Here & Now

Here & Now for Aug. 3, 2018

Announcer:

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

Tonight, a “Here & Now” Primary Election Special. The incumbent, his republican challenger and eight democrats are all on the ballot in the August 14th primary for governor. Just ahead, a candidate analysis roundtable and a look at the issues in their own words.

Scott Walker:

I’m asking for four more years.

Robert Meyer:

This would have been a long shot four years ago.

Tony Evers:

I’ve actually run things.

Matt Flynn:

There’s a hunger to replace Scott Walker.

Mike McCabe:

Let the people decide.

Mahlon Mitchell:

I want to be productive and pragmatic.

Josh Pade:

A new start, a new vision.

Kelda Roys:

Ready on day one.

Paul Soglin:

I want to defeat Scott Walker.

Kathleen Vinehout:

We have to be the party of the people.

Announcer:

Tonight, learn more. Get ready to vote.

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

Frederica Freyberg:

Good evening. I’m Frederica Freyberg with Wisconsin Public Television.

Shawn Johnson:

And I’m Shawn Johnson with Wisconsin Public Radio. In less than two weeks Wisconsin voters will go to the polls for a primary election to decide the candidates for governor.

Frederica Freyberg:

For the next hour, we will bring you an election primer on all the candidates still in the race. We’ll look at three issue areas: the economy, education and health care.

Shawn Johnson:

We will dig into the latest from the campaign trail and hear some things you may not have known about the candidates. We interviewed the candidates several times over the past few months. What you’ll hear tonight are excerpts on the issues from those interviews.

Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Scott Walker would not make himself available for a sit-down interview for this program. We hear from him on the campaign trail. Otherwise, to begin, we asked the candidates, “What sets them apart”?

We begin with Governor Scott Walker.

Scott Walker:

We got a great story to tell. We got a great plan for the future. We’re going to tell the voters of this state what we’re for, not what we’re against. And I believe, time and time again, not just republicans, not just conservatives, but even independents and even a few discerning democrats want people to tell them what they’re for, not what they’re against.

Frederica Freyberg:

Here’s the republican challenger, Robert Meyer.

Robert Meyer:

We know what he’s done. He’s riding on the coat tails of the positive things going into the election year but he doesn’t have an economic plan to overcome or to address the structural rural poverty that we have or the concentrated urban poverty and we’re now into a farm crisis. And so people I think, are, if they become aware that there’s an alternative and a traditional moderate, fiscally conservative candidate, I think people are — I think a lot of people are very concerned about how tenuous our economy is.

Frederica Freyberg:

On the democratic side we start with Tony Evers.

Tony Evers:

I’m the only candidate that has run three times and won. Last time I won was 70% of the vote and I won 70, 72 counties. I have never lost a county in northern or central Wisconsin in my winning races. So that’s important. I’ve also lived — my family’s lived all across central Wisconsin where I did a lot of my work as a superintendent or as a teacher.

Frederica Freyberg:

Here’s Matt Flynn.

Matt Flynn:

I was the chair of this party. And I know the state and I know the government well. I’m a navy veteran. I’m the only veteran in the race and getting good veteran support around the state. And I differ from them on a number of issues. One of them is Foxconn. I think it’s a crooked deal that I will stop with litigation. None of the others say they will stop it.

Frederica Freyberg:

This is Mike McCabe.

Mike McCabe:

People are really hungry for a very different kind of leadership and a new kind of politics. There’s a big field of establishment politicians, machine politicians who’ve come up through that system, but what people are looking for is a clean break from that system because they see how it’s failed regular people. If regular folks are going to be in the driver’s seat of our government, we do need a very different kind of leadership and I think that’s what people are looking for and that’s what– that’s what they’re seeing in me.

Frederica Freyberg:

Here’s Mahlon Mitchell.

Mahlon Mitchell:

It’s going to require something uniquely different to actually beat Governor Walker this time. We’ve tried the elder statesman in the past with Tom Barrett, who I supported as well. We tried Mary Burke four years later, who had the business acumen who I thought would have made a great governor. We, me and my firefighters also supported. But it’s going to require us to get people excited around the state. We’re going to have to do well with our base but also fire people up in rural areas and across this entire state. I believe I’m the best candidate suited to do that.

Frederica Freyberg:

This is Josh Pade.

Josh Pade:

I provide a fresh vision that really provides a contrast that’s not just in opposition to Governor Walker, but a new way forward. I think that’s why I’m the best person to go against the governor for his third term.

Frederica Freyberg:

Next, Kelda Roys.

Kelda Roys:

I think a lot of the other folks in the race are eager to make this a referendum on Walker but I don’t think that’s enough. I’m running for governor because I have a vision for the state to make it the best place to raise a child and the best place to grow business. And I think people are responding to that positive, proactive message. Not just the sort of negativity that we’ve been mired in.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, Paul Soglin.

Paul Soglin:

I’m the only candidate with a really robust poll that shows, on the issues, that I’ll defeat Scott Walker. I’m at a considerable disadvantage compared to most of the rest of the other candidates. I’ve a job that consumes between 40 and 60 hours a week. And so as much as I want to defeat Scott Walker and I intend to, I’ve got those responsibilities.

Frederica Freyberg:

This is Kathleen Vinehout.

Kathleen Vinehout:

I live in beautiful Buffalo County, a part of the state where democrats need to win if they’re going to win. I know what it’s like to have to find a cell signal. I’ve been working in the Senate for 12 years. I know where the bones are buried. I have experience on the Audit Committee, understanding what programs are working, what the governor’s done, the recommendations that he should have taken and he never took.

Frederica Freyberg:

With that, we get down to business talking more about the candidates and what’s upcoming in the final stretch ahead of the August 14th primary. We are joined by Wisconsin Public Radio’s Laurel White who has extensively covered those in the running for governor. Also of course, Shawn Johnson is here from Wisconsin Public Radio as well. Thanks you guys for being here.

Shawn Johnson, Laurel White:

Thanks for having us.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s start out talking about Scott Walker. Now of course he is the incumbent. He’s a moneyed incumbent. And yet, he talks to his supporters frequently about not getting complacent in this run-up to the general election.

Frederica Freyberg:

Yeah, who has said the words “blue wave” in this election cycle more than Scott Walker? He wants his base to be a little bit worried about what could happen if they’re complacent. In this campaign, you’re getting kind of a snapshot of what– the campaign that Walker wants to run when he can decide everything. He has nobody else– had nobody else on the air for months. He was the only one running TV ads. He ran ads talking about his record. He decided what the agenda was going to be earlier this year. He asked the legislature to pass a child tax credit that would give parents $100 per kid a few months before the election. They did and he’s been out on the trail talking about that for several months. In a sense, this is the campaign that he wants to run, but in a sense he’s also being forced to address a potential vulnerability with Foxconn and running region-specific ads to say, “Hey you, up in Green Bay, where I need to win, here’s are the reasons Foxconn is also good for you even though you may not think so.”

Frederica Freyberg:

Those are out just this week. Those kind of regionally-targeted Foxconn commercials, but there’s also some movement in some polls, national polls putting — where they did a matchup between Scott Walker and Tony Evers they chose because he was the front runner in our Marquette Law School polls — but in those matchups, Scott Walker is trailing. That’s got to echo his message of not getting complacent.

Laurel White:

Right, it really reinforces his message that he’s sending that republicans need to be on their toes. They need to be active leading up into November’s election because he says if republicans don’t win this election, democrats are going to undo all of their republican accomplishments that have been achieved over the past eight years.

Frederica Freyberg:

As you know, we know that the governor is touting himself as the education governor now. And then of course with Tony Evers maybe nipping at his heels. Tony Evers is the superintendent of public instruction so this is a pairing that’s getting interesting.

Shawn Johnson:

It seems like he’s bracing himself for who could be his general election opponent, right? If you’re going to be running against somebody who’s made a career out of education, try to go at their strengths.

Frederica Freyberg:

The state GOP too this week just went up with radio spots, interestingly, targeting four of the democratic candidates, those being Tony Evers, Matt Flynn, Mahlon Mitchell and Kelda Roys. And these are all specific to each of them on issues that the state Republican Party believes they are vulnerable on.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, and it’s noteworthy that those are the four democratic candidates who had enough money to put TV ads up.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s move along to the republican challenger to incumbent Scott Walker. And that is a man by the name of Robert Meyer. Now he is certainly a long shot candidate. He is running against, again, the incumbent. But Robert Meyer says he doesn’t believe it’s a long shot for him because of social media. He doesn’t have any money but he believed that social media might be able to help him run against Scott Walker. However when we took a look at his Twitter account, he had but 27 followers. So Robert Meyer may just be kind of a gnat for Scott Walker, but he is extremely critical of Scott Walker. So then, let’s move along to Tony Evers. Now this, this is a candidate Laurel that you did a deep dive on. You did a profile on Tony Evers. His latest campaign ad is focusing, of course, on the fact that he is the superintendent of public instruction and his education credentials and he criticizes Foxconn spending in that ad.

Laurel White:

That’s right. So Evers’ experience as an education policy expert in Wisconsin is really the basis of his campaign. So when I did a profile of him, I focused on his political foundations and what have sort of set him up to run for governor of the state. And he says that his statewide electability is really the key there. He was first elected state school superintendent in 2009 and has been re-elected twice. He mentioned in our intro tape there that he’s been elected by pretty wide margins. Now of course that’s not a partisan race. He wasn’t running in those superintendent elections as a democrat. So that could make a little bit of a difference. Right now he’s running as a democrat for governor. But he says he has that name recognition he needs. People all across the state, northern, western Wisconsin know who he is and like what he’s done as the state school superintendent.

Frederica Freyberg:

So that name recognition plays into the most recent Marquette Law School poll which put him at 31%, I believe, compared to the other democratic challengers in this race who were in single digits. He kind of continues to move up at least in that polling.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, they’re still, in that poll, 38% were undecided. So undecided still leads the race but if you look at Tony Evers, he has that upward trajectory over the handful of polls that Marquette has done. So it’s not that he has it locked up, it’s just that there hasn’t been somebody who’s emerged as a serious challenger to him in the polling so far.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you think is something we might not know or remember about Tony Evers?

Laurel White:

Well there’s a different focus on candidates running for an office like state school superintendent versus running for governor. We haven’t gotten quite as much into his personal life or his back story but as we’ve gotten to know Evers a little bit more and looked a little bit more at him in that way, we were reminded that he’s a cancer survivor. It’s not something he’s talked about a lot. He actually mentioned it at the state party convention, right? Briefly.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, he said if he could beat cancer, he could beat Scott Walker. He might be eluding to something you’ll hear more of in the general election. But he doesn’t talk about it much now. He talks about the fact that he has won.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s move along to Matt Flynn. He is also up with ads, as you know. Shawn, this is a candidate that you focused on in your reporting. But as for his ads, the latest blast Foxconn, his big issue here. Again, he says he’s the only one who will go to court and stop it on day one.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, and when he’s asked why he’s most qualified. On your program he said he was state party chair. That was in the early ’80s. I mention that to say that Matt Flynn has a lot of reintroducing himself to people out in Wisconsin. He’s run for office four times and lost. I think if you look at that alone, he has kind of the sound of a perennial candidate. You know, somebody who runs for office regularly, never has a shot. Flynn is actually — if you look back at his races, he had a shot at becoming Congressman Matt Flynn back in 1988. Circumstances quite didn’t align that way and here he is. He made a career in law instead of politics. But Matt Flynn’s last run for office was 14 years ago. So he’s had a lot of reintroducing himself to voters.

Frederica Freyberg:

In this campaign, he’s been roughed up some by groups over his representation of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, and now the Republican Party and his challenger Governor Walker are jumping on that representation of the Milwaukee Archdiocese when they were involved in a sexual abuse scandal. So that’s something that in fact, those radio spots are targeting starting this week.

Laurel White:

It’s been a big issue for Flynn not only with the governor, potential republican challenger but within the Democratic Party as well. He’s had some democrats calling for him to get out of the race because he did represent the Milwaukee Archdiocese during the priest sexual abuse scandal. He defends that work. He says, “I’m not going to apologize for being a good lawyer and I’m not going to stand for people criticizing the Catholic Church.” He says it’s a great institution and he’s proud of working for them.

Frederica Freyberg:

Moving along to Mike McCabe. Laurel, again, this is one of the candidates that you looked at. Interestingly, a Marquette Poll earlier this summer, in a match-up with Scott Walker, had him closest, the closest margin to Governor Walker.

Laurel White:

McCabe is an interesting candidate. People who’ve been following Wisconsin politics for a while are probably familiar with him as a sort of government watchdog figure. He was involved in the founding of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and led that organization for about 15 years, I think. What that group does is track money in politics. That’s a big issue for McCabe is outside spending, special interests. He calls it the legal bribery that’s worked its way into campaigns these days.

Frederica Freyberg:

And it is true he hasn’t taken donations over $200?

Laurel White:

It’s a big push in his campaign now. Someone can give $200 more than once.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, up to $1,000 per person.

Frederica Freyberg:

Isn’t he also the candidate who won’t promise to endorse the eventual primary winner?

Shawn Johnson:

That is part of his pitch is that if you do that, you’re telling voters that you value the party over them, essentially. He has a Hulu ad up right now. He doesn’t have money to really go like at a statewide TV advertising campaign, but he has an ad up where he begins it by showing video of failed democratic presidential candidates: Michael Dukakis, John Kerry. He goes on to the governor’s race with Mary Burke from 2014. He is sending a pretty strong message that what democrats have done hasn’t worked and what he’s doing is something different.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s look at Mahlon Mitchell. Again Shawn, this was one of the candidates that you looked at closely. Again, I don’t mean to be the ads and polls person but he is up with a new ad this week promising to heal divisions and be a uniter.

Shawn Johnson:

He would be the state’s first African American governor. That is something that he’s not shy about pointing out. I mean he says it would be historic. It’s not the only reason he’s running. He is also the union candidate in this race. Without a doubt, he has all the major union endorsements. They donated to his campaign. And he cut his teeth in union politics during the Act 10 protests. Scott Walker had just became governor. Mahlon Mitchell had just became the head of the statewide firefighters’ union. And those giant rallies happened at the capital. To hear Mahlon Mitchell describe it, that’s where he learned his public speaking was at those rallies. His career really in politics tracks Governor Walker’s. I mean Walker’s disruption on the Wisconsin political scene is what gave Mitchell this opening.

Frederica Freyberg:

And about as different as two candidates could be therefore. He’s got the endorsement of Senator Kamala Harris, which is interesting. I mean she’s a big name in Democratic Party politics.

Shawn Johnson:

She is. He also has the endorsement of Congresswoman Gwen Moore. So while some of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation are staying neutral in this primary, they don’t want to pick any battles they don’t have to, Gwen Moore got up there early and said, “Mahlon Mitchell fires people up. That’s what we need to have on the ballot.” He’s making a big push for votes in Milwaukee and neighborhoods that don’t traditionally turnout in a primary race. Whether or not that’s fruitful, we don’t know. The thing is we don’t really know what the winning formula is in an eight-person democratic primary. That’s what he’s trying though.

Frederica Freyberg:

Josh Pade is a candidate who got 0% of the vote in the latest Marquette Law School poll, says he’s not dropping out but his entry into the race wasn’t greeted warmly by a lot of people because it just expanded the numbers is what they were saying.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, we already had an historically large field of four democrats in Wisconsin and that’s when Pade got in. It’s not running for assembly as his first job. It’s making a pretty big leap. On the other hand, if he had big financial backing in this race, nobody would think twice about it. It’s happening in the U.S. senate race in the republican primary for example. And people treat Kevin Nicholson seriously in that race because he has the money behind him.

Frederica Freyberg:

Money and we’ll be talking about money in a later segment on this program, but let’s jump to Kelda Roys. Could it be the year of the woman as people have suggested? She made a splash with a commercial that went viral when she was breast feeding on camera.

Laurel White:

She did. Some people might have seen that because it did make quite a splash. It was covered by Glamour Magazine and all sorts of national publications. She was breast feeding her infant daughter in the first campaign ad where she was talking about some work she did as a legislator. She was a former state representative. And she said that she didn’t plan on breast feeding in the ad. She was filming the ad and it just kind of happened but obviously it was a choice by her campaign to include that footage. And it’s a big part of the campaign that she’s pushing really. She’s talking a lot about being a mother. She’s talking a lot about her daughters and the future of the state. She released a TV ad and she has her family in the ad and she talks about abortion because she was actually also the head of an abortion group, a pro-choice group in Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

In fact her endorsements include Emily’s List, NARAL Pro-choice America, NOW, and some interesting kind of Hollywood types: Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler.

Laurel White:

Right. Well she has gotten some national backing, sort of like Mahlon Mitchell. We’ve seen some national groups come out to support him. She’s gotten money from Emily’s List, a sizeable check from Emily’s List and Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler. We don’t know for sure, but maybe that’s because of that breast feeding video, kind of that viral presence. A woman, a young woman, she’s 39 years old, running for governor.

Frederica Freyberg:

Are democrats still upset over the primary against Mark Pocan for Congress?

Laurel White:

That’s definitely an element of her campaign. So Kelda Roys ran against Mark Pocan in 2012 for Congress and it was a pretty bruising campaign. She got pretty negative in her ads and some thought unnecessarily negative. A bit too harsh saying that Pocan didn’t stand up to Scott Walker on Act 10 the way that he should have. There was also a little bit of back and forth about a rally where she may have portrayed herself as being gay. And of course, Pocan is openly gay. So there have been some feelings and some elements of that 2012 race that have definitely come back this year.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We move along to Paul Soglin. Someone Shawn that you took a look at. He has repeatedly said that a poll showed that he would beat Scott Walker and that’s why he ran.

Shawn Johnson:

That poll’s been out for a while though now. The race may have evolved, but he did. He paid for that poll from a reputable Madison firm, respected widely in politics and it showed him as having a shot against the governor. He has not though run as active of a campaign as some of the other candidates. If you’re in Madison, Paul Soglin’s reputation is pretty well established. I mean he has been in politics. He became mayor in 1973, won his first race for city council in 1968. Paul Soglin’s roots are deep in Madison. So deep to the point that like I’m not sure that everybody is completely familiar with the back story of how he actually became known as this campus radical in 1968. I mean he had a prominent role in Vietnam War protests then and that launched his political career. Paul Soglin has been mayor for three stints. He announced he’s not going to run again next year. So it is this run for governor he is focused on and he’s one of the eight who are vying for it.

Frederica Freyberg:

Paul Soglin from Madison and then Kathleen Vinehout from the western part of the state. That is a candidate again Laurel that you looked at. She believes that her roots there in western Wisconsin are what would make a difference.

Laurel White:

Right. Vinehout lives on a dairy farm in western Wisconsin. That’s a big part of her campaign. She says that she can really appeal to voters that are liberal voters outside of the main hubs of Madison and Milwaukee. Vinehout’s also a policy wonk in the capitol and that’s a big part of her campaign and how people know her. She’s written her own state budget every year, kind of an alternative to the governor’s budget. She said that started during Act 10 when the governor said, “Cuts needed to be made.” And said, “Well, do we really need to cut things?” She went in and crunched the numbers herself and she’s been doing that ever budget since.

Frederica Freyberg:

Does she have some vulnerabilities?

Laurel White:

She does. So Vinehout has departed from the party on a couple big issues. And one issue that is especially big this year and that’s gun control. She’s made some pro-gun votes in the past, particularly recently about the 48-hour waiting period for hand gun sales.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We need to move along. But Laurel, thank you so much for being here and all your work on this.

Laurel White:

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Shawn Johnson:

Coming up later in this program, Laurel will join us again to follow the campaign money in this election. Right now we look at where the candidates stand on creating jobs and building Wisconsin’s economy. The candidates differ on how to build the economy and how well we’re doing at generating new jobs.

Frederica Freyberg:

What’s the right road to follow when it comes to the economy and good-paying jobs? We put that question to all the candidates and in alphabetical order, here’s what they had to say. Starting with the incumbent governor and his challenger.

Scott Walker:

So we’re at an all-time high in employment. We’re all-time low in unemployment. We took a $3.6 billion budget deficit and turned it into a surplus every single year since we’ve been in office. We did so well with that, with a growing economy and positive reforms, that we were able to cut both your property and your income taxes so that they’re lower at end of this year than they were before we started.

Frederica Freyberg:

The republican challenger Robert Meyer.

Robert Meyer:

Most people don’t know this but Wisconsin has the opportunity to become the leading tech producer state in the Midwest and the venture capital companies on the coast are advocating for this. Which midwestern state is going to do this? We have all the strategic advantages. We’re a destination state. We’ve got the I-94 corridor. We have the service industry concentrated here, the airports and so on.

Frederica Freyberg:

Democrat Tony Evers.

Tony Evers:

I think as we move forward with economic development in the state, you know we’ve gone down the Foxconn rat hole frankly. We need to make sure that other parts of the state actually have economic development money. We need to reinvest all across the state, not just in southeast Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

Milwaukee attorney Matt Flynn.

Matt Flynn:

Right now our transportation budget is 20% debt service. In other words paying interest on what we’ve already borrowed. It’s going up. We can’t have that. We’re going to pay as we go. And we’re going to repair our roads and I’m also — there are 13 east/west roads from highway 2 down to highway 14, many of them, only highway 29 is really four lane. I want to make them all four lane. As soon as we can do that, it’s going to revitalize rural and western, northern Wisconsin as well.

Frederica Freyberg:

Here’s Mike McCabe.

Mike McCabe:

I come from that farming background. It was a small family dairy farm. We’ve lost over 10,000 family farms in Wisconsin in the last decade and we’re still losing more than one a day. I just think our government should be on the side of incentivizing small scale sustainable agriculture and helping to rescue those family farms so that they don’t all go away.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now Mahlon Mitchell.

Mahlon Mitchell:

I think we gotta give the state of Wisconsin a raise. When middle class and those that live below middle class wages and working class families have money in their pocket, they spend it. When they spend money, they actually boost our economy. So I’ve come out for $15 an hour way before it was sexy. A lot of my other opponents are saying that now but I’ve been fighting for 15 for a long time. That’s going to boost our economy.

Frederica Freyberg:

This is Josh Pade.

Josh Pade:

The purpose of economic development dollars should be to grow home-grown businesses. If you look at economic development across the country, what programs work, what don’t work. The ones that provide the highest rate of return for the state are ones where you focus on growing jobs in the state, growing businesses in the state. Foxconn, we’ve committed to bringing a new industry, a new company to Wisconsin. We need to think about two big things: how do we move forward in a way that maximizes what we’re going to get on our investment, be strict and hold them accountable on what they’re committing to and the environment, and then three, ensure once again that workers here in Wisconsin can have the skills to work in advanced manufacturing and get those good-paying jobs.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now Kelda Roys.

Kelda Roys:

I think we have to increase wages because a lot of people– it’s reflected in that unemployment rate, might be working two or three jobs and still unable to make ends meet. We have too many people who are working full-time and they are still living in poverty. So we have to increase wages. That’s true for the middle class as well as the working poor. And to do that, we need to be much more supportive of small businesses, whether it’s a family farmer or a main street business or somebody with an idea for a tech company.

Frederica Freyberg:

Madison mayor, Paul Soglin.

Paul Soglin:

If you’re spending 35, 40% of your income on housing, you are not going to be able to take care of food. You’re not going to be able to get internet services so the kids can do their homework. Housing is the first and most essential thing for a robust family so that everyone can then participate in the job creation in all the other economic opportunities.

Frederica Freyberg:

This is Kathleen Vinehout.

Kathleen Vinehout:

We need to raise wages. Wisconsin is 18th worst in the United States in wages, worse that Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee. We need to make — open wide the doors of higher education, which is why I so believe in free tuition for two-year and tech colleges. It’s a bill that I’ve written, that I fully funded. It’s actually taken after the governor of Tennessee who looked at his people and said, “Our people don’t have the education that they need and they don’t have the wages.” And we can change that in Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

So Shawn, on jobs and the economy, Governor Scott Walker does have bragging rights on low unemployment, but remember when Scott Walker was promising 250,000 jobs. Has he yet reached that number?

Shawn Johnson:

He has not reached it and signs suggest that he will not reach it in his second term as governor. Remember it was a first-term promise. But there was a time in democratic politics when it seemed like they thought that if they repeated that enough times, it would sink the governor. That he would sink under the weight of his own promise that he did not meet and that didn’t happen. I mean he ran in 2014 and we basically knew that the jobs promise was going to be well short and he was okay. If you listen to what democrats said in that rundown there about what they’d with jobs, you didn’t hear a mention of the 250,000 job promise. That’s not to say they don’t talk about it, but they’re not making it central to their campaigns this time because the governor can come back and say, “Hey, about that unemployment rate which is at a record low.”

Frederica Freyberg:

That’s right. And also he can talk about Foxconn and the promise of 13,000 or more jobs and Foxconn looking all across the state to buy buildings and set up headquarters and that kind of thing.

Shawn Johnson:

That one they like to talk about though because that’s viewed differently depending where you’re at.

Frederica Freyberg:

All the time. Right. I mean they always talk about Foxconn as being a $4.5 billion drain that they could then go ahead and put that money into infrastructure spending or other places that they’d like to spend money.

Shawn Johnson:

Right.

Frederica Freyberg:

The one thing though that it seems to me needs to actually be acknowledged is the Chicago Federal Reserve takes a look, a snapshot of the regional economy. They suggest that Wisconsin, among other states in the region are in dire need of workers and workers with skills. That also ties into some of what the democrats are saying in terms of the need for skill development and education needs, but it also ties into something the Walker Administration has been doing with its ads trying to lure young people back to the state.

Shawn Johnson:

They have been running ads in Chicago, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, trying to get millennials to move to places like Madison, kind of try to build a tech corridor here in Wisconsin. Another issue that could be prominent in this race as it pertains to the economy is tariffs. How that is going to play out in Wisconsin, whether Scott Walker is blamed for the trade war that Donald Trump is engaged in right now on a national level. What that means to Wisconsin farmers and businesses like say Harley Davidson.

Frederica Freyberg:

That’s right. Farmers who are already in some big trouble.

Shawn Johnson:

For many families, education is at the top of their priority list: the achievement gap, funding, vouchers, a tuition freeze for higher education. The candidates for governor all have their ideas in what’s best for Wisconsin students and their families. Again, here are the candidates in their own words when asked about the state of Wisconsin education.

Shawn Johnson:

We begin with Governor Scott Walker.

Scott Walker:

We’re able to make historic investments in schools because of our reforms that put our school districts back in charge. Our school board members, you know the people we duly elect to run our schools, they’re back in charge again now again instead of the big government special union– big government special interest out there.

Shawn Johnson:

Here’s the republican challenger Robert Meyer.

Robert Meyer:

If you look at our National Assessment of Education progress scores, our mean average 4th grade African American student score is 1.7 years behind, at 4th grade, behind Alabama and Mississippi. That’s a composite. And then our mean average white student, it’s not just kids living in poverty or it’s not children of color. Our mean average white student score is a year and a half behind New Jersey. Fundamentally, there is a structural problem in education that we’re not addressing.

Shawn Johnson:

On the democratic side, we start with Tony Evers.

Frederica Freyberg:

One of the things you call for is investment in early childhood education. What would that look like?

Tony Evers:

Well, to put it in a nutshell, the worst– the most difficult poverty-ridden part of the state of Wisconsin is in one of our urban areas. There is no high-quality, five-star early childhood programming in that area. We have to start where the need is. I would invest in making sure that every child in that, as a pilot I think we can do this in the next budget, every child that lives in that zip code has a right to five-star early childhood programming. We start to expand that statewide. All data shows that that’s where a change has to happen.

Frederica Freyberg:

What zip code are you talking about? What city, what district?

Tony Evers:

In Milwaukee, 53206 and there are no five-star early childhood programs there.

Shawn Johnson:

Here’s Matt Flynn.

Matt Flynn:

My proposal is not K-12, it’s Pre K- 14. I’ll put more into early education too– early childhood. But for the first two years, there are a lot of kids in this state when they turn 18 think they can’t afford college or trade school. They go off to Duluth, Minneapolis. They go to Chicago. We’re losing a lot of good people.

Shawn Johnson:

Now to Mike McCabe.

Mike McCabe:

We’ve now got a state budget that spends more on prisons than on the entire university system. We are literally as a state, spending more locking people up than we are unlocking human potential. A big driving force behind that is the fact that Wisconsin locks up so many nonviolent offenders. We’ve simply got to stop using prison as a punishment for nonviolent offenses.

Shawn Johnson:

This is Mahlon Mitchell.

Mahlon Mitchell:

I would actually have those 5th graders, 6th graders get off their phones, get off the video games and actually do public service, actually do community service. Meaning that they go back in their communities, they’re going to shovel snow and rake leaves for a senior who shouldn’t be doing it and can’t do it. They’re going to help the veteran who served our country. They’re going to help at the vet hospital. They’re going to help at the local soup kitchen, help at the homeless shelter. And then once they meet a threshold of hours, then they’ll have earned tuition paid for by the state for a four-year program.

Shawn Johnson:

Here’s Josh Pade.

Josh Pade:

Getting our focus back on education. Both K-12, then higher education. Focusing on closing that skills gap. Across the state of Wisconsin, the economy overall across the country is doing well. We just found out it grew about 4.1% in the last quarter, but it’s not translating into wage growth particularly here in Wisconsin. What that means is that we need to get people into those jobs that are paying well. I’m focused on trying to think new– rethinking ways of doing things. New and innovative ways of getting people into those jobs. So that means using technology, partnering with technology companies to understand how one person in one industry could have a set of skills that would be applied to another industry that don’t appear on its face.

Shawn Johnson:

Up next, Kelda Roys.

Kelda Roys:

We should have free tuition for all students going to our two-year colleges, technical colleges. And I think — I’m very supportive of the plan by the chancellor at UW-Madison to make tuition free for students’ whose families earn less than the median income in the state. I think we have to also address the student loan debt crisis because there are now decades of students, nearly a million people in Wisconsin who still have student debt. It’s a massive weight around our economy as well as the individuals.

Shawn Johnson:

Now, Paul Soglin.

Paul Soglin:

From the work we’ve done, from the feedback I’m getting from the people of this state, they recognize and they are prepared to pay higher taxes for better education. And let’s point out that the question of good schools goes beyond the classroom. We were talking here about — well, there was a New York Times article this past week “Is Arena Going to Survive?” What happens when you don’t have a school?

Shawn Johnson:

And Kathleen Vinehout.

Kathleen Vinehout:

We need to change the way we fund schools. We need to get rid of the antiquated notion of funding on property taxes and instead focus on children’s needs and fund based on children’s needs. That includes things like recognizing that poverty has doubled over a ten-year period. Many more students have problems with mental health. They’re facing trauma. All of these factors need to be a part of the way we fund schools.

Frederica Freyberg:

Shawn, once again, we know that Governor Scott Walker is calling himself the education governor for what he calls his historic investments in education. National news stories have picked up on this this week and they have quoted Tony Evers saying in response to that that Governor Walker being the education governor comes close to being a joke.

Shawn Johnson:

If those two are the general election match-up, that could be a back and forth you hear for a few months because Tony Evers has been state superintendent of public instruction ever since Governor Walker has been governor. So he’s been there for those early Walker budgets which were very hard on schools, deep cuts. He’s also been there when Governor Walker’s budget came up to the marker that Tony Evers wanted in terms of funding and had what Tony Evers said at the time was a budget he supported in this last education budget.

Frederica Freyberg:

A budget that some people were calling an election year budget.

Shawn Johnson:

And here we are.

Frederica Freyberg:

That’s right. So midweek, Tony Evers, again, the superintendent of public instruction released his state schools budget. In it among other things, he was calling for $60 million in mental health services. Something that some of the candidates talked about. And $600 million for special education. So again, here we are with the DPI superintendent on one hand doing his job in schools for education and then the governor calling himself the education governor.

Shawn Johnson:

Right, and maybe Tony Evers’ budget, proposed budget, would not be well received by a “Governor Walker” next year but maybe a “Governor Evers” would like it.

Frederica Freyberg:

I’m sure so. The other thing that Governor Walker is calling for is another four years of a tuition freeze, something that’s really popular of course among parents and students. But it puts the squeeze on campuses also working with low enrollments.

Shawn Johnson:

Because this has been a tuition freeze that has gone on four years now and that’s a big source of revenue for the university system. It’s been just a continuation of a trend. They’re not going to find that new revenue if the governor were to get his way.

Frederica Freyberg:

But meanwhile a lot of candidates are calling for free tuition plans or debt relief.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, especially when it comes to two-year colleges. It’s something that Kathleen Vinehout has talked about quite a bit. Kelda Roys also talked about it. In fact, during the last democratic gubernatorial debate that was televised, they were all asked whether they supported free tuition for two-year colleges. All but Evers raised their hands. Evers said that he thought the student should have some skin in the game but that has become an issue that kind of has defined where the rest of the field is at when it comes to higher education.

Frederica Freyberg:

Health care has been at the political forefront for the past several years as well. Primarily in Wisconsin, the focus being on opioid addiction, the Affordable Care Act and the decision to decline Medicaid expansion money. We asked each candidate about their vision for health care in our state. Again, in alphabetical order, this is where the candidates stand on the issue of health care.

Here’s Governor Scott Walker on the issue.

Scott Walker:

We want to do more to ensure that we have– continue to have the top health care system in the nation when it comes to quality as well as access and cost. We want to particularly make sure that just as the nation is suffering a challenge when it comes to opioid and illegal drug abuse, that we’re the leading state in the nation when it comes to reducing the number of people who face that addiction.

Frederica Freyberg:

The republican challenger, Robert Meyer.

Robert Meyer:

Eleven actual republican governors all accepted the full expansion of Medicaid. That’s added up to a billion dollars. Coincidently we’re a billion dollars short on our investments in infrastructure and education.

Frederica Freyberg:

Democrat Tony Evers.

Tony Evers:

Take the Medicaid money. That money has been sitting in Washington D.C. for the last– for Scott Walker’s reign. We can change how health care is delivered in the state of Wisconsin by taking that Medicaid money. That’s absolutely important. We’ll do that and we’ll also set up exchanges. All those things that Scott Walker didn’t do has caused Minnesota to move forward and have cheaper and better health care than we do in Wisconsin. Our Wisconsin folks need to have that same opportunity.

Frederica Freyberg:

Here’s Matt Flynn.

Matt Flynn:

70% of the people in this country already get some sort of government-related– Medicaid, Medicare, military and so forth. But what I would do in the short run because I can’t mandate that even though Medicare is a real cost cutter, I would open up Badger Care in addition to getting the billion dollars back, open up Badger Care to anybody who doesn’t have health insurance who wants to buy into it for a premium unless they’re indigent.

Frederica Freyberg:

This is Mike McCabe.

Mike McCabe:

We need to correct the mistake that was made when Wisconsin turned down the federal Medicaid expansion money. We should take that money. People have paid taxes out to Washington. We should bring that money back to Wisconsin. That makes more than 80,000 more people eligible for Badger Care. We’ve got to correct another mistake when Wisconsin chose not to set up its own insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act. We need to set up our insurance exchange but then we need to make Badger Care a public option and put it on that exchange and let anybody choose it.

Frederica Freyberg:

Here’s Mahlon Mitchell.

Mahlon Mitchell:

As governor, I will fight for the federal dollars for the Medicaid expansion to make sure we put– that could insure about another 85,000 folks. But I want to make sure we have Badger Care for all. It’s going to cost money, right? And people say, “How are you going to pay for it?” Well again, if we can give $4.5 billion to Foxconn, we can make sure that every person in this state actually has adequate health insurance.

Frederica Freyberg:

This is Josh Pade.

Josh Pade:

If you look at Wisconsin compared to our neighboring state, we’re paying much more for premiums under the Affordable Care Act than they are and that’s because we’re not taking our hard-earning federal tax dollars and using that to make Medicaid affordable. Let’s bring it in. Let’s bring in innovation and understand ways in which we can bring down the cost of health care and expand access. Let’s also focus on a lot of the other problems that people have to get access to care like dental care and eye care.

Frederica Freyberg:

Next, Kelda Roys.

Kelda Roys:

I think that we should have a state exchange and make Badger Care a public option that anybody could buy into so you don’t have to necessarily buy private insurance. You have a public option which would be lower cost for everyone.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, Paul Soglin.

Paul Soglin:

We’ve got to undo so much of what Scott Walker has done in terms of rejecting federal programs. We have to recognize the importance of a robust Medicaid program, especially in light of nutrition challenges, behavioral health, substance abuse. Just now some politicians are catching on to the opioid crisis.

Frederica Freyberg:

This is Kathleen Vinehout.

Kathleen Vinehout:

We need to accept the Medicaid money. Use the money that’s freed up to invest in a system of mental health and addiction recovery all over the state. It’s one of the reasons that we have so many people incarcerated when you compare us to Minnesota. We need to create our own exchange, our own marketplace. Offer a public option like Badger Care on that marketplace and bring as many people as we can into health care.

Frederica Freyberg:

So once again, unanimity among the democratic candidates for accepting the expanded Medicaid money even with the governor’s republican challenger.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, if you want to sum up where the democrats are on this issue, say that first, because that’s what they say first. Take that federal Medicaid money that Wisconsin has not taken to expand Medicaid under Governor Walker. If you want to talk about what that would mean in terms of dollars for the state, if you look back, the state would have saved about $1.1 billion in state tax dollars if it had taken that federal money to expand Medicaid. Looking forward though, the number’s not quite so big. When you hear about candidates talking about doing that so you can pay for other stuff, you’re talking about roughly, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, $200 million per year. It’s not a small amount of money, substantial, but it’s not going to necessarily pay for everything.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, because again, the candidates always talk about a $1 billion figure when they talk about expanded Medicaid. The other thing that the democratic candidates talk a lot about is wanting to make Badger Care a public option.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah and that’s not an entirely new idea, but I think it has risen to the level of becoming kind of that party litmus test. If you are a democrat running for governor, where are you on this bill? You hear a lot of them say, “Let’s do it. Open up Badger Care as a public option,” the way you hear it talked about on Medicare debate– the national health care debate having a Medicare kind of public option.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now we know that Governor Scott Walker is opposed, has been opposed to the Affordable Care Act and he’s now working to shore up and stabilize premiums through a re-insurance program which was approved by the Trump Administration this week. Now the Democratic Party though about that says this, “This re-insurance program does nothing to help everyone else who is not participating in the health exchanges who will likely see double-digit premium increases due to the republican sabotage and instability in the market that they have created.” So I just don’t see two sides being further apart than these.

Shawn Johnson:

They’re not, no. When you talk about re-insurance that is money that’s going to insurance companies to stabilize the market. It’s not a direct payment to individuals. That’s a noteworthy point on this. That said, it is Governor Walker, somebody who opposes Obamacare, has in different ways, sought to undermine it. In this instance he’s saying, “It’s here and let’s do something to bring these premiums down.”

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s try to stabilize it.

Fundraising is key to any campaign. Before the August 14th primary, there will be one more round of financial disclosure statements from each of the candidates. Tracking that money trail gives you insights into where the money is coming from: individual donors, corporations, outside interests or all of the above. Let’s take a look at the numbers on the republican side between January of 2018 and June 30, Scott Walker has raised about $5.4 million. The number in parenthesis, $5.9 million, is the cash he has on hand. Robert Meyer raised $270 and has $10 cash on hand.

On the democratic side of the ticket, between January and June 30, Kelda Roys brought in the most money, raising about $677,000. Next is Mahlon Mitchell with more than $523,000. Tony Evers raised just over $493,000 and Matt Flynn raised $337,000. Now there’s a big gap in funding between the top four and bottom four with Mike McCabe at close to $156,000, followed by Paul Soglin, Kathleen Vinehout and Josh Pade. Again, these numbers do not reflect the last financial reports due out just before the primary.

Shawn Johnson:

Wisconsin Public Radio’s Laurel White has been following each candidate and joins us again to talk about the funding for these campaigns.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the bottom line, right, is that Scott Walker’s campaign cash dwarfs everybody else.

Shawn Johnson:

It really does. Even if you look at the democratic primary as a group, and you add up all the money they raised from January to June 30, Scott Walker raised more. He had a lot to work with. He spent a lot more than they have. He’s been on the air pretty consistently running ads. That is the benefit to him of having this big, crowded democratic primary. The money for democrats has been spread thin.

Laurel White:

There’s been a lot of discussion about the effect of such a big democratic field. Fundraising is a big thing that’s a part of that. A lot of people have been talking about donors. They’re sitting out. Right now democratic donors that are waiting until after August 14th. So we might see a big change in the coming weeks.

Frederica Freyberg:

One of the other things to look at, kind of a proviso to these numbers, is that some of these candidates loaned themselves a fair amount of money.

Shawn Johnson:

They did. Part of the reason is they’re on a tight timeframe. They can’t wait in some cases for their campaign to catch fire and for money to start pouring in. It’s kind of now or never. The other thing is, these fundraising numbers in such a crowded democratic field, are looked at as a sign of a campaign’s strength. So what’s one way to juice that strength? You give your own campaign some money so quite a few of the candidates did. Kelda Roys, Tony Evers, Matt Flynn are some of the bigger donations, but Kelda Roys gave herself the most and it is that reason that she was the leading fundraiser from January to June.

Frederica Freyberg:

And those very leading fundraisers are the ones, again, that the state GOP is now targeting these radio ads against.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah and so you’ve seen the rest of the field seize on what’s working for them in this race. For example, Mahlon Mitchell has pointed out that if you take out that self-funding, Mahlon Mitchell is the top fundraiser in this last period. Now the caveat there is that Mahlon Mitchell’s donations have come pretty heavily from unions. That’s not like an accident. He is the union-supported candidate. He’s worked hard to get those endorsements. His campaign would say unions are people, you know. It’s good that they’re supporting Mahlon Mitchell but those are big committee donations that have floated into Mitchell as opposed to a lot of smaller individual donations from around the state.

Laurel White:

Right. The other campaigns that are talking about smaller donations or what they call a broader base right, are like Tony Evers and Mike McCabe. Now Tony Evers is one of those top fundraisers so he’s in the top four there and Mike McCabe has less money. But they’re saying because we have a larger swath of individual donors that says more about the support we have.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scott Walker talks a lot about how he warns supporters that people like Eric Holder, Barack Obama’s former attorney general and billionaires Tom Steyer and George Soros will pour money into this race. How real is that?

Shawn Johnson:

Oh, it’s very real. I mean we know that these outside groups are going to be a big factor come general election time over that few months until election day. Scott Walker has his own allies in that fight though. I mean the Republican Governors Association is going to spend heavily in Wisconsin. Other conservative groups are going to spend heavily here. It’s going to be a pretty big campaign arm’s race once this primary’s over.

Frederica Freyberg:

Lots and lots of money. Laurel White, thank you very much.

Laurel White:

Thank you.

Shawn Johnson:

There’s a lot a stake in the upcoming primary election and the general election in November. You can find all the information about the races, the candidates and the election results at WisconsinVote.org. Marisa Wojcik gives you a preview of what Wisconsin Vote has to offer.

Marisa Wojcik:

Did you know Wisconsin has an election coming up? Of course you did. You know that Tuesday, August 14th, Wisconsin takes to the polls for the primary elections. And you know all of the candidates, the issues, your polling location, how to register. Ok, so maybe we’re not quite there yet, but don’t worry. WisconsinVote.org is your ultimate resource guide to be ready to cast your ballot. Go to WisconsinVote.org and get to know even more about the issues. The home page has the latest from Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio. Click on “More Stories” to see anything you may have missed along the campaign trail and get to know more candidates. This primary isn’t just for the governor’s race. Click on “Candidates and Races” and scroll through all of the different seats up for election including United States Senate, House of Representatives, and state Senate and Assembly. Are you wondering what you need to be ready for election day? Then you’ll want to navigate to the voter frequently asked question page. You’ll see answers to common questions such as, “What are the requirements to vote in Wisconsin? How do I register? Where’s my polling location?” Or you can take it from an expert.

Lisa Tollefson:

If you want to look at your ballot ahead of time, go to MyVote.wi.gov. You put in your address. It’ll show you the ballot for your location. You can register up until Friday at 5:00 p.m. on August 10th at your municipal clerk’s office. Or you can register on election day just like anyone else in Wisconsin.

Marisa Wojcik:

For all your election day questions, get answers at WisconsinVote.org.

Frederica Freyberg:

Finally tonight, remember to vote on Tuesday, August 14th. Statewide the polls open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 8:00 p.m. We will continue to keep you informed each Friday night on “Here & Now.”

Shawn Johnson:

Wisconsin Public Radio will also continue to follow the candidates and the issues right up to election day in November. Join us on primary election night. WPR will be live, starting at 8:00 p.m. with host Rob Ferrett. Results, reports from the field and analysis.

Frederica Freyberg:

That is Tuesday night, August 14th live on Wisconsin Public Radio. Thank you for watching our Primary Election Special on the race for Wisconsin’s top political job. I’m Frederica Freyberg with Wisconsin Public Television.

Shawn Johnson:

And I’m Shawn Johnson with Wisconsin Public Radio. Have a good night.

Announcer:

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.