others on the corporate side. They actually gave corporations more than they asked for, leaving over a trillion dollar hole in our nation’s budget. We were told it would trickle down, but I haven’t seen the sort of pay raises and investments in manufacturing that I was told or, you know, that was part of what was touted. And lastly, with this hole in our budget now of a trillion dollars, there are people who are talking about cutting social security, Medicare, Medicaid. The safety nets for a secure retirement for somebody who’s worked hard their whole life. That’s absolutely unacceptable to me.

Frederica Freyberg:

Are you among Democrats who believe who believe that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE ought to be eliminated in the wake of the administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy?

Tammy Baldwin:

I do not support the elimination of ICE, but I do support a real focus on setting priorities. The enforcement of our immigration laws ought to be prioritized to start with dangerous criminals, drug dealers. And when we see and hear some of the stories, it’s clear that they don’t always have their priorities right and they ought to be overseen both by the administration and the Congress of the United States. But on the larger topic, I do believe we need comprehensive immigration reform. We have a broken system, for sure. That that comprehensive reform ought to address the plight of the dreamers, these child separations that are immoral on our southern border and also create strong but smart border security.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Senator Tammy Baldwin, thanks very much.

Tammy Baldwin:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

New statewide poll numbers out this week on the U.S. Senate race as well as the race for governor between Tony Evers and incumbent Scott Walker. In tonight’s closer look, we go over the results of the latest Marquette Law School survey with the poll’s director, Charles Franklin. And Charles, thanks very much for being here.

Charles Franklin:

Good to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well it would seem to me that the watchword on your polling for both the U.S. Senate and the governor’s race is tight.

Charles Franklin:

Tight’s a good word for it. 46/46 in the governor’s race, 49/47 in the Senate race, both with a 4.5% margin of error. So obviously inside that margin. You know, if you look back in June, we had Walker ahead by four and Baldwin ahead by nine. But those were among registered voters, everybody that’s registered to vote. These numbers that are so tight are among likely voters, the people that say they’re sure they’ll vote in November. For an apples to apples comparison, registered voters had Walker ahead by two this month as opposed to four in June and had Baldwin ahead by eight compared to nine. So the Baldwin race doesn’t tighten as much with registered voters, but does with likelies. And likelies are people who pay more attention to politics, more likely to know about the candidates.

Frederica Freyberg:

And are those the numbers that people should be watching?

Charles Franklin:

Yes. I think at this point. We shift from registered voters to likely as we get close enough to an election for people to really be making up their minds about whether they’re going to vote. Asking how sure are you going to vote nine months ahead of time seems a little early. But as we go through September and October especially, those likely voter numbers should become more and more meaningful as people both choose their candidates and make up their minds to participate.

Frederica Freyberg:

Were you surprised by the bounce that Leah Vukmir appeared to get post-primary?

Charles Franklin:

Well, it’s a pretty substantial bounce. I think both candidates — remember, we were in the field Wednesday to Sunday right after the primary. So both had come off primary wins. In Vukmir’s case, a pretty divisive Republican primary. And so this may represent Nicholson supporters now moving sharply to her and that would account for some of the bounce. But it’s also both she and Evers have increased their familiarity to voters. People are now better able to identify them. That may be helping both of the challengers.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, back to the governor’s race specifically. Those are even as we have already shown. Now that is despite the fact that the governor was warning his supporters that he might be down in this very poll. Why would he have forecast that?

Charles Franklin:

Well, lowering expectations is not necessarily a bad political strategy, and we saw other polls, not mine, but by Marist for NBC and the Emerson College Poll that showed Walker behind by 13 and I think by nine the week or so before the primary. So we had him up by four in our last June poll. You know, where are you in there? Maybe we are the high number. Maybe those other folks are exceptionally good for Democrats. But where are we? So I think the governor was lowering expectations. Of course, what we don’t know is what does his own polling show? Did he say that based on something that internally is showing not so good numbers for him?

Frederica Freyberg:

That would be likely, I imagine. So in terms of favorables and unfavorables, what stands out here?

Charles Franklin:

First of all, it is getting to know the candidates better. You may not notice it there, but if you add up those numbers, you see that Vukmir and Evers still are in the 30% range of people who say they don’t know them. But that’s down from the 60s and 70s a couple months ago. So they are both in better shape there. The balance for Vukmir is just a little bit net negative, but it’s basically even or positive for the others, and with Walker a shade higher, Evers a little bit net positive. So all of the candidates are in roughly competitive ground on these measures.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s take a look. You did some issues polling as well, Wisconsin issues. It’s interesting to note that the top issues for respondents are the same as they ever were, right? I mean, it is jobs, education and health coverage.

Charles Franklin:

Exactly. And jobs and the economy is near the top of most important problems almost always except at the end of real boom times, where, you know, under 3% unemployment, it’s a little surprising that that still rises to the top of concerns. But with K-12 education, you have an issue that has been engaged by the Walker Administration for his entire term, two terms, and Tony Evers as school superintendent. So that’s a natural one there. But other measures have shown greater concern for education over time. Health coverage is endemic. Everybody worries about it. And the last one, roads and road repair, didn’t make the top three for the most important, but it did bounce up to the top four when you include the second-most important issue.

Frederica Freyberg:

Just super briefly, what did you find about Donald Trump?

Charles Franklin:

Well, Trump’s approval numbers are still under water a bit, about 45 approve, 51 disapprove. 87% approve among Republicans, 5% among Democrats. Independents it’s about 34% approve. And on other issues like immigration, dealings with Russia, his approval ratings are a bit lower than his overall. It goes from the 45 down three or four points on immigration and then down another two or three points on Russia.

Frederica Freyberg:

People who like the man like the man, not necessarily his policies.

Charles Franklin:

The policies are a little slippery compared to the overall approval.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Charles Franklin, thanks very much.

Charles Franklin:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Weather shared the Wisconsin headlines with politics this week, especially in Dane County, where Governor Walker joined local officials to declare a state of emergency on Wednesday, after Monday’s storms closed roads, swamped homes and left one person dead. Hardest hit? Western Dane County, pounded by more than 15 inches of rain. Tonight with more rain predicted, Madison’s isthmus is in harm’s way. The Yahara River, the river that connects Madison’s two lakes bulged over its banks as rushing water flowed from Lake Mendota down into Lake Monona. Rising levels there had shoreline residents sandbagging to protect homes. Dane County Executive Joe Parisi joins us now by phone from Mazomanie, one of the hardest hit spots. Thanks very much for doing so.

Joe Parisi:

Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what’s the latest on flood conditions and threats?

Joe Parisi:

Well, it really depends on the side of the county you’re on. Here in Mazomanie, the waters have subsided. As you mentioned, this community was very hard hit. And now we’re in the recovery, the clean-up phase. We have a lot of people whose homes were inundated. They’re looking for resources. We’re connecting them with the help that they need. So we’re in the recovery phase here. Now, the challenge that we have is the water that landed on the western side of the county is now making its way through our chain of lakes. So the more active situation now is in the city of Madison and then along the chain of lakes in towns like Monona and the town of Dunn.

Frederica Freyberg:

How big is the threat to the city of Madison?

Joe Parisi:

Well, there is already water in the streets in the isthmus. A number of streets have been closed. And there could be more that are closing. There’s a lot of water moving from Lake Mendota into Monona now. So the Yahara River is flooded. And the challenge in Madison is that a lot of their storm water outfalls that usually empty into the river and into the lakes are now under water. So there’s nowhere for water to drain and the water instead backs up into the neighborhoods. And then further down, in Monona and other communities on the lakes, they’re dealing with literal lake flooding, because we are at record high levels for most of our lakes at the moment. So we really have three somewhat unique situations going on. We have recovery, we have the water backing up through the storm sewers in Madison and then we have lake flooding in other communities.

Frederica Freyberg:

As for the rain Monday night into Tuesday, has Dane County ever seen anything like that?

Joe Parisi:

No. That was record rainfall, particularly for that period of time. That was actually a record, a state record of one rain event. I lived in Dane County my entire life. I’ve never witnessed anything like it.

Frederica Freyberg:

What’s the dollar damage estimate to homes, businesses and infrastructure?

Joe Parisi:

Our initial assessment — and it’s certainly not complete — is over $100 million at this point.

Frederica Freyberg:

Does government have to do anything, in your mind, differently going forward if this is kind of a new weather pattern?

Joe Parisi:

Well, we certainly do have to be aware this is no longer a 1,000-year event. We’ve received 100-year rainfalls every few years lately. Our climate is certainly changing. It’s becoming much wetter. We’re receiving much more rain. We’ve been building into our updated emergency natural hazard mitigation plans, this prediction for increased precipitation. So the answer is yes, we certainly have to be aware that this is going to occur more often.

Frederica Freyberg:

Does Dane County expect to get a federal disaster assistance?

Joe Parisi:

That’s the reason — we certainly expect we will. That’s the reason that we’re documenting everything that we have. There’s a process one has to follow to get FEMA assistance. Declaring the state of emergency was the first step and then documenting the amount of damage is the important next step.

Frederica Freyberg:

Can property owners recover any losses as probably most are not covered by insurance?

Joe Parisi:

You know, it really depends. It’s much more difficult for, for example, private homeowners. There has to be a large cumulative threshold passed and then there has to be an individual threshold passed, too. So it puts a lot of folks in a really challenging spot.

Frederica Freyberg:

How seriously should people be taking the threats from this kind of rising water in Madison and then downstream?

Joe Parisi:

Well, they should certainly monitor the situation. The communities downstream and some in Madison that are looking at lake flooding are already sandbagging and already working on that and monitoring that, Monona in particular. In the city of Madison, it’s an ongoing active situation and people should be aware and people — we have a website. People go to CountyOfDane.com, there’s a link, a very obvious link to a website dedicated just to the flooding and it has updates on it. It has resources. But particularly next week, early next week when it’s supposed to rain a lot, we could see even worse flooding in the city of Madison. So people should be aware. They should be paying attention to their local news and visiting that website because it’s still a very active situation.

Frederica Freyberg:

Okay. Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, thanks very much and good luck.

Joe Parisi:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents met Thursday and approved $107 million from the state for outcomes-based funding. Marisa Wojcik tells us more.

Marisa Wojcik:

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents have released a proposal that will request $107 million from the state to expand outcomes-based goals. UW System institutions will receive a portion of the funding based on how well they meet standards for growing student access, graduation rates, contributions to the workforce and operational efficiency. Of the UW System’s total annual budget of $6.3 billion this year, 17.8% came from state dollars and 23.6% came from student tuition. Most of the state funding that the UW System receives, about $1.1 billion, does not rely on outcomes-based metrics. The state contribution to the UW System has been declining since the system was created in 1973. Because of this, the UW System began to rely more on student tuition dollars to make up the difference. Two factors have made this reliance on student tuition dollars difficult for universities to cover costs. The first is student enrollment, which has been declining since 2010 following the recession and hasn’t been able to pick back up. The second is a tuition freeze, put in place by the state legislature in 2015, and is set to be extended an additional two years. State dollars to the UW may be slipping. But the UW System itself contributes $24 billion to the state economy and supports 167,000 jobs annually according to a recent Board of Regents’ study. For these and other Fast Facts, visit wpt.org.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now for an update on the state’s job market and its thirst for workers. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation today launched its latest pitch to get workers into the state, this time targeting U.S. veterans. An earlier ad blitz looked to Chicago for young college grads. The new marketing plan includes outreach to veterans at transition summits as they return to civilian life and encourage them to settle in Wisconsin. The $1.9 million plan is a cooperative effort between WEDC and the Departments of Workforce Development, Veterans Affairs and Tourism. Finally tonight, a look ahead to next week, when we bring you a special “Here & Now” program focusing on diversity in Wisconsin’s workforce. Reporter Marisa Wojcik introduces us to workers and employers finding the way toward inclusion. We’ll hear about the obstacles and successes and then pick the brains of professionals in the community making diversity job one. Until then, I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a great weekend.

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Funding for “Here & Now” is provided, in part, by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

For more information on “Here & Now’s” 2018 election coverage, go to WisconsinVote.org.